Hey Muddocktor, you're back just in time. I've gone back and forth when it comes to buying a motherboard tray or case. Since I've had to reduce the depth of my case, and because I really want to, I'm going to be making my own motherboard tray.
I wanted to ask about grounding issues. I think the normal setup is.. Motherboard tray, motherboard spacer, rubber washer (is it rubber or nylon?), motherboard, and then motherboard screw. Is that how it goes? It has been so long since I've had a new case that I don't remember the orientation and if that washer is rubber. Isn't rubber great at creating static electricity? Hrmmm.. mustn't be rubber. I've downloaded a couple case manuals and they say nothing of washers.
Also I've never had a heatsink that used the holes to secure from behind the motherboard. Even when I had my water cooling setup it clipped to the socket. I don't think they take up more room than the traditional spacers but I wanted to check.
If anyone has any information or suggestions, please chime in.
Yeah, I do it the same way as bothered too. The mounting holes on the board are all connected to the board's ground plane anyways and it makes for a very well grounded system. I do believe those washers are fiber based and not rubber though and I have seen them before.
Well as you can see on the pics below I made some major progress today. The motherboard fit is good, albeit a little roomier than I thought.
LOL, no that is not the case it's my new computer desk. I think it is sweet deal. I bought it from Sams club today for $69.00 plus tax. I think it is some great quality for the money.
Unfortunately, I was not able to work on the case this weekend but I do have Vetrans day off. I'll be digging into it then.
The desk is a little bit bigger than the one I was planning on getting but it is of a much sturdier design. And with the extra large pull out keyboard it's like a drawer. The pictures don't do it justice but I think it is a pretty swanky setup.
I thought I'd put up a few more pictures of the new desk. I've also put up a picture of my 10-year-old desk. It was a corner desk that I had to get rid of the hutch to fit my LCD. As you can see my daughter tore it up. They really are not bad, they just like to destroy things.
I havn't had it more than 3 hours and I already figured out a mod that'll I'll be doing. If you see the keyboard/drawer pic, I'll be putting USB ports there to charge MP3 players, hook up cameras, and for a gamepad connections. It'll be my hideaway usb hub.
looks great!! This will be an awesome setup/ guide to follow once all is completed..
Thanks for the compliment. I got some more cuts done on tuesday, including building my hard drive cage. All that is left is to cut out my window and cut out my back io panel. Oh and to drill the holes for the motherboard. Then there is the final finish which I plan on doing next weekend.
I'm hoping this weekend to get all the assembly done and to get the back io cut out. I'll be sure to post some more pictures this weekend.
Sweet, well I look forward to seeing the finished product. I personally never even thought of mounting a pc on the wall, awesome idea.
Do you plan on feeding the wires down through the wall?
I didn't think about running them through the wall. That would have been good but I live in a rental. I don't think my land lord would like it much. I'll probably just secure the wires to the wall and run it tightly down it so at least it looks clean. I was thinking about putting a shelf or something between the monitor and the pc but I don't know. I'll tackle that one when I get to it.
It's really starting to come together now. All I have left to cut is the rear IO panel, two slots to lock the pci cards, and the cd rom hole. Before I go to bed tonight I'm going to put the hard drive cage together, and possibly mount the upper board for the case cover. Unfortunately it was too cold to do any finishing today.
Incase anyone has to ever do some gluing, metal, plastic, or what ever, I have to recommend Loctite sumo glue. Nothing says heavy duty like a big sweaty sumo wrestler on the box. I was going to drill some holes for support until I glued an L braket in the wrong place. There was no way I could remove that bracket unless I was prepared to destroy the wood paneling.
After seeing the dud motherboard fit so nicely, I'm ready to get this on the wall. I'm thinking, next weekend I can have it nearly complete. Tomorrow I'm going to order my fans and possibly my power button. If they get here before thanksgiving, who knows, maybe my case will be on the wall by Sunday.
Lookin good. What system are you going to be running in the case?
For a month at least, it'll be my aging 64x2 system until AMD comes out with their new desktop processors. If they are able to overclock well and perform close to Intel's offerings, I'll go with that. If not it'll probably be a core duo system. E7200 seems to be the best overclocking bang for buck right now.
Update. My fans are on order. I was hoping to get them by Friday but looks like I'm going to have to wait till Monday
I've attached some pictures of my nearly finished case front.
Pictures 1, 2, and 3 is a faux treatment using Elmer's carpenter wood filler. Basically I applied a coating on with with a Putty Knife. I used an average size putty knife, about 2 inches wide. I purposely avoided using a bigger one because I wanted the finnish to be uneven with varying heights to add texture.
I then lightly sprinkled water on wood filler to make make the surface more pliable. I ended with a glaze that was very mud-like. I then added the groves using a dry paint brush and a scrap piece of plywood that I frayed the edge on.
The third picture shows the finished product after sanding with a medium sanding block.
Step two in my faux treatment was painting. I used a dark brown paint and a wet rag to simulate stained beach wood.
Picture one shows the process. I painted the surface once with a paint brush. Then right after, I used a wet rag to remove most of the paint. If you look at the top left corner, you can see a patch that hadn't been ragged yet. Ragging lightens the color by thinning the paint and allowing the wood filler underneath to come through.
Picture two shows the finished product. It came out so rich and full of texture that I almost stopped right there. But it reminded me of a fish tank in a seafood restaurant so I continued on to applying the red coat.
The first picture shows the red painted on after the brown dried. I almost vomited it looked so gross lol... But ya.. gotta have faith.
After some more wet ragging of the red and a dry cycle it started looking a lot better. Picture two shows the red dried and some touch ups with brown ragged on to darken the red some and to bring out the grooves.
I still have one more treatment using a piano black to rag on the red to add even more contrast. I'm very happy with how it is coming along.
I've decided to paint all surfaces other than the front in solid piano black. I'm looking forward to finishing next weekend.
Looks like I'm going to have a house guest from Thursday to Monday which will knock out me working on it next weekend. So now I'm going to try and finish it by Wednesday night. Woohoo..lol There really isn't but a an hour or two work really left.
Tonight after the kids go to bed I'm going to finish the painting and my final cuts. Tomorrow night I'll try mounting the case on the wall. Then Wed's night I'll transfer over my hardware. I just hope my fans come in.
Looks really cool man. I wish I had the patience to do this.
Thanks man. The patience comes from having 4 children who force me to find activities for me time lol...
Unfortunately I haven't finished yet. My 5x120mm case fans just arrived today. For some reason whenever I order from www.xoxide.com I find it takes a little extra for my orders to come in. It's probably UPS's fault or just the holiday rush with last week being Thanksgiving. Come to think about it, last time I ordered from them was around last Thanksgiving. Anywho, their shipping couldn't be beat so I went with them.
I do have the case mounted on the wall. Looks good. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon.
The inner case has sagged a little from the weight of the outer cover/shell. I'll need to reinforce it before I'm done. But then again it still is missing the front and the back cover that'll give it a good bit more support. The glue is holding up fantastically.
I hope to have it up and running this weekend. The only real road block is me at this point.
On a side note, the break did give me time to work on designing my next project, a cnc machine. If you don't know what a CNC machine is, just think of it as a precision cutting/milling robot. Can anybody say custom water cooling blocks? I'm hoping to build it with enough precision to be able to lap my cpu's with a drill bit lol. I'm attaching a picture of it in case anyone else is interested in cnc machines. I know it's not really an Icrontic topic but a lot of things that I'll be making on it will be.
Thanks man. Still not there. I ran into a patch of bad luck on Sunday afternoon when I went to do the final assembly. The motherboard mounts need to be redrilled 1/8 inch to the right. The clamps I got for the power supply and cdrom are about 2 inches too big, and the fan screws I got are all about 1/4the an inch too short These are the little annoying problems that can kill a project.
All would have been prevented if I would had planned better. But sometimes we let enthusiasm get in the way of proper planning.
I just need to get off my duff and get it going and finish it already. lol
Well, My rig is on the wall. It is loud as all get out. Sounds like a hornets nest. All said, counting peripherals, I have eight 120mm fans running. I need some fan speed control badly. I still have a good bit of wire hiding to do.
Currently I have it mounted directly over my LCD. I'm considering mounting it to the right of my monitor. Getting up to hit the power supply switch, while overclocking, isn't fun. Connecting all the wires was a breeze though. Having everything at eye level is great. I hope to get some pictures up tomorrow.
Overall I do feel good about it. Just wish it wasn't so loud.
Comments
Hey Muddocktor, you're back just in time. I've gone back and forth when it comes to buying a motherboard tray or case. Since I've had to reduce the depth of my case, and because I really want to, I'm going to be making my own motherboard tray.
I wanted to ask about grounding issues. I think the normal setup is.. Motherboard tray, motherboard spacer, rubber washer (is it rubber or nylon?), motherboard, and then motherboard screw. Is that how it goes? It has been so long since I've had a new case that I don't remember the orientation and if that washer is rubber. Isn't rubber great at creating static electricity? Hrmmm.. mustn't be rubber. I've downloaded a couple case manuals and they say nothing of washers.
Also I've never had a heatsink that used the holes to secure from behind the motherboard. Even when I had my water cooling setup it clipped to the socket. I don't think they take up more room than the traditional spacers but I wanted to check.
If anyone has any information or suggestions, please chime in.
LOL, no that is not the case it's my new computer desk. I think it is sweet deal. I bought it from Sams club today for $69.00 plus tax. I think it is some great quality for the money.
Unfortunately, I was not able to work on the case this weekend but I do have Vetrans day off. I'll be digging into it then.
The desk is a little bit bigger than the one I was planning on getting but it is of a much sturdier design. And with the extra large pull out keyboard it's like a drawer. The pictures don't do it justice but I think it is a pretty swanky setup.
I havn't had it more than 3 hours and I already figured out a mod that'll I'll be doing. If you see the keyboard/drawer pic, I'll be putting USB ports there to charge MP3 players, hook up cameras, and for a gamepad connections. It'll be my hideaway usb hub.
Thanks for the compliment. I got some more cuts done on tuesday, including building my hard drive cage. All that is left is to cut out my window and cut out my back io panel. Oh and to drill the holes for the motherboard. Then there is the final finish which I plan on doing next weekend.
I'm hoping this weekend to get all the assembly done and to get the back io cut out. I'll be sure to post some more pictures this weekend.
Do you plan on feeding the wires down through the wall?
I didn't think about running them through the wall. That would have been good but I live in a rental. I don't think my land lord would like it much. I'll probably just secure the wires to the wall and run it tightly down it so at least it looks clean. I was thinking about putting a shelf or something between the monitor and the pc but I don't know. I'll tackle that one when I get to it.
It's really starting to come together now. All I have left to cut is the rear IO panel, two slots to lock the pci cards, and the cd rom hole. Before I go to bed tonight I'm going to put the hard drive cage together, and possibly mount the upper board for the case cover. Unfortunately it was too cold to do any finishing today.
Incase anyone has to ever do some gluing, metal, plastic, or what ever, I have to recommend Loctite sumo glue. Nothing says heavy duty like a big sweaty sumo wrestler on the box. I was going to drill some holes for support until I glued an L braket in the wrong place. There was no way I could remove that bracket unless I was prepared to destroy the wood paneling.
After seeing the dud motherboard fit so nicely, I'm ready to get this on the wall. I'm thinking, next weekend I can have it nearly complete. Tomorrow I'm going to order my fans and possibly my power button. If they get here before thanksgiving, who knows, maybe my case will be on the wall by Sunday.
For a month at least, it'll be my aging 64x2 system until AMD comes out with their new desktop processors. If they are able to overclock well and perform close to Intel's offerings, I'll go with that. If not it'll probably be a core duo system. E7200 seems to be the best overclocking bang for buck right now.
I've attached some pictures of my nearly finished case front.
Pictures 1, 2, and 3 is a faux treatment using Elmer's carpenter wood filler. Basically I applied a coating on with with a Putty Knife. I used an average size putty knife, about 2 inches wide. I purposely avoided using a bigger one because I wanted the finnish to be uneven with varying heights to add texture.
I then lightly sprinkled water on wood filler to make make the surface more pliable. I ended with a glaze that was very mud-like. I then added the groves using a dry paint brush and a scrap piece of plywood that I frayed the edge on.
The third picture shows the finished product after sanding with a medium sanding block.
more steps and pictures in the next post.
Picture one shows the process. I painted the surface once with a paint brush. Then right after, I used a wet rag to remove most of the paint. If you look at the top left corner, you can see a patch that hadn't been ragged yet. Ragging lightens the color by thinning the paint and allowing the wood filler underneath to come through.
Picture two shows the finished product. It came out so rich and full of texture that I almost stopped right there. But it reminded me of a fish tank in a seafood restaurant so I continued on to applying the red coat.
Steps 3 and 4 in the next post.
After some more wet ragging of the red and a dry cycle it started looking a lot better. Picture two shows the red dried and some touch ups with brown ragged on to darken the red some and to bring out the grooves.
I still have one more treatment using a piano black to rag on the red to add even more contrast. I'm very happy with how it is coming along.
I've decided to paint all surfaces other than the front in solid piano black. I'm looking forward to finishing next weekend.
Looks like I'm going to have a house guest from Thursday to Monday which will knock out me working on it next weekend. So now I'm going to try and finish it by Wednesday night. Woohoo..lol There really isn't but a an hour or two work really left.
Tonight after the kids go to bed I'm going to finish the painting and my final cuts. Tomorrow night I'll try mounting the case on the wall. Then Wed's night I'll transfer over my hardware. I just hope my fans come in.
Thanks man. The patience comes from having 4 children who force me to find activities for me time lol...
Unfortunately I haven't finished yet. My 5x120mm case fans just arrived today. For some reason whenever I order from www.xoxide.com I find it takes a little extra for my orders to come in. It's probably UPS's fault or just the holiday rush with last week being Thanksgiving. Come to think about it, last time I ordered from them was around last Thanksgiving. Anywho, their shipping couldn't be beat so I went with them.
I do have the case mounted on the wall. Looks good. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon.
The inner case has sagged a little from the weight of the outer cover/shell. I'll need to reinforce it before I'm done. But then again it still is missing the front and the back cover that'll give it a good bit more support. The glue is holding up fantastically.
I hope to have it up and running this weekend. The only real road block is me at this point.
On a side note, the break did give me time to work on designing my next project, a cnc machine. If you don't know what a CNC machine is, just think of it as a precision cutting/milling robot. Can anybody say custom water cooling blocks? I'm hoping to build it with enough precision to be able to lap my cpu's with a drill bit lol. I'm attaching a picture of it in case anyone else is interested in cnc machines. I know it's not really an Icrontic topic but a lot of things that I'll be making on it will be.
Thanks man. Still not there. I ran into a patch of bad luck on Sunday afternoon when I went to do the final assembly. The motherboard mounts need to be redrilled 1/8 inch to the right. The clamps I got for the power supply and cdrom are about 2 inches too big, and the fan screws I got are all about 1/4the an inch too short
All would have been prevented if I would had planned better. But sometimes we let enthusiasm get in the way of proper planning.
I just need to get off my duff and get it going and finish it already. lol
Currently I have it mounted directly over my LCD. I'm considering mounting it to the right of my monitor. Getting up to hit the power supply switch, while overclocking, isn't fun. Connecting all the wires was a breeze though. Having everything at eye level is great. I hope to get some pictures up tomorrow.
Overall I do feel good about it. Just wish it wasn't so loud.