looking for a fully modular pc case

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alpha_2000

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Jul 17, 2016
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like a case where everything can be taken off for easier access kind of like a lego case like the

antec lanboy air but its been discontinued so i have been looking for another case like it that is full tower and under 200 dollars
 
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bambiboom


alpha_2000,

I've never seen a case which in effect, the rear panel is on the top. The bench /testing rigs as usually like the CaseLabs BH4 in the link, having a horizontal motherboard.

If you are good with tools and the appearance is secondary, I'd say the thing to do would be to find a cheap to free case and separate it into a lit of modular parts: a mother board section, a power supply section and a front panel section/ drive bay section. I found a great You Tube video:

Free (or extremely cheap) DIY PC Testbench!

And in your...
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gondo

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Are you looking for a skeleton case? Those are those bench cases for assembling and testing systems. Antec had the skeleton which was discontinued.

LianLi has the T60 test bench mount. Not really a case. Coolermaster makes a similar design.

is that the sort of thing you want, or more of a real case just with very easy access and disassembly?


 
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alpha_2000

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Jul 17, 2016
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Are you looking for a skeleton case? Those are those bench cases for assembling and testing systems. Antec had the skeleton which was discontinued.

LianLi has the T60 test bench mount. Not really a case. Coolermaster makes a similar design.

is that the sort of thing you want, or more of a real case just with very easy access and disassembly?
Click to expand...

yes that exactly what im looking for skeleton case where everything can be taken off the leaving the frame of the case
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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Apr 7, 2012
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alpha_2000,

It would help to know what you're use of the case is to be. If you're testing components a test bench- that's one kind, if it;s to have complete access to build a custom liquid cooling system, to refinish, and/or for cable routing, that's another.

One company making fully modular cases is CaseLabs. Some can actually be sent as a flat pack- and assembled like IcKEA furniture. Most designs offer an infinite set of combinations of door's, windows, radiator mounting panels, open grilles, and panels with hot swap drive bay- really anything is possible. The complete disassembly possible on some designs allows the option to respray to any color and the parts are sent in primer. These are all Aluminum and designed for serious system building. Some designs are very large and have compartments, for example one side can have a pristine motherboard /GPU/s and the other side has the liquid cooling system, all the wiring, power supply. Other versions have upper and lower compartments An interesting example of which is the Bullet BH4 mATX Case for $190. The same design as mITX is $170 and full ATX for $230- which is the one I'd choose. This is an interesting, horizontal motherboard design with a lower compartment for the PSU, and comes in colors. Looks very airy and can mount some large fans. Although this design is not sold as a flat pack, the number of screws visible all over mean it's probably can be fully disassembled- give them a call.

On another level, if the main objective is total component access, most conventional cases can be substantially disassembled: remove the side access panel, the top, front cover, and the offside panel and it the system could be fully operational and still have access for whatever finishing. Many cases today will connect some panels with rivets, and in that case, carefully drill out the rivets- to be replaced later by screws and it can be as you say, just a frame on a bottom.

Cheers,

BambiBoom
 
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alpha_2000

Honorable
Jul 17, 2016
184
1
10,685
It would help to know what you're use of the case is to be. If you're testing components a test bench- that's one kind, if it;s to have complete access to build a custom liquid cooling system, to refinish, and/or for cable routing, that's another.

One company making fully modular cases is CaseLabs. Some can actually be sent as a flat pack- and assembled like IcKEA furniture. Most designs offer an infinite set of combinations of door's, windows, radiator mounting panels, open grilles, and panels with hot swap drive bay- really anything is possible. The complete disassembly possible on some designs allows the option to respray to any color and the parts are sent in primer. These are all Aluminum and designed for serious system building. Some designs are very large and have compartments, for example one side can have a pristine motherboard /GPU/s and the other side has the liquid cooling system, all the wiring, power supply. Other versions have upper and lower compartments An interesting example of which is the Bullet BH4 mATX Case for $190. The same design as mITX is $170 and full ATX for $230- which is the one I'd choose. This is an interesting, horizontal motherboard design with a lower compartment for the PSU, and comes in colors. Looks very airy and can mount some large fans. Although this design is not sold as a flat pack, the number of screws visible all over mean it's probably can be fully disassembled- give them a call.

On another level, if the main objective is total component access, most conventional cases can be substantially disassembled: remove the side access panel, the top, front cover, and the offside panel and it the system could be fully operational and still have access for whatever finishing. Many cases today will connect some panels with rivets, and in that case, carefully drill out the rivets- to be replaced later by screws and it can be as you say, just a frame on a bottom.
Click to expand...

yes its to have complete access to a custom build and to have the cables and cords easily accessible and managed
 
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gondo

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If it's just for more convenience in building a custom setup with liquid then obviously look at Caselabs, but they are very expensive. They are big with liquid cooling and custom setups.

Off the top of my head there is the Fractal Design Define S without the drive trays so there is lots of room for liquid cooling. Same build as the Define R5 minus the drive trays so it's $50 cheaper.

Then there are the cube cases where the power supply goes behind the motherboard. Corsair has the 540, Thermaltake has a few.

Then there are reverse cases. The windowed side is on the right so the video card gets reversed so the heatsink is facing up and not down. Corsair makes one.

Pretty much any high end case will be accessible. Lian Li, NZXT, Fractal Design, Caselabs, Corsair, Coolermaster, Phantek, Deepcool, Zalman, etc.... There is lots to choose from.

Nowadays people use a single SSD and 1 large hard drive. It's rare to see 5 hard drives in a system. I am a fan of an external drive for storage and an SSD boot drive. Or the SSD and a NAS server for storage. I have 2 computers, tablets, smartphones, Xbox One, media players, televisions, blue ray players, stereos, alarm clock, etc... that all stream files direct from a single NAS. Cheaper then having drives for each computer and leaving them turned on 24/7 to share and stream. People also do not instal CD-Roms unless you burn or you actually need it. I prefer an external burner and plug it in the odd time to do an install or burn.

All that being said you can remove your drive trays and open up the inside of the case and have tons of room for liquid. And all the cases have tons of grommets to pass wires to the back side of the motherboard tray. They are simple to work on. Cases are well built now and there are many that would suit your needs. But seing as you want lots of room and you want it easy to work on check out mid towers, full towers, and cube style double wides. Anything smaller will be congested.
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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Apr 7, 2012
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alpha_2000,

I've never seen a case which in effect, the rear panel is on the top. The bench /testing rigs as usually like the CaseLabs BH4 in the link, having a horizontal motherboard.

If you are good with tools and the appearance is secondary, I'd say the thing to do would be to find a cheap to free case and separate it into a lit of modular parts: a mother board section, a power supply section and a front panel section/ drive bay section. I found a great You Tube video:

Free (or extremely cheap) DIY PC Testbench!

And in your case- no pun here really- unscrew / de-rivet the donor case, and neatly separate the
modules. rotate the motherboard /mounting module 90 deg. so the I/O is on the top, The power supply goes in the new "basement" and the front panel gets cut so the drive bays are all facing front- even hot swap bays. The volume behind the motherboard can be the liquid cooling system You can buy metal mesh so the outer panels can by modified to include radiators. Use over length generic cabling to start and if the appearance is important, those can be substituted with neater stuff. Paint to suit- I'd do it as military gear in fatigue green and stenciled lettering..

This looks like so much fun I might give it try myself- more fun and much cheaper than my current project upgrading an HP z620 workstation.

Cheers,

BambiBoom



 
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