Mounting motherboard to homemade case

[Mike518]

I gutted a small TV and want to use it as a case for my new build. My budget ran out and I decided to make things interesting with the case. I have everything planned and measured, except for one thing. What would be the proper way to mount the motherboard? I plan on mounting it to the inside bottom of the TV, with the graphics card etc coming out of the right side of the TV case.

The real queston: Is it ok to just bolt it directly to the plastic case of the TV? I plan on leaving like a half inch space for air flow, but was curious if I would have grounding issues. I never tried anything like this, so normally you would be mounting the mobo to metal inside of a real case. I don't have an ATX case to scrap parts from by the way, but I do have a couple of micro atx cases laying around. I'm also planning on salvaging the expansion slots for the add-ons to be secured ie graphics card.

Any other advice for problems I may run into would be cool too, lend me your experience please, thanks.

I'm still waiting for stuff to come in the mail, so I won't be able to post pictures for a few weeks, so you'll have to look for a new thread at some point.

 

[Pyroflea]

Just use standoffs of some sort (whether they be the ones that came with your motherboard, or just some 4-40 machine screws and nuts). The case is plastic I'd assume, so you wouldn't have any grounding issues.

 

[Mike518]

Nice, thanks. Yea it's plastic. That's pretty much what my plan was going to be, but of course I was pretty much guessing that it would work. It makes sense that there wouldn't be any problems, but I always figured that there was a certain rhyme/reason for how a real case is set up. Thanks for the added courage for this ridiculous project.

 

[jsc]

Well, yes. Real cases are largely metal; and motherboards get really unhappy when they rest on metal.

 

[Mike518]

So why do they make cases where we secure the motherboard to metal and have us use standoffs to keep the motherboard from touching it? I know we have to leave some space underneath for proper airflow, but it would make more sense to me if they made the cases so that you mount it to plastic or something. Thanks for the input btw.

 

[Pyroflea]

Increased rigidity would be my guess as to why they used aluminum/steel. I wouldn't trust a 100% plastic case with my $1000 of hardware in it.

 

[Paperdoc]

Strength is certainly a reason for using a metal case and mounting plate, with metal stand-offs and screws. They also contribute to electromagnetic noise shielding. But you have fallen into a common misconception. It certainly is true that MOST of the metallic items on the bottom of a motherboard should NOT touch a Ground because they are live parts of circuits. BUT the specific areas where the metal standoffs and screws are placed are actually designed to be Ground connection points, so there is not problem having those spots touching a metal Ground plate. You just need to have all the other spots held away from that ground plate.