Furniture PC?

[payjin]

OK this may sound silly, but I am thinking about taking an old piece of furniture (a 3x3x2 foot French provincial cabinet) that houses my PC in my living room and using it as my PC case without any other case (right know there is a conventional desktop case in the cabinet. It has regular doors and a pull out shelf for easy access to all the hardware. The inside is huge allowing for plenty of airflow. The whole thing is made out of thick mahogany which should deaden any noise, and I have an old Gateway 32 inch Destination monitor that already doubles as a TV in that room. I figure other than the components that connect directly to the MB, I can spread things out a bit (if I can find components with long enough cables) and maybe even water cool the system. I read the cases article in THG today, and bluntly they all sounded boring. Can anyone think of any reason why this wouldn't work?

Round the world and home again, home again...

 

[miketubby]

I've been thinking about doing something very similar. Since it's wood, we should just be able to screw the mainboard down to the inside anywhere. I also want to decrease the noise - and think this would be a great way to do it...

I'm in love with the new iMac "case" (plastic bubble) as well. Has anyone molded their own plastic? I'm not quite sure how I would get the sheet of plastic into a hemisphere shape.

 

[Guest]

Molding plastic is easy, but takes a bit of trial and error.
First, you have to have the right kind--there are lots. Check out www.spoofpark.com/links.shtml They have a list of costumers who have done plastic molding. the bottom line: You need a source of heat, a vacuum, the plastic, some kind of mold, and a vacuum table(which you can easily make out of plywood and glue). I have used modeling clay as a mold material with some success.

 

[Guest]

It might pay to bear in mind that wood is an excellent insulating material, which would, yes, cut down on sound, but also do very well in the containing of heat department.
Not necessarily good! It could be done, and the dimensions of the furniture piece would have a bearing on it, but as with everything, do your research first. CPUs are expensive.

Regards to all.

 

[germne]

This may wreak havoc with Radio and TV reception for you and your neighbors not to mention the fire hazard.

Regards - Steve

 

[Crashman]

It can be done quite well. You should prabably mount the board horizontally on the bottom with two large low speed fans in the back blowing on it, and two exhaust fans at the top. You may want to duct the intake fans toward the board. You can line the inside with heavy steel screen to dampen RFI.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?