Plastic cases can offer just as good ventilation as metal cases, provided they have the needed vent holes, but one maker recommends against running a computer in one unattended or for anything but demonstration purposes. No reason was given, but it could have to do with the fact that only regular acrylic is used, not fire resistant acrylic, like the plastic required for products like TVs and monitors made in the past 25 years. Fire should not be overlooked with any electrical device, especially one that can pump enough current to sustain an arc for a prolonged period. Amazingly, an electrically nonconductive plastic case can cause more of a shock hazard than a grounded metal case because some power supplies do not connect the grounds of the low voltage side (black wires) to their case and rely upon the computer case for this grounding. In the rare instance that high voltage leaks through the low voltage side, this can make an acrylic case more dangerous than a grounded metal one. So be sure to ground the disk drives and motherboard directly to the power supply case.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram