Home made multi-pc case?

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Originally Posted by Wilbur

Bad idea - A computer case is designed with Thermo-dynamics in mind. A PC case is basically a large heat-sink, with heat being taken away from the areas thats its generated. Wood, is not a good conductor of heat. In a constant 40 degrees C + enviroment, the wood will crack and get damaged, as well as not being as solid as metal.

Welding up a framework and adding paneling can be done in a similar amount of time to making one out of wood. It'll be stronger, heavier and will cool better. The main problem with having this many computers in such cramped conditions will be heat. Heat generating items will have to be sectioned off. Hard-drives will require shitloads of cooling. If you've ever had to deal with an X-Blade enclosure you'll know how much of a problem heat build-up was with them.

Good luck getting the heat problem solved :-)

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Having made and used several PC cases out of wood, I'd have to disagree there. Most PC cases are made out of metal for cost and assembly reasons not for cooling or even airflow reasons.

A well designed case made from virtually any material, will beat a poorly designed metal case for heat extraction any day. I have also run a PC from a card board box, two 120mm fans (one at front one at back) and kept a lower mean temperature than the case (steel) that the components came out of. It was also an awful lot quieter.

Plus arguably plastic is at least as good an insulator as wood yet several mainstream PC manufacturers use all (or mainly) plastic cases.

The only real issue you have when using non-ferrous materials for PC cases (and note plastic cases normally have some form of thin metal lining for this exact reason) is interference, and with wood the simple solution is to line the case with aluminium foil, making sure there is an earth connection through the PSU.

As for the disscussion in hand, I saw an interesting rack mount unit like this made from an ikea drawer unit, each drawer containing a PC (micro ATX) the guy was using the setup for distributive computing (rendering I think), each drawer was a mainboard, PSU & HDD he had a fan set into the drawer front. Not sure on cost and I haven't got the link to his webpage in front of me, I'll try and dig it out.

http://www.lubic.com.tw/gallery/

When I was building my 3-box system, I decided to go the wooden case route.

My case doesn't look as good as those linked to, but it does the job.

For $65.00 in materials and about 8 hours of work I can't even say it was worth it, but it was an interesting project.

For those of you who are worried about thermal issues, note that the space for each computer is very small and that I have no case fan. Just a big heat-sink processor fan and the power supply fan. They do run a bit hot, but not that much more then my main PC.

If you do decide to design and build your own case I have a design tip: Avoid putting big red buttons where they can easily be hit with your toe!

http://abstrusa.com/case1.jpg
http://abstrusa.com/case2.jpg

How much would it cost to get started building boxes into 19" racks? Could probably scavenge a few out of containers or if you ask the right people nicely, not much floorspace taken up, easy to move around, just need longer cables for input and output.

While trying to find case I saw that goes along with what you were saying I found this computer case and HAD to link it. LOL

The Compubeaver (work safe)
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...3DwVp%26sa%3DG

some pics on my setup, including the 4-slaves-in-a-box

http://marino.be/wow/trollteam/DSC01162.JPG

http://marino.be/wow/trollteam/DSC01163.JPG
http://marino.be/wow/trollteam/DSC01164.JPG

still have to close the box and make it a bit more presentable, but for now it does the job, cooling is better and it's not acting as a secondary heater anymore :)

oyeah, I did clean up my desk before taking them pics :)