DIY PC case

[Ed P]

Graham – if you are really upset, complain to your councillors, organise a petition, and get the press involved.  Councillors hate getting bad press and protests+press get them incensed.

Bit late now of course the best time was before the local elections. It only took a couple of local issues plus the National mood of course to wipe out a 100% Conservative local council and install a 100% Lib Dem one instead!

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

We didn’t have a local election in London. Even if we did it wouldn’t matter. I get Labour whatever I vote.

[tadka]

Dave Rice wrote:

I don’t have a box and I’m not expecting to order anything of an appropriate size soon, but I have large sturdy plastic mailing bags and plenty of bubble wrap. The drive cage is very thin mild steel so I’m going to look at carefully folding it flat.

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That’s fine Dave, if the drive cage can be separated do so, I’ll have to do it anyway.

[PlaneMan]

Only thing that I have of use is a packet of 10 thumbscrews and some thermal paste. Thought I had more stuff but either I’ve tidied it away to well or binned it. ?

[Bob Williams]

I seem to recall a MM contributor (Mark Pickavance?) building a computer out of a beer keg, another actually within a workstation desk.

Sounds like the kind of far out thing Mr Pickavance would do.

Tadka, I have a TP-Link TG-3468 Gigabit Network adapter kicking around, no use for it myself. Happy to send it for P&P. I will have a look in my spares box in the shed tomorrow. I also have a 60GB IDE Hdd, used lightly since I went SATA after blowing the mobo. Still works fine, but P&P on that may be prohibitive.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[wasbit]

IIUC you are transferring the innards to save space. Won’t the desktop fit in the knee space, on a small stand perhaps, to raise it off the floor?

If you are any where near Oxford, I have a couple of complete desktops from which you can choose one.

Look to be newer than yours. If you want the specs, I’ll sort them out.

 

--
Regards
wasbit

Rig 1: Optiplex 3050 SFF
Rig 2: Asus ROG G20CB (rebuilt wreck)
Rig 3: HP Elitebook 8440P

Dear Starfleet, hate you, hate the Federation, taking Voyager. - Janeway

[tadka]

Bob & wasbit, thanks for your generous offers but I have all the components, I just need things to hold them inside my wooden case. I’m waiting for Dave to send the bits so I can start engineering it.

Dave, I’ll pm you my work address. It’s probably easier for you to send it first and then invoice me later.

 

[The Duke]

All you shoidl need is some mobo stand offs, (pilot hole and screw in), and some double sided velcro. My ssd just sit in the bottom of my cases. Iirc one is held in place with hot glue. The other just sits there.

If you get a gtx extention cable (can’t recall the name of the socket, long day) it will mean you can place the gfx card anywhere.

[tadka]

I’m liking your suggestions Duke. I didn’t know a gfx extension cables was a thing. Will look into it. It should make things easier. And velcro might come in handy too.

[The Duke]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F253247774293

You can daisy chain them too. they do come in many lengths though, bit may be cheaper to daisy chain a coupé of shorter ones than source a single longer one maybe. Make sure you get the correct speed one, x16 etc..

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Its a little publicised fact that PCIe was actually designed with device interconnect in mind, especially connecting nodes in a multi CPU cluster.

The maximum cable length for gen 1 and 2 is 7m. Don’t know what it is for gen 3 ?

[Bob Williams]

Good info Graham, thank you!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[tadka]

The case has started to take shape.

I will be taking Duke’s advice and use a cable for the gfx card. But I need to screw the gfx card to the case. I got these electrical screws for this job as they are the perfect thickness but I can’t find any nuts for them. Any of you know what nuts go on those electrical screws? There are some M3.5 nuts online but it doesn’t say anything about the thread. Any ideas?

 

[Ed P]

A silly question – why do you need a case if the whole thing is fixed under your desk? Other than the PSU (which should be cased) all the other components are low voltage and just need a bit of protection from being knocked.

[Boris]

tadka wrote:

I got these electrical screws for this job as they are the perfect thickness but I can’t find any nuts for them. Any of you know what nuts go on those electrical screws? There are some M3.5 nuts online but it doesn’t say anything about the thread. Any ideas?  

M3.5 is the thread.

If those screws are M3.5 the nuts will be fine.

Never trust an atom - they make up everything !

[tadka]

Ed P wrote:

A silly question – why do you need a case if the whole thing is fixed under your desk? Other than the PSU (which should be cased) all the other components are low voltage and just need a bit of protection from being knocked.

Like you said, to protect it from me kicking it and also I’ll paint it white (the same as the wall) so it blends in and is less conspicuous. This design will have the cables going to the sides which should allow me to hide them behind the drawer cabinets. I’m going for a nice clean look.

[tadka]

Boris wrote:

tadka wrote:

I got these electrical screws for this job as they are the perfect thickness but I can’t find any nuts for them. Any of you know what nuts go on those electrical screws? There are some M3.5 nuts online but it doesn’t say anything about the thread. Any ideas?

M3.5 is the thread. If those screws are M3.5 the nuts will be fine.

Thanks Boris, in that case I’ll order some  🙂

[tadka]

One more question guys.

The PCI Express x16 cable is gen 3.

My PCI Express x16 I think is gen 1.

Will the cable be backwards compatible?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PCI-Express-16x-Flexible-Card-Cable-Extension-Port-Adapter-High-Speed-Riser-Card/143241283413?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/P35_Neo2FR__FIR/Specification

 

[Boris]

Only just realised you are using a socket 775 motherboard for this new build.

If so, what CPU does it have ? – I have a good selection if they are better than what it is currently running ?

Never trust an atom - they make up everything !

[tadka]

Boris wrote:

Only just realised you are using a socket 775 motherboard for this new build. If so, what CPU does it have ? – I have a good selection if they are better than what it is currently running ?

Thanks Boris. This PC is a dinosaur. You are not the first one to offer me better stuff 🙂 But it’s doing the job adequately for my needs so I can’t be bother to do any upgrades. I’ve got a C2Q 2.4GHz (Q6600) that someone on here donated me a few years back (I had a C2D prior). I’ll leave it as it is for now until one day I start feeling the need to build myself something new 🙂

[Author]

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