DIY pc case

[Jamesharrywood2]

I am going to be building a pc case out of acrylic but i am not sure if i should us 3mm or 5mm sheets for the case and if i should mount the motherboard to plywood instead

thanks

 

[racksmith101]

Use 5mn, should be sturdy enough.

 

[Eximo]

If you are using acrylic, make sure to run ground straps/wires from place to place. (You can get some braided copper or aluminum so that it looks pretty) Power supply body, at least one motherboard standoff, the expansion slots. No sense building a static cannon strapped to the computer.

 

[WildCard999]

If possible I would mount the motherboard to the acrylic sheet using the motherboard stand-offs, this will make it look much better aesthetically over ply wood. I agree with using the 5mm over the 3mm.

 

[Jamesharrywood2]

Use 5mn, should be sturdy enough.

Thanks

 

[Jamesharrywood2]

What do the ground cables do and how do the get attatched(where should I put them)

 

[Eximo]

So in your typical computer the chassis is made out of metal. This is grounded. The power supply takes in three wires. Hot, Neutral, and Ground. Ground is for safety. If you touch the chassis you are effectively grounded. Since the chassis has much lower resistance then you do, any short circuits will take that path to ground.

When you insulate the components from the chassis, everything is 'floating' there may be a voltage on the system's ground plane and touching it could shock you.

Adding grounding wires or straps brings it closer to the intended design.

So lets say you install the standoffs on your acrylic, put the motherboard on top of that, before putting the motherboard screw in, add something like this to it :
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41kEUjKx8ZL._SX355_.jpg

Now you can buy the loops and braid, or standard wire yourself, so you can neatly route them.

One end is now grounding the motherboard, run that to one of the screws on the power supply. The power supply is taking in the chassis ground in the three prong plug. So now there is no potential difference between the motherboard and power supply. The I/O shield will get grounded by the motherboard. The expansion cards are likely grounded through their connectors (graphics card). To be doubly safe, you might just take some aluminum tape and run that along where the screws would go in to hold them in place, and ground the last slot cover screw to the power supply as well. The front panel I/O will be covered by the connections to the motherboard, also low voltage anyway at that point.

Similar things SHOULD be done with the drives, but these days you don't actually have to have any with M.2 drives. But if you do end up with some drives, you could run a wire to a screw on their chassis.

Really though acrylic cases are neat to look at, but they do defeat one of the features of your typical case. They act as farraday cages to keep electronic interference both in and out of the chassis. Even the plastics on computer cases are usually embedded with conductive material to play the part of metal. (Same with laptops, the plastic is acting as shielding)

 

[Eximo]

Were it me I would take it to the next level and have all naked parts, clear fans, excepting hard drives(maybe hide the real hard drive and have a dummy with a clear body so you can see the platter spinning) Not sure how hard it would be to gut a DVD drive and show the inside.

I had a friend who made one in 2002 or so. After a few lan parties it started to crack in places. Pretty sure it was a mid tower he built. I just remembered it had rambus, he came to regret that... Computers didn't like being moved around as much as you can get away with today.

Then again, I have a few projects I want to get off the ground at some point. I have a G5 Mac Pro workstation chassis I want to do a build in. I know my friend would give his left arm for a Tardis computer, thinking about that for his birthday. And there is my half sleeper, but not obvious at all, poweredge chassis. More than EATX, and room for EVERYTHING.

 

[Jamesharrywood2]

So in your typical computer the chassis is made out of metal. This is grounded. The power supply takes in three wires. Hot, Neutral, and Ground. Ground is for safety. If you touch the chassis you are effectively grounded. Since the chassis has much lower resistance then you do, any short circuits will take that path to ground.

When you insulate the components from the chassis, everything is 'floating' there may be a voltage on the system's ground plane and touching it could shock you.

Adding grounding wires or straps brings it closer to the intended design.

So lets say you install the standoffs on your acrylic, put the motherboard on top of that, before putting the motherboard screw in, add something like this to it :
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41kEUjKx8ZL._SX355_.jpg

Now you can buy the loops and braid, or standard wire yourself, so you can neatly route them.

One end is now grounding the motherboard, run that to one of the screws on the power supply. The power supply is taking in the chassis ground in the three prong plug. So now there is no potential difference between the motherboard and power supply. The I/O shield will get grounded by the motherboard. The expansion cards are likely grounded through their connectors (graphics card). To be doubly safe, you might just take some aluminum tape and run that along where the screws would go in to hold them in place, and ground the last slot cover screw to the power supply as well. The front panel I/O will be covered by the connections to the motherboard, also low voltage anyway at that point.

Similar things SHOULD be done with the drives, but these days you don't actually have to have any with M.2 drives. But if you do end up with some drives, you could run a wire to a screw on their chassis.

Really though acrylic cases are neat to look at, but they do defeat one of the features of your typical case. They act as farraday cages to keep electronic interference both in and out of the chassis. Even the plastics on computer cases are usually embedded with conductive material to play the part of metal. (Same with laptops, the plastic is acting as shielding)

Thanks I will upload a photo when I am done