Case-less PC Project

[Danjos]

So i was thinking of buying a new case.. and then i thought about the possible merits of mounting the whole PC on a flat board of some kind. Along the lines of butchering a cheap case i have and cutting out the mb mounting plate and upright section behind the cards to secure sound/gfx, etc...
attach mb to plate, plate to board, psu/hdd etc to the board, board to a wall, all fans firing upwards, mount fan on board to blow a light breeze up over the whole lot.

pros:
would save money, save space, should run cooler than any case, i like little 'projects'.

cons:
will look like poo


im sure its been done before, anyone have any suggestions? or is it a dumb idea

 

[Danjos]

yeh i was thinking about that: the cooling aspect i would like to think would be improved as theres no enclosed space for heat to build up, the heat can just rise off the board, even well ventilated cases seem to contain warmer than ambient air in my experience, especially with modern gfx cards chucking out huge amounts of heat.
I would use a couple of low rev 120mm fans to blow air accross the board dont forget.

dust yeh.. i could just hoover it sometimes !


dont think my wife will like it too much either

 

[Danjos]

nothing is protecting your components, if you have animals/little kids they can easly be licking components, you accidently spill your drink?

in my eyes it is a stupied idea

will update my list:

pros:
would save money, save space, should run cooler than any case, i like little 'projects'.

cons:
will look like poo
someone might lick the components!



hehe, fair point i suppose

 

[Danjos]

wrong..

won't have a fresh airflow, having a sealed case with good airflow is far far better

how so?

 

[Danjos]

You will be relying on convection and air currents to shift air around, that would provide nothing like the 100 odd cfm of air you would have blowing through a case. A good case works more like a wind tunnel than a hot box. Cold air in the front, hot air out the back.

well thats not quite true, as i have said there would be a couple of fans blowing over the board.

i had the antec 900 as my last case, fairly respectable cooling, but even that would drop the ambient and cpu temp a few degrees when i removed the side.
in my experience, my pc cases never perform anywhere near as good as a windtunnel due to all the nooks and crannies and irregular shapes, cables etc.

I appreciate the replies and im not disagreeing, just discussing

maybe i will build a bespoke case instead... an 35x35cm elongated cube, 35cm intake and outtake fans, mb components in the middle, psu+drives mounted on the exterior! it will be a beast heh