Getting rid of case

[ade555]

Hi everyone

Looking at starting my project soon which involves housing pc in desk, decision has been made as my PC is in main living room and we having a bit of revamp over next few months, I have seen few builds on net ect, and wanted to ask few questions before I order few bits, let's start

PC will be placed in bottom drawer of desk, dimension W40cm, H39cm, D38cm behind the drawer there is further 10cm space towards back of desk when drawer is closed which should allow me to mount power supply, front of draw is fairly large which allows me to cut out front section to mount 2x 140mm intake fans and they should be covered with preforated aluminium sheet to cover them, back of drawer is also lower the front which should allow hot air to exhaust with out much of a problem
Hopping to fit my matx board on bottom of drawer and first question, would you mount motherboard on stands off which would be mounted directly on to bottom of drawer or I have spare pc case that I can cut up to use the (ATX plate), which option would be better? Due to rear been fairly open not sure if I need exhaust fans at this moment.

Another possible solution is convert that drawer to open cabinet style, mount sheet plywood on drawer runners that can just be pulled out, hmm not decided yet, will lay components out tomorrow and take few shots see how it looks.

Not much to look at yet hoping to have some pics soon.

 

[bremen1874]

If the back of the drawer is so open at the back I'd try and have all of the ventilation at the rear. Cutting holes in drawer front (covered or not) is never going to look like proper furniture.

 

[ade555]

If the back of the drawer is so open at the back I'd try and have all of the ventilation at the rear. Cutting holes in drawer front (covered or not) is never going to look like proper furniture.

Hmm I can see what you mean, would you go just with exhaust or on one side of drawer intake just under GPU and exhaust opposite end sort of behind cpu cooler, need to lay out the components tomorrow to have a look. Also my GPU is blower style cooler so all heat gets exhausted at rear is well.

 

[bremen1874]

I'd start by putting the system in the drawer and seeing how hot it actually gets without any additional fans. It wouldn't need to be properly mounted for this, just all plugged together.

You may find that a couple of fans mounted at the back blowing air over the motherboard is enough.

BTW it's drawer not draw.

 

[ade555]

I'd start by putting the system in the drawer and seeing how hot it actually gets without any additional fans. It wouldn't need to be properly mounted for this, just all plugged together.

You may find that a couple of fans mounted at the back blowing air over the motherboard is enough.

BTW it's drawer not draw.

Spelling all sorted now

 

[Drumroll]

Maybe holes from the bottom, and using ducts to direct the air flow towards the components?
About 10 years ago tried to build a desk using a boxy MDF, top glass, and metal legs. For the I/O used one rear of an old case.
The grandfather of the desk cases, I guess.
Worked well, but moving house I was unable to use it, so went back to a case.
Recently, as I've decided to do WC again, I was seriously considering converting a storage/desk to components holder.
You need to ensure ventilation is enough. Things can get hot pretty quick.
I would try and install all using a horizontal approach, board installed to the back of the drawer. At the bottom of the drawer, towards of the front, air blowing in. May opt to leave the rear of the drawer open to allow the hot air to escape.
The only issue with a bottom-fed air cooling system is dust.
A more ingenious solution would be build a faux front to the drawer. Would work like most of modern cases, where the front "fascia" is just a layer, and air can get in from the top and the bottom, and the fans can be mounted as they would in a case. So lets say you create a vertical layer centimetres away from the front of the drawer. Firmly fixed. Holes for the fans done. Then open the bottom of the drawer between that layer and the front of the drawer. Makes sense?

 

[Alan1969]

you can filter mesh that you could use to say cover an air inlet from the bottom of the drawer to prevent dust getting in
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/air-cooling/fan-accessories/dust-filters

 

[tyler_jrb]

You can get threaded inserts which would allow you to use standoffs and bolt the motherboard directly.

But otherwise a good idea actually. And as someone else has said you could just test and tune. Use an intake fan see how hot things get then an exhaust if required.

I’m also planning on moving my pc from case to cabinet for silence. I already have a pretty hefty tv cabinet anyway which doesn’t house a great deal and it’s already built not much adjustment apart from holes for pipes, new front and back panels. Having watercooling, means I can completely seal the unit for silence too. Having an internal and a couple of large external radiators should hopefully keep things cool internally.

 

[Nasher]

I'm doing something like this atm with a solid oak "hidden office" cabinet which I've modified a bit. I'm going to install the motherboard directly on to a tray which slides out of the cupboard and a 200mm case fan on the back to extract heat (the trick is to extract heat and create lower pressure inside, don't try to push air in). The keyboard and mouse are on a slide-out draw.

When finish all that should be visible is the monitor and speakers when closed up. There is a power extension and network switch inside, so all of the cables are routed inside and there's room for multiple network devices. Just one power and one network cable coming out of the rear.

All that needs doing is to butcher my old PC case and make a motherboard mount

 

[tyler_jrb]

I'm doing something like this atm with a solid oak "hidden office" cabinet which I've modified a bit. I'm going to install the motherboard directly on to a tray which slides out of the cupboard and a 200mm case fan on the back to extract heat (the trick is to extract heat and create lower pressure inside, don't try to push air in). The keyboard and mouse are on a slide-out draw.

When finish all that should be visible is the monitor and speakers when closed up. There is a power extension and network switch inside, so all of the cables are routed inside and there's room for multiple network devices. Just one power and one network cable coming out of the rear.

All that needs doing is to butcher my old PC case and make a motherboard mount

That does sound a great idea and I hope if you do this you do a build log I’d like to see it.

I’ve finally decided on the approach of putting the entire machine in my storage cupboard with a few small spacers around the perimeter of the door (it isn’t well sealed anyway and vents into the loft) and I must say been running now flat out in my current case for a few hours and maxed at 48c on the gpu (watercooled ofc) Maxes at around 45-46c in my room.

I have my 900D stored in there due to being too large for my desk setup so thinking I will just switch back to the 900D for added cooling as I still have everything for it.

Best thing though it is EXTREMELY silent in there. I decided against the cabinet idea due to being too much work and in the end it may be a failed idea and will be a pain to work on. This I can put my 900d on a stand and just remove the whole lot to work on it easily.

 

[Nasher]

Im actually almost finished, but I didnt make a log. Just waiting for power/sata cable extensions to arrive from ocuk. Then I can move the psu and HDDs to a different compartment

I changed the setup slightly and have 2 120mm fans on the back and 2 200mm fans inside. All spinning at low rpm.

Temps are already better than they were in my Corsair case and its pretty quiet, especially with the fan mod I did to the GPU as well.