Anyone here ever take a stab at building a box to house their computer. I was looking at the stuff available these days and none of them look that good. Naff -not a fitting feature describes them all externally.
The ones on display in Tiny's shops look OK though. (Let down by the DVD and Cd players of course.) How can I get one of them? They cost hundreds of shekels locally. I already have a Mobo, Hdd, RAM, Power Unit and the other fripparies they come free with.
? While they might not have anything immediately obvious as suitable (mini-itx boards are _very_ small) they might give you some ideas
One of the other groups (there`s a "homebuilt" group) might be able to offer more suggestions, although i`ve seen websites where they`ve been made from scratch from sheets of acrylic as available in Been&Queued
A bit more expensive than most (about £100) but fits in nicely in my hifi rack. One of the few HTPC cases that supports 2 x 5.25 drives 2 x 3.5 HDD and a floppy drive.
A decent case will have mounting points for additional fans. I've used Antec cases for my last 2 builds. They're not cheap but they are good quality. Also use the rounded IDE connectors instead of the standard flat ribbon cables to improve airflow. Cooling is very important with today's processors and hard drives.
You will obviously have difficulty buying from them but it does give you an idea what is available and you ought to be able to source a range of cases from somewhere in the UK.
Tiny are at the cheap end of the market and probably pay peanuts for their cases which are imported from China. Similar cases should be available elsewhere.
Try the local computer fairs. See your local newspaper, the small adds in computer magazines or use one of the web search engines for details.
In my area there is usually one local computer fair every month, or 3 or
4 if I'm prepared to drive 15/25 miles to one.
In my experience, you should be able to pick up a case including the built in power supply from around £25 or maybe _slightly_ more if you want a bigger supply. Most of the dealers at these fairs will have a range of cases (in a range of prices) from small to large, conventional to 'futuristic', with or without doors to hide those CD/DVD/Floppy slots and with or without fancy neon lights :) I don't think they would sell many cases at these fairs if they cost £100s or even a 3 digit figure.
You may have to attend 'as the doors open' to see the greatest range of cases before they sell out.
As bought, not much better than a 'standard' mini tower, though part of this may be that the pc is now at chin level (when sitting down) rather than floor level. The case has ventilation holes down both sides which obviously didn't help.
So far I have:
Blanked off the ventilation holes on the sides with acoustic foam
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Fitted a quiet psu and case fan
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Fitted a quiet cpu fan
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Since which it is a lot better. I haven't done anything about the hard drive or standard fit rear case fan and may not bother. With a higher spec pc blanking off the vent holes may be an issue.
Obviously, all my opinions on the noise level are purely subjective.
I am afraid they all look like the computer boxes from the 1990's. A box with slots. I want something just a little up from basic. If I could find n empty case from Tiny's supplier I'd be happy. But at £100 or so I could play with the washing machine drum to see what I can do and be just as happy.
You can also fit a row of rheostats in a spare drive bay. Stepping the fan voltage down from 12v to 5v will give a big reduction in noise, but you've got to monitor internal temperature. This
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is quite good for that.
A couple of years ago I built a PVR, which works brilliantly for serving MP3s and recording stuff off the telly, but after doing everything you've done, plus rheostats and a hard-drive enclosure, it's still a little noisy, which is why I asked about yours.
I fancy building "version 2" soon, but I think I'll go with Mini-ITX - you can get motherboards that support external power bricks, rather than the traditional PC PSUs.
I thought I was being original mooting one of these a year or so back in Extreme Tech forae.
I also suggested using a room cooling fan in a wooden kitchen cabinet/computer case. 'Twil fit in the front of the W/M., so it will.
(I had better get the washing machine project cleaned up.)
Looking at the mods on the site Dave suggested I thought I'd try a couple of cheap cases working in tandem as I am to new to building one to waste the brand new Mobo and cpu.
I have a quiet psu, an ATX 12 P4 with a speed control. That can go in one case with the hard drive, mobo and chip and fit to the underside of the desk. The other case can house the disk drives and sit on the desk top. So I shall be looking for a couple of cheap flatpacks.
By the way, if you want to cut some noise down and you don't have silly kids in the house, take the grids off the fan vents if that is possible. Also you can get a setup that uses a lot of fans working almost silently rather than one big one doing too much.
As for looks, well, I am supposed to be a joiner. I can't imagine making a suitable front piece would be difficult.
It sounds like you want something out of the ordinary but are only prepared to pay mass market prices.
Why not take an ordinary case, remove the side an fromt panels leaving you with the metal chassis with all the correct mounting points for the components. Why not use the whole washing machine? CD drive in place of the powder dispenser? Don't forget to disconnect the water first!
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