kwchan

Hi all,

I plan to custom made an acrylic casing to show off the miniITX board, and I found a suitable acrylic container in local store at less than US$1.50

the container is around 18 x 18 x 7cm, just nice for the miniITX board.

Is it advisable to arrange the component this way?

________________
|__motherboard__|
|---HDD---PSU---|

Basically a 2.5/3.5" HDD and a DSATX will be at the bottom of the container, with the motherboard placed on top with proper insulation. Will the heat trapped below the motherboard be too excessive?

My worry is that the acrylic is rather thin, around 2mm thick only, is it too weak to absorb the vibration?

Dennis5587

I'd put some vent's if not a fan to be safe

| motherboard |
= HDD PSU =

the = being a vent

__________________

guizai

I also wouldn't put the motherboard upside down. It will trap heat in there.

kwchan

It is not really upside down, take a look at the photo...

kwchan

If I bought a M2 instead of DSATX, I will be able to squeeze a 3.5" drive

now i still short of a PCI riser card, can't seems to find this in Singapore

kwchan

Another way is to use a separate box just for the 3.5" and DSATX, I recycle the box for Ferrero Rocher, however, the material is rather filmsy...the thickness is about 1mm only. I will trim away the excess space and fit a few 40mm fans for cooling

Profozone

That's actually pretty awesome. Cheap yet effective. If I were you, I would glue some plastic supports inside to stiffen it up and then I'd put some holes in the case to allow air flow.

There is a chance that the plastic won't hold up very well in the kind of heat you get in Singapore inside car, but hey, what do you have to lose? If it fails you can always find a new case.

Looks cool too.

Good luck.

kwchan

I wonder how much heat the Pentium M-1.7Ghz and Audigy can produce, will some holes be sufficient? I am thinking of adding 1 or 2 x 40mm fans

kazzxtrismus

dont forget grounding.
if thid thing gets a good static charge all our stuff will be scrap.
ground anything meant to be screwed to metal.
run a ground wire from the HDD monting screw/s that are ground points etc etc

Profozone

Fans are an excellent idea. They work best if you can put them on opposite sides of the box, one pushing and the other one pulling the air across the board. The sides would be best so that the air flows across the board from side to side instead of top to bottom.

Even if the components don't produce much heat you need air holes because the heat will essentially accumulate with nowhere to go. The more the better, but of course, you don't want the box to fall apart.

Good luck.

kwchan

thanks for the tips....how am i suppose the ground the motherboard?