PC inside Arcade Cabinet

[Lamaman1971]

Hi Folks, for the longest time Ive been using an old Dell Optiplex PC inside the chasis of my arcade cabinet and, while its ok, its a bit of a pain - not least because of the screwy DELL PSU power on switch and so on. Anyway, I wondered what everyone else does inside these large arcades? Initially I was going to build the PC actually mounting the motherboard and CPU on the inside of the cab itself with the components exposed but - honestly - the DELL was so cheap it wasnt worth the hassle.

Another thought I had was to construct a PC tower mount and attach the whole tower unit to the side of the case (its floating around in the bottom like a lonely turd right now).

Any good ideas or recommendations?

[MartyKong]

I think you'll get a lot of different responses depending what you're trying to run. I built a minitower and use straps to keep it secure. Also am running a small cabinet fan for air flow.

[05SRT4]

I just have a gutted computer mounted on a board.

Every PC mother board has 2 pins for the ON/OFF switch. Just connect that to a arcade button and put it somewhere on the outside. Mine is on the top of my cab.

[meyer980]

I've done it different ways. But the simplest and my preferred way was just a normal Dell computer in it's case, strapped to the floor of the cabinet.

[baritonomarchetto]

My mamecab and racing cab both have a PC mountend in a regular case, with the two lateral panel removed for a better air recirculation. I also removed the front panel, but it's not necessary.
For startup, I activate the "power-on" bios option which let the pc turn on as soon as a current is detected... There's no need for on/off switches or even the hassle to turn the cab on and then the pc...
Obviously the pc is juiced via the cab power switch.

[Zebidee]

I usually use some of those chunky CRT mounting screws (with washers attached), you get them from pulling TVs apart, screw down the case to the floor of the cabinet. An extra right-angle mounting bracket on top of the PC to bolt it to the side. Very sturdy but fairly easy to remove if needed. You can add some rubber or neoprene washers/bushes to reduce vibration.

Power the whole cab from a master-slave power board (connect PC to master, slave outlets only come on after PC is powered on). You can even go and build a relay if you want, but the M/S powerboards are simple and pretty cheap.

In addition to running the main PC power switch to the outside, I usually connect external audio and USB ports. These can be connected up directly to front panel pins on the motherboard.

[romshark]

Depends on the cabinet for me.

In my full-size cab, I have enough space and use a normal cased PC. It did start life as an eMachines from 2009, but I've upgraded everything - case, power supply, processor, memory, drives, video card. The only thing original is the motherboard itself. The cabinet isn't closed on the back, so there's plenty of airflow.

My TMNT cab is about half the size of the "real"" version, and so there's limited space. For this, I put a motherboard on a removable board that just slides in place (the cabinet is designed for standard JAMMA arcade boards.) I then crammed in the support hardware where I can, and gave it a plexiglass lid (it's exposed on the sides though.) I even put some buttons in for power, reset, and some MAME admin controls that I can get to when I open the coin door.

(pic is that computer being setup outside the cabinet.)

[Zebidee]

romshark, I once did a cab like that for a friend, installed the PC directly onto a drawer so that you can easily slide it out for servicing etc. No PC case as such, but like you I also made a lid from a case side panel to keep the dust off. Plexi for the lid is much cooler looking though! I'm going to steal that idea for next time.

[lomoverde]

[/quote]

Can i steal that idea with the plexi cover aswell ?
 With your permission id also like to steal that admin board idea.Could you go into a bit more detail how youve got that set up?
 Sorry if ive gone off topic OP.

Cancel that request romshark,ive just tracked your build thread down and had a read.Very cool

[Howard_Casto]

Myself I like to have a pc case inside the machine to protect the video card and any at-risk components.  I have just put the motherboard in the pcb holder on some conversions before though... it works but I typically only do that if it has an integrated video card. 

[bobbyb13]

I will say from experience with 2 quite different machines thus far that unless you are REALLY limited on space for some reason then leaving the pc in the box is the way to go.

The Optiplex units I have used for both machines have counted on the case itself for mounting the heatsink to the cpu- and it is a royal PITA to get all this pulled out of the case, get the proper locations for the anchor screws for the heat sink assembly and then get everything back in place properly (never mind having to clean and regrease the cpu properly too.)

Howard also wisely points out protection of the components.
Without the frame designed to do so, I found that stabilizing the PCI-E card I run in that cocktail cab took some real finagling.

If you have room otherwise and don't have some personal commitment to de-casing the motherboard then leave it in the original box and call it good.

However, by the time I got to cab #2 I found that if you have some aviation snips and plan it out then you can trim all the fat on an original case and just leave what you need for an arrangement that will obviously keep pretty cool if it is shielded from dust collection and still solidly carry the components you need.

[Zebidee]

Totally echo wisdom of protecting components. Decasing the PC should only be done as needed.

Now that I'm living in a tropical environment near a river, I've become more concerned about both ventilation and pests. In particular those little house geckos that infest every dwelling in South-East Asia. They get into my cab and leave little shits everywhere. Seeing lizard shits on your screen (but under the glass, meaning you have to pull everything off to clean it) pisses me off enough, but one shat across some video card connectors in the PC a couple of months ago and now *poof* my motherboard is dead.

I'd already put bug-mesh (mosquito screen stuff) over all the obvious holes (like for ventilation, fans and audio), but the constantly smiling creeps still get in through gaps for the wheels at the back (too hard to cover those).

So anyway I'm rebuilding a new PC for the arcade now - and this time I'm going to close any gaps in the PC case with bug-mesh. I'll have to clean dust out more often but it will be totally worth it.

[knightrdrx]

i have a regular sized tower inside a recroommasters one.  i had to turn it diagonally to fit.  it is loaded with usb plugs! a little messy but it works....my led controllers have to remain out of the tankstick due to space...they will collect dust but i will blow them off everynow and then. i don't think it is safe to put a cover over them as they conduct heat?

[MKFan4Life]

My MAME cabinet is a partially rebuilt old bowling arcade cabinet. I have a slot opened on the bottom just behind the front kick panel to allow cooler air to enter at a low point, since all the heat the electronics create will rise up to the top of the cabinet. I still need to open a vent on top to let the heat escape, but right now, it escapes where the marquee is located, as I'm ordering a custom one that isn't installed yet.

I built a custom pc with various parts and attached the motherboard, power supply, and hard drive to the top of a piece of plywood that is mounted flat about 4 inches off the floor of the cabinet and about dead center of the cabinet (from front to back). A DVD drive is mounted to the bottom of the piece of plywood (in case I ever need to access disc media, for pc games, etc.). I just like the cool look of an opened up system, since I built/rebuilt a ton of the cab from scratch.

The mounting of the motherboard and drives was very easy. I just used pcb mounting feet that I attached to the motherboard and marked their locations and predrilled for the screws. I used older drive rail brackets and I think L-brackets attached to the drives to mark for screws driven into the plywood. I also managed to use old drive rail brackets to "lock" all the adapter card mounting brackets together with various screws/nuts so they are all very stable in the slots. (ArcadeVGA, SB Live, wireless card)

The power supply was the toughest, as I didn't want to use the smallish screws generally connecting power supplies to cases. This would also require a big hole made in the plywood to facilitate airflow & vertical mounting in my situation, since the fan is on the side where the normal mounting screws go. I chose to open up the supply, drill 2 holes through the bottom of the casing on opposite corners, and drive screws through the holes directly into the plywood (pre-drilling first). Then I reassembled the supply. It's extremely solid, but I admit, you have to disassemble it all if you want to replace the power supply in the future.

I decased the Left/Right speakers from a Labtec 2.1 pc system and mounted those right above the monitor in the wooden panel below the marquee. I relocated the built in volume pot from one of those speakers to the inside of the control panel for easy volume control. (I leave the volume adjusted about midway in Windows.) The subwoofer was mounted in the bottom of the cabinet in front of the pc guts using angle brackets. (I didn't decase it, since it sounds great in the factory enclosure.)

I used a standard surge strip with a long cord (ran out the back of cabinet) to supply power to EVERYTHING in the cabinet. I did hack it slightly, by opening it and tapping into the connections where the On/Off switch is. I drilled 2 small holes side-by-side into the plastic of it (making them into one hole roughly the shape of an infinity symbol), allowing me to easily pass the wires from a sacrificed AC extension cord up to the original heavy-duty AC switch at the top of the cabinet. So then the switch on the strip and the top of the cabinet are now in series. I leave the strip's switch on all the time, and turn on the cabinet from the top switch.

This is handy if you're doing monitor work or etc. at the back and need to quickly kill power, as you can flip the switch off on the strip. Like others have posted, I set up the computer's BIOS to power the pc on after a power interruption. This makes the pc boot immediately when you apply AC power. I have the OS (Windows XP) set to boot right into the frontend, and it's set to automatically shutdown the pc after exiting the frontend.

I need to figure out a more elegant solution when I power off, as you must wait for the OS to completely shutdown the pc before turning off the main AC switch on the cabinet, or the monitor, marquee light, 2.1 speakers, and power strip remain hot. (Those Smart Strips, mentioned in this thread I think, could monitor the pc current draw and kill power to the other components once the pc shuts down.)

 

[Zebidee]

Yeah, I mentioned the smart strips (or master/slave power boards as I called them).

One thing about those "smart strips": I had one installed in my cab in Australia and it all worked fine and "as advertised" (I have PC set to power-up when AC power is applied, and then the smart-strip powers everything else up). Then I moved to Thailand and brought my cab with me - no problems, thought I, as both countries use 220~240v AC mains power.

Now, the smart-strip mostly works the same in Thailand as it did in Australia, but occasionally the cab tries to boot itself up for no apparent reason if left plugged in. It rarely succeeds, but for a moment I see the CRT TV degaussing itself as it tries to start, and then gives up. Occasionally I've come downstairs in the morning to find the cab full-on, but that is rare. I assume this is because the mains load power supply in this part of Thailand is less well-regulated than the mains power in Australia, causing there to be occasional peaks and troughs in the power available - large enough to cause the PC to think about starting up anyway.

Anyway, no harm done and I just try to make sure to unplug the cab when it is not in use. However, it is a good reminder that smart-strips are not surge-guards so it might be a good idea to invest in one of those as well if it concerns you.