Where is your motherboard?

[DennisInMN]

Hi,
I am new to this scene and have been trying to figure out what the best way is to store the motherboard and PCI cards.  I have seen some people that just slide the entire case in the cab and others that have mounted the motherboard right in the cab.  If attempting the later, how does one secure the top of the PCI cards or is that not a concern?  I have not seen anything on securing the cards.

Anyway, let us know how you have done it and the pros and cons of either method.

Thanks.

[Sasquatch!]

My PC is intact in its case inside the cabinet.  It just makes the most sense to me.  What if you want to upgrade the motherboard or just use a different computer?  If it's mounted to the cabinet, it's going to be a much bigger pain in the arse.

Plus, staging the computer (installing the OS, installing and configuring MAME, etc.) is so much easier when it's in a case sitting on my desk hooked up to a regular monitor/mouse/keyboard.

I guess I just don't see the trade-off in the hassle of mounting the components to the cabinet versus the benefits gained by doing so.

[Apollo]

Yep same here. Mine is in it's case in my cab. The main reason is ease of upgrading and the fact that dust and sawdust could get on to the motherboard if it was decased, not a good thing.

[TheGatesofBill]

If this deal works out, it will be caseless, because shipping is cheaper that way. I'd probably take it out of its case anyways though.

[Trenchbroom]

If I could afford to buy a decent spec mini-itx board I wouldn't hesitate to put it in my cocktail cabinet.  But for now, the old motherboard rests in a case.

[Grauwulf]

Mine will me mounted in the cab, but it's going to be mounted with a modified partial pc case so I have some way of securing the video and sound cards from moving around.

[Buddabing]

Hi,
I am new to this scene and have been trying to figure out what the best way is to store the motherboard and PCI cards.  I have seen some people that just slide the entire case in the cab and others that have mounted the motherboard right in the cab.  If attempting the later, how does one secure the top of the PCI cards or is that not a concern?  I have not seen anything on securing the cards.

Anyway, let us know how you have done it and the pros and cons of either method.

Thanks.

Hi Dennis,
There are several issues with decasing your motherboard.

1) Where to put the power supply
2) How to turn the thing on
3) Some motherboards require grounding
4) Where to mount motherboard
5) Security of daughter cards
6) Dust and other contaminates

The only pluses that I can see are that it saves some space and you can use the case for other purposes. But a cheap case with power supply is not expensive.
And, as you can see above, there are many negatives to decasing your motherboard.

In some applications, such as compute clusters or folding farms, space is at a premium, but in a MAME cabinet there usually is enough space to squeeze in a case.

I would recommend against decasing your motherboard.

[Mr. Dude]

I was going to mount mine inside the cabinet but I decided to keep it in the PC case.  That way if it ever dies I can just replace the PC and I figure that's a lot easier than unscrewing and unmounting drives and boards that are fixed on my cabinet.  

[Tilzs]

On my cocktail I mounted mine on a drawer that I can slide in or out. Or I could take the entire drawer out if I wanted.

[exian]

What a great idea putting a draw in your cocktail cabinet...

I'm currently building an upright cabinet and will be mounting my components out of the case, but will be using the motherboard and daughter board mounting panel out of an old AOPEN case to secure them properly into the cabinet.

I did toy with the idea of putting the case in the cabinet but this is going to be dedicated to the task of being an Arcade Machine and maybe moved around a fair amount, so having a free moving PC case is just asking for trouble unless you secure that down and if you do that you might aswell just mount the components...

Thats my 2 cents worth....

[Minwah]

I have mine mounted on a removable board which just slides out of the cabs front door.  If I had any drives (other than hard drive) then I would have considered using a case, but with just HDD I don't see the point in using a case.

I would agree that permanently mounting a motherboard to the cab could be a bad idea, if you ever have to do any maintenance.  Other than that I can't see any real disadvantages of not using a case.

Not a biggie but having the PC de-cased makes the internals of the cab look more authentic in a way too

[patrickl]

What about the nois of the fans when you mount the board and powersupply to the cab? I was thinking that you might be able to hear the noise more if they were directly mounted to the cab as opposed to in a case inside the cab.

[Brad Lee]

My original placement for the motherboard was here:

This was perfect, EASY access from the coin door. *BUT* it was a much smaller space and even with a 120cm fan blowing out it would overheat and lockup. This was a p3-750mhz

So I moved it to the back:

It looks precariously balanced but this was a pretty early test run.
The drives are now mounted in a drive cage(salvaged from an old PC), the powersupply is secured, and the cat is gone. Ive since upgraded to a p4-1.6ghz, and even with only the stock fan it hasnt overheated once, much larger area and what not

One of my other old cases at work had a removable momo tray that was L-shaped with the pci slots(not JUST the flat piece for a mobo) so I'll be attaching the board to that like it's supposed to be, and that should be much easier to mount and be removable.

I think if I were to build from scratch I would prbably make sure to leave enough room for a case, with a door or something that could easily slide it out. Ive got my sub located in the bottom of the back of the cabinet(the black box under the drive in pic 2) so the only case that would fit would be like a mini Shuttle.

[rchadd]

On my cocktail I mounted mine on a drawer that I can slide in or out. Or I could take the entire drawer out if I wanted.

hey thats a really cool idea...to be added to my list of features!

[patrickl]

... the powersupply is secured, and the cat is gone ...

It's amazing how many cabs have a cat in them  

[Brad Lee]

No kidding.. Funny thing is I didnt even realize she was sitting there until I pulled the pics off the camera. Crept in through the coin door and was just hanging out.

[Minwah]

What about the nois of the fans when you mount the board and powersupply to the cab? I was thinking that you might be able to hear the noise more if they were directly mounted to the cab as opposed to in a case inside the cab.

Possibly, I have a Zalman noiseless PSU for my cab tho  

Here's a pic:

[Santoro]

I think that having the Mobo firmly attached to the cab has two major benefits:

1) when moving the cab, you don't have to remove or secure the PC
2) you don't have to deal with noisy case fans.

And since we are sharing pics,

[patrickl]

I think that having the Mobo firmly attached to the cab has two major benefits:

1) when moving the cab, you don't have to remove or secure the PC
2) you don't have to deal with noisy case fans.

Wouldn't you worry the cards might fall out if you move the cab? Or did you fasten those somehow?

I'm also afraid that 2) doesn't apply to modern PC's. With a "P2 age" (maybe even P3) system you might get away with that, but you'll at least need a case fan to cool a modern harddisk and I'll bet basically every major component in the PC. Convection isn't gonna cut it with the newer PC's. Of course you don't need a modern PC for mame (alone), but if you do then I'd guess you'd need to cool it with a fan.

The vote is amazingly level BTW. Has been close to fifty fifty all the time.

[Minwah]

I'm also afraid that 2) doesn't apply to modern PC's. With a "P2 age" (maybe even P3) system you might get away with that, but you'll at least need a case fan to cool a modern harddisk and I'll bet basically every major component in the PC. Convection isn't gonna cut it with the newer PC's. Of course you don't need a modern PC for mame (alone), but if you do then I'd guess you'd need to cool it with a fan.

True, I have a case fan attached to the rear of my PC board.

The vote is amazingly level BTW. Has been close to fifty fifty all the time.

I guess this is one of those things where each way has it's own advantages & disadvantages...

[Santoro]

Wouldn't you worry the cards might fall out if you move the cab? Or did you fasten those somehow?

I suppose that is a risk.  Not hard to fix though.  

I'm also afraid that 2) doesn't apply to modern PC's. With a "P2 age" (maybe even P3) system you might get away with that, but you'll at least need a case fan to cool a modern harddisk and I'll bet basically every major component in the PC. Convection isn't gonna cut it with the newer PC's.

I am running a P3, hard disk, CD without any fans.  I just have lots of top and back ventilation.  It seems to me that with a full-sized, ventilated cabinet, there is not much chance of overheating.  Not scientifically, but just intuitively I would think that more heat equals faster convection, equals more heat moved out of the cab.

Certainly I would love to hear from anyone who has had issues though.

[Minwah]

I am running a P3, hard disk, CD without any fans.  I just have lots of top and back ventilation.  It seems to me that with a full-sized, ventilated cabinet, there is not much chance of overheating.  Not scientifically, but just intuitively I would think that more heat equals faster convection, equals more heat moved out of the cab.

Certainly I would love to hear from anyone who has had issues though.

I can't say I have *had* issues, but I certainly wouldn't run a top end AMD with no fan - they require a LOT of cooling...

[Tilzs]

I just have 1 vent fan running on my cocktail. I originally had 2 but the 2nd one was very noisy so i disabled it and haven't gotten around to replaceing it. The biggest problem that I have had with heat has been a result of the monitor when it's on and not the computer.  I haven't run the monitor for days but it does get noticably warmer inside the cab when the monitor is on.

I haven't had any gliches as a result of the system overheating and I'm not really worried about it either.

[Santoro]

Let me clarify - I have a CPU fan, just no case fan.

Just in case anyone thought I was that crazy.

[Minwah]

Let me clarify - I have a CPU fan, just no case fan.

Just in case anyone thought I was that crazy.

Heh, just as well  

[patrickl]

Wouldn't you worry the cards might fall out if you move the cab? Or did you fasten those somehow?

I suppose that is a risk.  Not hard to fix though.  

I'm also afraid that 2) doesn't apply to modern PC's. With a "P2 age" (maybe even P3) system you might get away with that, but you'll at least need a case fan to cool a modern harddisk and I'll bet basically every major component in the PC. Convection isn't gonna cut it with the newer PC's.

I am running a P3, hard disk, CD without any fans.  I just have lots of top and back ventilation.  It seems to me that with a full-sized, ventilated cabinet, there is not much chance of overheating.  Not scientifically, but just intuitively I would think that more heat equals faster convection, equals more heat moved out of the cab.

Certainly I would love to hear from anyone who has had issues though.

Well, I have had issues with that. High speed harddisks run way too hot if you don't cool em. Hell, even if you put them in an open case they run too hot. They won't fail immediately but they'll die a lot faster than when properly cooled. When they are in a case they will lose their heat through the metal and they will be cooled by the airflow through the case. When you put them in open space they will heat up really quickly. I have had disks run so hot you couldn't pick them up (well you could, but then it hurts)

You will get more convection when something runs hotter, but not enough to keep it at the same temperature. I'm afraid the notion is flawed somewhere ... try "convection cooling" your soldering iron   (or your microprocessor)

:edit: BTW I have a PC with a P3 (about 1 Ghz I think) that has NO cooling fan. Just goes to show everything is relative. The case does have an ingeneous airflow design though (the power supply fan basically draws the air though the case with ducts).

[paigeoliver]

For those worried about fan noise, don't, that IS AUTHENTIC.

Currently both of my working dedicated games (Do! Run Run and Roadblasters) BOTH have factory fans. As does my Star Wars (more than one actually), and my Turbo. My Out Run had one too.

[microwrx]

Mine's in a PC case chassis (no side or front panels just the frame) just because it was easier.  I wouldn't hesitate to mount the components themselves inside the cab but I just found it easier this way.