Dismantling a PC for mame

[ssjenkins]

Hi All,

 I haven't got a great deal of space to mount a PC inside my arcade cabinet . I was thinking of basically removing the motherboard , PSU and hard drive and fitting them as "seperate" units within my cabinet . Before I go ahead and do it I was wondering if they'll be any electrical issues that I'll need to watch . I mean I won't have the PC chasis or any metal frame installed and I'm wondering if that will affect the motherboard or PSU in any way .

Sammy

[mahuti]

It hasn't affected me. I've been doing it this way for about 2 years. You can check out the link in my sig. I personally like it better... after all, the arcade machine is basically a giant PC case.

[ssjenkins]

Thanks mahuti . I presume lots of people do it that way . It's funny , it just occurred to me yesterday while I was busily drilling holes in the PC casing . Anyway , this sounds like fun so I'll give it a go and see what happens .

Thanks again for the quick reply

Sammy

[markb]

Just ensure that when you put the motherboard in there is no potential for it to be grounded on anything and also depending on the layout that you put in some sort of cooling like a couple of case fans to get some airflow over the top of the processor as I have found that they can over heat very quickly especially in a confined space.

[ssjenkins]

Thanks for that markb . I'll makre sure the fans are where they're supposed to be .

Sammy

[BobA]

I like my computer to be bare since I am usually building a small unit where a computer case will not fit.

A couple of things to look out for.

1.  Do not mount directly to wood or mdf.  Instead use some nylon spacers from home depot to allow the mb to have air  space beneath it.  This prevents cracking a trace and assists in cooling. 1/4 inch is great.

2.  You will loose any RFI sheilding that was built into the case. This does not usually cause any problems but should be considered it your hifi now picks up computer noise.

3.  If you have boards in the slots try to build a support of some sort to help keep them secure. 

Hope that helps

BobA

[NoOne=NBA=]

You may want to make sure your motherboard doesn't have an open-case shutdown on it.
If it does, you can bypass it.

I've seen a couple "I put my computer in the cabinet, and now it doesn't work" posts that were related to this, so it's something to be aware of, at least.