Mounting computer components

[D5A1AC]

Hi all, I'm a long time viewer of this site, first time poster. I have made myself a cocktail cabinet and I am waiting for my buttons, joysticks and ipac to arrive. While I wait, I would like to mount all the components of my arcade pc inside the cabinet. It would be easy to glue some blocks on the side of the cabinet and screw the motherboard in, but what I am worried about is the pci cards (namely a geforce 2 and ethernet card). How would I go about securing those because I cant just leave them hanging in the air. If anyone has any tips on mounting them or any other hardware (psu, hdds, opticals etc) please share your wisdom  If this Issue has been addressed before I'm sorry, please just provide the link to it.

Thanks for your help

From Mike.

[SOAPboy]

honestly, those cards are really light.. shouldnt have to worry to much unless your going to constantly be tripping over the ethernet cord..

or just glue another BIG block of wood on that side of the motherboard and screw them down.. no biggy

[paigeoliver]

You can also start with a complete PC case and chop it up until it is just the mobo plate and the back plate.

[SteveJ34]

You can also start with a complete PC case and chop it up until it is just the mobo plate and the back plate.

Yep....this is where an old case, handy dandy dremel and a couple of cutting wheels comes in handy.

Let the sparks fly...

[D5A1AC]

Wow what a fast reply! Thanks - I was considering making some sort of block to drill the cards onto. I was worried that the thick monitor cable would snap the graphics card or a card would evetually come loose. I had also considered the "hack the cr*p out of a case until youve got the bare minimum"option but I dont like to ruin things hehe. I suppose If the blocks dont work, ill try to find a banged up case on the side of the road and keep the original one intact.

By the way, I've just made a quick site about my cabinet if you'd like to see it?
you can go to www.mikesarcade.tk but tk seems to be acting odd, so if that doesnt work you can try http://www.freewebs.com/minifileserver/mamesite/index.htm

[bishmasterb]

You can also start with a complete PC case and chop it up until it is just the mobo plate and the back plate.

That's what I've done before and it has worked out well. The motherboard plate (part of the case that the mobo attaches to) is typically held in place by rivets that can be separated cleanly from the rest of the case.

[whammoed]

I just bent some aluminum flat bar to hold the cards:

[cholin]

Just go get a small, thin piece of wood (1x1?) and stand it straight up beside your card's screw holes.  Pre drill the holes and screw your cards into them just as if you were mounting it in a computer case.

[Flack]

My MAME Cabinet has a PC motherboard mounted to the side and has three cards plugged into it (video card, NIC, and sound card). It's been like that for a year or so and I've never had a problem.

[ArcadeMaze]

Yep, I took the case and dremelled away most of it, but left part of the rear of the case to support the power supply and the cards.

[D5A1AC]

Okay, I think I'll take a closer look at the case (It looked like the mobo plate and backplate would separate from the rest fairly easily), and If I can get it out without too much damage I'll try using the backplate and mobo tray. I can always just pop rivet it back in if it doesn't work. I think ill go with that idea rather than the wooden blocks because it should make it a little easier if I were to put another pci card in. I was thinking of a wifi card and then I could set it up on our network and have a nice media centre pc too 

Thanks everyone