Leave pc in case or take it out?

[BORIStheBLADE]

So do you guts take the pc components out and mount them in the cab or do you guys just throw the pc case in the cab and call it good?
I'm either going to mount all the pc components on a piece of wood or just leave everything in the case. I'm trying to figure out whats the best option for this.

Thanks

[Optics]

Er I'm not sure why exactly you'd even want to take out your motherboard and mount it to a piece of wood?  Towers are designed for the specific purpose of holding and maintaing your computer, so I strongly do not advise you start duck taping them to wood. (I was of course making a joke with the duck tape.)   Aside from that it's probably not a good idea, it offers no real advantages.  In fact, I can think of a major disadvantage to doing that - it becomes that much harder to maintain - with a case you can simply pull it out.  So why create more difficulty for yourself for no reward?  I recommend you just cut a little hole for ventilation in the back of your cabinet, stick the CPU in on a shelf in front of that hole, and you're set.  The point of the arcade machine after all is the outside, not the inside.

[Daniel B.]

I plan to leave mine in the case for ease of removal should the worse occur, but I think some guys take them out to make it look like a real machine.

[whammoed]

If you have the room, leave it in the case.  If you don't have room, like in a cocktail for instance, mounting it without a case is fine.

[kelemvor]

If you're using a PC that's already built and in the case, leave it in the case.  Just strap it down so it doesn't move around if you move the cab.  However if you are buying parts from scratch, you could save the money and just mount things to the wall.

I'm just putting the case in since then if I ever need to move it for any reason, I just take it out and go.

[ChadTower]

Not sure why you'd leave it in the case.  Authentic older cabs are mostly all bare PCBs in the cab.  It's perfectly safe to screw them to the wood with some proper standoffs.

[draginit]

not to mention money saved on a useless case. i build all my creations (jukeboxs/MAMEs) without case and just order CPU parts.  -and gives you more freedom to design your overall layout.   ....and to impress your friends with the "techie" look too of course 

[Jack Burton]

I put mine in as a skeleton without with a side door or front panel for the case.  Keeps it in the open air and well ventilated bu still easy to take out. 

[whammoed]

Not sure why you'd leave it in the case.  Authentic older cabs are mostly all bare PCBs in the cab.  It's perfectly safe to screw them to the wood with some proper standoffs.

One bad thing about no case is that any cards (video, sound, usb etc) are kinda floppy/unsupported unless you build a bracket for them to screw down to.  It's less trouble to use a case especially if you already have the computer in there than it is to  mount everything yourself.
I am using a case for the jukebox I am building to take advantage of the EMI/RFI shielding that the metal case provides.
I agree that it does look more impressive bare mounted when you let someone peak in there though.  Makes it harder for the average person to grasp that it's a PC in there running all the games.

[BORIStheBLADE]

I have it in a case already. I was thinking the same as most of you and just leave it in there for simplisity. I just have seen alot of pictures of bare PC hardware in a cabinet.

[bigh4th]

Had to de-case mine since I had to shove it in a cocktail.  If you have the room, I strongly suggest leaving it in the case, if for no other reason than to cut down on the PITA factor.

The biggest problem I had was making a bracket for my video card.  Its in a position that any easy bracket would block access to the audio ports.  So I wound up making a "Z" shapped bracket to secure the card.  It works, but its not pretty.

Another issue is wires that are not long enough to reach their sockets on the motherboard.  I was lucky enough to not have that problem, but it was close.

-Harry

[Jdurg]

Keep in mind that the cooling devices for compuuters were designed with having the computer in a case in mind.  The airflow over the motherboard chipset and the CPU fan was expected to occur within the case, so cooling "could" become an issue.  (Though if your cabinet is open enough I don't see any issues occurring).

[ChadTower]

One bad thing about no case is that any cards (video, sound, usb etc) are kinda floppy/unsupported unless you build a bracket for them to screw down to.

Last time I did that I just put a little strip of wood where it would be screwing into the case and screwed into that.  Took a couple of minutes and gave pretty good support.

[DaOld Man]

On my first build, I just mounted the motherboard to a MDF square. But then I had to tear up an old case to get the bracket to hold hard drive, floppy and cd rom, then I had to rig a way to fasten down the power supply.
It was a lot of extra work.
My next three builds had the computer in the case.
IMHO, if you have the room, use the case... (But to each, his own..)

[divemaster127]

I prefer to use the case
dm

[SirPeale]

It depends on the setup, but using a case is more than acceptable.

If your motherboard is all-in-one, then it's not a bad thing to screw it to the side of the cabinet.  With stand-offs, of course.  I've done that with two of my cabinets.

Most real cabs that use PCs (Big Buck Hunter Pro, Star Trek Voyager, Fast & The Furious) have a wooden bracket that goes over the case, then that gets screwed down so the computer won't slide around inside the cabinet.

I'd show a picture, but it's very hard to find a picture of the inside of a recent production cabinet (or many cabs for that matter).

[DaOld Man]

You mean like this?
(This is how I fastened the PC on The Rage)

[taz-nz]

Keep in mind that the cooling devices for computers were designed with having the computer in a case in mind.  The airflow over the motherboard chipset and the CPU fan was expected to occur within the case, so cooling "could" become an issue.  (Though if your cabinet is open enough I don't see any issues occurring).

This is only true of a small percentage of brand man SFF cases, where the motherboard and heatsink design are laid out with a compact case in mind. Your standard ATX/mATX motherboard is design only with stock heatink fans in mind, where airflow for the CPU fan pushes out across nearby components, the rest of the motherboard is basically left to fend for itself.

Now you average ATX/mATX case has rubbish airflow (including those with 2 dozen fans pointed in random directions) leaving the PC in the case only acts to reduce the effective air volume around the hot parts of the PC, thus the air gets hotter and thus cools the PC less, placing the Case in a cabinet only make things worse as this again acts to reduces the effective volume of air around the heatsink etc.

For example if you have a room temperature of 25 deg C, the heat of the PC arcade monitor, cabinet lighting may bring the temperature in the cabinet up to say 5 Deg above room temperature to 30 Deg C, now the case is now sitting in 30 Deg temperatures so the air inside the case is say another 5 Degs hotter, thus you heatsink fan is now cooling the PC with 35 Deg C air, so your CPU runs at say 50 Degs C. now take the PC out of the Case and put it on a table next to the cabinet in the open air of the room, the room temp may go a up a deg or two after a few hours if all the doors & windows are closed but the CPU is now being cooled with 27 Deg C air so it runs at say 40 Deg C.

Just mounting the PC in the cabinet without a case is going to make it run cooler, vent the Cabinet well top and bottom so hot air can escape at the top and draw cool air in at the bottom, mount the PC as low as possibly away from any heat from the monitor etc, and it will run a lot cooler and for a lot longer than if it's stuffed in a case inside your cabinet. Now of course your PC hardware will effect how much this matters, old HOT running socket-A Athlons & 775 Pentium 4s are going to run a lot hotter than your average Athlon 64 or Core 2 Duo. If your overclocking you might want to duct cool air from outside the cabinet directly onto your heatsink fan.

Note: Heatsinks that use heat pipes often work best when the motherboard is laid flat rather than being vertical.

I am using a case for the jukebox I am building to take advantage of the EMI/RFI shielding that the metal case provides.

Whammoed make a good point on this one the one technical advantage of leaving the PC in the case is that the case acts as a EMI/RFI sheld, protecting both your PC from the outside world and other electronics from your PC. I would be tempted to place a grounded metal shield on the underside of the monitor shelf to protect the PC for any interference from the monitor.

[SirPeale]

You mean like this?
(This is how I fastened the PC on The Rage)

Close enough for government work.

[DaOld Man]

 

[WaRpEd]

If you choose to uncase the PC defenititly mount on a seperate board for ease of removal this will make mounting fans, hard drive etc. easier and quicker.
I've run 1 without the case and 4 with. As long as you have good air flow you shouldn't have problems.
Cheers

[leapinlew]

Not sure why you'd leave it in the case.  Authentic older cabs are mostly all bare PCBs in the cab.  It's perfectly safe to screw them to the wood with some proper standoffs.

Heres some reasons:

• It's easier to install
• It's safer and protected in the event you drop a screw, tool or etc. Nothing will land on the mobo and cause damage
• It's easier to remove when you need to troubleshoot

I always keep it in the case as long as I have the room. I've mounted plenty of computers without cases when space was limited (bartops/cocktails).

If we were going for authenticity - we wouldn't even be talking about PC's. Lots of the cabinets I've seen had their PCB's mounted in a cage of some sort - so it's not unusual to have them in some sort of case.

[Paul Olson]

I just mounted mine to a piece of plywood that I hang on the inside wall of the cab. The power supply is mounted in the back of the cab where the original was. I set my drives on the floor of the cab so all I have to do to remove the whole setup is unplug some cords, pick up the drives and grab the piece of plywood off of the wall. I used to have a case in there, but it was a pain to try to get out of the cab; this has worked much better for me.