Decasing the PC for a cabinet.

[evitagen]

Is there a purpose in decasing the PC for inside of the cabinet, or do people just do it for looks?  My only assumption would be for heat, but my main worry would be dust.

What is the best method of having a PC inside of a cabinet?  Currently mine is literally just sitting inside of the cabinet, case and all.  I would not mind taking everything out of the case and mounting it to a piece of wood and sticking it in the cab, but I just worry about the mobo and everything else being even more exposed to dust.

What do you guys do and why?

[Bluedeath]

It depends on the cab but the deposift of dust is more or less the same, you wiil have a better heat disperion by not using a case

[Ginsu Victim]

Mine seems less dusty than it was in a case, actually. It's not like cases ever stopped dust. My motherboard, hard drives, and power supply are mounted to a piece of wood and sitting in the bottom of the cabinet.

[parag0n]

It depends on the cab but the deposift of dust is more or less the same, you wiil have a better heat disperion by not using a case

Depending on the case, sometimes the opposite can be true!

The fans within a computer case are normally set up to provide efficient airflow, to get rid of heat as fast as possible.

My Slimline Arcade will be using a decased motherboard with everything onboard, but thats because i wont have the space for a full PC case!

[Jack Burton]

A number of reasons to decase:

Cost- If you are buying all your cab parts new then it is less the cost of a case to just mount it to a board or to the inside of the cab.

Looks-  Having a PC case in your cab looks less authentic than a raw motherboard.

Accessibility-  Easier to change out components.

Size- Some cabs don't have room for a full tower case. 

Once you clean out an arcade cab and seal it back up it doesn't get very dusty inside if it's in a clean environment. 

[BobA]

If you are worried about dust settling or coins dropping on your decased computer you can mount it vertically attached to the side wall of a cabinet. 

[Necro]

And it's pretty straightforward mounting it on a board. 

Not sure how in the heck I'm going to mount my hard-drives yet, but #6 bolts seem to fit perfectly through the holes in a motherboard so you can make up an easy mounting system for a few bucks for that.

[Ginsu Victim]

Not sure how in the heck I'm going to mount my hard-drives yet

I mounted mine using two L-brackets.

[Visitor Q]

I left my PC in the case. There is really no reason to take it out other than space. I left mine in the case because it is easier to remove the case for general upkeep than to unscrew boards from blocks of wood or what have you.

[CheffoJeffo]

I always (well, always since my second cabinet) mount mine on boards and attach it to the side of the cabinet, as BobA suggests.

I'm not using high-powered CPUs or GPUs, so it is mainly a matter of convenience for me -- I can pull the rig just as easily as if it were a game board, although I agree with most everything that Jack Burton says, although he is also known to say "Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me ?"

 

[Ginsu Victim]

I left my PC in the case. There is really no reason to take it out other than space. I left mine in the case because it is easier to remove the case for general upkeep than to unscrew boards from blocks of wood or what have you.

My case was 23" in a 23 5/8" wide cabinet, so space was a definite issue. As for unscrewing boards, my motherboard is mounted using the same hardware you'd use to mount it in the case.