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Your MAME computer: Clothed or Naked?
ArtsNFartsNCrafts:
Just curious! And of course, if you can explain your answer/reasoning, that's welcomed.
My polls seem to generate quite a bit of commotion. let's see how rowdy this one can get?!
TelcoLou:
I abstain from voting ;)
I think I'm going to keep it in the case, but remove the side panel. This way, everything is nice and secure, but breathable.
Turnarcades:
Not a huge issue as long as the cabinet itself has good ventilation, as the casing fans should take care of cooling. However, depending on the design necessities of your cabinet it may require de-shelling. If you have many loose cables in there though or potential falling items, a de-shelled PC has no protection.
SavannahLion:
Depends on the cab and what motherboard you're using I guess.
If I was using an older motherboard with lower end components, I might opt to leave the case off. Same goes for if I have space constraints. The stupid Z's I got would be a good one. The Z's have no access to the lower compartment without cutting holes in the back.
If I was experiencing EMF problems, the board goes into a case. Or some sort of cage. EMF problems tend to be a pain in the ass to figure out. Haven't constructed/modified enough cabs to know if EMF interference is a big issue or not.
Boards that require cooling for the secondary chips and employ passive cooling (as opposed to fans or otherwise) for those chips would go in the case to ensure reliability and prevent overheating. I can't afford to drop current high end boards just to play MAME so I haven't done anything of the sort yet.
If the design of the cab seems to indicate that a person might drop something sharp or rather heavy onto the boards, probably a good idea to put it in a case. Better a cheap $40 case get dented than lose a bunch of tiny components or a smash a hard drive to a dropped arcade part.
edit samshaw946 beat me to it.
Fozzy The Bear:
There's actually good reason to keep it in the case. Good PC cases are designed not just to house the components but to actually create the correct air flow around the components. Without the case most of the fans are not pulling and pushing air in the right places to create the correct cooling flow.
A good case is actually better than no case at all. However, that said a cheap PC case is not always designed well enough to do that job properly. So it could be argued that no case is better than a cheap case, and a good case is actually the best solution.
Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
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