Caseless motherboard question

[allen200]

hi

ill be winging it without a case for a while, and wondering if it's safe to operate the mobo on a cardboard surface for long periods of time. or would another surface be better. anyone with experience doing this?

 

[Gillbot]

It'll be fine:

 

[allen200]

It'll be fine:

haha nice. would a screw driver damage the power connector after repeated use?

 

[Gillbot]

haha nice. would a screw driver damage the power connector after repeated use?

It can, but i'm going to assume you mean using a screw driver on the pins to turn it on?

Your best option is just to get a switch and use it. All it is for ATX is a momentary push button, or you can get this: http://www.xoxide.com/hspc-atx-control-kit.html

 

[Anteaus]

hi

ill be winging it without a case for a while, and wondering if it's safe to operate the mobo on a cardboard surface for long periods of time. or would another surface be better. anyone with experience doing this?

If you can get a hold of some motherboard standoffs that come with cases, you can screw them on and it will at least isolate the motherboard in the event that your cardboard absorbs moisture. Ideally, a removable motherboard tray from an old case would work well.

What is keeping you from a case? You can buy a decent case for 30-40 dollars.

 

[cyrusfox]

Awesome Ideas here. I was planning on just building a custom case with some standoff screws and some material I'll cut and glue together. It is ridiculous how much they charge for mini-itx cases. It's cheaper just to grab a standard ATX case with a crappy PSU than to find a nice small mini-itx case with zero frills.

 

[pitz]

hi

ill be winging it without a case for a while, and wondering if it's safe to operate the mobo on a cardboard surface for long periods of time. or would another surface be better. anyone with experience doing this?

Cardboard is flammible, and certainly, components can get hot. Plus having cardboard right next to a motherboard actually insulates components mounted on the backside of some boards such as VREGs.

Plus there's issues of EMI compliance.

Hardware, while it might be cheap, isn't free, so moral of the story is, put it in a case or proper purpose-built enclosure. Cardboard isn't acceptable by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[Auric]

Perhaps there are local recyclers (or craigslist as last resort) for a freebee which can modified (with tin snips and/or hacksaw and a drill for rivets). That way you get the mounting board with backplate, switches, and so on. A removable tray would certainly be ideal but less likely to be found.

Another idea is to use plastic cutting board(s) since cheap (dollar store) and easy to work with, however they could pose a static electricity problem even with stand-offs but maybe could be shielded with heavy aluminum foil?

 

[cyrusfox]

Cardboard is flammible, and certainly, components can get hot. Plus having cardboard right next to a motherboard actually insulates components mounted on the backside of some boards such as VREGs.

Plus there's issues of EMI compliance.

Hardware, while it might be cheap, isn't free, so moral of the story is, put it in a case or proper purpose-built enclosure. Cardboard isn't acceptable by any stretch of the imagination.

Cardboard's fire point is 258°C, Flash Point is 427°C. If the cardboard burns, it's not due to electrical components getting hot! Some possible causes for temperatures in excess of those would be the PSU blowing up on you or mis-wiring the SPDIF connector(Both have happened to me) or in fact misconnecting any ground wire to a power source(whoops!). As a temporary fix or even long term it will work just fine. The main thing is that cardboard is non conductive and the components are isolated.

EMI compliance, look, the case does little to nothing to shield any interference, that is already handled in depth by PSU manufacture, and each individual components respective manufacturer. The metal box does little to insulate that and the interference generated is far less than any piece of electronics manufactured 10 years ago. This really is a non-issue which deserves no discussion.

I do agree with your last point, stuff happens and you would hate to ruin a new set-up from something stupid like spilling a drink or dropping a tool on your naked hardware. It would be a good idea to go to a second hand store and grab a computer and hust mod the inside so it suits your purposes. But as a temporary or a custom design experiement, Cardboard will work splendidly.

 

[cyrusfox]

Perhaps there are local recyclers (or craigslist as last resort) for a freebee which can modified (with tin snips and/or hacksaw and a drill for rivets). That way you get the mounting board with backplate, switches, and so on. A removable tray would certinaly be ideal but less likely to be found.

Another idea is to use plastic cutting board(s) since cheap (dollar store) and easy to work with, however they could pose a static electricity problem even with stand-offs but maybe could be shielded with heavy aluminum foil?

Also you can easily pick up the switch(pretty much any momentary switch can be used) and LED's you would need from Radio Shack. You will have to wire it to the board, I usually just canabolize an old computer when I need wires/connectors, but you could jerry rig just about anything to make it work. I just used a pocket knife till I got my custom switch working.

 

[darkswordsman17]

You might also consider foam core, its pretty cheap, would be better against spills/liquid than typical cardboard, and you can cut it to whatever shape you need. It might be good for you to put how you want it and then you could take it to a wood/metal shop and have them make you parts out of better material that fit your exact specs (and having the foamcore would make it easy for them).

 

[Gillbot]

Cardboard's fire point is 258°C, Flash Point is 427°C. If the cardboard burns, it's not due to electrical components getting hot! Some possible causes for temperatures in excess of those would be the PSU blowing up on you or mis-wiring the SPDIF connector(Both have happened to me) or in fact misconnecting any ground wire to a power source(whoops!). As a temporary fix or even long term it will work just fine. The main thing is that cardboard is non conductive and the components are isolated.

EMI compliance, look, the case does little to nothing to shield any interference, that is already handled in depth by PSU manufacture, and each individual components respective manufacturer. The metal box does little to insulate that and the interference generated is far less than any piece of electronics manufactured 10 years ago. This really is a non-issue which deserves no discussion.

I do agree with your last point, stuff happens and you would hate to ruin a new set-up from something stupid like spilling a drink or dropping a tool on your naked hardware. It would be a good idea to go to a second hand store and grab a computer and hust mod the inside so it suits your purposes. But as a temporary or a custom design experiement, Cardboard will work splendidly.

It'll be fine in cardboard as long as you aren't a complete idiot. I've used cardboard cases on machines for YEARS and never had an issue. Sure, is it the best option? No, but in all reality it is NO BETTER than the typical tech station out there and I don't see people crying foul at those.