Creating your own case - some questions

[ScottG]

I have been pondering the idea of creating my own case for several reasons (looks, reduced noise, fire/water protection for the hard drives, etc).

1st question - is the motherboard plate (the thing you attach the motherboard to) a ground point? I'm sure there is grounding at the motherboard/ps junction where the ps goes to ground, but I'm wondering if there is grounding when you screw the motherboard to the plate and if it is neccesary?

If the plate isn't neccesary for grounding then what would be an apropriate alternative to metal?

2nd question - has anyone created a case that was fire/water impregnable (like a good safe), and if so what materials were used?

I'm thinking of a multibend ducted airflow system that pulls from the floor and ducts to the floor as well. I guess the material could be made out of cement like a safe (prob. the waterproof fiber reinforced stuff at the various home centers) - any other suggestions (paticularly lighter ones)? Coating for sound and high temp. would definitly be that nasa paste (CAE temp coat - located at partsexpress.com) - a material that others on this forum should look into (they also have spray-on viscoelastic foam).

3rd question - I know there are hard drive pullout caddies, but are there other caddies for things like diskdrives and cd/dvd drives and where are they located (url please).

4th question - I also know that there are expensive dual hot swapable ps available, but has anyone done a dual hot swap ps using the much less expensive but good ps that are commonly available? I guess the key to making this work is a connectible switching backplane to plug the ps's into and to plug the drives/motherboard into - anyone offering them for sale (url please).

5th question - Does anyone have any other ideas that might be intresting in an ultimate case?

Thanks for the responses.

 

[squirrel dog]

yes,no,yes,yes,no.

 

[jsbush]

Thats going to be a heck of a project! Good luck.

 

[ScottG]

For Mr. yes no yes yes no, perhaps you missed the request for URL's - would you please provide them if you have them?

 

[cavingjan]

Not sure about the fireproof part. I have a fireproof safe that I used to keep some tape backups in. Read up on how it works and its a no go for electronics. Also you would need a way to drastically reduce the temperature for the drive area which kills your cooling ability.
Sounds like a great project. I'm looking at making my own case for my server that looks like a mini grandfather clock. Keep us posted.

 

[ScottG]

For fireproofing & cooling it would certainly be better to have something like a fridge unit (like that one manufacturer does with AMD processors) but I figure that with both the air intake and duct at the ground should keep from frying the harddrives (the most important part) beyond the point of info. retrieval. The temp. near box (unless its next to something burning - walls are bad and corners are worse) shouldn't be more than about 400 and it should be considerably less than that near the floor (provided that it isn't a wooden floor - it wouldn't be at all effective on a second floor made of wood). Temps. inside the case should be considerably less than that with proper insulation (the temp coat I mentioned gives an R24 with a thin coating). Its also not like it will be running during a fire with the fan blowing in hot air, auto shut-down would have already occured. - Just some more thoughts on the design.

 

[cavingjan]

Sorry I've been away on business meetigns all week and just now getting a break in the action. And I will admit I'm not the most knowledgable on these things but the engineering degree is kicking in a little bit (not much mind you). I'm intregued by this topic and I think we can both figure something out.
Ok the fire part I think I'll just run past some of the guys down in the fire research lab for you. I remember watching their one test burn and it wipe out everything including some office chairs. Granted this is an office setting with carpet and papers but with non burnable walls. I think that temperature of 400F is still low but I will ask when I get back to NIST.
You talked about an auto shutdown feature. I hadn't thought about that per se but are you goign to trigger that from an external sensor? Its a good idea if you can also tie it into some vent covers that can close and provide more protection from heat (AKA the same material as the case being used on the vent covers)
Also just thought about something else, falling material tends to burn too.
I'm hoping some other people will hop in on this discussion (hint, hint, wink, wink) that have more knowledge on the topic. Who's got a schematic for an FAA black box. Should be a good basis to start from. And one question that you may be able to answer for me is what is the temperature/environmental range for hard drives? I'd look myself but not from this hotel connection.