nullpointerus
Golden Member
I was reading a case-modding thread recently and came up with a really cool idea for a custom case. In our house we have several PCs clustered nearby in one room. The fans are quite loud ? so loud, in fact, that I moved my PC down to my bedroom ? and they have trouble cooling the PCs effectively. Several different cases sitting around the room also looks kind of tacky IMO. Then I found this box fan, and it all came together. Why not build a four-PC case with two of these box fans and some passive coolers?
The whole idea is to exploit the 2,000 CFM (each) of the two 800mm box fans to cool four systems in one self-contained unit. The case would be nearly silent. Putting four PCs in the same case would maximize the cooling potential of the box fans while conserving a bit of total space and decreasing total noise. The cons are the bulky size of the case, the fact that you would have to turn off all PCs before opening the case, and of course all the confused looks from family and friends when you tell them what this monstrosity really is.
The case?s shape would be that of a cube: one box fan in the front and one in the rear. In the middle of the case would be the four system boards, one on each of the four case sides. The height and width of the case would be equal; this size would be the width and height of the box fan (which is square) plus two times the height of the rear-facing slots. So looking at the back of the four-PC case, there would be a big fan in the center with four clusters of slots and ports all around the fan. The dimensions would be 34x34x34 inches.
(You could probably enlarge it slightly and use only micro ATX boards to make it an 8-PC case, but I don?t think too many people would have a use for that.)
The two box fans would be slightly inset with the front of the case having support beams hidden by a mesh grill covered with some nice-looking dust filter material and the back of the case having all of that minus the dust filter material, of course. To keep the interior dust-free, you?d only need to vacuum the front of the case regularly as it would be one gigantic dust trap.
In theory the case frame could be constructed of lightweight wood with some metal pipes for support beams and enough sheet metal to properly ground the computer components contained within. The case exterior could be finished with a nice wood finish. Long USB, firewire, and front panel connector cables would be needed as would all the front panel LEDs, buttons, and ports for each computer.
Since it?s a fully custom case, you could go wild with all the sound-reducing ideas you can cram into it. Want to suspend all the drives with elastic bands, or use completely passive cooling components for nearly everything in the system? How about putting vibration-dampening material between the box fans and the case? Different kinds of hardware such as a network switch or a USB hub could be integrated into the case by attaching them to the case internally and routing the cables out the back. The hard drives could be suspended in a cage in the center of the case for maximum cooling.
How would you work on the individual computer systems? There would be four support beams running from the four corners of the back panel to the four corners of the front panel. The top, left, and bottom panels would be connected with hinges so that you could fold the top and left panels down flush on the floor beside the case. Similarly, the right and bottom panels would be connected with hinges so that you could fold the right panel down flush on the floor beside the case.
You could use three of the systems as client PCs with long cables running to their peripherals while the third serves as a family file server and possibly as a media server. You could even put a cheap widescreen monitor, keyboard, and mouse on top of the case for periodic access to the server.
Eh...I'm just throwing ideas out here. What ideas do you have for your case?
The whole idea is to exploit the 2,000 CFM (each) of the two 800mm box fans to cool four systems in one self-contained unit. The case would be nearly silent. Putting four PCs in the same case would maximize the cooling potential of the box fans while conserving a bit of total space and decreasing total noise. The cons are the bulky size of the case, the fact that you would have to turn off all PCs before opening the case, and of course all the confused looks from family and friends when you tell them what this monstrosity really is.
The case?s shape would be that of a cube: one box fan in the front and one in the rear. In the middle of the case would be the four system boards, one on each of the four case sides. The height and width of the case would be equal; this size would be the width and height of the box fan (which is square) plus two times the height of the rear-facing slots. So looking at the back of the four-PC case, there would be a big fan in the center with four clusters of slots and ports all around the fan. The dimensions would be 34x34x34 inches.
(You could probably enlarge it slightly and use only micro ATX boards to make it an 8-PC case, but I don?t think too many people would have a use for that.)
The two box fans would be slightly inset with the front of the case having support beams hidden by a mesh grill covered with some nice-looking dust filter material and the back of the case having all of that minus the dust filter material, of course. To keep the interior dust-free, you?d only need to vacuum the front of the case regularly as it would be one gigantic dust trap.
In theory the case frame could be constructed of lightweight wood with some metal pipes for support beams and enough sheet metal to properly ground the computer components contained within. The case exterior could be finished with a nice wood finish. Long USB, firewire, and front panel connector cables would be needed as would all the front panel LEDs, buttons, and ports for each computer.
Since it?s a fully custom case, you could go wild with all the sound-reducing ideas you can cram into it. Want to suspend all the drives with elastic bands, or use completely passive cooling components for nearly everything in the system? How about putting vibration-dampening material between the box fans and the case? Different kinds of hardware such as a network switch or a USB hub could be integrated into the case by attaching them to the case internally and routing the cables out the back. The hard drives could be suspended in a cage in the center of the case for maximum cooling.
How would you work on the individual computer systems? There would be four support beams running from the four corners of the back panel to the four corners of the front panel. The top, left, and bottom panels would be connected with hinges so that you could fold the top and left panels down flush on the floor beside the case. Similarly, the right and bottom panels would be connected with hinges so that you could fold the right panel down flush on the floor beside the case.
You could use three of the systems as client PCs with long cables running to their peripherals while the third serves as a family file server and possibly as a media server. You could even put a cheap widescreen monitor, keyboard, and mouse on top of the case for periodic access to the server.
Eh...I'm just throwing ideas out here. What ideas do you have for your case?
