Lost My Job = Time Available for Modding My PC

[raptorsoft2000]

For anyone who says "Sorry you lost your job" or the like, I would like to thank you for your kindness first of all.

Second of all, I need ideas on what I should do to my computer to make it look nice. I went out to Meijer a while ago (Only place open at this hour. Thank God they're 24/7! ) and I bought what is labeled as a "SOHO Entertainment Center". It has on the sides 2 cabinets for cd's or dvd's or something to be stored, so I thought I could use that to hold a few hard drives and cd/dvd drives too. I figure I could pull out a couple hard drives out of storage and place them in there. ( My tower now has about 10 5.25" bays and it's full, plus my mom's old computer had 3 drives in it and I have a few that I put away.) I have a lot of drives, so I'm limited not by the amount of drives, but by the space phsically in which to store them, so I'm thinking this is the perfect time to make use of a few more.
Going from the top down I would have the monitor(s) on the top where the TV would normally go, then I would have the next shelf down be the motherboard, which I hope there's enough room for the PCI cards in between the shelves. The next row down I guess I would put the power supplies. ( I have 2 power supplies in the tower now because I have so many drives, I have a few of the drives running off the secondary one. ) I may actually need to get a 3rd PSU, but that's besides the point.

Any suggestions/comments/recommendations? I was looking for something that would have enough space for everything I want to have installed. I was wondering though would it be bad to have the case mounted to wood; does it need to be grounded somehow? And lastly, I'm pretty sure the entertainment center thing is made of pressed board or some crappy wood(that's what you get for $50), so would it be really hard mounting everything to it?

Thank You to everyone who read through this whole message and I will appreciate anything anyone has to say about it that I could do to make it better.

Jesse

 

[DerwenArtos12]

I'll need pics of said entertainment center before I can even figure out what half of your post is talking about.

P.S. I would say sorry you lost your job but, I was out of a job in january and february and it turned out to be a great time, tons of fun, money was tight but, you always find a way to make it work and the fun I got to have was well worth it.

 

[raptorsoft2000]

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
I'll need pics of said entertainment center before I can even figure out what half of your post is talking about.

P.S. I would say sorry you lost your job but, I was out of a job in january and february and it turned out to be a great time, tons of fun, money was tight but, you always find a way to make it work and the fun I got to have was well worth it.

Haha, yea, I'm hoping it will be worth it! That's why I'm trying to do some modding before I find a new job; time to relax and do stuff I wanted to get done but never had time. As for the pictures of the entertainment center, I'll get those right quick, is a picture of the front of the box of it okay? It shows it on there and that would save me time of assembling it if I decided to use something else.

Jesse

 

[DerwenArtos12]

should work, just so I can get a good idea of the shape and scale.

 

[raptorsoft2000]

I forgot to take a picture of the box. I've decided that I would try to custom build a case.
Is there any grounding needed for it? I would like to make it out of wood, but I'm not sure how that would work. If someone has a better idea I would gladly consider it. I haven't done much modding and I was just looking for a way to fit all of my drives in my case and at the same time have a nice looking case. Weight/size doesn't really matter too much; it's not going to be used for lan parties. Thanks for any ideas anyone has.

Jesse

 

[Zepper]

It is always a good idea to ground everything though they would likely be grounded well enough thru the black wires in all the power connectors. I'd probably run a heavy gauge ground wire from each component or stack to a bolt attached to the metal box of the PSU.

Remember, you are responsible for limiting the RFI/EMI radiation of your equipment which is not really possible with open-air mountings (ulness you turn the room into a Faraday cage). So if the FCC truck comes rolling up your driveway, you can't say you haven't been warned.

.bh.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

You don't HAVE or even really NEED to cround everything but doing so will greatly limit the RFI/EFI in your system wich will not only help you meet FCC regualtions but, will limit noise on wires and circuitry in your case wich can hinder performance(negligable) and can create electronic noise if you're using analog audio outputs(noticable to the trained ear).

Wood is a very popular choice, metal is obviously the standard but plexi/lexan is always a fun alternative.