Intesting Computer Case Propostion

Kboy

Kboy

New Member
I'm thinking of building a new PC. What do y'all think of this idea?
I have an old subwoofer holder made of wood and it's about the size of a large footstool. I want to put a PC inside, so I can hook it up to my TV and Stereo and it won't take any extra space in my room. I am just wondering if anyone has made a PC with a wood case, because I know that I'll run into cooling problems? I dont really want to spend a lot of money on a bunch of cutting edge stuff for now, I'll probably just put an Athlon XP and a 80-120GB 7200RPM hard drive and a decent video card in it. I need recommendations for how much I need to cool the case. I think it will stay cool enough if I put the mobo somewhere in the middle and have a good airflow over it. What do y'all think I should do? There's plenty of room in the enclosure for all the parts and as many fans as are necessary.
 
that is a very interesting idea you've got i hope that goes well...

i will leave this one for someone with more knowledge of cooling systems tho
sorry, wish i could help
 
Basically you're going to have to "map out" the airflow for the system yourself. By this I mean you'll have your intake fans directing the air over chipset, graphics card, CPU, PWM mosfets & capicitors; and then out through some exhaust fans. I don't know exactly how you're planning on laying out the system, but I would probably put at least a couple fans at the bottom and at least a couple of fans and the power supply near the top.
 
yeti said it.....plan the airflow first

ive made a case outa just about everything, including a 4 foot wooden speaker, so you should have no problems....just make sure your airflow is nice and smooth :)
 
Even with water cooling I would want some airflow. There are other sources of heat besides the CPU and VGA like the the drives (I guess you could water cool the HDDs) and all the power converters on the board. With a wood case there almost no way for heat to get out - wood has a thermal conductivity about 100 times less than steel and the thickness would probably be at least 10 times as thick (0.8 mm steel) making the thermal resistance 1000 times that of a steel case. I've never used water cooling though so I could be wrong.
 
Could catch fire, but nice idea
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hehe any pc could do that but his would spread like crazy ;-)..

Anyhow it's more then possible and I've seen a few when cruising case modding sites. It's already been said but plan the airflow first and you should be able to build yourself a relativly safe pc :-).
 
wood has a thermal conductivity about 100 times less than steel and the thickness would probably be at least 10 times as thick (0.8 mm steel) making the thermal resistance 1000 times that of a steel case. I've never used water cooling though so I could be wrong.
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But its easier to shape wood and then seal it (IMO) ... makes a great candidate for submersion cooling ... of course glass/plexy would be the best route there :P
 
I'm thinking of maybe making two of the sides plexiglass so you can seee through it. That might help the cooling process a litte. What do you think?
 
I'm thinking of maybe making two of the sides plexiglass so you can seee through it. That might help the cooling process a litte. What do you think?
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It might help cooling a little but probably not noticably (thermal conductivity of acrylic approx 1.4 times that of wood). It would probably look cool though. And you could mount some LED fans on the plexiglas.
 
Yeti said:
It would probably look cool though. And you could mount some LED fans on the plexiglas.
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Yeah I was thinkin it would look pretty cool with some lights and colored stuff. I finally got a job again, so I may start this project soon. I'll post some pics when I'm finished, and thanx for the thoughts everyone!
 
I'm thinking of maybe making two of the sides plexiglass so you can seee through it. That might help the cooling process a litte. What do you think
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Ive never heard of plexiglass cooling anything :)
 
little late to mention this but i know someone that spent 3 years build his case out of wood, he completly hand carved every little peice and his runs fine so you should have problems catching fire or anything
 
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