richmond

Well before I ask my question, I feel I should fill you in on the background of the project. This case is for a friend of mine that said he wanted something that he could mount on his wall. Well basicly all the hardware will be mounted on a false floor, leaving room under it to run all of the wiring. I tried to keep it low profile to the wall, meaning it doesn't stick out any further then it has to.

There is a peice of plexi covering all of the compnents, but it also gets in the way of where the video card would normaly be. I need help with possible solutions to this problem. I was considering just cutting a hole in the pexi, but i don't think that it would look very good with just the card sticking through. Raising the plexi to the height of the video card will not work, because it sticks out to far from the wall.

Anyway, any suggjestions (with my problem or design) would be helpful.

The sketches were done using SketchUp, and the hardware in the model can be here.
Thank You.

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hink

I think a riser would do the trick. http://www.rackmountmart.com/html/rc.htm

Wordbiker

Nice link....Hink.

That's the first PCI-E riser card I've seen. I'll have to bookmark that one.

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richmond

Thank You! That looks like it should do the job quite nicly. I might have to make some minor changes to my plans so the card doesn't hang out, but it should work work great.

Had to make extra room for the vid card, but here is the updated drawing.

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hink

Check out ebay and forsale threads first. They are usually a lot cheaper used. Retail rackmount equipment tends to have high markups because they are targeted for businesses who have the big time money.

Jonny English

Nice idea

I'm concerned about the lack of sides though ... depending on how you mount it, convection may take care of it, but I'm not entirely convinced.

About the cables - although you're going to hide them underneath they'll be visible between the exit points & going underneath the board...

How about a picture frame of some sort? I'm thinking that an assymetric C-section (so you can fasten in to the underside of your board), in wood (with internal battens to hold it together) would not only look good, but it would also give you space for cables, sides to control airflow with fans, and somewhere to put peripheral lighting too.

Another thought - how about etching the plexi top? It could be simple outlines over the components, labelling & a few lines to show how they're interconnected.

ps no need to thank me for just making your project much more complicated & expensive

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richmond

Quote: Originally Posted by Jonny English Nice idea I'm concerned about the lack of sides though ... depending on how you mount it, convection may take care of it, but I'm not entirely convinced. About the cables - although you're going to hide them underneath they'll be visible between the exit points & going underneath the board... How about a picture frame of some sort? I'm thinking that an assymetric C-section (so you can fasten in to the underside of your board), in wood (with internal battens to hold it together) would not only look good, but it would also give you space for cables, sides to control airflow with fans, and somewhere to put peripheral lighting too. Another thought - how about etching the plexi top? It could be simple outlines over the components, labelling & a few lines to show how they're interconnected. ps no need to thank me for just making your project much more complicated & expensive

Well the plan on mounting is basic aluminum brackets (polished of course) that I am going to fabricate. The mounting plates will be rivited directly to the base, which should be more then enough to hold them. The two fans will also connect to one of the HDD racks.

I realize that the wires will be somewhat visable, and all of the PSU wires will be sleeved. You will also be able to see the power/video cords comming from it, but if all goes as planned, this will be mounted almost flush with a desk so exiting wires will be easily hidden. If not he can always use this as a wireless server or some sort.

I really like your etching idea of drawing out some of the hardware and whatnot. I'll have to consider that when the time comes.

Thanks a lot Jonny.

Seyeklopz

Maybe you could use a riser with a ribbon so the video card can be mounted showing the heatsink side.