Building a wood case -- What material/How do I keep cool?

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Noah

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 15, 2004
Messages
273
I've decided to build a wood case for an HTPC I'm building. I want it to match the furniture in my room.

I have two questions about that:

- How do you people keep your wood cases cool? It's a system-on-a-budget, so I'm not watercooling. Will fans work? If so, how big and where should I place them?

- What type of wood would you use?

- Anything I can use that's easier, less risky, and look good (ala aluminum)?
 
I am currently working on a steel/wood project. The casing itself is a old steel case I had lying around, but I am building it with wood externally to the entire system. Essentially I am going to use oak paneling to encase the system. Quite nice looking so far actually. I will have a project log for it up a while later (weeks at least, hopefully not months). There really isnt much to consider about cooling that doesnt apply to the standard steel/aluminum cases. Same things actually work. Fans to move air in and out. The wood will affect the cooling a little bit, in that it will absorb some of the heat, but if you have the air moving through the case well, it wont matter much. I plan on using a single 120mm fan to move air in, and a single 120mm fan to move air out (besides the power supply fans of course). The fans themselves are rated at about 80CFM and 33db of sound. Shouldnt be much of an issue as an HTPC I am building.

The idea actually struck me all of a sudden as I was getting ready to throw the old case away, how simple lined and great it was as a mod project. You'll see what I mean in the future if you check it out. But as a wooden computer case, I was getting tired of seeing wooden computer with cheesy brass latches and hinges on them. Looked like crap to me at least. Mine will be quite different. I plan on building a wooden/metal computer that will balance the metal with the wood to make it look finished and yet natural. At least that is my hope and design. We'll see in the end I guess.... I hope this didnt draw too off the topic...
 
Looks pretty good. I hope my project in the end turns out as nice, but some of the little nuances bothered me still. The brass latches and such that close it up. I know you can't see the back, but it still kind of gets to me. Very well done. Looks a bit heavy, but well done nonetheless. I hadnt seen that one yet.
 
you can just build a box to go over an existing case but thats not verry [H]ard.

use good fan layouts, and plenty of them, heat reflective tape on the inside, (like silver tape for heating ducts) may help the heat from sinking into the case, but that shouldnt matter too much.

Using existing mother board trays, and drive bays is alwase a good idea, they where desigend for that and they are easy mount into wood.

If your realy conserned about static charge (and i wouldnt be) run a line from the mobo tray and the drive mounts back to the casing of the psu (that will ground them incase something goes screwie, you dont have to open up the case just a loop of wire inbetween the tray and a screw, down to a loop of wire inbetween the PSU housing and a screw, the housing is grounded and now the mobo tray is too)

If you want to go nuts you can watter cool, but i dont think that will realy be the end result you want in an htpc

good luck and happy modding
 
I like walnut but it cost a few bucks. Oak is nice, but it sure is a pain in the butt to work with at time. Pine is okay, but IMO as as last choice since it looks pretty..... :rolleyes:
 
BLsibub666 said:
you can just build a box to go over an existing case but thats not verry [H]ard.
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What the heck do you think building a computer case out of wood is??? Building a box out of wood. Putting one over a steel substructure is no more easy or hard... Besides it makes it much more rigid per pound than wood is going to, hence my usage of it for bracing. Building wooden PC's in themselves do not present a problem. It is building a wooden PC that still looks great. Maybe you'll see what I mean when it is done. It's not as easy as you might think...
 
I'd love to make it with wood.. but I still have a cooling concern.

If I meshed both sides (it's going to be in desktop form) and put two fans (one outgoing) on each side.. is that enough?
 
Noah said:
http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2004/05/04/dark_crystal/1.html

In a case with that much plexi, does wood still act as a major insulator?
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Both Acrylic and Wood act as insulators in that they dont transfer heat as well as steel and aluminum cases do. It will raise the temperatures sure, but you should still be able to manage the temperatures within reason. Likely you wont win any cooling awards, but the case will be fairly quiet and run within temperature boundaries. If my HTPC case operates below 50 degrees celcius (load), than I am not going to worry about it. I too am making mine as a desktop unit and internally I feel the flow of 2 - 120mm fans will be enough. Depends on how much components you have inside and how much heat they each generate.
 
As far as what type of wood: that depends on your budget. I'd say get nice wood, something like oak or Mahogany .

The important thing is to make sure it's DRY. If you can't find a place to buy wood that has a moisture content of less than 9% (or so) you might want to move on. BTW, Home Depot and Lowe's (if you're in the US) don't have nice wood, too wet.
 
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