Remonster

I have had some pretty crazy ideas going through my head for my Socket M2 build that is coming in June. I have decided to run it by you guys for some opinions.

The first option is to have it in a regular case that i buy, this is probably going to be a NZXT Nemesis with the fans swapped out cause my Nemesis is leet!

The second option is make a custom case, I might take the chasis out of one of the cases I have lying around or may just stick it into like a model car/airplane or something along those lines.

The third and coolest option is to go totally caseless, I wanted to put those little brass (are they brass?) things that go between your mobo and case under it to lift it slightly off the desk and just have my mobo lying on my desk! I might get a SFF case for my PSU and for my drives etc. This system would be dang quiet cause there are no case fans and no case to amplify the noise. I might even water cool it and imagine just having a mobo with water cooling tubes going all over it, i think this is a super awesome idea but how good of an idea is it? is there any thing special I would have to do for it to work or is it simply a stick the mobo on my desk sort of operation

Bindusar

Completely open sounds cool but is VERY dangerous. Any little thing, a pet, a person...a sneeze could be very uncool. If anything gets dropped on it you are looking at damage and dust actually can collect much easier as you do not have it in a wind tunnel. Just my . I say do either the store bought case and mod it or go for entirely custom. Good luck with it!

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Tobuk

...case don't amplify the noise. they make it quieter cuz it's blocked inside....

shermstix

Caseless is really only means of testing all of your components. I would not suggest using it full time. If you are looking for the "caseless" look, you should consider a plexglass case. They are cool to look at, but not that sturdy. The only way I would consider going caseless in the long term would be to coat the motherboard, components and connections with some sort of silicone compound like what people use with phase change. That would isolate your components, but you still need to think about grounding. Plus you can't really hide your wires, so you would have wiring strung all over the place. Then there is your hard drives and cd-drive which should be mounted somehow. I think you would do better to heavily mod a case or build your own plexiglass case. Good luck

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Remonster

tobuk, aluminum cases like mine use thin hard layers of aluminum which amplify the noise, trust me, taking off the two side panels on my case makes it MUCH quieter.

Also, I said I would get a SFF case for my PSU and drives and the pumps and rads for the water cooler should I go that route, so I would likely have one bundle of wires going to that case from my mobo and i like the look of wires all over. Also I have no pets and the smallest kid in my house is my little bro who is 11, though my 2 year old cousin is over a lot he is really cool, he plays xbox and he even played HL2 on my computer, plus a sneeze or child ruining my mobo is a good excuse to keep askin my parents for new ones to upgrade to

0rion

this may be off topic, but its an interesting idea.. why not build your computer INTO your desk? like mount the harddrive, motherboard, and some cd drives inside a drawer.. maybe cut holes to pop the cds out through the drawer? i think it would be a neat idea, closed from dust, but pull it out and you can mess with it. clean, out of the way, and i bet you could get this to look really awesome! i suppose this could be dont pretty easily with a wood desk. not quite caseless, but a very cool mod nonetheless

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Remonster

Lol nice, but thats not what i was looking for. I think what i want for my case is a SFF without PSU and could have a window though it might be nice if it didnt cause like I said my mobo would be outside of it and this would likely be tucked away somewhere. The only reason I need the SFF is to hold my PSU, hard drives, optical drives and the pump of my water cooler. If anyone can reccomend me one with one 5 1/4in bay that is nicly designed without a PSU and can link me to it I will REP you if I like it.

sccr64472

I'm gonna have to vote "no" on the caseless computer if you plan on it lasting. Without a case, you're subject to electromagnetic fields and waves, not to mention dust and moisture. I get chills up my spine thinking of the day when you accidentally spill a coke or something lol. I like the iniative, but I think the danger/risk of having unexplained crashes and problems makes me vote against that.

OtherMike

caseless would be really cool,(but of course you would have be really careful with it) you could mount the motherboard to a sheet of plexiglass and lay that ontop of your cd drive hdds and whatever else. (make sure you have a can of compressed air to dust it off with.)

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Remonster

Otehrmike, i already said there would be a SFF case (small form factor) to hold PSU and drives and etc. so thats not a concern to me, I also said if the mobo broke my parents would gladly get me a new one (free upgrades, hello?) so its almost a plus to get to upgrade to a top o the line mobo every few months :P