After reading the following thread: http://www.amdmb.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=49720
(and ignoring the lack of tact shown by the original poster) I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on what might happen running a "no case" scenario, such as the SenFu Tech Station sold by Plycon. I realize the risk of contaminants are huge and frequent cleaning would be a must, but from a cooling standpoint, what do you think? Zwolf, PH and myv65, I'd be most interested in your thoughts as I have been contemplating this for a little while now.
A_Sr.
__________________ Currently Using Some Old-Ass Computer No One Cares About
It really isn't any different then running the same kind of testbed that a lot of sites use for their benchmark tests. I think that you've already answered your own questions in your mind , ie. contaminant's, RF, EF, EMF ESD. I'd say if you could do the whole thing and keep it in a humidity/temperature controlled environment where the obvious is taken into consideration then, knock your socks off Otherwise---good case--good cooling---good results
I can only guess I was mentioned due to the Epox I'm running. It's been about a month and it's still humming (literally w/ 30CFM Delta) right next to my keyboard.
I do not have a great concern over dust or static due to the location. It's in my basement with little dust (really, it's true), controlled humidity, and cool temps. On the up side, it's also pretty easy to see when things do get a little dusty.
It's definitely convenient for working on parts (haven't had to do that), changing multiplier switches (do that often), and anything else involved with the mobo. If I ever get all the supporting cast fastened to the plywood, I'll hang it on the wall as artwork.
Here's a thought on rf which maybe you've already considered, but I thought I would share anyway as I have a little experience shielding high-frequency rf in other applications.
Not that you have to worry about the FCC knocking on your door, but a simple faraday-cage could go a long way to have nearly transparent shielding on your setup against things like, say, a cordless phone (900 MHz is standard, what frequency is your chip?). Loosely surround your mobo with a wire mesh. Chicken wire is a possibilitity but probably not the aesthetic you are going for and not as good a conductor as copper, gold or silver-plated brass. The conductivity of a material is more important with higher frequencies.
Anyway, the wire assembly should not 'hug' the system, in fact it can be very far from it: it just has to go all the way around and be grounded.
This will attenuate rf flow between the mobo and the outside world substantially, but will not be quite as good as a solid-walled box. But it should be plenty none-the-less. Might be better to get a roll of copper wire from radio shack and make something yourself; explore your artistic side! :-) Just remember to ground it, or it will act as an antenna instead of a shield!!!
As an aside, it might be fun to mention that in some extreme cases, grounded copper strips are embedded into the walls of a room to isolate the entire room. :-)
I'm a mechanical engineer, not an electrical one. I prefer things that I can see working. Thus, your perspective on shielding is enlightening. I have not noticed any interference on the phone or anything else, but am grateful to have an idea for dealing with the problem should it identify itself.
I'm definitely no electrical engineer but I had to pick up some of this stuff to help build some hardware for an experiment. It's fun stuff. One of the 'rules of thumb' that we learned was that the higher the frequency you are trying to shield, the more it tends to behave like water. That is, lower frequencies shield well with wire cages, but higher frequency sources should be more rigidly enclosed. But mobos are low power devices to start with and are very well grounded so it's good to hear that you have not had any probs with interference. Post some pics?
Sorry, no pics available. I get free net access through my wife's job (school teacher), but no web space. Afraid the pics would not be very glorious anyhow, just a bunch of stand-offs screwed into plywood with PSU, floppy, and HDD lying around the sides of the mobo. Toss in a Duron w/ SK6, ATI AGP card, memory, and a NIC and voila, SETI crunching machine on the cheap (<$500).
I didn't even bother to give it a CD drive. Just shared my main PC's CDRW over the Ethernet connection.
I volunteered one summer at a high tech non-profit org. where they had a bunch of unused hardware and very little work for me to do. So I built a computer on the wall. It was fun, and challenging. When I set out, I just wanted to nail the bloody thing into the wall.. so I did... and the score became computermonster:1 blehmonster:0. After I assured my boss that I was just TESTING the smoke detector, I set out to try again.
This time I used a dual 486 dx66 board, which was a shy bit bigger than the last 486sx (and had built in video!). I thought I'd be smart and mount the powersupply and motherboard on different pieces of plastic. So I went to home depot and picked up a few plastic sheets. Of course, the checkout guy convinced me to buy 20$ in plumbing accessories, but that's a different story. I mounted up the motherboard and power supply (on their own little islands next to my framed Kevin Mitnick mugshot). Needless to say the monitor cord was too short to reach the motherboard, since I mounted it 6 feet from my desk.
So I asked my boss for a monitor with a longer cord. So the next day I got a very nice DEC 21 inch monitor with a 12 foot BNC cable. In the process of unpacking it and hefting it onto my desk (I'm 6ft 130lbs) I dropped it on my foot turning me into Elephant man for a few weeks. Ok, so the darn thing posted. Now I needed to load an OS. Oops, I forgot to mount a hard drive and disk drive. Back to Home Depot for more plastic. While there, I decided to buy an entire plastic enclosure to prevent dust and grubby fingers from touching my precious mutant computer. When I got back to the office, I assembled the plastic enclosure around the motherboard, power supply, hard drive and disk drive, got an OS on the thing, and proceeded to win the lust and admiration of every female in the office (well, not really). Unfortunately, the next week we were having cabling installed and a ladder fell on my motherboard destroying it instantly.
So.. to make a long story short, I should have started a big fire in the office, chucked two motherboards and three processors into it, had someone drop 6 bowling balls on my foot, and bought 60$ in plastic just to throw it in the dumpster on my way out of Home Depot.
God I love computers.
__________________ shining a light on the dark side of fiber...
I just want to share some experience I've had running a desktop case both with and without the top. I run and build 98% towers, but every now and there, there's an application that requires a desktop. My own particular need came about because I'm an arcade emulation junkie, and I built an arcade cabinet (different topic I won't get into here) which because of space considerations, needed a desktop case.
I'm using an In-Win H500 Case (stock, no mods) with a 300W PS, running a 900Mhz T-Bird, OC'd to 1100 (1.825V), with 2 128 PC150 sticks at CAS 2. OC'ing is done via FSB, not unlocking the multipliers (see below), so everything is running kicked up a notch or two.
This case for the most part is roomy, and has enough space for my needs. Since moving to a KK266 MB, which was larger than my last board, it's a bit cramped around the IDE connectors, but going to rounded cables helps that.
I have one stock 80cm fan on the front of the case, stock fan in the PS, and a GlobalWin FOP38 hairdryer/hovercraft on the CPU. I dissected a drive cooler, and took the mini 3 fan combo unit and mounted it on the back inside of the case over the existing ventilation grills back there. There are also ventilation grills cut into the sides of the case.
Idle Temp with the top off - system is 95deg, CPU is 98 F
Load Temp with top off - system 97/98, CPU 102-105 F
(Top off seems to have no effect on my 900Mhz (bleh) cordless phone, whose base sits about 3 feet from the cabinet. No other EM interference noticed, either caused or received by this setup)
Putting the top on raises system temp about 5 deg, and CPU temp seems to max out around 108-112 F during heavy use.
Keep in mind this case is sitting inside a big, wooden, mostly enclosed box that does not get airflow typical of a room environment.
I've thought about cutting a hole in the top directly above the CPU and installing a fan there, but I really don't see the need right now. I am also replacing the GlobalWin with NoiseControl's Silverado HSF unit, which is currently stuck in customs. Once that comes in, and I have to remove the HSF anyway, I plan on unlocking the multipliers, and seeing what combos I can reach that way.
I'll also re-evaluate the pros & cons of leaving the top off once the new cooler arrives. Since it is already within a fairly closed box, there's not as great a risk from dust, dirt, spills, or the cat deciding on a new warm place for a nap. If anyone's interested in the results with the Silverado, let me know.
So, while not mainstream, there are times when a desktop case needs to be used, and can be used in an OC'd system effectively. I'd say doing a window mod on a desktop might be pretty cool looking in the right setup. There are some really nice looking black desktop cases available as well. There are also times when running with the top down might be of practical use, and save you a few degrees, but I'd look at the operating conditions closely on this one.
Processors
Motherboards
Chipsets
Memory
Graphics Cards
Storage
Cases and Cooling
Mobile
Systems
Displays
Shows and Expos
Otherwise---good case--good cooling---good results 
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