Ghetto case mod / Building a shelf mod - suggestions & critique welcome

[wand3r3r]

I'm thinking about building a shelf for my PC.

My thoughts are to simply enclose a shelf except for two holes on the "right" and "left of the front side.

The shelf dimensions are about
4' long
1' high (negotiable)
1.5-2' (18-24") deep

As you can see from my professional blueprint, the shelf would be above my desk and screens.

I have 3 thoughts for the shelf are as follows

1. Have an "open" bench
2. A case inside the shelf
3. An open case inside the shelf.

I would like to cover most of the front facing side (the other sides are all walls).

I was thinking I could have a house fan, or PC fans in the "intake hole", and just let the draft suck the warm air out.

If I have an open bench, the air could probably be restricted to the size of the parts laying inside (small barriers to ensure the airflow goes over the parts). If it is a PC on it's side I would / could probably put barriers so the air has to go "through" the case. If it's an "open sided" PC in the shelf I could try restrict the open space so the air is channeled or forced into the PC chassis and out the back of it.

My goal:

• Insulate the shelf (reduce noise)
• Reduce heat
• Have 1-3 aftermarket cards which cannot be used in the same case as the two reference cards due to heat

My components will be

• 2 reference cards,
• possibly 1-3 aftermarket cards
• A couple noctua fans
• A house fan if necessary
• A fractal case with 3 fans (smaller atx case)

Has anyone done this? My thoughts are that the airflow will have to be good since it's a fairly big area.

 

[dma0991]

Having the air circulate from one bottom side to another wouldn't work. If the top is completely sealed, you'll get hot air pockets due to hot air rises. While the fans create sufficient flow to ensure that it doesn't overheat, the table top might be too warm to be comfortable.

At the very least, you should do a side to side fan mount. This eliminates the possibility of causing the hot air to recirculate(bottom side placement). The fans would also have to be fairly powerful to move that much case volume.

Yours is pretty similar to desk based case mods/projects. The only difference is that they're usually watercooled, which eliminates much of the problem of moving heat away because radiators can be placed anywhere. Without watercooling, 5 GPUs + 1 CPU will be a no go or a hot box (especially if its more enclosed than open).

 

[wand3r3r]

Having the air circulate from one bottom side to another wouldn't work. If the top is completely sealed, you'll get hot air pockets due to hot air rises. While the fans create sufficient flow to ensure that it doesn't overheat, the table top might be too warm to be comfortable.

At the very least, you should do a side to side fan mount. This eliminates the possibility of causing the hot air to recirculate(bottom side placement). The fans would also have to be fairly powerful to move that much case volume.

Yours is pretty similar to desk based case mods/projects. The only difference is that they're usually watercooled, which eliminates much of the problem of moving heat away because radiators can be placed anywhere. Without watercooling, 5 GPUs + 1 CPU will be a no go or a hot box (especially if its more enclosed than open).

The picture was drawn poorly, the airflow was meant to go from the "front" side in from the left and out the right side. So it would have been horizontal.

The radiators point is good, that would be ideal since you could pretty much enclose whatever you want and have to radiators outside.

I'm worried about that heat since even inside a case with good airflow two open air coolers get very hot so I'm not sure how that much heat (say 2 reference and 2 custom cards) could be dispelled quickly without compromising on the noise.

Thanks for the input, I really need confirmation before I just blindly whip up a shelf case mod.

The point was accurate, essentially it's a huge case with only two openings on the side. With dimensions of ~22" x 44" x 12" it would practically seem to need to be a wind tunnel to be sufficiently cool.

 

[wand3r3r]

My thought originally was to just have an open bench on the shelf. Then I started thinking about enclosing it more to reduce noise.

Here are the dimensions of the shelf space, and the intended openings for airflow.

Looking down from above, I was debating if I would just put some strategically placed boards to create an air channel.

 

[dma0991]

An air channel here is redundant as air wouldn't be moving fast enough in that space. It'll be more like intake fans filling the space, creating a positive pressure but it would be neutral if there's fans at the exit. The airflow, if its fast, should flow linearly, or at least have fans placed in a straight line.

Unless there's something covering the sides, I'd suggest placing the intakes/exhaust at the sides. Coupled with focused flow fans(Silverstone AP123, Noctua NF-F12), it should be doable.

Although I've said that watercooling would do wonders to this project, the cost however won't. 5 GPU waterblocks, minimum of two thick 480mm radiators, dual pumps; the cost is pretty high. There's also nonavailability of GPU blocks for most non-reference cards.

 

[Ninhalem]

You could mount the components individually on a constructed wall behind your monitors with the wiring being routed behind the wall. I've seen a couple water cooled builds where all the components are separated out and the video cards are connected via risers to the motherboard. Even if you didn't do water cooling you could have a nice statement piece right behind your monitors, and there could be plenty of air flow depending on how you orientate your mounting board for the components and the position of your desk.

 

[piasabird]

I am thinking some shops that do case modding might have left over case parts. Or just look of some old computer cases and cut one up. Use to be some cases had a pull out tray.

A lot of cases cool better if air blows in from a side window onto the CPU or video area. In this case this would be blowing down from the top and maybe out of both areas in the front. Covering fan openings with a mesh or screen might also block the dust. I wonder if you can just custom make a rectangle with screen frames like you put on windows and use a colored screen Maybe you could take it off and clean it like a fan filter.

On the other hand you could use baffles to block noise and make the air flow around them. Kind of like now a muffler works.