Parts positioning

[Kisskerven]

Hey everyone, Ive been lookin at some crazy cases and some are commercially available that I have questions on...

Like.. is it safe, sound, or wise to place a HDD (active) sideways? I always thought they needed to lay flat like normal....

also PSU UNDER the Motherboard? WTF? heat rises.. basic physics... your puttin heat onto your board only to have your fans work harder to take it off...

and Danger Dens "airbox" just breaks all the rules.. PSU, CD Rom and HDD under the MOBO, as well as HDD sideways... just seems like its destined for failures.


I want to make a custom case, I want it decently small (I have a shelf on my desk I'd like to put it) its not a "shelf" so much but decent sized, I just want it to look nice, but I also want it to have superb Airflow keeping every part cool.

So hince.. I bring this topic up.. and hopefully people will discuss it.

 

[Trotter]

HD's... I dunno. I've seen them mounted sideways, though.

The PSU pulls in air from inside the case buts blows its heat outside, so no problem. Being at the bottom of the case allows it to get cooler air instead of the heat put off by the other components.

I haven't seen the Airbox. Sounds... different.

 

[Kisskerven]

well my only thing with the psu is it seems wasteful.. you could be drawing in hotter air from stuff and helping it vent.. but your pulling in colder (being lower) and pushing it out.. I guess it would help the PSU in the long run...

HDD are made to run flat though... I mean.. I have my computer open, I pull the HDD out and lean it to the side and it clicks like mad and has errors.... just seems wrong to me... they werent designed in the factory to run that way.

airbox is cubish- it has CD roms on bottom with side mounted HDD, and PSU on bottom, the cords are threaded up through convenient cut out slots in the Mobo tray- which sits FLAT on top. places for like 6 80mm fans to keep it cool... however I doubt it will work as well with some motherboards Ive seen, the pictured one seems... off

Danger Den :: Cases :: DD - Air Box

I came up with something like it in my sketches, compact, elegant, although mine has a curve detail front, and some special USB ports I have set up- so I can plug in some USB thumbdrives, then they can lay flat inside a panel and out of the way. Intakes to blow over HDD and such on bottom, 2 80 and 2 120 To keep the Mobo cooled....and a waterproof top so i can use it as a counter top lol also its a odd set up because Iam picky.. the IO panel is INSIDE the case.. so the cords can be hidden by a casing and threaded off as needed, 1 big "cable" will come out the back for everything this way, then seperate into smaller cables wrapped in the same Cord shielding

 

[PRVRT]

HDD's can be mounted in any direction. Many main computer makers place them where they fit. Two of my Dell's have them mounted on end with the IDE/Sata connections facing up. One Dell is 4 years old and the other is 2 years old with no problems running 24/7/365. My old E-Machine has the HDD mounted side ways. It is over 6 years old and still going. PSU work best either on the very bottom of the case where there is cool air, or somewhere next to a vent so it can suck air in from outside the case and blow it out the back. When looking at a case the thing to look at is air flow. Seperation of components is also a good idea. You don't want an intake fan blowing across the HDD's or CD/DVD directly onto the video card or CPU. Placing those items above the MB is best. A clear path from an intake fan to the GPU/CPU and out the back/top is best for airflow.