This is my first time posting so excuse any mistakes I make. Recently I realized that my laptop a Compaq Evo N800c although great for lugging around campus due to its light weight and its average computing power its just not cutting it for me. Its to old and slow to run any new games and well its ugly. I want to make a mid range to high range preatty computer. I had an idea to build my own case with the mobo suspended about a foot in the air on chrome pillars it would be surrounded by an acrylic rectangle attached to a wooden base. All the wires would head down to a the wooden base which would contain the optical drive and the hard drive. Two questions for the members maybe I have not done enough research but, is it possible to get an extension for the PCI slot? This way I could put the video card in the wooden base slap and slap a fan blowing directly at it. As well is it to ambitious to build my first computer and my first case all at once? I welcome all feed back be nice this is my first time. If I do decide to build it I will definatly post pictures on your Forum its definatly the best I have seen.
First off, welcome to Bit-tech It is definately not too ambitious to do your first custom case and computer build all in one. Actually, once you make the case itself, building the computer is the easy part. I'm not an expert with the pci extentions but i did some research for a project earlier and there are pci extentions, both 90 degree and flixible but it seems like you'll need them a considerable length and that could be iffy. Some drawings or sketches of your design would also be helpful to help people better visualize it and give better advice. Good luck.
I know I should include pictures, unfortunately I lack any semblance of artistic skill so drawn pictures are out of the question as well the only computer I have access to is the lappy so computer rendering is out to.
I would advise not starting with a scratch built case like you suggest as your first built pc. If you first build a more normal pc you'll pick up a better understanding of how everything fits together and so you'll be more able to work out how to get things to fit together in new ways... You can still make a very pretty normal box case
ever tried pen and paper ? It's called "oldskool", jou can just draw with the pencil on the paper and when you don't like it you can trash it without damaging your hardware or software and if you don't have acces to a scanner, try taking a photograph of your sketch...
