Planning Engineering a Vertical Wall-Mount: Grounding and Structural Weight on Wood Substrate

Hi all,

Following up on my intro thread in General. I’m starting the prototyping phase for a custom, vertical wall-mounted build. I’ve decided on a solid wood backboard (likely oak or a high-density birch ply) instead of a traditional chassis, but I have a few technical 'red flags' I’m trying to solve before I start the drilling.

1. The Grounding Loop:

Since wood is non-conductive, I’m concerned about losing the 'chassis ground' provided by a metal case. I know the PSU is grounded through the AC wall plug, and the motherboard/GPU share a common ground via the black 0V wires, but is it worth running a dedicated grounding wire or a copper bus bar behind the board to connect the motherboard standoffs to the PSU casing? I'd love to hear from anyone who has done a wood 'scratch-build' on how they handled ESD protection and long-term stability.

2. GPU Structural Load:

I’m planning to mount the GPU vertically (fans facing out) using a PCIe 4.0/5.0 riser. Given the weight of modern high-end cards, I'm worried about the 'pull' on the wood fibers over time.

• Does anyone have experience with custom-machined L-brackets or threaded inserts for mounting to wood?
• Is it safer to mount the GPU directly to the board, or should I be looking at a separate aluminum frame to take the weight off the wood?

3. Thermal Management:

Wood is a great insulator, which is usually the opposite of what you want for a PC. I’m planning for an open-frame design, but I'm curious if anyone has seen 'hot spots' develop on the back side of the PCB when mounted so close to a wooden surface.

Looking forward to any insights or 'lessons learned' from the veteran modders here!

Cheers,
Forgedawg

 

Good point on the grounding, thanks. One less thing to overengineer.

The donor case idea makes a lot of sense for a shortcut. I'm planning to use an older MSI X570-A PRO and a Ryzen 7 5700X for this prototype, so finding a cheap ATX case to cut up should be easy enough.

It does make me wonder where the line is between structural stability and looks. Is it better to just use the entire rear spine/chassis frame of the donor case to handle the motherboard, I/O, and GPU together, or does that end up looking too much like a standard case bolted to wood? I'm trying to keep the look clean, so cutting it down to just the flat tray might be worth the extra work.

Whilst looking for a cheap chassis i came across this. Any thoughts on this kind of frame?

 

Much appreciated. Ill have a looksee over next few days.

 

Instead of a motherboard tray, you could use sheet aluminum, or ditch the motherboard risers and use screws and nuts that pass through the support board. For the riser spacer between the wood and mobo, I cut up clear Bic pen bodies, but you can use just about anything with a hole drilled in it. For getting the holes right, just used an old mobo tray and poster board. You punch holes in the posterboard with the mobo screw holes.

Greensabbath's pics are gone.

 

Right? I should shut up about pics since most of my projects need the pics upped to bit and re-linked. It took 2 months to do one project, though...