Nice board you guys (and gals?) have here! This is my first post and I wanted to say hi! I'm a complete noob so please bear with me. Now to the question: Say you wanted to put you're box in the closet. Okay, so how would you extend your wires through the wall and have all of the ports flush mounted on the wall like a telephone jack? If anyone has some creative suggestions I'd love to hear them. Also keep in mind that I'm on a budget (aren't we all). It seams to me that all of the pre-fab solutions out there are "sit on the top of your desk" type things. What I'm going for is a clean "it is meant to be there" look. Also none of the pre-fabs are 100% complete, you get audio but not video, video but not usb and lan, ect... Thanks in advance!
my suggestion is to by extenders for the various parts you want. i built my computer in a treasure chest and, instead of cutting a hole for each PCI card and the motherboard ports, i bought extensions. you can buy usb, ethernet, VGA [video] and ps2 extentions at quite a few sites, plus you could mod a phone jack to hold a few of them [with the female port in the jack of course] could be kinda cool
Buy extenders for each of the plugs you will require and run them through the wall (use an insulater, just in case). Cut a hole in your wall and buy some plastic, or aluminum and cut out the various shapes for the ports you want. mount all of this to your wall and *voila* your done.
Thanks for the replies. Maybe I'm being dense, but I don't get how I can secure the ports at the end of the extentions. All of the extentions I look at have the squishy rubber ends, if I cut a hole big enough to get the plug in...then won't it just push back into the wall when I go to plug something in? All of the ports on a mobo are nice and secure from the soldered conectors. I can't figure out how I can get that level of "tightness" from the basic extension wires. I appoligize if I sound ungreatfull for the advice, because I'm not. I guess I was just thinking there may be some other more creative ways that I had not thought of.
If the computer is a secondary computer, like a server or somthing, then all you would need is a program like http://www.realvnc.com to control it. However, if its your primary system, you can get simple extentions, and then buy faceplates with the approate connectors. I know Lutron (correct name? sounds right ) makes faceplates for PS2, USB, sound, VGA and a few others. Go to a electrical warehouse or whatnot and ask them.
It's my primary system. Lutron (according to google) is a lighting supplier, dimmer switches and stuff (oh well). I think finding a local warehouse sounds like a good idea, of course superpages found no matches in my area, but I'm persistant.
Okay time for a little test with some hot glue...Thanks. I kept thinking of crimping and screws and couln't see how to work it, never though about glue Told you I was a noob! Thanks.
Thats the company They make the faceplates that have the little snap-in connectors you see at all the office buildings. They make those specialty faceplates, but im sure to order them you would have to go to your local specialty electronics store. I know 100% they make usb, ps2, stereo-plug, and VGA since i helped my school wire up our new projectors with the stuff. Fairly good quality too
Same here. Now have every room in my house (except bathroom) network-capable. It's real easy to install and looks professional with very little work involved. And you're right, it is Leviton and you can get it at any Home Depot.
In my college, they use wallplates. They used what look like coplers or gender changers. These usally have what look to be a combination nut and screw like motherboard standoffs. These can be unscrewed and used to secure the part to a mounting plate. They look like the gender changers on the bottom of this page (don't buy from here though, too pricey) You should be able to see what needs to be unscrewed. The hot glue thing ought to work as well, though there may be adhesion problems with the metal plate. If you don't mind it being perment, you can use epoxy. One final note, as far as I know, all the connections count as low voltage, and in the US, no junction box is needed for low voltage cabling. There is a sort of metal bracket of the proper size to accept standard wall plates if you go the standard stuff route. Otherwise you can go wild with a custom plate, and you don't need to worry about being constrained to a standard box size
yeah they have a mounting bracket. I have seen the single and double gang size. and you are right, Splynncryth. you can just use a bracket because it is low voltage.
Thanks Shadowspawn! While I'm here I could use some more help. I'm rounding up I/O extention wires, but I can't decifer all of the ports on the back of the mobo I will be purchasing. ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe: If you're looking at the rear I/O ports from left to right then up, starting below the parallel port: Orange: digital audio? Purple: digital audio? Crome w/yellow: digital coax? (Skip USB) Pink, Green, Blue: Standard audio? Could anyone confirm or deny my guesses, and if I'm right, where would I find extentions for Orange and Purple? I'd like the colors to match as well if possible. Thanks again.
