Even a simple thing like access to the inside of your system deserves some attention in the design phase of your project. If you never plan to upgrade, and your components will last forever, then you don’t need access. But most of the time, you can make the system much easier to work on by making good decisions about access. Since it’s your custom enclosure, almost any scheme at all can work out.
The panels that don’t come off the case need to be secured somehow, so you’ll want to pick an overall construction technique. People have had durable and attractive results with glued edges, screws that thread into holes tapped into the edges, and using metal support members to build a frame to support the acrylic panels. All of these techniques work, but there are tradeoffs to each method. Acrylic sheet can vary from quite rigid at 0.250 inch thick to insubstantial at 0.125 inch, so think about where the weight will be carried in your case.
Since we mentioned using metal support members, you can save substantial measuring and drilling effort by using a metal motherboard tray and/or drive cage from another case. You need to decide whether the design aspects of having visible sheet metal in your case outweighs the convenience of using a premade tray or cage.
And airflow will be an important design property. Performance systems will generate substantial heat, and even lower powered systems will generate heat from the PSU. Your design needs to allow heat to vent from the enclosure properly. This can be active cooling with fans, passive cooling, or esoteric systems like watercooling or evaporative cooling. Each option will lead you to different design choices.
You may want to use a 3D modeling and rendering package to layout your case. I chose not to use one, so the discussion in this article does not presume that you have one, or know how to use one. I used paper and pencil technology in planning my case (although I had taken a drafting course that did help, it wasn’t really necessary).
Now let’s look more closely at each of these areas. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s dive straight in with something you ought to be pretty familiar with.
Motherboards
AMD or Intel? ATX, MicroATX, FlexATX, or WTX? Optimized for performance, integration, size, or cost? There are so many alternatives, and so much to think about, that I have to say that this part of building a case (as important as it is) is a decision that only you can make, and only you will be able to weigh the various factors and arrive at an appropriate decision. You may have a preferred maker, or feature, or chipset, or whatever.
The main thing is, if you select this first, you get a good start on two of the three dimensions of the case. I highly recommend buying your motherboard and getting it in your hands before completing your design. Form factors are mostly standardized, but motherboard layouts can vary, and using a drawing or a 3D rendering is no substitute for having the real article.
Integration chipset motherboards have a compelling advantage that is worth pointing out at this stage: they can free you entirely from the need for expansion cards. That will simplify the case and its construction substantially. If 3D video performance is not critical in your application (as would be true for MP3 servers, entertainment PCs, dedicated firewalls/routers, etc.) then take a good look at these motherboards.
Small cases are cool, and you’ll need a small motherboard. FlexATX is a small form factor that’s pretty widely available and inexpensive these days. FlexATX boards tend to favor integration chipsets, so that further helps reduce your system’s size. Going smaller than FlexATX gets into ‘biscuit PCs,’ which can be a significant step up in price for a fairly minor decrease in size, and usually less (or no) upgradeability.
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