I had a motherboard mounted on cardboard for about a year. I was a poor teenager, but it did work and didn’t catch fire. I wouldn’t do that again, I’d probably put it on plastic or some taller screws or nuts or standoffs or something
Oh wait a second, I’ve been temporarily running my RockPro64 on its cardboard box for a few weeks now (not always powered on) when testing stuff on it. I’m doing it again without realizing, but this time it’s only because I don’t know of any case for it that can hold the PCI-E expansion card, other than the official big metal case that can hold 2x 2.5" and 2x 3.5" drives, space that I have no need for, because I’m planning to put a networking card on it, not a SATA card. I’ll probably have to 3D print something somewhere, I also need to get a radiator for it, this thing gets really toasty.
So this is the bare case as is. I think i’ve showed that I’ve purchased:
Ryzen 5 3600
Crucial P2 500GB SSD
B550I aorus pro AX gamer edition
HP 750W Common Slot PSU
Alphenhorn black ridge cooler
No GPU nor riser yet.
As you can see, the PAU fits snug into the slot in the basement section of the case.
But if I plug the cables and breakout board in, then it’ll drag the PSU forward and the little locking teeth won’t fit into the slot, so it becomes loose.
That’s all because I made the wire routing holes far too small, and too near the front.
Another potential mistake is carving out that large 12x14cm hole in the middle of the spine section, where you can see the backplate, as it might affect my ability for GPU mounting. Though that’s not too much of a problem as I can rectify that by going to uni and 3D printing an adapter bracket.
I think maybe one day a v2 is in order?
Perhaps a non sandwich layout case (cos gen5 risers are a bitch) with a normie SFX PSU. The SFX PSU in this above case would certainly be more space efficient. Wouldn’t need a basement section lol
Well that’ll be it for now. I’ll consider taking the case to uni and attempting to fit a PCIE riser cable to it and from there, I’ll probably come back to it over the summer holidays.