Custom chassis made of wood

[Sedanxio]

Hello everyone,

I have recently got my hands on a AsRock Rack ROMED4 in deep mini itx form factor.
I am looking for a case to perfectly fit it and really stay tiny, which is looking very complicated so at that point I wondered, why not just building one out of wood (or asking a carpenter for that matter).
I know it has been discussed on the forums a long time ago but wanted to have your opinion.
First question about it is, is it safe regarding the risk of it taking fire?
Would you advise to have a “donor chassis” for the motherboard tray, switches, usb and pci support brackets?
What do I have to think about when it comes to “future-proofing” like, if I’d like to add an other pcie?

Thank you all for your time

[LeeTalbert]

Stain it and seal it to help prevent warping as it heats and dries. If you’re not into woodworking I wouldn’t recommend this as diy, you could end up with something less than ideal. As for the donor case you could use something like this:

Amazon.com: ALAMENGDA DIY Pc Test Bench, ATX Open Chassis Case Rack for...

[wertigon]

I like these guys when dealing with ATX and mATX cases. Also, sliger Cerberus is an option.

SFF time | products | cases

Cerberus | Sliger

If you are willing to invest some time and money on prototyping, J-Hack might also be open to some sort of collaboration.

SFFPC Cases and Custom PC products made by J-HACK

[Sedanxio]

Thanks for the links, Sliger has some nices cases unfortunately I live in Europe so importing from the US is not really an option, more due to shipping costs.
I’ll have a look at sff time as they’re located in Croatia.

[MazeFrame]

@Sedanxio

First question about it is, is it safe regarding the risk of it taking fire?

Yes.

@Sedanxio

Would you advise to have a “donor chassis” for the motherboard tray, switches, usb and pci support brackets?

If you have an old case on hand that you don’t need, that would work.

For I/O ports, I mostly used XLR-style ports, mostly by CLIFF.
For “user facing” I/O in the MK ii I bought something like this and threw the pci-bracket in the bin:

For my DIY-Case I used a Dimas Tech micro-ATX-tray.

For inspiration:
Build log of version 1
Build log of version 2

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If you need less-common pc parts, Highflow.nl is pretty good.
If you need “not even pc parts anymore”, Digikey, Reichelt and other electronics-suppliers are a good source.

[Sedanxio]

Wow, you have some serious building skills.
That finished convincing me.
Thank you for your advice, I’ll start gathering measurments and parts soon and post my progress here☺️

[buback]

Looking into this as well. inherited a ProLiant ML350p G8 from work, but don’t want the noise or power usage, so scavagened the drive cage out of it. However, the cage is wider than 5.25 inches so won’t slot into optical bays, so options are limited.

I also settled on the open chassis to build a box around. I do worry slightly about EMF but am hand-wavingly thinking that i can slop on some conductive paint like in an electric guitar.