I'd personally advise to find a cheapo used metal case (used oldish ones will cost you far less than wood) and glue the wood on that. You can find oldish small server tower cases that offer all space you will ever need. They will be all f-ugly, but if you glue wood on them it's irrelevant.
Be sure to check the CPU that it has all the VM-oriented features (they improve performance), as some don't.
I'll think about the metal case thing. I might get te motherboard plate of the case and attach that. Dunno though! Some desiging to be done! And apparantly virtual box doesn't really make much use of the vm features. And I think the 3770k has the features anyway. Thanks very much for your input, much appreciated!
Hum when you say wood MG do you mean that MDF stuff or real wood. In any case (nice pun eh?) my main concern would (another one!!) be heat dissipation my friend as both wood and that MDF - or particle board is or are bad conductors of heat and we all know the trouble with heat.
Having said that it would (doin well today) depend on the ventilation and cooling set ups, and how large a space the case consisted of. As for shielding personally I am wondering what you may be shielding it from or is it to protect any wireless devices you make have set up on the machine?
The other thing that has me thinking is why wood is it the cost aesthetics of the machine. If just looks were the primary reason then why not mount a rig inside a cabinet and relay connections to a large front and back panel/s.
I've often wondered how one would go with using those light weight building blocks - not heavy easy to work and the thermal resistance excellent. I reckon there must be ceramic type paneling around now that would also suffice.
There was a build going on some time back which I haven't heard of what became of it or whatever that one used wood based boards I seem to remember but was huge and could not have been something one could move around easily if at all.
Haha, thank you, icit2lol...I'll pardon the puns :)!! Erm, I mean proper wood, walnut or oak probably. And it'll be a proper project, I'll build it properly, using dovetail joints etc. Heat is a minor problem! I'm a bit OCD when it comes to cooling! And I'll base the case loosely on a haf-x for internal dimensions. So should be pretty big! I will also get a noctua nh-d14 cooler later on. As for emi/rf shielding. Mixture, it can play havoc with sound systems, likewise though, something like a phone can interfere with a pc. So I was wondering how to shield it, apparantly foil doesn't work. But I don't know! Also, how would one ground everything?
Also, I think I will settle on an i7. I feel much more comfortable with it and i'm sure that I will be satisfied!
Thank you very much everyone, your help is all much appreciated!
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Hum nice MG I used to love working with wood until the old shoulder got wrecked - still have all my machinery - you lucky B******D LOL!!
Actually I am using a HAF XM at the moment for a build which isn't that much smaller than the HAF X in fact it is wider just a tad less height and length 20mm H and 11mm L. It's like an Olympic pool lying on it's side I like it because like you am a cooling, filtering, and ventilation freak.
I am going liquid though and I reckon if you could get some sort of direct ducting to the outside from the rear and top fans and from the sides to the intakes that would be a real plus. The cabinet you could vent direct at the rear via some 230mm fans.
The only downside for me would be that the machine sits closer to the ground which for me is a big NO NO.
Now the shielding there wold have to be some form of mesh much like you see in TV cables screening that can be directly coupled to the a couple of well earthed points
Like these - just for an idea BOPP - DFARS Compliant, stainless steel wire mesh, stainless steel wire cloth, Nutsche Filters, sintered wire mesh laminates, sintered wire mesh chromatography frits, porous metal laminates, diffusion bonded wire mesh, roll sintered wire mesh, stainl if not then some thin aluminium plate or even copper plate to line the insides of the cabinet
I'm sorry about your shoulder, I hope it doesn't restrict you too much. Thank you for your help again. The link didn't work on my phone though, don't know why. I'll try it on my laptop when I get a chance! And I'm afraid I certainly won't be going water cooled, I'm an air cooled fan (if you'll pardon the pun) in everything really, from engines to computers!! The closed loop water coolers aren't actually as good as a noctua nh-d14 in terms of cooling. And if they are, they tend to be very noisy! Custom loop is different. However, water plus my pc just don't mix in my opinion, I'd never be able to afford a custom loop and would be worried it may break or something! And it's not necessary for me. As for a closed loop, I don't trust them, I've seen them burst before! It's not a pretty sight!! So, air cooling for me, much more reliable!! How do I ground the shielding, do I just run a wire from it to the psu case? Or should I plug it into one of the cables? I guess I ground my hdds to it and make sure the mobo standoffs r connected. Is that enough? I'm still wondering how to shield though! Also, how big are the wavelengths? I think they'd be quite long, but do you know how long?
I'm sorry about your shoulder, I hope it doesn't restrict you too much. Thank you for your help again. The link didn't work on my phone though, don't know why. I'll try it on my laptop when I get a chance! And I'm afraid I certainly won't be going water cooled, I'm an air cooled fan (if you'll pardon the pun
I would disagree with a few of those statements about closed loop water cooling systems. Any good one will match performance, or outperform an air cooler, even the Noctua. The good kits these days are built very, very well, they have good swivel fittings, and great hoses/connectors. They are also definitely not loud!
Different strokes though.....I don't like a 3lb chunk of metal hanging precariously off my motherboard/cpu socket, with fins sticking out everywhere to be bent all to hell, and fans jammed in there with no possible way of properly cleaning the cooler, all with the possibility of blocking your RAM slot nearest the CPU socket.
Any closed loop kit with a decent width radiator will remove heat more efficiently....and anybody with any knowledge of how to properly install one will see lower temps. I have the Intel water cooler which came with ONE fan and I installed it as an intake on the back of my case to pull cool air in and push it through the RAD, and I have a 200mm exhaust fan at the top which instantly pulls any warmer air up and out of the case and I've never seen temps above 55*.....and that was messing around at 4.5GHz without adjusting voltages. I can run this at 4.4GHz and stress it for 12+ hours and it settles in at 50-52*. I'm sure there are air coolers that will do that, but I guarantee the air cooler will be louder.
That said, if I DID go with an aircooler, it would probably be the Noctua. They are pricey, but pretty much as good as it gets for air cooling.
Well MG I was going with the Deepcool Gamer Storm Assassin - thats a serious piece of kit DEEPCOOL - GAMER STORM but boy does it take up some serious room.
Now the Intel liquid I've got sounds as if it has some space for expansion inside so I am not too worried.
Now I think most of the phone stuff out here at least works on either 2.4GHz or I think it is 5.8GHZ and most microwaves are 2.4GHz hence why they started switching from the 2.4GHz in the phones because of the interference - but I stand to be corrected.
Personally I think the shielding up the cabinet may be overkill but again I stand to be corrected. .
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