Hello everyone,

I'm sure you've all wanted to do this before, but I think doing something all by yourself isn't the best thing in the world

Although many cases already exist, the availability is rather poor in North America as everything seems to be a special order from some factory located somewhere in the Pacific Rim.

Having said all that, what I want to do is make a case for myself that is visually appealing and doesn't look like a computer (I'd like to have it in my living room).

Something more akin to stereo equipment would be quite feasible.

I've thought long and hard as to what problems I am going to run into as I design the internal layout and component placement, and I have some up with the following variables that are still undecided.

1. Should the Harddrive be suspended or mounted
2. Should the optical dirve (singlular) be suspended or mounted
3. Should there be a power button on the front
4. Should USB connections be on the front
5. Should the remote be IR or RF
6. Should the keyboard+pointing device be IR or RF

Beyond this I'm interested to locate ATX & Mini-ITX form factor specifications, these would be considerably useful in deciding the placement of stand-offs for the motherboard.

I do have some crude skill at drawing so I will be making diagrams as I go along (and posting them in a photo gallery for everyone to mock)

All your thougts would be very helpful.

Welcome.....I've done several projects over the years such as you suggest. You could find an old/large vcr, rip the guts out, turn it into a disguised computer. The vcr door would be large enough to handle a cdrom. I've got a Panasonic svhs #1950 that would be plenty large to turn into a computer...heh.

You can buy cases like that.
Here's some:
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp ... 131-01.jpg

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp ... 115-03.jpg

For minimal noise, suspend them both -- but this requires room. Perhaps too much for the type of case you have in mind.