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Acrylic cases

scrumruggin
By scrumruggin
in Power Supplies
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Anyone have experience or thoughts on pros/cons of building in an all acrylic case? Obviously aesthetics but I would be concerned about ESD. Not actually thinking of doing it, just wondering.

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I had a commercially made one a while back. It didn't feel sturdy at all so not great if you want to move it a lot. Static wasn't a problem for me. They scratch as soon as you look at it so not great. A more modern take on it might be to attempt one made entirely out of glass.

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3 hours ago, porina said:

A more modern take on it might be to attempt one made entirely out of glass.

That would be absolutely bonkers. I'm just imagining a glass motherboard tray, glass fan mounts, glass HDD cages....

 

At some point, parts of it have to be plastic or metal. I'm also afraid of the weight, as you'd need to make the glass thick enough to support the weight of a system, which in turn will make it extremely heavy. Still, wouldn't be surprised if we saw one at CES or Computex in future years. 

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4 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

That would be absolutely bonkers. I'm just imagining a glass motherboard tray, glass fan mounts, glass HDD cages....

 

At some point, parts of it have to be plastic or metal. I'm also afraid of the weight, as you'd need to make the glass thick enough to support the weight of a system, which in turn will make it extremely heavy. Still, wouldn't be surprised if we saw one at CES or Computex in future years. 

Just looked it up, depends on the exact type of glass but it is ball park double the density of acrylic. So it'll weigh a bit, but shouldn't be too silly. Maybe aim for a mini-ITX cube?

 

The acrylic case I had did have all major parts made of acrylic. The only significant metal part was the expansion slot holder at the back. Panels were screwed into corner cubes hence the lack of rigidity. Mobo was on standoffs directly on the side of the case. A separate mobo tray would increase weight and complexity. Due to the thickness of the acrylic, it did need special screws for everything.

 

I wonder if there are other transparent plastics that could be used other than acrylic? I'm thinking if there is something stronger so could be scratch resistant and/or thinner. Maybe not chosen for cost reasons, but for a showcase custom build it could be interesting.

Gaming system: R7 7800X3D, Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming Wifi, Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB, Corsair Vengeance 2x 32GB 6000C30, RTX 4070, MSI MPG A850G, Fractal Design North, Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, Acer Predator XB241YU 24" 1440p 144Hz G-Sync + HP LP2475w 24" 1200p 60Hz wide gamut
Productivity system: i9-7980XE, Asus X299 TUF mark 2, Noctua D15, 64GB ram (mixed), RTX 3070, NZXT E850, GameMax Abyss, Samsung 980 Pro 2TB, random 1080p + 720p displays.
Gaming laptop: Lenovo Legion 5, 5800H, RTX 3070, Kingston DDR4 3200C22 2x16GB 2Rx8, Kingston Fury Renegade 1TB + Crucial P1 1TB SSD, 165 Hz IPS 1080p G-Sync Compatible

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2 minutes ago, porina said:

I wonder if there are other transparent plastics that could be used other than acrylic? I'm thinking if there is something stronger so could be scratch resistant and/or thinner. Maybe not chosen for cost reasons, but for a showcase custom build it could be interesting.

I know of Lexan (polycarbonate) , but polycarbonate is even easier to scratch than Acrylic is. 

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Make sure to Quote posts or tag the person with @[username] so they know you responded to them!

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You could make it out of poly with an anti scratch coating I guess like eyeglasses which would help. 

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other than easily scratch on Acrylic, it will deform / bend over time holding such heavy mass.

at least the main frame cannot recommend acrylic

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Because of thermals or just inherent?. I saw an acrylic case on AliExpress but they wanted $177 and I thought it was just dumb.

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16 minutes ago, scrumruggin said:

acrylic case on AliExpress but they wanted $177

search for acrylic plates and DIY, they are ultra cheap.

fyi, I got acrylic plate cover for my pc/ test bench like setup, supported by 4 legs at each corner, its now curved

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