ProtocaseDesigner.com

Hi

I'm building a rackmount case in Designer to take a Dell OptiPlex 755 board whose case was damaged beyond repair (and yet its motherboard came out unscathed - go figure) and while I was able to painstakingly cut out the I/O ports on the rear, I found that this wouldn't fly because the flange appears to have indents from the bottom that would prevent me from putting mounts in place for the board.

A solution to this problem would be to have an indent for an I/O shield to go into, but have it so that the inside is solid for me to put the I/O ports onto. This would extend over the indents on the flange, giving me the clearance I need.

Is this possible?

Thanks

For what it's worth, I did find this: http://www.protocase.com/pdf/How_to_des ... 092010.pdf

Unfortunately it seems that this assumes you can simply cut out a hole for the I/O shield and go from there, which seems impossible going by the indents at the rear of the case. I have attached an image with the indents indicated to show you what I mean. My primary concern is that these will cause a grounding issue when the board is installed.

My other worry is that trying to add screw holes for the risers is likely to cause issues with the rear cover, hence why I feel I would need to indent by 15mm to clear this area and be able to mount the board without worrying about the board touching the case. I also need to be able to put in a custom I/O shield or even have one embedded into the case - Dell, like many PC manufacturers, fly in the face of standards in pursuit of vendor lock-in, and the I/O backplane sits on the opposite side to compliant boards! At least the power supply plugs meet ATX standards...

Is there any basis to my concerns at all, or am I worrying myself into a coma over nothing?

Hello Frank,
We can't specifically do what you are asking in Designer, but it is likely that you can do most of it in designer and have it modified for what you need. The best thing to do in this instance is to have an actual conversation with our tech team. Send an email to info@protocase.com and one of our mechanical engineers will handle your request.

Thank you!

How did you create those raisers? I am trying to figure out but there is no extrude command and I am stuck, I can only make holes right now, but I want to raise motherboard from ground and don't see any option to do that..

Do you mean to create standoffs to mount the board? In the Face editor, select "place self clinching fastener" and choose standoff in the dialog that appears. Find a standoff with the thread type of the screw you are interested in. Then choose a length. Note that the length is measured from the outside of the enclosure.