Senfu DIY House/ Tech Station

andywww · Post by **andywww** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:47 pm

http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuf ... diy_house/

Anyone thought about using one of these for a passive PC?

Any opinions on its viability/usefulness as a home always on pc:)?

From what I see, it seems like it'd be completely unprotected from metal objects, children, pets, dust, rf... but any other reactions?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:35 am

AFAIK, they haven't been available for over a year now. I use one for all my test setups and it works great. There's several new variations on this, one called the "Lubic" or something like that, the other I don't recall but I'm pretty sure it's available from SVC.com

Here's what mine looks like in action:

I've run plenty of passive setups on it and they tend to work just fine. I also seem to have little or no trouble (that I can tell) with EMI.

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:51 am

This is probably closer to the Senfu than the Lubic DIY case:

http://www.highspeedpc.com/Merchant2/me ... ch_Station

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 12:26 pm

Pgh wrote:This is probably closer to the Senfu than the Lubic DIY case:

http://www.highspeedpc.com/Merchant2/me ... ch_Station

Yeah, that's the SVC.com one I was talking about.

I think that one's flawed in that they pretty much force you to keep your mobo on the bottom shelf. A lot of the heat will be trapped by the top shelf which will negatively effect the cooling, plus it makes it hard to change mobo components w/o removing the board from the rack. With the Senfu and Lubic incarnations, you can place the mobo on the top shelf which allows for the best airflow and makes it super easy to swap out hardware.

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:18 pm

I've been tempted to try one the HSPC Tech Stations but I don't do enough work to justify buying one. The inability to mount the motherboard on the top shelf is a problem, but the Tech Station has five features that the Senfu doesn't:

- A support rail for PCI and video cards. This might be good if you have a heavy heatsink on you video card.

- Longer posts are available as an add-on to increase the distance between the shleves.

- The ability to mount fans.

- Two different sizes available for the shelves.

- Its available, if at a somewhat steep price. As you say, the Senfu seems to have disappeared.

With the longer posts, and maybe a Nexus at 5v, I doubt heat build up would be a problem. The difficulty of swapping parts on the lower shelf is definitely still a problem.

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 2:34 pm

I downloaded the PDF assembly instructions for the HSPC Tech Station and I don't see any reason why the top and bottom shelves could not be switched.

Switching the shelves would prevent the use of the PCI card support rail, the hard drive rails and the fan mounts. But with a little careful drilling (or Dremeling) the hard drive rails and fan mounts could be restored. Actually, the hard drive rails could probably be installed further apart to allow the use of a No-Vibes.

TheAtomicKid · Post by **TheAtomicKid** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:29 am

http://www.plycon.com/ ...

I've used this shop a couple of times myself, find them very friendly and courteous... they're based out of Valdosta, Georgia, USA.

... and no, I don't represent, I'm just happy with their service, the couple of times I've needed them

TAK

Senfu DIY House/ Tech Station

Senfu DIY House/ Tech Station

Some available here as well...