I recently purchased a PC. I've always been annoyed by the discomfort of working with all PC cases, including full towers; therefore, I decided to try another way. I would simply lay all the pieces out on a flat sheet, making everything easily accessible. My original thought was that this be a sheet of plywood, but a more creative mind eventually suggested plastic. I ended up with a $20 sheet of lucite. Of course a sheet of lucite isn't designed to hold a PC together, so I also had to buy a Dremel (which I planned to buy at some point in my life anyway) to fix that. I also needed a place to put the finished product - it would be rather less robust than your average PC case, and take up more room than most. Securely attaching the various bits would also be a challenge, but in the end, all obstacles were overcome. The results are shown here.

Straight on

Here it is.

Receivers

Since taking this picture, I have moved the receivers to the top of the monitor. I get better reception, and easier access to the filing cabinet.

My couch

I also now have the coffee table turned ninety degrees, with a small chair beside it, making it easier to see stuff on the screen, and giving me a nice mousing surface.

The Hard Drive

The hard drive is secured with four screws (directly into screw-holes on the underside of the drive casing), each of which is "glued" onto the lucite.

Not a very flexible arrangement, I know. The motherboard is similar, but better.

Also, since taking this picture, I have replaced the rather tight analogue audio cable between the CD and sound card with a longer digital one.

The Motherboard

The motherboard is secured with nine bolts (through the standard ATX screw-holes), each of which is "glued" onto the lucite. Unlike the hard drive though, the motherboard is easily removable/replaceable, since it is secured to the bolts by nuts on either side. Remove the outer nuts, and the motherboard will simply lift off. Given the ATX standard placement of the bolts, another motherboard should fit perfectly in its place.

It was hard to get a shot of this, but hopefully you can see what I'm talking about.

Peripheral Power

Even with the open-concept design, routing wires was a bit of a pain. This is one area where a 3D design would be slightly better. Eventually I decided on a layout, but I didn't want the peripheral power wires as close to the motherboard as it seemed they would have to be. Then this occurred to me.

Headers

They had to come out again, of course.

You may also notice that certain headers have certain things on them

Extras

The various "extras" that would normally be built into a case are here, though I confess I'm not satisfied with this arrangement, and may try to rework it at some point.

Full view

Once again, in all its glory.