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This came up during a drinking discussion over the weekend. Does anyone know if it is possible to build a functional PC case out of legos? I bet that it'd be impossible due to thermal issues (i.e. legos melting or the PC burning out) unless you left a lot of it open..

Anyone tried it?
EDIT: I'd give it a go if I had enough legos around and could figure out how to mount the motherboard. But I don't so...

yes you can

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&um=1&sa=1&q=lego+computer+case&btnG=Search+images&aq=f&oq=&start=0

not sure I'd bother though

I wouldn't worry about the legos melting. Keep in mind how much stuff in your computer is already made out of plastic.

I think that the mounting might require some non-lego parts. I don't remember ever owning any threaded legos.

You're not going to melt LEGOs in a computer case.

FuturePastNow wrote:

You're not going to melt LEGOs in a computer case.

I bet you could if you had a brick touching a cheap HSF with one of those old AMD quad FX: http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/11353/13

I don't think a Lego case would have any thermal issues to speak of. In fact, a Lego case sounds fairly easy considering how simple it would be to create holes for fans and the like. Certainly much easier than it would be to cut holes in a piece of wood or metal.

I think the main issue would be portability. Anyone who built big Lego starships as a kid knows that the connection between Legos really isn't strong enough to support much weight. Any case bigger than a Mini-ITX one would likely fall apart if you picked it up. Superglue might solve this, however.

It would likely be just as well to make it a solid construction, because I have a hard time thinking of a way you would mount a mobo that doesn't use something drilled into or glued into the case.

Faceless Clock wrote:

I don't think a Lego case would have any thermal issues to speak of. In fact, a Lego case sounds fairly easy considering how simple it would be to create holes for fans and the like. Certainly much easier than it would be to cut holes in a piece of wood or metal.

I think the main issue would be portability. Anyone who built big Lego starships as a kid knows that the connection between Legos really isn't strong enough to support much weight. Any case bigger than a Mini-ITX one would likely fall apart if you picked it up. Superglue might solve this, however.

It would likely be just as well to make it a solid construction, because I have a hard time thinking of a way you would mount a mobo that doesn't use something drilled into or glued into the case.

Professional Lego modelers (don't laugh) glue the bricks together. As for mounting the mobo, don't forget the Technic Legos. Plenty of bricks with holes in them. However, most Lego cases I've seen pictures of used a removable motherboard tray taken from a "real" case.

FuturePastNow wrote:

Professional Lego modelers (don't laugh) glue the bricks together. As for mounting the mobo, don't forget the Technic Legos. Plenty of bricks with holes in them. However, most Lego cases I've seen pictures of used a removable motherboard tray taken from a "real" case.

Oh my god, I had completely forgotten about Technic. Hell, now I want to make one myself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylonitr ... ne_styrene

^"For the majority of applications, ABS can be used between −25 and 60 °C as its mechanical properties vary with temperature", but in case of low-load construction such as this the limit further down the article probably applies, "Generally ABS would have useful characteristics within a temperature range from -40 to 100 °C", so I'd say you're safe in this regard.

But, BTW, aren't cases usually metal for a reason? EMI, etc.

zima wrote:

But, BTW, aren't cases usually metal for a reason? EMI, etc.

EMI and grounding are probably more important than say, portability.