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I am making my own case and wish to have the motherboard mounted with an angle 'forward' so that the motherboard would be hanging somewhat more than in the regular 90 degree mounting position.

But I have some worries about this causing strain on the motherboard, and how this may affect it on the long term (say 2 years of 24/7 usage).

I won't be using a big cooling radiator, rather I will mount a water cooling block (which may or may not put more strain on it).

Does anyone have thoughts about this, is it something I can do without too much worrying or is it wiser to avoid such a construction?

Many thanks in advance.

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  • Thanks @Cfinley, I'll consider it in the future. For now I have a conceptual representation of a solution and will try to work that out (also I have not yet purchased any 'tilted case' as you say, as I wish to make one myself). I will leave the question here 'as is' unless it is suggested to delete it of course.
    – nick88
    Commented Mar 24, 2018 at 10:36

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Your question might be more of an engineering line of reasoning, but it's still hardware related.

Consider the mounting points for your mainboard. They are "scattered" around the board based on standards for case mount placement. They are almost certainly engineered to take stress from the components on the board and transfer that to the stand-offs attached to the case.

In that configuration, the forces are more-or-less evenly distributed over the mainboard, perhaps with additional mount holes near high-load areas such as the processor and heat sink assembly.

I have assembled a couple computer boards which did not have stand-offs in the case but had mounting holes. This was a flaw or failure in the case engineering but had little effect on the installation.

In your case, literally and figuratively, you would want to ensure that every mounting hole was properly secured and supported the board. If your intent is to secure the mainboard only at the edges, I would suggest that is contra-indicated. To secure all of the points, it would be necessary to build "branches" from behind the board to secure where possible, or in front of the board, providing support from either side.

The best support will be provided by branches that are perpendicular to the mainboard. Those that are not would allow some flex in the structure. If one cannot create a perpendicular-to-the-board branch, one should consider both a vertical and a horizontal branch joined at the mount point.

I would not suggest that it is "wiser" to avoid such a construction, as the other factors for this design have not been referenced.

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  • Thanks @fred_dot_u this is definitely helpful. I should have added that I was planning on using either a cut out metal backplate from a current case, or a custom cut/drilled piece of acrylic glass (although I probably will not since this can start changing shape at 60-70 degrees C). I do plan to mount it at all of the points. The angle of tilt should be about 40 or 45 degrees. My biggest worry is the uneven force on the mounting points at the top, as there are less holes there. The board would also hold 2 watercooled gpu's.
    – nick88
    Commented Mar 22, 2018 at 18:14
  • Fewer holes would imply lower forces involved, if the engineering is done correctly. If you see fewer components in the area of the reduced count of mounting holes, it is consistent with my suggestion.
    – fred_dot_u
    Commented Mar 22, 2018 at 22:04
  • Thanks, I am probably going to cut out the metal panel that regularly holds a motherboard in a case, and weld sidepanels for support. This should be quite stable, and if I limit the degree of tilt to 60 degrees I hope the strain will be within limits. Indeed I was planning to use all mounting holes for support. The forces should be similar as if one would tilt a regular case and lean it to a wall (with some support). The whole idea is to reduce chances of if any leakages in watercooling would occur, that they would drip on the rest of the motherboard. Thanks for your answer by the way!
    – nick88
    Commented Mar 24, 2018 at 10:41

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