Make an I/O Shield???

[Maccer101]

As a treat I want to transfer my Dell into a nice case, current contender the Lian Li PC-7F.

However the Dell mobo I/O shiled is part of the case and cannot be removed without cutting it out with a dremel.

I've searched for a compatable I/O shield with no luck (the rear I/O is VGA, 4xUsb, Ethernet and 7.1 only)

Only way I can see is either make one, how? or dremel the one out of the dell case and glue it to the blank shield that came with my coolermaster case.

Any other ideas?

[Steve B]

how about stiff card?

[Maccer101]

I was concerned that it had to be conductive to the case

[Steve B]

nope, the board is also grounded to the case at the stand-offs

[Pob255]

More importantly the case is more often grounded via the psu/motherboard
The motherboard is grounded via the power cables to the psu, and the psu is grounded via the mains lead.

Now in theory card or no IO plate would make a hole for em leakage, however in practice it's too small to make any real difference.
I'm currently running without an IO plate, not even a bit of card, it causes no power or em issues at all.
The main benefit to an IO plate is when you have to stick your hands around the back to feel for a cable or such and it also helps strengthen the whole assembly, ie less chance of doing serious damage to the connectors or motherboard if something puts sideways force onto the connectors sticking out of the back of the case.

[Maccer101]

Excellent, looks like I can get a new case! Thankyou! I believe I have already sorted out the front panel headers (as they are not marked), I wired my CM330 case to the Dell mobo as was able to turn it on/off.

Thinking about using the Dell case as for a home server build I'm also planning on doing over the next month or so, as it'll be the perfect size to hide in the lounge.

[kalniel]

It's for EMI problems - and even if you don't notice any leakage, your neighbour might! (We have problems with our TV reception due to one of our neighbours EMI leakage from something). Card won't do anything, but card+tinfoil would.

[Funkstar]

If you do that you'll need to cut the IO shield out anyway. How about trying to cur it neatly? If you succeed then you can re-use it in the Lian-Li. if not, well, you tried

[Maccer101]

For the server conversion yeah I would either cut the backplate out or drill it for the extra holes, think I'll pop into Makro tomorrow and look for a cheap Dremel. It'll be a bit tricky since the I'll need the mobo it the new case inorder to make the measurements of where to cut out, the Dell I/O area is coloured but not the same size as a real I/O shield so needs to be cut just right inorder to line up in a new case and for a replacement I/O shield to be installed for the server mobo.

But card & tinfoil looks like an attractive easy option :-)

[Giraffe]

Make the shield of card and glue a layer of aluminium foil to it on the side that goes against the case. If the foil is earthed to the case it block up most of the hole but won't, of course, have the springy bits (tech. term) against the i/o connectors.

[Maccer101]

Make the shield of card and glue a layer of aluminium foil to it on the side that goes against the case. If the foil is earthed to the case it block up most of the hole but won't, of course, have the springy bits (tech. term) against the i/o connectors.

So foil facing outside card inwards?

A beautful Lian Li case with a foil patch on the back , oh well my fault for buying a dell in the first place.

P.S. my wife thinks I'm sad drooling over the case when the Dell one is doing the job (well apart from the airflow ) She is probably right though...

I hate working in a mATX case though, last week I put a new cooler on the CPU and you basicall have to completely strip the case to get the motherboard out (even took the rear fan out), then plugging SATAs and USBs back in is a freakin mare, I forgot to plug the 4 pin ATX power in after I'd screwed the board in and put the fan on so ended up pushing it in with a chopstick haha.

[Giraffe]

How often do you look at the back of the case? I assume that the case is aluminium, so foil is better than cardboard, innit.

[Maccer101]

How often do you look at the back of the case? I assume that the case is aluminium, so foil is better than cardboard, innit.

It is indeed, thanks

[watercooled]

Is it really necessary? What about cases with an acrylic window in a side panel - surely they're not capable of blocking EM waves?

[llololloy]

just as a side note, have you checked that the dell mobo conforms to the (m)atx spec? Quite often dells, hps, compaqs etc use there own designs and the spacers won't match the standoffs on the case.

[Giraffe]

Is it really necessary? What about cases with an acrylic window in a side panel - surely they're not capable of blocking EM waves?

V. good point. Possibly it's not so important if as it's away from connectors and drives. It is possible to coat transparent materials to block EMI. A friend had a DAB radio on a windowsill, then the windows were changed fro K-glass and I had to rig the arial in the loft.