I built a rig for my 3 1/2 year-old son. It's a clear, all acrylic case from Sunbeam.

It looks good, but it's assembled with screws only. I need to be able to get into it regularly. I'd like to put a hinge on the back of the left side panel and some sort of lock on the front of the panel, so I can keep him out of the case but get into it easily when I need to. Any suggestions?

http://www.directron.com/1320380.html ?

http://www.tryten.com/products/pccaselock.php ?

http://www.wesecure.com/Merchant2/merchant...ategory_Code=CL ?

A computer for a 3.5 year old kid?

 wish i had an acrylic cased PC when i was 3.5 years old lol.....

Sure, why not? I figured I'd get him started learning early, and he loves it. He's already more adept than most of the baby boomers I work with. Plus, it gave me an excuse to put together this kick . case!

I just built my own rig (see sig) and was using my old HP as a file server. My son always sees me in my office and wants to work on the computer like I do. So I started letting him use the old HP, and he took right to it--it's also become a useful "negotiating" tool ("If you don't pick up your toys, you're not going to get any computer time."). I found some cool kid mouses and keyboards to swap for the old crap I was using. I was already planning on putting the internals in a new case, because the old mini tower was cooking everything (regularly measuring 50-60°C in the case at idle!). So I figured I'd put all the stuff in a transparent case, so he could see and start learning about the insides. I'm lighting it up like a Christmas tree too so it'll draw his interest--5 blue/orange UV reactive case fans with blue LEDs, UV reactive green cable sleeving, 2 12" liquid neon green cathodes, 2 12" UV cathodes, an orange UV reactive IDE cable, and exposing the PSU internals.

I'm guessing you don't have kids...


So do I! Even before I've finished most of the lighting and even with all the old hardware, it looks killer! Make me wonder how cool my new stuff would look totally exposed. I'd love to post pics, but I don't have any where to host them at the top level for embedding here--I tried Picassa, but the board wouldn't accept the url.

BTW, I'm assuming from you avatar that you and I bear the same cross--we're both Eagles fans.

Dang man, thats a lucky kid...I wish my current pc was as nice looking as his rofl.

Imageshack.us

Front Left Side Panel

Left Side Panel, Front Left Side Panel, Rear

I forgot to mention, and this should make most of you laugh, the current power supply (the one I pulled from my old HP) is 200w...

Uuh...so?
I run a full rig off a 380 watt psu and it still has plenty of room for more.
Specs are p35-ds3l
E2160 @ 2.8
2900 ICE
320 gig hard drive
1 dvd burner

I dunno. It runs, but I don't see 200w PSUs anywhere. Most places I've looked seem to consider 400w the best choice for a basic build, but I haven't really looked many places or know a lot about the issue. I was surprised at the low wattage when I pulled it out. The biggest issue with it is the short connections--I can't reach one of the HDDs or the optical drive. I also can't power the two fans on the left side panel.

I have used power supplies lower than 250 watts to power a brand new build. You will be surprised with the actual wattage requirements for running a pc.