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Running 120volts through a pc case???

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Nashiem

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Jul 1, 2014
First off I am an electrician so I know what Im doing when it comes to electrical wiring, and electrical theory.

Now that that's out of the way, I just built my first water cooled system, but what would that be without a way to quickly cut power off to the system in case of emergency.

My plan is simple, I want to run 2 14 gauge wires behind the back plate of my case and into the front 5.25" drive bay to where I have a switch I will mount to be used as a quick dis-connect.

Has anyone tried running 120volts through their case, I am not too worried about it, if I cross all data wires at 90 degrease it will cancel out any noise from the 2 wires. And the back plate should protect against any electrical field around the wires from getting to the motherboard or other devices.

Just curious if anyone tried this.
 
from where are the wires run? i assume from the PSU but how so?

why not just use the PC power switch? if the 4 second delay worries you i think you can tweak that in the bios to shut off instantly.
 
Nashiem said:
First off I am an electrician so I know what Im doing when it comes to electrical wiring, and electrical theory.

Now that that's out of the way, I just built my first water cooled system, but what would that be without a way to quickly cut power off to the system in case of emergency.

My plan is simple, I want to run 2 14 gauge wires behind the back plate of my case and into the front 5.25" drive bay to where I have a switch I will mount to be used as a quick dis-connect.

Has anyone tried running 120volts through their case, I am not too worried about it, if I cross all data wires at 90 degrease it will cancel out any noise from the 2 wires. And the back plate should protect against any electrical field around the wires from getting to the motherboard or other devices.

Just curious if anyone tried this.
Click to expand...

You must be an engineer. :chair:

PSU has a power switch, or you can just rip the plug out of the wall.
 
I used three 120v 120x38mm fans in a case. I added a cord to the back of the case & a ceiling fan speed control to a front bay panel. Never had any problems & worked great.
 
I assume the op can't get to the mains socket in a hurry once the pc is situated.
Its such an electromagnetic nightmare inside the case it shouldn't effect things.

I've even known of one commercial installation where some genius had wrapped several feet of ethernet cable around a three phase 440volt power line and the case was live as a result to the sum of 120v. It still run fine... They just didnt enjoy touching the case much :rofl:

Radical plan. Probably will work but in all honesty we just spoof load pumps and run the loop for several hours to leak test and keep check on the system with a visual inspection now and then to see if there's any visual evidence of leakage.

Surge protection at the socket and a broom handle if you need a backup plan :D lol
 
caddi's OH! NO! switch

this is what i use when i plan to go over the top.
 

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he seems to want an emergency cut off incase he spills his everclear in his case.
 
in the one fire when i jerked the cable from the wall the stuffing came out of the wall with it, not only killing the rig with the orange light but a few hundred bucks getting the wall and plug fixed.
 
I've been water cooled since 2000, and there were dozens of things that didn't come in 12 V back then, so yeah, I've had 120 AC running in the case dozens of times.
An all aluminum fan, several different water pumps, a fluorescent light, a transformer/rectifier/capacitor to run my Torin Blower at 18 VDC, I've even run relays that would switch on external or internal 120v goodies when the PC started.
Never any problems or worries.

I split a heavy round 12GA. extension cord and wired it to a light switch at the end of my desk. My power strips were plugged into it. One flick and everything was cut off. That was my O.S.Switch. Not a bad plan for any PC really.
 
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BTW, when PC's got more powerful, and my water pumps and other goodies got more outrageous, I added a second wall cord and exchanged my single switch for a double, so I didn't have too much draw on one wire.
I even split my outlet to two breakers, just to be sure. :)
 
I got my surge protector with power switch down by my feet. I used to accidentally hit it all the time until I got used to it. If I ever need to, I guess that's my OS switch.
 
ok so if you look at the picture of the back of the case there is a hole top left. I am going through there and back of the case. The switch I am using is shown in the picture.

I guess I may be over reacting since something could happen when I am not even near my computer. I have herd horror stories of peoples systems shorting out for many water cooling reasons. I guess I shouldn't be so worried.

Im on the fence yes it would take me about 2 seconds to jump under the desk shut the power supply off and remove the cord from the power supply, but if I had a switch it would take a fraction of a second to do that. Since the components in my pc are about 5000$ I think the switch is worth putting in, what do all of you think?
 

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Hey you can either plan for failure, or learn to put out a fire....I'd rather do the first! :thup:
 
It's such a cool switch you simply have to install it :cool:
And get and use a residual current device incase your not around and things go bad.

Then you can say with confidence you really tried. :thup:

Broom handles cheap enough too... Just incase the lights dim as you weld your hand to the case... Someone may come along to beat you off the live casework. lol :D
 
Super Nade said:
Why not avail yourself of a Ground Fault Interrupter (GFI)?
Click to expand...

GFCI no good. I don't even think it would work because in order for a GFCI to work it would have to detect an imbalance between line and grounded conductors. The power supply would not cause that even if water leaked all over the case until the water got to the power supply itself and shorted that out. The whole idea is that I cut power to the power supply before there is any equipment damage from a possible water coolant leak. The switch would work faster than any device, simply because the power supply regulates the power coming in.

One other thing, I don't think there is any way to electrically or mechanically protect the system with a device such as a gfi or rcdi. I know they have sensors for abnormal humid conditions in a pc, but I don't know if I could integrate that into a auto cut-off. But it is an interesting idea. I know I could do it, anything can be done, but is it worth the time to make electronic changes and create a circuit board to operate with the sensor device for auto shut-off. Maybe Ill patent it, everyone will want one.

caddi daddi said:
what's the volt and amp rating of the switch?
Click to expand...

The guy at frozen cpu said the switch was marked 15 amps at 240v, which usually means 20 amps at 120 volts.
 
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With that kind of cash invested , yeah , I would want an O.S. switch and a Halon system taken out of a race car! Seriously , you have me wondering if I'm doing all I should be "just in case". I'm giving the idea a yes vote.
 
you could splice it into the 24 pin connector, psu start/shutdown circuit but that would only shut down the dc side of the psu, not kill the ac input.
 
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