mATX computer in a MICKE drawer unit

Materials: MICKE drawer unit, computer chasis, dremel tool, screwdriver

Description: After being sick of looking at my ugly black Coolermaster Cavalier case in my mostly white bedroom I decided to do something about it. I didn't want a regular computer case as it would probably make me sick sooner or later, so after looking through IKEA folder I decided to go with the MICKE drawer unit which seemed to be big enough to fit an mATX motherboard in the bottom drawer. I ordered a cheap mATX case that I could use as a donor for the frame and motherboard tray, picked up an all white unit from my local Ikea store and got to work...



1. Cut a piece of plywood for the drawer's bottom as the drawer part that this unit comes with won't do the trick.

2. Cut the computer chasis so you have the motherboard tray along with what has left off of the frame. It's important not to cut too much as the frame will be usefull to hold HDD cage, usb ports and drawer's front. I used dremel for cutting.

3. Screw the frame to the plywood and install all the hardware. In my case it's a Gigabyte motherboard, rather outdated AMD X2 4850e, Asus GeForce 250 GTS and 2 HDDs (2TB storage capacity in total).

4. Place the power button somewhere convenient (I used double sided tape for that) and 'front' USB ports so they are accessible after opening the drawer (zip ties helped me here).

5. Attach the drawer front to the frame (I had to use some spacers to make the front even and flush with the rest of the drawers) and you're done :)

Final notes:
- PSU is at the very back, lying on the plywood - not the greatest solution but works for me,
- I don't have room for an optical drive - don't really need it,
- a pretty non existing airflow resulted in the CPU temps under full load hitting 80C with stock cooler so I decided to get something better which brought the temps down to 50C, also got a replacement for the noisy vid card cooler,
- dust is an issue,
- MICKE drawer unit is perfect for such mods. If you don't really need the storage and won't mind giving up the two bottom drawers, you can fit pretty much anything in there.

~ Zbyszek, Wrocław, Poland