Tool Review: DOMA Pro PCI Open Computer Case

Computers & Mobile Technology
Tool Review: DOMA Pro PCI Open Computer Case

I’m a minimalist by nature, which is what attracted me to this “no-case” from My Open PC in the first place. I have often toyed with the idea of designing something similar, myself—just a couple of panels with the bare-minimum cutouts to meet the ATX specification. While, over the long run, I think there are good reasons to keep a PC’s guts inside a hard case, in the short term, an open fixture like this has a lot to recommend it, for instance as a test bed for experimenting with different hardware configurations. I’ve built every desktop PC I’ve ever personally owned, and between that activity and the occasional component upgrade I seem to generate a fairly consistent trickle of surplus computer equipment. And every so often that trickle pools up to the point that I can cobble together an extra working PC. That kind of kit-bashing usually requires a lot of experimentation and part-swapping, which is where an open test fixture comes in really handy.

These are the two biggest parts in the box, the mainboard plate and the back panel.  The DOMA Pro consists of 16 total pieces of this 3/16″ CNC-milled translucent “smoke” black acrylic sheet, a case electronics package, and a box of metal hardware. There’s also a small acrylic wrench (which I did not use) for tightening the hexagonal coupling nuts used throughout assembly, a detailed parts list, and a page of instructions with nice clear isometric line drawings.

The metal hardware is very thoughtfully packaged in a six-compartment translucent polypropylene organizer with separate snapping, hinged lids. A printed label stuck to the back of the organizer identifies each bit by its name in the instructions, and there are at least one or two extras of each flavor. Such attention to detail seems characteristic of the product and its manufacturer, though they do make a couple of mis-steps, as I’ll discuss below.

The case electronics consist of two soft momentary push-button switches for power and reset functions, and one red and one green LED to indicate hard drive activity and system power, respectively, all of which come pre-wired with labelled sockets for your motherboard pins.

The fixture has space to mount one 5.25″ drive (probably an optical drive) and one or two 3.5″ drives slung under the mainboard plate. Assembly begins by screwing small one-size-fits-all acrylic side panels to your drives, which then interlock with the mainboard plate, riding underneath it where the drive side panels double as supports for the front edge of the case.

The drive assemblies are locked in place by a pair of small cams sliding on hexagonal coupling nuts secured to the mainboard plate. This trick—using cheap hex standoffs as bearing surfaces for moving parts—is one of a couple of examples of clever CNC-panel design the DOMA Pro includes. It’s repeated with only slight variation in the locking bar mechanism that secures the top corners of the PCI cards in place—much faster than screws, but more secure than just letting the cards sit loose in the slots.

Assembly to the stage shown here took me a leisurely hour, or thereabouts. I went on to add motherboard, video card, and power supply, and then to do a bunch of drive-swapping in the course of scratching together a Linux box for use with my garage CNC equipment. Then I transferred the working setup to a traditional hard case.

The only significant problem I had with the DOMA Pro, as it came from the manufacturer, was that it was wobblier than I like—Which is to say, wobblier than it had to be. Specifically, the bolted joints at the corners between mainboard and back panels were loose, which caused a bit of racking along the short horizontal dimension. Without having actually asked the designers about it, I’d guess the sloppy fit at these joints is caused by badly-specified hardware. The micrometer shows that the acrylic panels are very close to nominal 3/16″ thickness at 0.185″, while the coupling nuts that pass through them, which I bet are nominally 3/8″ (0.375″) are a bit long at 0.385″. I ended up shimming mine out with bits of tape between the two acrylic panels, and the problem went away.

The other small problem I had was with the female one-pin socket on the end of the positive leg of the system power LED. Specifically, it fell off after a single installation-removal cycle. Easily fixed, of course, but a bit annoying.

Overall, I really like this case both in theory and in practice. And considering its accessible price, it remains a good value in spite of the one or two small problems I had during assembly.

30 thoughts on “Tool Review: DOMA Pro PCI Open Computer Case

  1. Anonymous says:

    Um, RFI shielding?  Or rather, none present.  Maybe you have a faraday cage to work in, but me, I’m going for a grounded metal box. 

    But I guess I’m just finicky that way.  I guess if it’s a rarely run test fixture, sure, but still…

    1. Scott Morrison says:

      I was thinking the exact same thing. Every time I read one of these casemod posts where they use plexiglass or MDF or something similar I always wonder what the FCC would say.

      1. Anonymous says:

        I’m less concerned about the FCC and more concerned about:
        A) my neighbors being annoyed by the (potential) jamming,
        B) my wife being annoyed that the wifi slowed to a crawl, and/or her phone isn’t working, and
        C) exposure to microwave radiation of unknown strength. 

        Mostly B, to be honest. 

      2. Anonymous says:

        I’m less concerned about the FCC and more concerned about:
        A) my neighbors being annoyed by the (potential) jamming,
        B) my wife being annoyed that the wifi slowed to a crawl, and/or her phone isn’t working, and
        C) exposure to microwave radiation of unknown strength. 

        Mostly B, to be honest. 

      3. Jay Arrrr says:

        Never mind the FCC, wonder what his neighbourhood Ham operators or radio listeners think?
        I’ve seen some really beautiful casemods, not a square inch of shielding to be found in ’em.

      4. Jay Arrrr says:

        Never mind the FCC, wonder what his neighbourhood Ham operators or radio listeners think?
        I’ve seen some really beautiful casemods, not a square inch of shielding to be found in ’em.

      5. Jay Arrrr says:

        Never mind the FCC, wonder what his neighbourhood Ham operators or radio listeners think?
        I’ve seen some really beautiful casemods, not a square inch of shielding to be found in ’em.

      6. Jay Arrrr says:

        Never mind the FCC, wonder what his neighbourhood Ham operators or radio listeners think?
        I’ve seen some really beautiful casemods, not a square inch of shielding to be found in ’em.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Um, RFI shielding?  Or rather, none present.  Maybe you have a faraday cage to work in, but me, I’m going for a grounded metal box. 

    But I guess I’m just finicky that way.  I guess if it’s a rarely run test fixture, sure, but still…

  3. Edward Alexander Nardella says:

    Reset and power buttons need labels.
    Leads for the leds and buttons should be single pin to support non standard mobo
    Needs a speaker
    Pretty awesome tho!

  4. Andy Peters says:

    In addition to the complete lack of shielding that the others have mentioned, without the case and the usual ducting one sees inside, this “case” has very ineffective cooling. Sure, there are fans on the CPU, GPU and power supply, but without anything to force cool air where it needs to be and vent the hot air away.
    I’ll be he overclocks, too.

    1. Jake Hildebrandt says:

      Agreed.  It might be counter-intuitive to some, but being wide open is very ineffective for cooling.  Even if the directly-fanned components are OK, there will be virtually no airflow over other bits like RAM, microprocs, voltage regulators, etc.  Not to mention what would happen if you spilled a drink or even sneezed on it!

      1. Bobby Tifft says:

        Ummm… no they aren’t, this “case” is just the exception since it has the big side part that blocks air flow. Most legitimate test benches are much better for air flow than standard cases, since they have mounting areas for extra fans, and provide the least amount of air resistance. Most actual test benches also provide more secure mounting for components, and ensure that you can even mount an e-atx motherboard, over sized power supply, and multiple drives.

        I have been running my pc without a case for 6 months now, and it runs cooler, and actually collects much less dust, believe it or not

      2. Bobby Tifft says:

        Ummm… no they aren’t, this “case” is just the exception since it has the big side part that blocks air flow. Most legitimate test benches are much better for air flow than standard cases, since they have mounting areas for extra fans, and provide the least amount of air resistance. Most actual test benches also provide more secure mounting for components, and ensure that you can even mount an e-atx motherboard, over sized power supply, and multiple drives.

        I have been running my pc without a case for 6 months now, and it runs cooler, and actually collects much less dust, believe it or not

  5. David Kinder says:

    My very first thought when I saw this:  Clearly whoever uses this does not have cats.  I cant leave my headphones sitting on my desk without finding them in pieces on the floor the next day.  I can just image the field day my cat would have with all these small parts and wires…

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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