Desktop Power Supply Outside of the case?
 

I'm thinking of trying something with case fans, for my laptop, a custom cooler. I don't have any experience with electricity and wiring or anything- and not wanting to start a fire or kill myself either, I thought about using a desktop power supply.
So I was wondering if I can just take a desktop power supply out of the case and not have it be a potential for disaster.

yes, probably, as long as you don't drop it or disassemble it.

...though pc power supplies are rather big.... so it'd be a rather large custom cooler. maybe you could get a microatx one, something weak like 200w.

It's much like taking out any other part in a PC. It's just much more involved. The only thing is you'll have to remember where every connection goes so when the PC comes back on, everything will work.

Yeah after looking for a while I have seen plenty of photos of the psu running outside the case. So I'm not so worried. I did see some smaller ones for a shuttle, so if all goes well I may pick up one of those.

I've seen a whole PC ran without a case, which is fine, as long as it doesn't interfere with other electronics (most notably an AM/FM radio).

Heck, you could even run an entire PC with the parts laid out on the side of a closet. (I've seen pictures of this done.)

Yeah, but you would have to be careful not to short anything with ESD.

I don't think there's too big a risk of that unless you were to touch the motherboard right after generating a lot of static electricity. (The power/reset buttons could easily be mounted on a part of the closet away from the parts.)
...unless static electricity can spontaneously travel through the air without a true cause. (I would imagine that putting such a... closet PC on an uncarpeted floor would help too.)

That's true, but you wouldn't want your friends coming in and being like, "Whoa, sweet computer, I'd better touch it. Oh it turned off."

With a unsecured power supply, make sure none of the metal parts come in contact with the chasis to your PC. I had the power supply button connection do that once, it not only killed the PC, but also shorted an entire outlet as well.

Any friend that would do that is not a friend at all =p
Friends don't let friends use ESD!

It's just not very funny when simply touching your $400 video card will ruin it (make sure you always have one hand on the computer chasis when touching circut boards, CPUs and RAM and any other sensitive parts).

Then don't do that with your main computer. What kind of moron would mount something that expensive and fragile on a wall for all to touch? Really. It's common fucking sense.

You'd be surprised how stupid people can be the first time they crack open their PC for the first time. But seriously, ESD has claimed at least one OLD RAM stick I used to have (back when I still was inexperienced). Rule of the thumb: if it came in a anti-static bag, it should be handled with extreme care.

I have to see that.

Try it out, the only thing that's hard get is the PSU, since most cases have an built in PSU. They run quite well, as long as no two parts come into close contact and it runs on a dry surface.