Abstract:
A computer system has a housing, a motherboard installed inside the housing, a cage installed on a region inside the housing and adjacent to a top surface of the motherboard, and at least an integrated drive electronics device installed inside the cage. The motherboard has the top surface, a bottom surface, and a central processing unit installed on the bottom surface for processing data.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to a computer system, and more particularly, to a computer system having a motherboard, a central processing unit installed on a bottom surface of the motherboard, and at least an integrated drive electronics device installed on top of the motherboard.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0004]     Please refer to  FIG. 1 , which is a schematic diagram of an ATX computer system  10  according to the prior art. The computer system  10  comprises a housing  12 , a motherboard  14  installed inside the housing  12 , a central processing unit (CPU)  15  installed on the motherboard  14 , five peripheral component interconnect (PCI) slots  16  installed on the motherboard  14  and electrically connected to the CPU  15 , a plurality of integrated drive electronics (IDE) connectors  18  installed on the motherboard  14 , a power supply  20 , and a plurality of IDE devices  22  and  24 .  
         [0005]     In contrast to an old model AT computer system, such as a baby AT or a BAT, the ATX computer system  10  has a characteristic that the layout between the CPU  15  and the PCI slots  16  has been rotated by 90 degrees so that additional space is created to accommodate more full-length added cards.  
         [0006]     Please refer to  FIG. 2 , which is a schematic diagram of an NLX computer system  30  according to the prior art. The computer system  30  comprises a housing  32 , a motherboard  34  installed inside the housing  32 , a CPU  35  installed on the motherboard  34 , a riser connector  36  installed on the motherboard  34  and having  340  pins, a riser card  38  plugged into the riser connector  36 , a power supply  40 , and a plurality of add-in card slots (not shown) installed on the riser card  38  for electrically connecting with a plurality of IDE devices.  
         [0007]     The NLX computer system  30  can be manually opened without any tools. Moreover, the motherboard  34  of the NLX computer system  30  is installed on a track-like frame and can be easily slid away from the frame for maintenance.  
         [0008]     Since a CPU in operation always generates heat and too much the heat affects the CPU, the ATX computer system  10  and the NLX computer system  30  both have to reserve a specific space on top of the CPU  15  (CPU  35 ) for ventilating heat generated by the CPU  15 . The specific space increases the bulk of the ATX computer system  10 .  
         [0009]     In addition to the CPU  15 , IDE devices such as a hard disk drive (HDD) in the ATX computer system  10  generate heat too. According to the ATX  10  and the NLX computer system  30  standards, the IDE devices are also installed on the motherboard  14  surrounding the CPU  15 . Therefore, heat generated by the CPU  15  will affect the IDE devices and vice versa, and the ATX computer system  10  easily suffers malfunctions.  
       SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
       [0010]     It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide a computer system protected from heat interference and having a small bulk.  
         [0011]     According to the claimed invention, the computer system has a housing, a motherboard installed inside the housing, a cage installed on a region inside of the housing and adjacent to a top surface of the motherboard, and at least an integrated drive electronics device installed inside the cage. The motherboard has the top surface, a bottom surface, and a central processing unit installed on the bottom surface for processing data.  
         [0012]     In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the housing has at least a first heat-ventilating hole installed on top of the motherboard, at least a second heat-ventilating hole installed on bottom of the motherboard, a first heat-ventilating device corresponding to the first heat-ventilating hole for ventilating heat generated by the IDE devices via the first heat-ventilating hole to a first region outside of the housing, and a second heat-ventilating device corresponding to the second heat-ventilating hole for ventilating heat generated by the CPU via the second heat-ventilating hole to a second region outside of the housing.  
         [0013]     The computer system further has at least a memory slot obliquely installed on the bottom surface of the motherboard.  
         [0014]     Since the computer system has the IDE devices installed on top of the motherboard and the CPU installed on the bottom surface of the motherboard, the computer system is protected from heat interference. Moreover, the computer system does not need to have a specific space reserved for heat-ventilation and therefore has a smaller size.  
         [0015]     These and other objectives of the claimed invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0016]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an ATX computer system according to the prior art.  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of an NLX computer system according to the prior art.  
         [0018]      FIG. 3  is an exploded view of a computer system of a preferred embodiment according to the present invention.  
         [0019]      FIG. 4  is a fabrication diagram of a motherboard, a motherboard cage and a cage of the computer system shown in  FIG. 3  according to the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0020]     Please refer to  FIG. 3 , which is an exploded view of a computer system  50  of a preferred embodiment according to the present invention. The computer system  50  comprises a top housing  52 , a bottom housing  54 , a rear housing  56 , at least a second heat-ventilating hole  57  installed on the rear housing  56 , a panel  58 , a motherboard  60  installed inside a housing consisting of the top housing  52 , the bottom housing  54  and the rear housing  56 , a motherboard cage  62  installed on a top surface of the motherboard  60  for accommodating the motherboard  60 , a cage  64  installed on top of the motherboard cage  62 , a plurality of IDE devices  66  installed inside the cage  64  such as a HDD, a card reader, a CD-ROM and a floppy disk drive (FDD), a plurality of seldom-used headers  68  fixed on the motherboard cage  62 , and at least a second heat-ventilating device (not shown) installed inside the cage  64  for ventilating heat generated by the IDE devices  66  in operation via the second heat-ventilating hole  57  to a region outside of the housing.  
         [0021]     The motherboard cage  62  comprises a positioning hole  82  and the cage  64  comprises a positioning device  84  corresponding to the positioning hole  82  for positioning the cage  64  onto the motherboard cage  62  by plugging into the positioning hole  82  of the motherboard cage  62  when the cage  64  is placed on top of the motherboard cage  62 .  
         [0022]     In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second heat-ventilating device is a fan cooler, the headers  68  include two Sonic/Philips Digital Interface Format (SPDIF in/out) headers, an S-video header, a VGA output header, and two DC output headers, etc., and the top housing  52 , the bottom housing  54  and the panel  58  can be all fixed to the rear housing  58  by the use of screws.  
         [0023]     Please refer to  FIG. 4 , which is a fabrication diagram of the motherboard  60 , the motherboard cage  62  and the cage  64  of the computer system  50  shown in  FIG. 3  according to the present invention. The motherboard cage  62  comprises at least a first heat-ventilating hole  70 . The motherboard  60  comprises a bottom surface, a CPU  72  installed on the bottom surface, at least an add-in card slot  74  for an accelerated graphic port (AGP) card or a PCI card to be plugged into, at least a memory slot  76  obliquely installed on the bottom surface, a plurality of frequently-used headers  80 , and a first heat-ventilating device  78  adjacent to the CPU  72  for ventilating heat generated by the CPU  72  in operation via the first heat-ventilating hole  70  to a region outside of the housing.  
         [0024]     In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first heat-ventilating device  78  is a pipeline cooler, the memory slot  76  and the motherboard  60  have an included angle of 65 degrees, the headers  80  include IDE headers capable of electrically connecting the IDE devices  66  with electronic devices outside of the computer system  50 , two digital audio output/input headers, two four/six-pin IEEE 1394 headers, etc. In order to reduce the bulk of the computer system  50  further, the memory slot  76  can be flatly installed on the motherboard  60  and the include angle between the memory slot  76  and the motherboard  60  can approach zero degrees to confine the memory slot  76  to a height lower than that of the CPU  72 .  
         [0025]     In contrast to the prior art computer systems, the computer system  50  of the present invention has at least the following advantages:  
         [0026]     1. Since the CPU  72  is installed on the bottom surface of the motherboard  60  and the cage  64  is installed on top of the motherboard  60 , the computer system  60  does not have to have the specific space reserved for ventilating heat generated by the CPU  72  in operation and thus has a small size;  
         [0027]     2. Since the cage  64  is installed on top of the motherboard  60  and the CPU  72  is installed on the bottom surface of the motherboard  60 , the IDE devices  66  inside the cage  64  will not generate any heat that interferes with the CPU  72  and vice versa;  
         [0028]     3. Since the top housing  52  and the bottom housing  54  are detachable from the rear housing  56 , maintenance workers can remove the top housing  52  from the rear housing  56  and maintain the IDE devices  66  inside the cage  64  or remove the bottom housing  54  from the rear housing  56  and maintain electronic components such as the CPU  72  and the memory slot  76  on the bottom surface of the motherboard  60 ; and  
         [0029]     4. The cage  64  is not fixed to but positioned on the motherboard cage  62  and can be therefore easily separated from the motherboard cage  62  for the convenience of maintaining the IDE devices  66 .  
         [0030]     Following the detailed description of the present invention above, those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended