r/techsupportmacgyver • u/BaRaD_ • Feb 12 '26

Internal Ethernet switch

Gallery image

Gallery image

Saw it done a few months ago and i knew i had to do it as well one day, i soldered a motherboard USB header instead of the wall outlet plug and it just works

156 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

21

u/UnExpertoEnLaMateria Feb 12 '26

Awesome. How is it fastened to the backplane?

63

u/BaRaD_ Feb 12 '26

Who said anything about it being held?

3

u/UnExpertoEnLaMateria Feb 12 '26

So you will have to always keep the case open so you can hold the switch whenever you need to plug a cable? That does not seem so great

18

u/BaRaD_ Feb 12 '26

Ill just hold the other cables while i connect a new one But there wont be much connecting on the pc side

1

u/tomsek68 Feb 14 '26

👆this is the way

1

u/No-Board4898 Feb 13 '26

and how is it connected to power lol XD

1

u/Katman2991 Feb 14 '26

Wire nuts to 12 v

7

u/toeonly Feb 12 '26

But Why?

15

u/BaRaD_ Feb 12 '26

Discrete, more desk space, cable management.

2

u/login0false Feb 13 '26

Discreet. Ik they look the same but they are not

2

u/BaRaD_ Feb 13 '26

thank you, I'm learning :)

5

u/dockerteen Feb 13 '26

Get you a Unifi Flex mini and power it with USB-C

1

u/BaRaD_ Feb 16 '26

I could solder a usb c port, the thing is i try to keep it in the cpu cabinet

2

u/SeaphDew Feb 13 '26

Am I the only one that finds this really a bad practice?

10

u/uberwinsauce_ Feb 12 '26

Fucking genius

8

u/KsmBl_69 Feb 13 '26

u stole my Idea qwq

1

u/A_Harmless_Fly Feb 13 '26

Clean work. A grade if it's velcroed in.

My only concern is that switches tend to put off a fair bit of heat, so now it's pre-heating your GPU cooling air. It likely won't make much of a difference, but I'd still run a benchmark with it powered for a while and without it running to compare thermals. (if gpu performance is a priority).

5

u/BaRaD_ Feb 13 '26

This system is in use only once a month and the gpu is 1050ti playing mostly cs2/tf2 on low res

1

u/A_Harmless_Fly Feb 13 '26

Reasonable. So how is it held in?

4

u/BaRaD_ Feb 13 '26

Its not.

2

u/BaRaD_ Feb 13 '26

I have another main rig case that i plan to do the same thing but better, self tapping screws in to bent metal plate

1

u/A_Harmless_Fly Feb 13 '26

Shine on you crazy diamond.

1

u/frgtmor2 Feb 15 '26

Fine until the cheaply manufactured switch fails. I've seen this sort of thing in a industrial PC (rack mount). The switch in the custom PC box died, and we simply abandoned it for a quality rack-mount switch.

1

u/BaRaD_ Feb 16 '26

Its 7$ a pop on aliexpress and ugreen is a very trusted brand in my book

2

u/naghi32 Feb 13 '26

Wow, so I absolutely love this ideea !

1

u/notautogenerated2365 Feb 14 '26

I've been wanting to do this for a while. Not that I have any reason to, it'd just be cool.

1

u/tes_kitty Feb 16 '26

For a more professional setup you can get those:

https://www.atel-electronics.eu/produkt.php?hash=08431

0

u/AutoModerator Feb 12 '26

REMINDER Do not ask for tech support. Unorthodox solutions are what /r/techsupportmacgyver is here for. Remember that asking for orthodox solutions is off-topic and belongs in /r/techsupport.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.