2017-03-30 6:21 GMT-04:00 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl@lkcl.net>:

* the PCB will fall out of the casework (both ways, forwards and backwards).

Actually it won't. :-) It cannot slide frontward due to upper layers stopping the DC/VGA ports. As for backwards it's more of an issue, only the right back corner of the EOMA card receptacle (have no idea how it's called) will be stopped by a width of 3mm.

* it will also lift upwards by about... 1mm, rattling around.

Yes that bugs me too.

* the middle layers also need to be split into separate halves.

Yes, that's what I did... Not happy with it either as it increases the number of parts. I went with a case depth approx. equal to the PCB because the Crowd Supply page mentions the microdesktop casing to be 4.5 x 4.5 inches (114mm). But if we can make it deeper and have the separate halves connect, it would be much better.

right now, the components are in the way.
* the layer below the PCB (with a cutout for the micro-sd card) will
be in direct contact with the PCB, preventing heat dissipation

I naively thought that being a low powered CPU, it would not be needed. I did mention I know nothing about electronics. :-P

* also you notice the cut-away in the corner of the PCB underneath
the eject button for the PCMCIA holder? the idea there is to put a
small recess (which we have to think how not to interfere with the
aesthetics) that will make it easier to eject.

Was wondering about that cut-away. The eject button isn't modelled in the microdesktop_model2.stl file.

I need to go, I have an idea about holding the PCB but I need to think more about it...

Cheers

Normand