Project: Server and Gaming Case

Spotswood · Apr 14, 2011

This is a project/build log for a custom case to house both a storage server and gaming rig.

This fairly compact case is designed to hold:

Two EATX motherboards
Two ATX PSUs
Twenty four 3.5-inch hard drives
Six SSDs
Two 120x3 water cooling radiators

The size of the case is to be kept as small as possible, which is mostly driven by the size of the motherboard trays. But until those arrive, I fabricated the PSU mounting plate from some 2.5mm aluminum sheet.

The cutouts were made via a hand held router fitted with a flush pattern bit, guided by a template.

That's it for now!

mannyman · Apr 14, 2011

Interesting... Yes very interesting

cnealjr · Apr 14, 2011

I always enjoy your projects, be they wood or metal.

Rossi~ · Apr 15, 2011

Ooo another Spotswood log. Will keep my eye on this

Spotswood · Apr 15, 2011

The backplate of the stock motherboard tray from mountainmods.com was too tall, so I fabricated a shortened duplicate out of .10-inch thick aluminum sheet (once again, via my trusty router fitted with a pattern cutting bit):

Asgard_Thor · Apr 16, 2011

MOAR!

Spotswood · Apr 21, 2011

This case will be shipped flat-packed so it needs to be easily assembled by the owner. The simple back frame consists of some u-channel with its ends plugged with some blocks press-fitted and pinned with a #4 screw. The blocks have a though-hole into which a #6 1-1/4-inch flat head stainless steel socket cap screw is bolted. Simple, effective, but time consuming to fabricate.

mannyman · Apr 21, 2011

Spotswood said:
This case will be shipped flat-packed so it needs to be easily assembled by the owner. The simple back frame consists of some u-channel with its ends plugged with some blocks press-fitted and pinned with a #4 screw. The blocks have a though-hole into which a #6 1-1/4-inch flat head stainless steel socket cap screw is bolted. Simple, effective, but time consuming to fabricate.

You forgot Sturdy in the description.

Spotswood · Apr 24, 2011

The first step toward routing-out the motherboard cutouts in the back panel was to modify a standard size motherboard router template I had made some time ago.

The modified template was used to create yet another template in 1/2-inch thick particle board.

Unfortunately the router wobbled ever so slightly in one spot, but was quickly repaired with some autobody filler:

In order to save wear-and-tear on my flush cutting router bit a first pass was done freehand (gulp!) with a standard endmill.

misfitmatt87 · Apr 24, 2011

looking great so far. cant wait to see more.

Avalanche · Apr 25, 2011

Wow looks awesome! Can't wait to see more!

Spotswood · Apr 27, 2011

I had to make a new router template for the PSUs cutout. A router guide template is quickly fashioned from some MDF held together with pocket screws.

A mock-up of the back panel:

Dasimpson · May 1, 2011

free hand router you are as nuts as me i did this for to fit hindgers on my new back door never again lol

Spotswood · May 1, 2011

The posts for the front frame are made from .125 x .5 x 2-inch tubes. First thing was to stuff the bottoms with the screw blocks/nuts in order to eventually attach them to the bottom sheet.

Following standard operating procedure, the aluminum was cut on my miter saw (fitted with a standard carbide tipped blade). The clamp that came with the saw is used to hold the material against the fence.

The blocks were then drilled on the drill press with the assistance of my self-centering vice (I love that thing because I don't have to waste time measuring for center).

Threads were tapped via my bench mounted "hand" tapper.

The blocks were pinned to the tubes with flat head self-tapping screws.

Always looking to improve my speed and quality, the cross supports offered the opportunity to use PEM cinch nuts. The nuts were pressed into the screw blocks.

Which were then pinned inside .5 x 1-inch u-channel.

LightningCrash · May 1, 2011

Looks like a Thumper meets two 4U chassis meets SPARC Enterprise gear.

Interesting

Spotswood · May 5, 2011

I added some "legs" to the motherboard trays so they'll rest nice and level on the workbench.

Spotswood · May 7, 2011

I spent the day correcting a big mistake, which was I relied on the incorrect posted dimensions of the Swiftech MCR320-DRIVE 3x120 radiator, and thus the case wasn't wide enough by 16mm. (Swiftech has since corrected the diagram on their website).

Actually, the case was exactly the width of the rads, but that might have resulted in some pump vibration getting transfered to the side panels. So the case had to be widened by one inch.

To speedup the process of pinning the bolt blocks to the u-channel I switched to using split pins.

I also had to re-cut the back sheet.

Altogether, it only took me about a third of the original amount of time. Phew!

xjmtx · May 8, 2011

i have to say that i found inaccurate website measurements to be a burden when i started converting items from ideas to sketchup designs. all sorts of bullshit dimensions all over the "innernets". learned to trust my ruler, digital caliper, and tape measure (when rulers aren't long enough)....not to mention protractors and levels.

Wylee · May 13, 2011

I look forward to seeing where this goes.

toy4x4 · May 13, 2011

Where are you getting the aluminum from?

bigfootape · May 13, 2011

Are you going to use backplanes for your disks, or just angled SATA and power cables?

gwarren007 · May 15, 2011

looking good!!

Spotswood · May 22, 2011

toy4x4 said:
Where are you getting the aluminum from?

onlinemetals.com

bigfootape said:
Are you going to use backplanes for your disks, or just angled SATA and power cables?

Keeping it simple.

The bottom support beams were made from .5x.1-inch aluminum flat bar. I wasn't keen on having to hand drill and tap them, so instead, I routed grooves to accept nuts.

I like this fastening method because its wicked strong and offers just enough "play" for easy assembly.

The frame is bolted to the front inner sheet.

And then the entire subassembly is bolted to the front frame.

Spotswood · May 26, 2011

The sides of the HD cage consists of three pieces of .125-inch thick 1x1.5-inch u-channel held together with some threaded bolts. The cage will be bolted to the frame of the case via some .5-inch angle.

The holes in the angle were used to guide the drill bit into the side pieces.

Quarter inch slots were routed out of the u-channels to eventually accept .25-inch threaded rods.

Spotswood · May 28, 2011

Santoprene rubber/plastic tubing was slipped over 1/4-inch threaded rods to form a "cage" to contain the HDs.

Here's why the routed slots are superior to individual holes.

shadowlord · May 28, 2011

nice craftsmanship so far.

keep up the good work.

compslckr · May 28, 2011

Cool build, looking forward to the completed mod!

Carlitos714 · May 30, 2011

amazing!

jackofalltrades · Jun 1, 2011

You should be able to stand on that!

Spotswood · Jul 1, 2011

A last minute design change was to go with SATA backplanes. This required having to route-out 24 phalanx shaped areas for the LED and power cables to pass through.

[These photos are just quick mockups, the perforate aluminum will eventually get mounted to the bottom of the drive cage. ]

The backplanes rest on some soft rubber grommets and are attached via two #4 socket head cap screws.

The 1/16-inch perforated aluminum was a good choice because I didn't have to drill a boat load of holes.

Poplap · Jul 1, 2011

Wow nice. wish i had the skills and tool to do something like this.

Spotswood · Jul 14, 2011

I finished the bottom of the HD cage by adding four support beams made from 1x.5-inch u-channels.

To further dampen vibrations some 1x.25-inch soft foam will be stuck between the beams and the perforated aluminum.

mannyman · Jul 15, 2011

Just noice!

Spotswood · Aug 5, 2011

Finally managed to mount the HD cage to the case via 12 #6-32 stainless steel socket cap bolts.

Joe S · Aug 5, 2011

Really nice work here. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Spotswood · Aug 9, 2011

Another requirement for this case is the ability to mount six SSD drives. The original plan was to mount them to the bottom of the case, but if there ever was a leak in the water cooling system, all of the SSDs would be toast. So instead, I came up with the idea to mount the drives to the underside of a motherboard tray.

Half-inch standoffs were screwed into the MB tray's existing PEM nuts.

And onto that a .10-inch thick sheet of aluminum was bolted.

jbjmed · Aug 9, 2011

Wow first time checking out your build. Awesome job!!

infin@ · Aug 10, 2011

/subscribed

Great work, lots of time invested so far. You keeping a log of your hours?

Spotswood · Aug 13, 2011

The front inner sheet was turned into Swiss cheese via 9 holes for the 120mm intake fans. The holes were cut with a 1/2-inch flush trimming router bit, guided by a template.

Wahoomcdaniel · Aug 13, 2011

Looks holier than though...

Can't wait for summer to wind down so that you can devote more attention to this. Nice build.

Project: Server and Gaming Case

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