Quick and dirty mod to put a Supermicro motherboard in a 4U case

[agrikk]

I've been folding two naked 4P rigs but I needed the surface space back and decided to put them in cases on the cheap. I found that the proprietary form factor of the Supermicro H8QME-2+ will actually fit in a standard 4U 19" rackmount case if you strip the inside fitting and move the way the PSU is mounted inside on the back. Here's some pictures I took of the process.

I apoligize in advance for the crappy cell-phone pictures. The missus had our point and shoot.



Here was the rig during burn-in.

The case itself. $20 off of CL. 4U, seven internal hard drive bays, three external 3.5" bays, one external 2.5" bay.

Back shot.

Filter door down.

Internal bays and external caddy removed.

More to be removed...

Motherboard tray removed, rear PCI slot brackets removed.

Rear shot

Wood standoffs. I don't have any kind of tapping tool to put in new standoffs, but I have a bunch of basic tools and a bunch of scrap wood.

A mock up of where the power supply is going and what metal needs to be dremeled out.

Cuts made

Another shot

Supermicro H8QME-2+ going in

Rear shot. a 1.5" square chunk of wood makes for tall standoffs. For airflow. Yeah.

Power supply screwed in. A close fit on heat sink #4.

Fans and wiring going on.

Heatsink fans going on.

Additional front fan mounted.