Project:UNMPC...a huuuge dual Stacker mod Apr10 Lazarus lives again.

[Lazarus Dark]

Welcome to UNMPC

teaser/progress made:

For those not sure, those are two CoolerMaster Stacker STC's connected by angle steel.


This will be a somewhat streamlined version of my worklog on the CoolerMaster Forums. All the important stuff will be here, but for more details, pics and higher res pics, head over here.



two Stackers after some stripping.



totally nude Stackers! woohoo! also the psu cages have been de-riveted(is that a word?)



The deriveting gave me an idea. During some premod planning shopping I had seen rivet guns were fairly cheap at the local hardware depot. I got one and here I used the psu cages to test it. I really like it. rivets are way better than screws, nutsnbolts, easier than welding. Their sturdy, low profile, cheap, clean and pretty and easily removed if necessary. I will use them as often as possible.



I bought two 6 foot (metric is for commies! lol kidding)pieces of angle steel and cut them in half. I have to notch the front pieces for the drive bays. This is thick stuff, I cut them with my newly aquired 10.8v cordless dremel, but it was slooooow. Like a week to do four notches; including recharges and trip to home depot to restock on cuting wheels. I don't suggest this method and won't try it this way again.










I attached them using rivets. It worked pretty well. Although,...yipes! I was a little nervous making my first holes in these somewhat expensive Stackers.



Here I attach the rear braces. I utilized existing holes where possible; no need to make unnecessary holes in my beautiful stackers.

[Jipa]

That is just ridiculously HUGE :|

[Lazarus Dark]

heres what we have so far:




I picked up a large, sturdy piece of sheet steel and cut it.

I had to remove a couple of critical rivets to fit it flush, but I just reused those holes to attach the steel.


Now that I have a floor, I wanted to brace the bottom more and also lift the
case up a little.

I got a 6 foot piece of tube steel and cut it in half. I then notched them. This steel is thinner than the angle steel and the dremel cut through it like butter. I used existing holes where the feet were supposed to attach. I broke a drill bit , something ive rarely ever done and never on such an easy hole. oh, well.


At this piont I took it into the living room to see how it will fit as this will be an HTPC. Its already a little heavy. And I have to turn it sideways to fit it through the door!!!! I definately won't be moving it much and final assembly will have to take place near where it will permenently sit.


Since I didn't need the side panel tracks on the inner part I decided to remove them.

And the second one:

Check my mad dremel skills; that cut is razor thin.



But I have this left. Ugly tabs, but those rivets are structural. hmmmm......


aha! relocate the rivets.

muuuch better. and more razor-thin dremeling dude I am awesome! hehe


I test fit the side panel and found out that the rear lower angle steel was in the way so I had to remove it and trim it. Not a major deal, but kind of annoying.


Though i wasn't going to use them originally, I decided i liked the front alu bezels after all. But I had to remove and trim the angle steel; I wish i had realized this earlier as it would have saved me some time on those notches. oh, well.





a preview of things to come:

and a present from newegg: (well i paid for it so not really a present)

perfect fit! 15" acer: this will be my secondary monitor for system info, widgets, etc. so no need for anything expensive; this was the cheapest 15" and the smallest bezel i found so its perfect. the craptop thats driving the monitor is my only rig currently; a five year old one ghz (woohoo) celeron toshiba. it was great five years ago. it sucks now. it barely plays any mpeg4, forget h264 or anything highdef.

[Shadowed_fury]

Awesome! I've got one stacker, and I find that quite a big case. Two (and the rest) is mental.
Keep up the good work!

[Techno-Dann]

So... Planning on using it as a desk?

Really, though, great metalwork. Looking forward to seeing more!

[Lo Pan]

Awesome. Pure, unadulterated, awesome. I like techno-dan's idea, it seems big enough to use as a desk.

[jokkos]

lol and I thought my case was going to be big...superb!

[Mr.ME]

that thing is going to be huge

[Mankz]

yay for big things...... (in a non gay-ish sense)......

slightly wackey / wicked idea!!!

hope it turns out to plan!!

[Anobis]

Cool I had the same idee making my 2 stacker's as 1 so thanx m8 you wil help me a lot with your project but i must say your idee is a bit bigger than mine

[Lazarus Dark]

So... Planning on using it as a desk?

rofl...yes!
I mean no.
haha.
well heres a stacker ON my desk...


actually, funny you should mention that, in my earliest brainstorming a year or so ago, I had thought of using this glass desk they have at best buy and building the comp so you see it through the glass. But as this will be an HTPC, a desk form factor would not be appropriate.

This case will be the centerpiece of my living room, completely replacing my current (cheap) entertainment center, with the addition of an xfi, gigaworks thx 7.1 surround, and the piece d'resistance, a 37" westinghouse 1080p lcd which I will mount above the case.

[Bbq.of.DooM]

Don't you mean Acer LCD, not Asus?

Nice mod, but damn. If a normal stacker weighs 40~ pounds, then that mod would weigh... I'm guessing 185 lbs. More than my big ass server with a crapload of drives.

[GiGo]

Thats gonna look wicked mate!

Im thinking of a mod for my lounge, but not quite in this respect, but still want to see how this will come on.

Good Luck
GiGo

[Lazarus Dark]

Don't you mean Acer LCD, not Asus?

oops, fixed. Guess I was dreaming of future mobo goodness. 8 phase power...mmmm....

And I don't expect to pick this case up fully loaded, certainly not by myself.


Here I am starting on the dual mobo tray guide rails. I found some angle aluminum and L-shaped alu and together they make a good guide. I cut out notches in the rear where screwholes had been.



The test-fit looks good.



I had to cut two vertical supports, but the addition of a three-sided piece of alu restores rigidity.



And more test fitting. Notice how the left one isn't flush? To fix this I had to completely remove all the guide rails which turned into a two hour job because I had fit them very tightly together. PainInTheButt. Just to cut a millimeter off the left remaining vertical support. Sometimes eyeballing it is not the way to go. Measuring is good.



I made a sort of shelf for the front of the mobo trays to sit on and ill somehow use thumbscrews to attach them later. But I cant rivet that alu in. How to attach it? Hmmm...perhaps the mapp gas torch I just purchased? But I need to practice welding on some spare parts first as I haven't done this kind of welding before.



I extended the hole from the alu door panel for more view and better access to the internals. You can also see I have started holes on the sides of it, but I might just go ahead and extend them into long holes to mirror the center hole.



I started on the mounts for the lcd using a large piece of thick (read:expensive) alu. My original plan was to leave the lcd in its casing, but I've decided to take it apart for various reasons: relocate monitors buttons, try to convert the power source to a 12vdc molex connector, reduce size and weight. So I need to remeasure before completing the mounts.



I reattached the psu cages after some modifications. But I've already decided to move them up, putting the empty space below the psu's. It doesn't matter how long you spend planning, sometimes you just don't know how things are going to work until you do them.


Well this worklog is up to date now, so next time I finish the slide out mobo guides, refit the psu cages, take apart the lcd,.....and weld!

[bAdI]

Liking this very much so far.

Could you give us a hint as to the hardware that you'll be using?

I suspect two motherboards but I can't really relate that firepower to a HTPC. I mean mine is an underclocked Sempron 1500@1300 and it's more than needed. Even plays NFS Most Wanted and HL2.

Could it be a cluster of some sort? That would be impressive.

Might sound gayish but yours is much bigger than mine.

[Fatboy]

Thi slook sprety ultra to me

Kinda similar to a rack based thing i was gonna do with the htpc and all the a/v stuff in it.

[MrWillyWonka]

Nice stuff and good metalwork too, I'll be watching this thread.

I'm a stack fan myself (see project log) and they are huge, but having two with a gap in the middle is just ! I'll be watching this thread closely, but have you got any design on paper or on the computer?

Oh yea, just be careful with the edges of the side panels (particulary the inside curved metal sliders) since they are so sharp they cut through your skin without you realising!

[Lazarus Dark]

have you got any design on paper or on the computer?

err..no. I suc at drawing and I'm not to good with design software. I took a mechanical and archetectural drafting class in high school, but just to lazy to draw out full plans for this case. However, I am able to visualize details in my head very well. I sometimes spend long periods staring at the case visualizing ideas. Actually the first stacker I bought in november so I could see it and get ideas and plan and bought the second stacker in march when I was ready to start on the actual modding.

Could you give us a hint as to the hardware that you'll be using?

This is complicated and I haven't finalized my plans yet. money is one concern, as i live check to check, and i hope to get sponsors for some of it though I just got my tax return check and hve set that aside just for hardware.

plans so far are:

-one mobo for htpc- this will be my clean system only used for playback of media and gaming.
-one mobo for file serving, h264 encoding, web surfing, and general use.
---this is an experiment to see if this improves performance, it keeps unnecessary services, background tasks, spyware, etc off of my htpc. and the file serving will also serve files to the other room and to my girlfriends imac (in know, ach! I cant convince her to get rid of it.)

-2x pc p&c 510 psu's or possibly the 800w (expensive)
-a small (miniitx or microbtx) mobo with small psu under the dual mobos (I have lots of room ) to experiment with apache, sendmail, etc. (possibly two or three small mobos)
-I will start with aircooling but have ideas to eventually move to full on watercooling every sqare inch with a few original wc ideas that I have not yet seen anyone else do.
-LOTS of hdd's. I plan to rip my entire 200+ dvd collection to harddrives. so figure 3+ terrabytes, Im watching those 500gig drive prices closely. cant wait for affordable terrabye drives

[sk8ter646]

i have a huge server atm LOADS of hdds 10 300gb drives go on you know you want 3TB its great all the films you could ever want. i ahev about 350 films on my machine atm over 2TB of films with loads left for music and games

the only problem is PCs this big are to heavy to take to a lan

[harvy]

Originally Posted by sk8ter646

the only problem is PCs this big are to heavy to take to a lan

If you cant go to a lan, make the lan come to you