Scratch Build Project: Server and Gaming Case

[voigts]

looks great.

[Spotswood]

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.

[LooseNeutral]

crazy! nice build you got going here. Love'n the metal worx . Can't wait for more. sub'd

[Spotswood]

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.

[Spotswood]

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

[Waynio]

Finally means that was a whole LOT of work excellent stuff Rich .

Magnificent HDD section .

[Fingers66]

Subbed!

[dark4181]

Spectacular!

[Spotswood]

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.

[Spotswood]

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.

[[ZiiP] NaloaC]

I'm late to the party, but I'm staying now until the end

Great work so far Spots

[LukaTCE]

Nice work
Maybe did u recorded how did u cuted 12cm circle from metal with flush trimming router bit i can't find any video on youtube

[Waynio]

looks perfect with nice clean holes, what stats of a router are needed for doing stuff like this Rich? variable speed I expect, anything else? I want to buy one for future projects but not 100% sure what type or abilities I'd need from one so best to ask someone who has done a good bit of this .

+rep

[Spotswood]

Originally Posted by Waynio

looks perfect with nice clean holes, what stats of a router are needed for doing stuff like this Rich? variable speed I expect, anything else? I want to buy one for future projects but not 100% sure what type or abilities I'd need from one so best to ask someone who has done a good bit of this .

+rep

Thanks. I'm currently using a very basic, variable speed, 2HP router, that I purchased for ~$100 USD. Nothing special, really. I use a very low RPM, which reduces the router's HP quite a bit.

My next upgrade is to get a Super-PID which provides much more control over RPMs, while still maintaining good HP.

[Waynio]

Thanks Rich & that mod addon looks very good, added that to my favorites cheers .

[robi09]

How many hdd's you have? Great job!

[Spotswood]

@robi09 - I'm just the case builder.



The top motherboard tray support is the last piece of the case frame.

[Bituser]

Looks good. That's one big case though. Do you really have 25 HDDs? That's insane!

[Spotswood]

Originally Posted by Bituser

Looks good. That's one big case though. Do you really have 25 HDDs? That's insane!

Thanks.

Again (), I'm just the case builder, building what I'm told to build. (I'm a lucky guy.)

[Waynio]

Seeing it like this now it looks like an ultra premium mega double version (I love bit-techs ultra premium award ) of my last case but far far better & so much more oomph, awesome stuff I got my layout quite wrong on mine though should have made it wider like this for the psu, really looks good altogether .