::EDIT:: Discussion thread In advance sorry for bad Photoshop skills and some shakey photos, I couldn't find my tripod earlier. Ok, so I don't really have much of a name for the project and I would love for people to come up with a good name if possible for me My intention is to essentially make a Network Attached Storage system as it would be nice to centralise all the data for the 4-5 machines I have here. That and the fact im rather quickly eating up the 460GB in this system as I do alot of DV editing and to move all non-essential data (mp3's etc) to something with more space. On with the show: I've started with an old Asus Terminator K7 as it's small and I had it spare thus the potential for modding It's not got SATA so it will probably be a little slow but thats ok when the most of the data will be downloads, mp3s, word docs etc. Sadly i've not taken any pics before I stopped ripping things apart so I'll start with the poor quality photoshop: Ok, so it's not pretty but thats essentially the result I want to end up with. I've decided to fill it all in as once there is an OS on board I dont really need CD drives and I never use floppys anyway. For the colours I've chosen gloss white (the type used on washing machines etc, not the door frame type ) for the main body of colour, and as the trim, silver. As it turns out the facia on these cases is in 2 parts which have to be un-screwed then pulled apart with some considerable force but not so much that any of the lugs break. After a few mins of struggling its in pieces: Now it's in bits we can get on with starting on filling the bits we don't want so out to the shop to get some supplies. ^ Good old Isopon I think our american friends call it "bondo"? Lucky for me Halfords had a special offer on so the lot cost £9 I also picked up the "Appliance white gloss" in a large (500ml) can for £6. At the same time a trip to B+Q to get some sandpaper and a sanding block as it's one of the tools ive never bothered with. ^ Everything all laid out ready to go. Sanded down the facia to give the Isopon something to stick to and also removed the Asus badge from the front ready to filling and the floppy drive button and the plastic LED cover that was used for the floppy. As you can see I have Darth Tater ensuring my project is fully under control ^ 10 mins later after mixing the Isopon we have a filled case badge area and also, you can't see it, but I've filled the floppy button and hole where the LED was. It's messy right now but when sanded will be just fine and if needs be when cured (which it should be as I did it about an hour ago now) I may have to add more. More updates to come
Project: NAS Box Idea's, thoughts, and comments are always welcome. Oh yeah, and I have for offer a virtual cookie if someone can come up with a nifty name that I like Project: NAS Box
Yeah, they aren't bad sized machines really. Sadly my K7 version has a Duron 1300 and 256MB PC133 Still, it should be pretty sufficient for just serving up files from the IDE bus with any luck More updates probably in a couple of hours after I have some breakfast and start work again.
What os you going to run? I'm intrested (just no money at the moment) in making a NAS box too... Any you maybe could make a link in the project page to here? (or did I miss it?)
I'm as yet undecided but having trawled the forums a little "FreeNAS" (http://www.freenas.org/) seems to be a fairly popular option however I may just use Windows XP or Server 2003. As much as I like linux the ease of maintainence is the attraction of XP plus the ease of setting up software raid (I know its horrible but its a good sollution to an otherwise expensive problem). ::EDIT:: Mind you, the more I look at FreeNAS the better option it seems to be, it too has software RAID, and I think the web interface is so simple that even the g/f could use it.
UPDATE: 14th March 2006 Ok, time for a mini-update. After sanding and filling, sanding and filling, and doing it a little bit more we have some results. ^ The area that once was for the floppy drive, floppy drive button and case badge has now been filled and sanded to a nice smooth finish (it's really very smooth) though there is some minor imperfections that the camera doesn't really pickup on so I may have to use some leveling spray on those prior to priming. ^ Darth seems to agree that the finish is quite suitable and its time to move onto the next stage. The next update will be the filling of the area which used to be for the CD Drive bays though im not too sure how to do it but it will probably be something along the lines of sticking cardboard into the hole then using Isopon 40 (fibregalss based filler) to fill the most of it then fill over with Isopon 38 to achieve a nice smooth finish. If I can I may even get the g/f to sand down the actual case sides/top for me so they are ready for priming
UPDATE PT2: 14th March 2006 So having filled the other 2 major parts that needed doing its time for the big one, the original cut-out for the CD drives. This has so far proved to be a challenge but it should turn out ok with a little luck I decided it was time to break open the Isopon P40 gear which is a fibreglass filler: ^ I decided to use this because it would give some good rigidity and would be easier to apply in large quantaties unlike the finishing coat of P38. Gotta love this stuff though, atleast the resin smell from it mainly because it reminds me of when I was a kid and my dad used to make surfboards.. ^ Obviously I can't just wind a load of the stuff into a hole and hope it sticks so I needed something for it to stick to. The card from the pack of sand paper cut to size and held in place with superglue (im impatient) seems like it would be the best thing that I had to hand without going out to buy stuff. ^ Building up the thicker edges first will give the rest something to stick to when I add more, plus it's a good place to start (sorry for the shakey photo) ^ Moved room that im working in and it really doesn't photo as well as the last due to lighting and the fact the walls are painted Orange Basically the whole area filled in, there is still some gaps but no need to worry about these as they will fill in just fine with the finishing coat. ^While it dries time to do a little more prep work on the rest of the case so I decided to sand the case cover down so that if it's not raining tomorrow I can get a layer of undercoat on it. Thats all for now but it's all coming along pretty quick due to having plenty of spare time on my hands right now. More tomorrow no doubt
UPDATE: 15th March 2006 ^ So I added some smoother filler over the top of the fibreglass filler to level it off a little ready to thicken and shape. As it turns out I need to use more on the next layer because the case is curved so to try and match that may be a little akward. ^ More filler applied bringing it to a leve where its shapeable on the next run. Will sand this down first though. ^ As the weather here happens to be fantastic I decided to undercoat the case while the filler drys ready for a coat of paint. ^ 2 hours later the primer is dry so time to go for the first coat of white. Sadly I only had grey primer so it will need more than 1 coat. Also I got a bit excited and decided to spray a little too much on one side so there is a bit of a run on it, meaining im going to have to send it back slightly and re-apply. ^ Good thing about buying a gloss finish paint, the finish is nice and shiney already so by the time I add clear coat it should be gleaming meaning less work later
Hey mate, just a reply to your last post. To be honest, I think painting like that is an incredible waste of a nice looking garden. Use more newspapers to keep the 'paint dust' around the case instead of around your garden. Besides that, even matt paint is glossy when it's still wet. So when looking at wet paint, you can hardly tell how it's finishing. Other than that, I really love the bondo work on the case! Any idea yet on what the system specs will be?
Yeah, I realised how much of a mess I was making and decided to add more paper shortly after that pic was taken it was also pretty windy sadly. The gloss look seems to have stayed as I hoped (as it was "appliance" gloss paint) so I've put a second coat on just a min ago. The specs will most likley be its currently configuration (im restricted by the Terminator K7 having such an old mobo), 1.3Ghz Duron and 512MB RAM. Hoping to go for 4x 250GB HDD's. Not sure on the NIC yet though, I could stick with the 100MB/s that I already have because it will save me a stack of cash and for serving up mp3's and backup data it should be just fine to the 2-3 machines in the house. All depends on how funds go though
nifty name would be NASpatater , i have a darth tater and spud trooper hehe . Nice mod i like the Asus, about to build my self a NAS box , little less modding in mine lol should be coming off the CNC machine this week . Looks good, keep up the bondo, for a NAS you don't need that higher specs 1.3 duron is good, should do the trick get a 10/100/700 NIC and your sorted(PCI doesn't give GIG nics enough bandwidth so 700 i think is the limit so don't flame me). P.S. We need to hook up mate some tome down solent u can try out a new kite if u want and my kustom Kitedeck , have to ring ya weekend if your about . Morgan.
UPDATE: 16th March 2006 It's been a pretty over-cast and cold day here to relativley non-productive. I've been unable to spray paint so I finished what is hopefully the last of the work with the Isopon and sanded down to a pretty smooth finish. There are some minor imperfections though so I may have to use some leveling primer which should fill in the worst of it, failing that ill use normal primer and see how it turns out, that's ofcourse when the weather is next good. After a quick check with BBC weather they say 17mph winds, 6 degrees C and cloudy. Looks like probably no spraying for me tomorrow Looks like Saturday will be a better option. Anyway. I've taken some piccies of how its looking right now, and that is.. smooooooth
hey there bio, small problem, none of the images in this thread load for me, thought i would point it out, other than that, it reads well Sam
