man that's a lotta nics! Although not quite in the same modding spirit, wouldn't it have been rediculously easier (and cheaper) to buy a 32-port switch? Or am I completely misreading the goal. In any case.... this should be very interesting. I'll be keeping an eye on this.
A welcome site to see you posting your project logs back on bit again mashie. look forward to see how it turns out
Looks like an interesting project! How are you intending to manage 9 computers cause I'm guessing they won't run so well as a cluster... Also I'm intregued as to the needs that such a router would satisfy?? And a quick thought you might be able to save some space by bussing or sharing the power from the PSUs.
You got it roughly 100% wrong, it is a router LAB for training, nothing else. It will never pass any "usable traffic".
Both SSH and telnet will do just great, hence the use of the switch to provide a "management network". Please see the post above regarding usage. Actually, the PSUs won't add any extra space since the mobos with CPU/NICs installed will define the width between each tray.
You dont, it was only a joke and I was mainly talking about the PSU fans. Although the Celeron 1.2 I got for free came with a screaming fan. Needless to say, it was replaced. Cant wait for the next update.
Small update from the progress today. The time has come to work on the trays that will hold two complete systems each. The material is 6mm MDF. One nice little feature with MDF is that it can be threaded using normal metal taps. After drilling a fair number of 2.5mm holes they were quickly threaded to M3 and the motherboard stands were installed. I have a feeling some of the people defining the ATX standard did think twice since the stands from the opposite sides do stay clear from each other when the motherboards are mounted like this. Next to follow was adding a few more holes for the PSUs and HDDs. After a bit of pain I realized how awkward it turned out to be mounting the HDDs and PSUs. The PSU will block the mounting screws for the HDD on the opposite side but then it has to sit on top of it's power lead from the PSU on the same side... To make a long story short, four hands had helped but I got there in the end. Now I just have to make another four of these.
Another day, another update... It felt like manufacturing doing unit after unit. At last all are done regarding major assembly. Power button and LEDs are still left to do on these units. They will not be painted and when the outer shell is ready they won't be that easy to see anyway If you look closely you can see ribs of wood attached near the top edge. They were added to make the 6mm MDF fit perfectly centered inside the 10mm aluminium profile. The last tray was slightly different to make since it hold a system as well as a 16 port 10/100 switch. I wasn't too keen to add spacers to make the switch stay clear of the mobo stands so a suitable hole was drilled before gluing it in place. All new switches I get from now on will be gigabit only so this one will be retired together with this project in a far distant future... I can happily announce that somehow I managed to measure everything correctly so it did fit The spacing is 5mm between CPU and NICs on the next system. In case the HDDs needs to be reimaged that can be done fairly easily from the rear. It is lucky the PSUs has bypass power as well since this will eliminate the need for loads of messy cables and splitters.
Ok, tiny update. Yesterday I did fire up all systems for the first time to see if they worked. Well the first thing that happened was that one PSU blow up due to some joker setting it to 110V instead of 220V... Those of you watching the ModCam had the pleasure to see the flash and smoke live. With the PSU replaced I found out that two of the nine systems had duff motherboards. BIOS is dead, after resetting it I get a lovely input device error so unable to configure the BIOS to boot from HDD or floppy to reflash it. It will have to work with seven systems for now and then later on the mobos will be replaced. Anyway, time for some more good news. The work has started to give the outer shell a more interesting look compared to bare MDF. The armor plating is done using 2mm plywood and some basla wood. Slow but steady progress, this will probably take the whole next week to get done...
Wow i like that look might use something like that on a wood case im planning. Wow im still baffled though 9 (kinda 7 that work) in one wood box. What are you planning on using to move air. i think it would be funny to see the whole thing watercooled(i know it would be a HUGH overkill for some 233 celerons but it would be pretty cool). You could make use one HUGH pump and a gallon bucket of water then have a seperate rediator for like every 3 or so systems. HMMM i should make a cluster then Wc just to c if that would work. Ebay here i come. Anyways (wow im using that word to much in my posts now days) great work on the weird uber router thing.
The fans in the PSUs are quite efficient so they will be enough considering they act like a wall of fans
this looks great. I love how eerything fit together with the spacing. sorry bout the 2 bum boards. Although its always fun watching a PSU fly off like an unexpected firework Cant wait to see more!
