Scratch Build – In Progress The Itty Bitty File Server (updated 13June11 paint)

Ever since the G4 cube, I have wanted a small cube computer.
Cubes were expensive, and typical Apple, not very upgradable. As they aged, their prices fell, and the cases cracked, I still longed for a passively cooled small cube.

Fast forward a bit and suddenly we have mini-ITX. The problem is it's price, Cube prices, and the performance if it all. You can't exactly fit a high end graphics card into a case that size. Especially passively cooled. However, I started eying them for a potential file server, but the prices were still too high or they were underpowered.

My current file server is an Intel Pentium 520/Intel 855, not the most efficient thing, but according to my ups, with careful power management, idles around 35watts (probably not accurate). It does however transfer files at 110MBps over gigabit, something I'm not convinced an Atom can handle and certainly not most cheap NAS boxes. I don't mind losing some speed, but I love having that transfer rate as it's almost like having the drive right inside your box. Plus, it's paid for. I needed a good reason to change it (okay, not really ).

Then I found the Sempron 140, they are cheap, decent enough power, and you can get some cheap ITX boards... The stage was set. I just needed an excuse and a case for it. As much as I would like a Mac Cube, most are either over priced, scratched, cracked, or cracked, scratched and overpriced. Besides, I can make a smaller cube.

Parts:
Zotax Geforce 6100-ITX motherboard
AMD Sempron 140
PNY 2GB DDR2
Rocketfish Universal CPU Cooler (rebadged Cooler Master Hyper TX3)
Seagate 2TB Low power
Operating system - Windows 7 or Linux
120watt Pico Psu on order.


Current status:
Just need final photos.



The original plan was the motherboard on the right side, power supply up the back wall, and the HD up the left wall. A Tower cooler sticking into the center and a single very slow speed 120 or 140mm fan in the bottom blowing up though a hole in the top like a G4 Cube. I already checked and the heatsink will stay plenty cool, it can almost passively cool. Unlike a G4, my ports will exit out the rear. The reason for this is two fold... First, exiting out the back allows for a larger fan in the bottom, and second, exiting out the bottom means a tight bend for the cables and raising the cube further off the ground. Ever see how high a G4 Cube sits? Mine will be able to be half that.

I did some mockups of it to see how it all fits into place in the smallest package I can.

Yes, there is actually a board under there.
That's the re-badged Cooler Master heatsink. Nothing spectacular, but I don't need more.
The PSU was going to lose it's shielding, allowing it to tuck in a little tighter when I got to that point. However I have since ordered a pico psu.

This is the new layout, the orientation has changed a bit, and I'm switching to a Pico PSU. This should be the view looking in through the small window. Missing is the Pico Psu and a 120 or 140mm fan underneath it all blowing upwards. Not much to see, but then, there just isn't much there. With the internal wiring hidden and a soft glow inside it should prove nice. I was thinking red inside, but I'm not so sure now.




My first plan was to cut up an old Lenovo mid tower chassis, I got a good way into it then started thinking, why do I need a chassis?
Here is how far I got with the Lenovo (120mm fan for size comparison).

It's a little smaller
It started out as 460mm x 460mm x 200 was down to 200mm x 200mm x 200mm.

Interestingly about this chassis was that the aluminum rivets were harder to drill than the steel chassis. Not sure how Lenovo managed that one. As soon as I cleared the metal head the drill bit would immediately sink through the sheet metal. The last chassis I built I used metal from a Supermicro server chassis, talk about a difference. That stuff was TOUGH, this stuff is like paper. Oh well, at least it's easy to work with and lighter.

At this point I was planning to skin it with the stock tin, then Plexiglas, then wood, even resin casting a one piece shell, or using fiberglass. None of which seemed right. Then I realized, I don't need any of the framework, which was really frustrating me. Once I realized this, it opened it up to almost any materials.

So let's start with oak!

19mm square to be precise, cut into 220mm lengths.

Notched


It was while making one of these that the saw decided to kick, one of the few times this saw has ever done that. I had noticed the boards slipping in between the blade and table and thought I was being careful, but apparently not enough. It kicked back, the one on the right is the push stick which ended up tearing open my hand. The sliver in between them is part of it. It slammed hard enough to break that off of the push stick. The large sliver to the left, is what is left of the case part. The rest of it is unknown. I found one other part about 25mm x 20mm x 2mm and that was it. I can only assume it shattered, I can't find anything. Even if that one bit was all that broke off the rest, it still shattered oak! I'm glad I only got a minor injury.


My hand feels like it's been hit with a hammer.
If you didn't bleed, you probably didn't do it right, well, I bled.


After that I cut some angles on the ends leaving 190mm inside and about 200mm outside length. A touch smaller than a G4 Cube I believe.


I didn't have any of those fancy angle clamps to use while gluing, but I did have zip ties... Lots and lots of zip ties. It works surprisingly well.



Ahhh!
They are multiplying!


Shiny!


Yes, that's a 120mm fan.



Skin time!
I wasn't sure what to do here, I considered plexiglas, but felt that would be tacky, besides, its a server. Besides, there isn't much inside to see. Se we'll use 24ga. Aluminum.


By the way, ditch your silly jigsaws and Dremels, buy yourself an angle grinder. Cleaner cuts, and CHEAP to operate. Just be sure to wear eye and hearing protection. This cut took all of 5 minutes to cut and clean up. It's not as crooked as it looks, a lot is slag that came off fast (a lot with just a razor). As you will see in a moment.



Don't make fun of my homemade bending brake! It worked well.

See, I told you it was a clean cut. No distortion in the metal either. Something I never could accomplish with the jigsaw without clamping it with wood and making a difficult cut. I just never got good results from a jigsaw on this thin of metal, and the Dremel would take FOREVER and who knows how many disks.



I was leaving the back open and planned to skin that with Plexi, mostly because the sheet was too short. Then I noticed that the bends weren't as close to the edges as I would like. GRRRRRR! Still, it looks nice as it is.



So I started thinking about my options...
I could leave it, it's not bad, but I got to thinking with a slight change in arrangement, I could turn the sheet around and put the gap in front with two supports and a window in between. This leaves me with a solid back, which I have to trim anyhow to clear the motherboard anyhow. This allows me to push the sheetmetal out flush against the framework instead of trying to redo it entirely and gives it some character, which I was trying to figure out how to include.

Here it is with my ITX mockup board installed (cut down matx). Sorry for it being blurry. I'll get a better one later. Like I said, it will actually be the other way around but this gives a nice view of the direction of the project.



Still working on the colors.
Black is too over-used. Blue lighting is over-done. You can't go shopping for electronics anywhere without companies throwing blue led's in your face. On the other hand, black metal, with clear oak would be nice. Just would need a nice internal lighting color. On the other hand, raw aluminum and raw oak isn't bad looking. Black stained oak, black aluminum and purple lighting? Hmm...

I still have to work on the internal mounting system for the motherboard and drive, as well as a way to hold it all together. I have some ideas on that.




To Do List:
Another coat of clear on the oak?
Fix a post (explained in post)
Final assembly (partially started)
Wiring This should be simple and I have a lot done. Most just needs a little clean up or shortening. Embed a light in the front Lexan to give a glow when the HD is accessed.

 

Great start & nice methods for making things work, classic modding .
Tried an angle grinder once, didn't like the fact I couldn't see where I was cutting but that cut was nice & clean .

 

I would say put some stain on the oak to bring out the grain, and either polish the sheet metal, or paint it black with a light stain.

 

I got a bit more done the other night.

The upper and lower frames came out of the zip tie clamps and worked perfectly.
Some light sanding and they will be perfect. The fit and finish is actually better in person.


Then I started on the top plate.
Mockup:


The first layer you won't see, it's simply for the internal structure.


Then the mesh:


Then the top layer, this will be painted whatever color.


I'm half tempted to redo it in aluminum, but I'm not sure I can do it well enough, but that would allow me to leave the rest of the cube raw aluminum if I decide to go that route. So I think I will leave it plexi for now, but if I decide I want raw aluminum on the sides I'll decide then if I want to redo the top the same way.

And finally inserted.
The mesh has some movement in order to be able to center it properly later.



Bottom plate:



At this part I started mocking up the internals.
I never spent a lot of time on the motherboard mounting, I half thought of using a tray but then scrapped it. As I started mocking up the internals, I noticed an issue. This was what I was thinking... The uprights can attache everything and hold the cube together. Unfortunately, the hard drive is now going to be impaled by the heat sink. The power brick could sit against the back wall.


So now, the alternative is move the HD to the back wall and the power brick where the HD sits.Not that this shows mockup of the front window plans as well.


I may thin out the blocks where the motherboard sits, but I really don't like that idea. I'm instead considering using the motherboard as part of the internal structure instead and use some aluminum angle bracket to attack the motherboard to the top and bottom and then either the wood posts or more aluminum to the other side. This may be better as it allows for easier mounting of the drive. On the other hand, the drive in back at least leaves something in view.

I know it looks empty now, but once I get the memory and heat sink in there it will be filled up quick.


I was going to run wood posts up each side of the aluminum, and then a small window running up the center, then I got an epiphany. This is why I'm considering replacing the top plexi with aluminum. This is scrap, and not all fit together, which is why it doesn't fit.


With this design I could just stain or clear coat the wood and just about be done with the whole thing (once the internals are done). No paint needed really, though I will probably paint the inside black. I also don't need the wood uprights with this look.

If I paint the sides then I can simply paint the current top plexi... But that means painting that aluminum, which looks quite nice.

 

Just a small update, and while it seems like nothing much, it was a lot of work and a lot of important progress.

I got the skin trimmed and the motherboard mounted and the Picopsu came today. I'm not sure if I ordered the wrong one, or what, but it didn't have the 4pin mobo connector I wanted. GRRRRR. Oh well, easy fix. Also the power brick I ordered to match is MASSIVE. Think hard disk size! It also had the wrong connector, double grrrr. However I have a connector I can install, but also I found I have a Toshiba notebook power brick that will work better. It's smaller as well.

Skin after being cut. I still have to mount the center post.
I will also have to trim the front post to make room for the front window and mesh.


Motherboard brackets, they need clean up still.


Motherboard mounts mounted on mockup board.


mocked up.



So close to being done.




To Do List:
Trim front motherboard mounts and front post to clear front window and mesh.
Mount rear center post
Countersink screws for all posts and mounts
Make HD bracket
Make power plug hole or mount adapter inside (still requires power plug of some sort)
Wiring (simple as heck!)
LED's for lighting (color?)
Make window and mesh

Trim and clean up.
Stain/paint/clear coat, still undecided here, but I'm leaning towards clear oak (sating clear possibly), and raw aluminum. It looks really fresh and clean that way.

 

lets see your hand mate

 

It's not much to look at, it never was, which is why I never showed it. It's not a big gaping wound, it was small, but deep (almost to the bone). The bruising has gone down as well, so not much to see really.

If it cools off I will have more updates, but right now it's really hot and humid, ick.

 

White LED's- when the right amount are used- are subtle and effective. give them a try, it'll look great with black and oak.
Anyway, I love this! Keep going, the choice of material is great.

 

Disaster!
(okay not really)

I did some work on the internal wiring, but there isn't much to show yet. I hope that in the end there isn't much to look at either. I can't really mock anything up until it's done as it's all in bits.

I was working on the frame to make room for the front panels and pushed a bit too hard and CRACK! The top plexiglas frame cracked and so did the bottom.
When buying the stuff I thought I grabbed Lexan. I wish I had double checked.



I did some shaping on the motherboard mounts. A bit of paint and they will look fine. The way they are mounted, they can't be seen, but they will get a bit of cleanup and then paint. They may get some more trimming once everything is finalized, for the moment I don't want to cut anymore off until I redo the upper and lower plates, just in case.



What's this? A sacrificial lamb?
I had a few of these laying around from a prior project and thought it may work.


Inside you have this, which has a brightness control. If it's not bright enough, I have 2 more.


A snip and a trim and we have an internal USB lead with only + and -.


Much cleaner.
I'll shorten the lead once I figure out the mounting. I may put the dimmer control on back and run leads to the lights.


I mocked up and finished the top and front panels.
I changed the look. No more plexi, after changing the front window, I felt it no longer worked and started testing other ideas. I considered redoing the whole skin with mesh, but decided against that.

This is one option, better, but it still not right:


Then I did this, which I think looks better. I wish I could find an easy way to frame the upper and lower portions of the front window, it's better, but still not quite right in my opinion yet. I may leave it though as there is no easy way to make the front window that way. At least not without screws showing or a cut corner or something.

If I went back to the original idea of wood corners I could, but I love the bended aluminum look. It gives it a refined, industrial look and I've never had good luck at bends. I'm rather proud of how this turned out which is why I didn't use wood at each corner.




To Do List:
Countersink screws for all posts and mounts
Make HD bracket
Make power plug hole or mount adapter inside (still requires power plug of some sort)
Wiring (simple as heck!)
Feet of some sort

Trim and clean up.
Stain/paint/clear coat, still undecided here, but I'm leaning towards clear oak (sating clear possibly), and raw aluminum. It looks really fresh and clean that way.

 

Looks pretty darn cool, keep it up

 

Well it finally started to cool off last evening and got a bit more done.

Yes, this is AFTER it cooled off. Ugh, I'm melting, but hey, it's better than ice and snow.



I went to get a new keyboard (Razer Black Widow Ultimate! It's sooooo nice!) and picked up a 140mm Enermax fan (completely silent!), but in my haste I also grabbed a 120mm filter and silicone damper. In my defense, I was looking at these first, and then decided to get the 140. I was in a hurry to get home in time for dinner and didn't pay attention to what i had grabbed earlier. Oh well, they were cheap. I can cut and use the damper but really, with the soft Lexan and silent fan, I'm not sure it's needed.

I decided to use an external power brick for now as I'm just not sure I want to have it inside. The brick I bought for this project is bigger than expected and while I could get it to fit, creates some problems with mounting. The alternatives I have aren't as high wattage, but are for my laptops. This plan may change though.


I managed to replace the upper and lower plexi pieces with Lexan, so much more durable and sound dampening. This meant redoing the upright mounts as well. I also got the hard drive mount finished and the motherboard mounted. This is still mockup parts, but I did test the motherboard, hard disk and heatsink placement at one point to make sure everything fit.








So while things look the same or similar, it's much closer to being done.
To Do List:
Power connections
Breather/fan holes, upper needs to be cut out, and the lower fan hole needs finishing.
Feet of some sort
Trim and clean up.
I'm probably going to just clear coat the oak once I clean it up and leave the aluminum raw. The looks of this are very clean. I don't want to darken it up. I am going to paint the inside black though to cut down on the lighting.
Wiring This should be simple and I have a lot done. Most just needs a little clean up or shortening. I need a mount for the circular white light system, and I plan to embed a light in the front Lexan to give a glow when the HD is accessed.

 

I like how this is turning out! I would absolutely leave the alu unpainted; give the wood a natural finish, and maybe paint the mesh black for contrast. I would probably go for some black feet (tall - to allow airflow) as that will keep them subdued and not distract from the beauty of your box. Maybe some kind of rubber ball? Or, alternatively, the "feet" could be two long rail-like structures that run down two sides of the case - maybe an aluminum cabinet handle would work...

 

Looking good. I liked the original psu/sink layout. -Fan reduction cheesecake!
I had my tablesaw spit out some lexan at me once. I didn't know I could dodge that fast. It ninja star'd across the garage and made a nasty dent in the wall.
I'm going to assume you need a female power jack connector. I got mine from an old cordless phone.

 

Oooh, Lexan and tablesaws. Scary stuff.
I had a piece wedge in the saw once, and it was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. It changed how I cut lexan (I no longer stand behind it, liek you I think I moved just out of the way). Like yours it put a nice dent in the wall, except in this case it wasn't drywall, it was 19mm plywood, 3 meters away! I don't even want to think about what it would have done to my stomach had it hit me, but it did take skin from various places as it was. Seriously dangerous stuff to cut.

I'm reconsidering putting the power brick inside today. I just need to do some mockups. This thing is quite close to being done (YAY!).

 

Got some more work done.

I did end up putting the power brick inside after all.
I just couldn't resist, but keep reading to see how tight everything is.


Unfortunately a few pictures are missing. They documented the plugs on back of the case. I'll have to show that later I guess.

Behind the hard drive mount is where the light dimmers, power switch and ac plug will go. The AC plug has a shield on back to keep it from shorting against the HD. There is a bit of plexi surround, but it fell and shattered (I really hate Plexi, lexan only from now one). Turns out since I trimmed the connector tabs in back, it all fits without the need for the shim anyhow, but only just (I think).




I made a mount for the power brick, this one is an old Sony pack. It will be zip tied to the mount, it's the only thing not screwed down in the whole box. The fit however is TIGHT! I went with zip ties and this style mount so I could move it around a bit. It has to sit between the tops of the heat pipes or it will barely fit in the case, or not at all.

This case is pretty small, and while there seems room for everything, you might get your hand down into the middle when done. It's all squeezed in there pretty tight once the heat sink is in place (amazingly it won't be too bad to work on though). Like the inside of the skin, this is painted black. Nothing else inside will be painted and only teh upper and lower oak will be clear coated on the outside. It all just looks too good.




Mounted.
Unfortunately, if you look really close, you will spot a mistake here. The post the brick mount is attached to has rotated 90 degrees. This won't make itself known to me for a day or two later as I'm doing final assembly on the frame.

Even if I fix the post (redrilling 4 holes), the mount may not be correct. It's easy to rebuild the brick bracket, but grrrrr. I may just redrill the top of the post and see how things fit as opposed to redoing 4 holes. Not that you can see that post anyhow.


This was the angle I was working from, and again if you look closely, you can see it, but not easily.




Light rings mounted



Painting!
This was between coats, not that it needs to be completely solid anyhow.
If you look, you can see the cutouts in the back panel for the light dimmers, ac plug and power switch. This is behind the HD and not visible.




Re-cut upper and lower framework.
While this looks and feels flimsy, when it's all assembled and tightened up, it's quite secure. The whole thing is a monocoque design in that the fan and motherboard make up a part of the structure. The internal structure actually flops around a bit without them in place and becomes rock solid with them in place.

I swapped out the 120mm for the 140mm mentioned earlier. Not a lot of room in the bottom after it's in.




Legs!


Unfortunately I made these fantastic brackets to mount the legs, and then realized that while they would mount the feet nice, it does nothing to hold the bottom of the case onto the frame. They fit really good and didn't block airflow or anything. At least I hadn't done final cleanup yet.




These will actually be satin black so they are semi hidden. The wood however ended up looking more like black stain rather than black paint. Not that I'm complaining. I have black rubber feet to go on the bottoms (clear as well if I decide to use them instead).

Looking at the last pic, they look great in raw when viewed with the internal framework. So why paint them? Well, you won't see the internal framework. I want it to look more like a floating cube.







The upper and lower wood has been sanded and is currently drying (clear only). However when i went to clear coat them, I somehow grabbed the satin black and sprayed part of the lower. AHHHHH! It stained a bit, but I got it sanded out and clear coated. Mistakes happen though, it;s how you fix them that matters.

I need to fix the one post issue, and then it's on to final assembly and wiring. I have already started some of the assembly, which was when I found the bad post.


To Do List:
Another coat of clear on the oak?
Fix a post (explained in post)
Final assembly (partially started)
Wiring This should be simple and I have a lot done. Most just needs a little clean up or shortening. Embed a light in the front Lexan to give a glow when the HD is accessed.

 

What a mess!
And this isn't all of what needs to go into this. A lot of brackets, misc wires and screws are missing. They were about a handful of small bits.


Wiring day!
The 3rd shot, the white blob, is hot glue. It was thinner than the plexi/zip tie system I planned, and allowed for an internal connector. All of these have a connector to release them from the internal framework for ease of maintenance.






This is an 80mm fan trying to weasel its way in. Not a whole lot of room as you can see. You can fit one below, and two above the heatsink, and a 90mm in the front of the case. Otherwise, that's it. Also, look closely, the power brick actually sits between the heat pipes on the heatsink.




Wiring cheesecake!!!
All wired up and ready for final assembly.
If you look closely you can see the hd indicator light poking up through the fan mounting hole. Remember the right side is covered. Basically, you can't see any internal wiring when assembled.



Surprisingly, it's not bad to work on.
To change the HD requires 6 screws and 5 minutes. the mobo would take probably 5-15 minutes depending on how I did it. Pretty fast really.

It's pretty much done. I can just slap it together at this point, the problem is that the lower fan doesn't blow on the chipset heatsink. I need to check and see how warm it gets. If it gets too hot I need to make a small air redirect, which I want to do before I get final photos. I also may rotate the lights 45 degrees so they cover the interior more.

Final size is an 8in cube (255mm), with 2in feet (50mm).

 

hmmm there is something about that mini-itx motherboard that doesn't quite look right
looks like ram built the chipset or something

 

It's a cut down normal board just for the mockup

 

Correct, being a scratch built case I didn't want to possibly fry the real board or damage it by it being tossed around my work area. This I could abuse without fear.

It really made things much easier and stress free (cheap too!).

 

So small! I like it!