# Project: Server and Gaming Case



## Spotswood (Apr 14, 2011)

This is a project/build log for a custom case to house both a storage server and gaming rig.  

This fairly compact case is designed to hold:

Two EATX motherboards
Two ATX PSUs
Twenty four 3.5-inch hard drives
Six SSDs
Two 120x3 water cooling radiators













The size of the case is to be kept as small as possible, which is mostly driven by the size of the motherboard trays.  But until those arrive, I fabricated the PSU mounting plate from some 2.5mm aluminum sheet.

The cutouts were made via a hand held router fitted with a flush pattern bit, guided by a template.



















That's it for now!


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Apr 14, 2011)

Spotswood said:


> Twenty four 3.5-inch hard drives



24 drives?  I hope you plan to have rubber grommets everywhere!  This thing is gonna be loud, hot, and vibrating!


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## D4S4 (Apr 14, 2011)

dude, you are insane. subscribed


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## t_ski (Apr 14, 2011)

Spotswood said:


> Twenty four 3.5-inch hard drives... Two 120x3 water cooling radiators... as small as possible...


You mean only in comparison to your last build?


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## Spotswood (Apr 16, 2011)

The backplate of the stock motherboard tray from mountainmods.com was too tall, so I fabricated a shortened duplicate out of .10-inch thick aluminum sheet (once again, via my trusty router fitted with a pattern cutting bit):


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## Spotswood (Apr 21, 2011)

This case will be shipped flat-packed so it needs to be easily assembled by the owner.  The simple back frame consists of some u-channel with its ends plugged with some blocks press-fitted and pinned with a #4 screw.  The blocks have a though-hole into which a #6 1-1/4-inch flat head stainless steel socket cap screw is bolted.  Simple, effective, but time consuming to fabricate.


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## Loosenut (Apr 21, 2011)

Great project and beautiful work Spotswood, can't wait to see more


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## MT Alex (Apr 21, 2011)

Subbed.
Very informative and encouraging, since I assumed I would have to take a sheet of aluminum stock to a CnC to get good results.


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## gumpty (Apr 21, 2011)

Subbed.

I'm predicting another masterful build. Can't wait.


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## Thrackan (Apr 21, 2011)

Subbed just for the hugeness of it all


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## PopcornMachine (Apr 22, 2011)

Looks like it's going to be very nice!


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## Spotswood (Apr 25, 2011)

The first step toward routing-out the motherboard cutouts in the back panel was to modify a standard size motherboard router template I had made some time ago.












The modified template was used to create yet another template in 1/2-inch thick particle board.







Unfortunately the router wobbled ever so slightly in one spot, but was quickly repaired with some autobody filler:








In order to save wear-and-tear on my flush cutting router bit a first pass was done freehand (gulp!) with a standard endmill.


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## Brandenburg (Apr 25, 2011)

Subbed


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## blu3flannel (Apr 25, 2011)

Subbed, this is gonna be a monstrously awesome project.


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## Spotswood (Apr 28, 2011)

I had to make a new router template for the PSUs cutout.  A router guide template is quickly fashioned from some MDF held together with pocket screws.












A mock-up of the back panel:


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## Spotswood (May 2, 2011)

The posts for the front frame are made from .125 x .5 x 2-inch tubes.  First thing was to stuff the bottoms with the screw blocks/nuts in order to eventually attach them to the bottom sheet.  

Following standard operating procedure, the aluminum was cut on my miter saw (fitted with a standard carbide tipped blade).  The clamp that came with the saw is used to hold the material against the fence.







The blocks were then drilled on the drill press with the assistance of my self-centering vice (I _love _that thing because I don't have to waste time measuring for center).







Threads were tapped via my bench mounted "hand" tapper.







The blocks were pinned to the tubes with flat head self-tapping screws.







Always looking to improve my speed and quality, the cross supports offered the opportunity to use PEM cinch nuts.  The nuts were pressed into the screw blocks.






Which were then pinned inside .5 x 1-inch u-channel.


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## Bow (May 2, 2011)




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## codyjansen (May 2, 2011)

this is going to be epic


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## Spotswood (May 6, 2011)

I added some "legs" to the motherboard trays so they'll rest nice and level on the workbench.


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## Spotswood (May 7, 2011)

I spent the day correcting a big mistake, which was I relied on the incorrect posted dimensions of the Swiftech MCR320-DRIVE 3x120 radiator, and thus the case wasn't wide enough by 16mm.  (Swiftech has since  corrected the diagram on their website).







Actually, the case was exactly the width of the rads, but that might have resulted in some pump vibration getting transfered to the side panels.  So the case had to be widened by one inch.


To speedup the process of pinning the bolt blocks to the u-channel I switched to using split pins.
























I also had to re-cut the back sheet.







Altogether, it only took me about a third of the original amount of time.  Phew!


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## t_ski (May 13, 2011)

On the front page of [H] again:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1601030


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## mATrIxLord (May 19, 2011)

subed... another awesome build on the way...


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## Spotswood (May 23, 2011)

The bottom support beams were made from .5x.1-inch aluminum flat bar.  I wasn't keen on having to hand drill and tap them, so instead, I routed grooves to accept nuts. 












I like this fastening method because its wicked strong and offers just enough "play" for easy assembly.







The frame is bolted to the front inner sheet.







And then the entire subassembly is bolted to the front frame.


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## d3fct (May 23, 2011)

sexy ass aluminum work, nice!


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## Spotswood (May 27, 2011)

The sides of the HD cage consists of three pieces of .125-inch thick 1x1.5-inch u-channel held together with some threaded bolts.  The cage will be bolted to the frame of the case via some .5-inch angle.  







The holes in the angle were used to guide the drill bit into the side pieces.

















Quarter inch slots were routed out of the u-channels to eventually accept .25-inch threaded rods.


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## PopcornMachine (May 27, 2011)

Very nice work.  I know nothing about working with aluminum.  Like a class.


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## xrealm20 (May 27, 2011)

Looks awesome dude.  Subbed!


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## Thrackan (May 27, 2011)

Spotswood said:


> The sides of the HD cage consists of three pieces of .125-inch thick 1x1.5-inch u-channel held together with some threaded bolts.  The cage will be bolted to the frame of the case via some .5-inch angle.
> 
> http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww153/Spotswood_/Server and Gaming Case/HDCageSides.jpg
> 
> ...



Are you going to line the inside of the HDD cages with some dampening material?


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## Spotswood (May 27, 2011)

Thrackan said:


> Are you going to line the inside of the HDD cages with some dampening material?



No plans to do so at this time.


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## Spotswood (May 28, 2011)

Santoprene rubber/plastic tubing was slipped over 1/4-inch threaded rods to form a "cage" to contain the HDs.








Here's why the routed slots are superior to individual holes.


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## Spotswood (Jul 2, 2011)

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.


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## Spotswood (Jul 15, 2011)

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.


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## Sinzia (Jul 15, 2011)

Looking at your aluminum work is like looking at the Mona Lisa, everything's simply beautiful!


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## Spotswood (Aug 5, 2011)

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


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## TIGR (Aug 5, 2011)

Nice work Spotswood. I will watch this project closely.


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## Funtoss (Aug 5, 2011)

How much more awesome can this get?? dude your work is amazing!


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## puma99dk| (Aug 5, 2011)

nice, i can't wait to see how it ends out ^^

erm what hardware r u planing on? ^^;


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## Spotswood (Aug 10, 2011)

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.


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## Spotswood (Aug 13, 2011)

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.


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## Spotswood (Aug 14, 2011)

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


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## Spotswood (Sep 26, 2011)

I spent a full day squaring up the case frame, squaring joints, re-aligning joints etc. in preparation of fastening the sheeting.  

The steps I use to attach a sheet are:

Drill a hole in the sheet.

Use the hole in the sheet to guide the drill bit for the hole in the frame.

Thread the frame hole.






Countersink the sheet hole.






Admire work.





The case with the inner front, bottom and lower back panels attached.


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## Thrackan (Sep 26, 2011)

This will be so frickin' awesome. I love the detailed touches with sunken screws and stuff!


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## hhumas (Sep 26, 2011)

its awesome ... i am curious to see the final stage


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## erixx (Sep 26, 2011)

I love aluminium and like your work, very much!

Only 'but' is : a server doesn't need a big mobo, and a gaming rig doesn't benefit from the heat and obstacles of a neigbouring server in the same case, but i am sure you will solve this!


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## Spotswood (Oct 11, 2011)

My client selected some nice low-profile casters (with 2-inch wheels) which I mounted right away since the case is all nice and square.  







Three of the #8-32 stainless steel bolts were screwed directly into the frame via hand tapped holes.


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## Spotswood (Nov 14, 2011)

I attached the .1-inch thick side and front panels with 6 stainless steel flat head socket cap screws.  The front panel extends past the tops of the side panels by .10-inch in order to hide the top's front edge.






The process to attach the panels is:

Drill pilot holes along the edges of the panel
Clamp the panel to frame and use the pilot holes to drill tap holes into the frame
Remove the panel and tap the frame holes
Countersink the panel holes

The side panels extend past the top of the frame by the thickness of the hinge.  These will later be scribed and cut to length along the back of the case.


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## de.das.dude (Nov 14, 2011)

sub'd and that thing is huge. but i guess its small compared to your other builds


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## vladmire (Nov 17, 2011)

insane project! 

---subscribed!


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## Huddo93 (Nov 18, 2011)

Absolutely MAAD build, Sub'd


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## Spotswood (Feb 20, 2012)

I made the top back plate for three 120mm exhaust fans.  Once the back was completed I was then able to scribe and trim the sides to their final depth.


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## Spotswood (Apr 27, 2012)

The hinge for the top was cut slightly undersized and centered with a some old business cards used as spacers.








Dimples of aluminum had to be removed from the frame in order to make room for the nuts holding the top sheet to the hinge.







With only a 2.5mm gap between the leaves of the hinge, button head cap screws were used to attach the hinge to the frame.













The hinge aligns perfectly with the top sheet, which in turn aligns with the back sheet.


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## de.das.dude (Apr 27, 2012)

long time no see


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## Thrackan (Apr 27, 2012)

Cool! Moar plz!


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## Spotswood (May 14, 2012)

On the bottom of the case, a large slot was cutout which will allow fresh air to enter the front air duct.  Following standard operating procedures, a router pattern/template was made at the same size as the desired opening.







The aluminum was removed with my trusty handheld router in two passes, once with a over-hanging pattern bit and another with a flush-cutting pattern bit.


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## <<Onafets>> (May 20, 2012)

Any progress mate?  Looking forward to more pics!


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## Spotswood (Jul 22, 2012)

Up next is fabricating a duplicate of the 120mm back fan panel, but for 140mm fans.  This time I had Lazerwerx cut me a custom 140mm fan hole router template out of 3/8-inch thick cast acrylic.






This template is a snap to use: mark center lines and lay the corresponding slits cutout from the template over them.


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## Spotswood (Aug 8, 2012)

The latches for the top are these nice "lift and turn" ones:







The latches require a fairly small area to be cutout, with only about a 2mm "lip", so I built a very accurate router template from some leftover t-slot extrusion:


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## Thrackan (Aug 8, 2012)

This, sir, is like watching HD pr0n on a 56k line...

I simply cannot imagine how nice this will be


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## Spotswood (Aug 19, 2012)

Drilled two 19mm holes for the vandal resistant switches (power and reset/hard drive activity).   

Using such a large bit (step drill) is a bit nerve racking for me, but with an extra large work surface and some clamps, I manged to get through it.







Switches!


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## Spotswood (Sep 4, 2012)

During final assembly (before paint) some rework is inevitable.  With this case, early on in the build, it was widened to accommodate the front radiators.  But I never went back to see if the PSU mounting bracket worked/looked okay.  Plus, I never tested the PSU cutout from the back sheet with the the actual PSUs used for the build.  Well, the cutout in the backsheet for the PSUs had to be widened by 3mm in order to clear the fan grill on the PSU cooling fan.  And the PSU mounting plate looked to dainty and needed to be widened.












And with the old PSU mounting bracket placed in front of the new one:


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## Spotswood (Sep 30, 2012)

I finished fabricating the back of the case, which consisted of drilling mounting holes through the motherboard trays and PSU mounting plate, through the back sheet and into the case frame.  Holes that went into frame were tapped to #6-32 and those in the middle of the sheeting had PEM nuts pressed-in.


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## Spotswood (Nov 6, 2012)

Powder coated parts have come back from the painter and final assembly has begun.


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## MT Alex (Nov 6, 2012)

Looks super


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## Huddo93 (Nov 6, 2012)

Looks amazing, cant wait to see what its like with some hardware inside


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## [H]@RD5TUFF (Nov 6, 2012)

very excited to see this one get finished!


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## Spotswood (Nov 12, 2012)




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## phanbuey (Nov 13, 2012)

i love it and i want it.


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## [H]@RD5TUFF (Nov 13, 2012)

I am jelly for sure!


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