[Silvos00]

Moving my old thread here. Going to be converting this old Dell Poweredge 4200 Cube Server into a modern, liquid cooled and aesthetically pleasing beast.
Credits at the end

Component list:
CPU: Intel I7 4770k
Mobo: ASRock H97 Pro4 LGA 1150 Intel H97
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133
DVD: SAMSUNG DVD Burner SH-224DB/BEBE
HDD: 3x Western Digital 1 TB RE3
Fans: 3x Aerocool Shark Blue Edition 120mm x 25mm High Pressure - Blue
Fans: 2x Scythe Slip Stream 120mm x 12mm Slim

Update: 11/1/13

Dell's proprietary form factors are nothing my Dremel and enough cutting wheels can't handle. Think I burned through...2-3 of them cutting the back off. Project is sort of on hold until I get my check on the 15th though. Will likely be adding a 400W-500W PSU. Still not sure about the processor/mobo, but I have some DDR3 lying around I think. It's also not going to look near as badass until I finish the water cooling loop, which will be the very last thing. (Due to cost).

Edit: It was also about | | close to being thrown away. The other thing I can't decide on, is what to do with all those LEDs on the front...

Update: 11/6/13

Overdue update. I've given up on drilling the holes myself, as some of the pre-drilled holes make this nearly impossible. I gutted an aluminum or tin one out of the same case I got the back panel from. Though unfortunately the Dremel is at my GF's house, I will not be finishing this phase tonight.

My biggest fear at this point is going to be the aesthetics of it. I can make it work, but the back panel might look like a honeycomb on the other side. (Where the HDDs live).

Update: 11/8/13

Side panel created, but unfortunately I cracked it while drilling. Will be buying another piece, making the edges a bit straighter, and using some smaller/rounder screws to make it look decent. I also thought I bought Acrylic...but it feels a LOT like plexi glass. Very upset at Home Depot. Might see if I can buy some blue Acrylic to match the theme.

Edit: didn't work out so well, honestly it was more of a test, and to get the holes drilled in the metal.

Update: 11/15/13

Update. Waiting on a PSU from the egg to arrive, will be putting it on the left side (facing from the back) on the very top and cutting holes for airflow. This frees up the 2 compartments below that, and the massive area under the motherboard that I don't know what to do with. Thoughts?

The idea was a massive cooling system, but that would require roughly 4 months to acquire funds.

Update: 11/29/13

PSU has arrived and been mounted, also I finally pained the side panels. They are looking much better than I expected. In keeping with the theme, The inside will be silver and the outside metallic black. Will be painting icicles coming from the top, which will be metallic black with blue and wait painted over it. The LEDs will be mostly blue, maybe a few white.

Also the HDD cages have been cut to hold the new HDDs, will be buying bulk blue cables for them.

Update: 12/30/13

It's been too long. The CPU (I7 4770k) is shipped, the painting is mostly done, and I'll be finishing a few metal plates soon. All I really need to order is the motherboard, 5 fans, and a few electric bits for the LEDs. I'd like to get a custom motherboard tray made, but don't know anyone locally and no artisans on here do that.

Update: 3/13/14

3 months down the road, it's still on the bench and with life being busy I do what I can when I have time. Still trying to gather ideas/inspiration on the water cooling. The fans have arrived, and the radiator is on it's way. At this point I just need: Motherboard, RAM, Motherboard tray, 4 more fans, and a RAID controller.

Update: 6/28/14

It's been a long 3 months, and have not had the time or motivation to work on this with other things coming up. It's nearly finished, as all I need now are the PSU, fan grills, 1 fan back from RMA, and some (albeit extremely hard to find) front bay covers/rails for this thing. The painting is finished, and as soon as the PSU arrives I will be hooking it up and pressing the power button.

Spoiler: Before any modding, just the case.

In case you were wondering, those are dual Pentium IIs at 300Mhz. I also believe it had a RAID5 array or 5 4.65 GB SCSI drives.

Spoiler: The Major challenge was that the I/O panel and expansion slots were reversed.

So I had to cut the back of an old case off and bolt it on to the new server.

It isn't the best looking job, but I didn't have a ton of spare metal lying around that I was capable of working with.

Spoiler: Also the drives that will be populating the storage bays arrived today.

3 x 1 TB Dell WD RE3s.

Spoiler: Creating the side panel

Side panel created, though it has a crack and will be replaced. They've also been painted metallic black.
Also, the sides are slightly crooked and will need to be Dremel'd down to be level.

Spoiler: Planned Upgrade

Spoiler: The PSU has arrived.

Mounted and holes are cut out to allow airflow. Unsure if a fan will be going there or not

Spoiler: Painting has begun, and fans arrived

Radiator fans, will be used just for airflow until watercooling is done.

The painting, thanks to my art major GF

Not finished but I've been distracted lately.

The holes in the top are going to be for the 11mm fans, very little clearance.

And I'd feel like I was cheating you all if I didn't include a picture of my modding-assistants.

Spoiler: Most of the fans have now been mounted and painting is finished

Will be ordering custom grills for the tops fans, blue acrylic when it's done.

The inside in all it's shiny glory. Waiting on 1 fan back on RMA from AeroCool.

The dimensions of this beast are 22" deep, 15" wide, and 21.5" tall.

Will be updating this from now on, as I have most of the bugs worked out. Will also have a "Thanks to" section at the end of it, because without these forums and it's users it wouldn't have happened.
Special thanks to
bombastinator
My dad; electrician and carpenter
My lovely girlfriend Rachel, the art major.

 

[Gardnerphotos]

looks like its going to be pretty beastly, I hope you will be painting it

 

[Silvos00]

But of course. Going to sand the entire thing down, and hopefully going for a black/orange/red/yellow scheme. Not sure what color the tubing or liquid is going to bed yet though.

Edit: Though it will likely be powered by a Phenom II X2 or a Zosma or something. Hardly enough to warrant any kind of water cooling, but what the hell, I didn't do this because I wanted to be practical.

 

[bombastinator]

there was mention of doing a double computer earlier. I actually ran across a reason to do that. Photoshop boxes. Photoshop is basically a single core program, that very occaionally does multi core rendering in very large doses.

What people are apparently doing is building a high ghz overclocked intel box to run the program, then doing a second minimalist 8 core amd box to hand off the rendering to, which allows them to keep working during the render. It's a real reason to do the ettin thing from the old thread. Assuming of course you even WANT a hardcore photoshop box.

 

[Silvos00]

My photoshop box is my main rig

I7 3930k. This is gonna be a file server, maybe DHCP and media.

Edit: And actually, building 2 in there would require me gutting the other side, and I kind of like those metal boxes and the HDD rack. Would be hard to find something similar for cheap.

 

[KillThePancake]

Subbed for a revival of on old PC, I've got a PIII Gateway laying around here, the Windows 98 splashcreen is the greatest thing

 

[Silvos00]

Unfortunately the P2s were toast

Wanted to get them running so badly. Though I do plan on running Win95/98 in a Virtual machine. Might just do 1 of every version of windows.

 

[KillThePancake]

Baahh that sucks :I I want to get a set of machines with each generation of Pentiums. I have P3 and P4 now, just need 2 more

And I also have some K6 CPU's, but no boards/cases to put them in.

 

[Silvos00]

I could part with the P2s, I'm sure it's just the mobo that's broken.

 

[Silvos00]

Update: funds have been limited due to numerous car issues. Will be attempting to get a PSU so I can start taking measurements for cables and sleeving. Also debating between Including the OS in the RAID, or letting the RAID be storage only.

 

[KillThePancake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silvos00

I could part with the P2s, I'm sure it's just the mobo that's broken.

Hmm, I'll think about it.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Silvos00

Update: funds have been limited due to numerous car issues. Will be attempting to get a PSU so I can start taking measurements for cables and sleeving. Also debating between Including the OS in the RAID, or letting the RAID be storage only.

Stupid life getting in the way lol.

And I myself would rather keep the RAID for purely storage, as I think an OS in a RAID configuration is a bit sketchy.

 

[PoisonousRakija]

Love seeing old school cases like this one revived. Makes me want to do something about that old Pentium 4 Dell system that's just taking up space at home.

 

[bombastinator]

Dell cases often turn out to horiffic bundles of proprietary custom evil. Be warned. Opening one is often like looking back into the nasty confusing finger slicing garbage from the bowels of MacOS 8

 

[KillThePancake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bombastinator

Dell cases often turn out to horiffic bundles of proprietary custom evil. Be warned. Opening one is often like looking back into the nasty confusing finger slicing garbage from bowels of MacOS 8

I tend to agree. Dell likes their proprietary crap. Especially the BTX form factor that has confused many a modder.

 

[Silvos00]

Dell's proprietary form factors are nothing my Dremel and enough cutting wheels can't handle. Think I burned through...2-3 of them cutting the back off. Project is sort of on hold until I get my check on the 15th though. Will likely be adding a 400W-500W PSU. Still not sure about the processor/mobo, but I have some DDR3 lying around I think. It's also not going to look near as badass until I finish the water cooling loop, which will be the very last thing. (Due to cost).

Edit: It was also about | | close to being thrown away. The other thing I can't decide on, is what to do with all those LEDs on the front...

 

[Silvos00]

Overdue update. I've given up on drilling the holes myself, as some of the pre-drilled holes make this nearly impossible. I gutted an aluminum or tin one out of the same case I got the back panel from. Though unfortunately the Dremel is at my GF's house, I will not be finishing this phase tonight.

My biggest fear at this point is going to be the aesthetics of it. I can make it work, but the back panel might look like a honeycomb on the other side. (Where the HDDs live).

 

[bombastinator]

do not use the dremel on the girlfriend. girlfriends are better than computer modding.

 

[Silvos00]

Lol I left it there to sand something, then forgot about it. It's about 50 minute drive...

As soon as I get the motherboard screws and my Dremel back I can get the tray mounted and my test-mobo up and running. The custom windows will also be finished soon.

 

[Silvos00]

Side panel created, but unfortunately I cracked it while drilling. Will be buying another piece, making the edges a bit straighter, and using some smaller/rounder screws to make it look decent.

 

[bombastinator]

gotta have really sharp drills for plastic. They even make drill specifically for plastic with a sharper bevel. You need to cut your way down, not press your way down.