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I run 2 servers in my house. I had just been running them in 2 cases. I access them using remote desktop, so they only need to be connected to power and the network. I figured that I could mount both of the computers in one case to save space.
The victim:
I have 2 sides for this case, the windowed one seen above and just a standard steel side. Look at all that room in there! Plenty of room for an mATX motherboard and PSU. I will be using the empty drive bays to hold all the drives for the second machine.
I mapped out the clearance from the side of the case. The 75mm is the clearance to the top of the PCI slots, so I actually got much more clearance than that. If the space has no measurement in it than that space is off limits.
See, plenty of space
I had to double up on the risers in order to clear the handle. I am also going to be mounting the side fan behind the board.
Encountered my first problem. The processor heatsink is only a few mm away from the video card of the other machine and I still need to add a fan to the heatsink. After searching through my cards I found a half high AGP video card. Problem solved.
I mounted the small PSU above the board and I ran all the wires. To PSU entered into the 2cm clearance zone, but luckily as long as I don't use the bottom 5.25 bay it fits. No metal had to be cut out of the case.
Another close fit. I had to remove the audio ports from the back of the motheboard so I could clear the case fan. The ethernet cable barely clears the back of the case.
Here is a pic from with the case closed from one of the holes for the back case fans. I couldn't ask for a better fit. It is like that space was made to hold the board. You can barely make out all the space between the heatsink fan and the half hight video card. Its lucky that I had that card sitting around. I am running the ethernet and power cord out one of the 80mm fan holes. The way everything lines up I can also use one of the PCI slots if I want to, which was plesantly unexpected. You can see that I also lined up the PSU with the hole. I just set the board to boot when power is restored, so to boot it up I just plug in the power. Simple solution so I don't have to run a power switch.
The final product. The only modification to the case that I had to do was drill 6 holes for mounting the board and PSU. This had to be the easiest and most functional mod I have ever done. I also like the fact that it didn't cost me anything and took less than an hour. I mounted the fan to outside of the case instead of the inside. Since the board is quite high off the panel I still get good air flow. I hooked up that fan to the mobo on the side panel. If that fan is running then I know the board is powered on.
Host Specs:
2.4ghz P4
Abit IC7-G board
1 gig XMS ram
120gb SATA Maxtor HDD
Plextor 52X CD-RW
Nvidia geForce4 MX (half hight card)
MS Server 2003
Side panel Specs:
1.8ghz P4
Intel board (I can't remember the model)
512 mb ram
40gb PATA WD HDD
Plextor 24X CD-RW
No video
MS Server 2003
The victim:
I have 2 sides for this case, the windowed one seen above and just a standard steel side. Look at all that room in there! Plenty of room for an mATX motherboard and PSU. I will be using the empty drive bays to hold all the drives for the second machine.
I mapped out the clearance from the side of the case. The 75mm is the clearance to the top of the PCI slots, so I actually got much more clearance than that. If the space has no measurement in it than that space is off limits.
See, plenty of space
I had to double up on the risers in order to clear the handle. I am also going to be mounting the side fan behind the board.
Encountered my first problem. The processor heatsink is only a few mm away from the video card of the other machine and I still need to add a fan to the heatsink. After searching through my cards I found a half high AGP video card. Problem solved.
I mounted the small PSU above the board and I ran all the wires. To PSU entered into the 2cm clearance zone, but luckily as long as I don't use the bottom 5.25 bay it fits. No metal had to be cut out of the case.
Another close fit. I had to remove the audio ports from the back of the motheboard so I could clear the case fan. The ethernet cable barely clears the back of the case.
Here is a pic from with the case closed from one of the holes for the back case fans. I couldn't ask for a better fit. It is like that space was made to hold the board. You can barely make out all the space between the heatsink fan and the half hight video card. Its lucky that I had that card sitting around. I am running the ethernet and power cord out one of the 80mm fan holes. The way everything lines up I can also use one of the PCI slots if I want to, which was plesantly unexpected. You can see that I also lined up the PSU with the hole. I just set the board to boot when power is restored, so to boot it up I just plug in the power. Simple solution so I don't have to run a power switch.
The final product. The only modification to the case that I had to do was drill 6 holes for mounting the board and PSU. This had to be the easiest and most functional mod I have ever done. I also like the fact that it didn't cost me anything and took less than an hour. I mounted the fan to outside of the case instead of the inside. Since the board is quite high off the panel I still get good air flow. I hooked up that fan to the mobo on the side panel. If that fan is running then I know the board is powered on.
Host Specs:
2.4ghz P4
Abit IC7-G board
1 gig XMS ram
120gb SATA Maxtor HDD
Plextor 52X CD-RW
Nvidia geForce4 MX (half hight card)
MS Server 2003
Side panel Specs:
1.8ghz P4
Intel board (I can't remember the model)
512 mb ram
40gb PATA WD HDD
Plextor 24X CD-RW
No video
MS Server 2003
