This has been an on and off case mod I've been working on for like 5-6 years. First few attempts were going to be water cooled. But about 2 years ago I decided to actually build a server to replace my aging Opteron 6168 + Supermicro H8SGL-F system. I'll try to compress it as much as possible. Still not done but getting close'ish.
When I pulled the case out of the closet it looked like this. It is a Cooler Master Stacker 830 from ~ 2008. One of the last great aluminum cases IMO.
Case looks like this normally.
As this case has zero 3.5" drives, I used some Lian Li drive cages I had laying around and trimmed them up.
Cut a hole in the side of the 5.25" bays to access the drives.
And back in place
I cut a piece of aluminum to cover the ugly mesh floor the case originally had.
Also cut a piece of aluminum to cover the back side of the 5.25" bays.
Cut some thin aluminum to cover up all the holes on the 5.25 bay to clean things up. JBWeld'ed them in place.
Drill some holes and used some counter sunk rivets to hold the drive cages in place. I'll be using epoxy over the rivets before painting so they won't be visible.
Cut a hole on the backside of the 5.25 bays to give access to the back of the drives. The little hole @ the top is for a few SSDs.
Drilled and taped some holes in the false floor and screwed in some brass standoffs. Then epoxied them in place and filed them smooth.
As this is a server, I don't need front panel USB, Firewire , or front panel audio. So I used some Bondo to cover everything except for the power button. Started sanding out all the scraps and nicks the case has had over the last 10 years.
More to come.....
When I pulled the case out of the closet it looked like this. It is a Cooler Master Stacker 830 from ~ 2008. One of the last great aluminum cases IMO.
Case looks like this normally.
As this case has zero 3.5" drives, I used some Lian Li drive cages I had laying around and trimmed them up.
Cut a hole in the side of the 5.25" bays to access the drives.
And back in place
I cut a piece of aluminum to cover the ugly mesh floor the case originally had.
Also cut a piece of aluminum to cover the back side of the 5.25" bays.
Cut some thin aluminum to cover up all the holes on the 5.25 bay to clean things up. JBWeld'ed them in place.
Drill some holes and used some counter sunk rivets to hold the drive cages in place. I'll be using epoxy over the rivets before painting so they won't be visible.
Cut a hole on the backside of the 5.25 bays to give access to the back of the drives. The little hole @ the top is for a few SSDs.
Drilled and taped some holes in the false floor and screwed in some brass standoffs. Then epoxied them in place and filed them smooth.
As this is a server, I don't need front panel USB, Firewire , or front panel audio. So I used some Bondo to cover everything except for the power button. Started sanding out all the scraps and nicks the case has had over the last 10 years.
More to come.....