ted's hardware

Too much server in too little space.

The night before a LAN-party I had an idea (why those ideas always come so late to me?) to quickly assemble an easy-to-carry low budget server. The result is basically a computer put in a suitcase. There were some problems in the beginning but after some tweaking it works just fine for hours in a row.

Materials used
- Cheap aluminum suitcase
- Suitcase attributes, such as a handheld and locks
- Various computer parts
- 2x standard PC fans (100 mm)
- Some small materials such as tape, screws etc.

Specs
- Motherboard
- 2.5 GHz Intel processor
- 2x 200 Gb HD IDE
- 450 Watt PSU
- 2 Gb RAM (400 MHz)
- Ati Radeon 9800 Pro video card
- PCI serial extension card

Building
Dimensions of the case:  45x35x25. After collecting all parts it seemed impossible to fit everything in. Note: there were no SO parts used, just regular dimension parts. The motherboard was fitted in first. It’s screwed on a couple of 5 mm bushes to make it ‘float’ therefor improving airflow. The PSU was next. The massive 450 Watt PSU barely fitted next to the motherboard. An angled power cable had to be used so it would fit.

The first test-run revealed a huge problem: heating.  The PSU + CPU + HD’s + Video card produced so much heat that from a cold start the system automatically shut down itself after 3-4 min because temperatures raised above 80 degrees C! The two fans couldnt export the heat fast enough. The problem was the lack of fresh air (intake).  To solve it two gaps were made at the backend of the case. The case runs now on an idle temperature of about 40 degrees C.

Photos
Some photo’s of the build and end result.

Not the prettiest but for sure a reliable cheap server. It serves now as a CSS server from time to time or as a box to configure routers with (serial ext. card).

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