widefault
05-28-2008, 10:17 PM
A little background first.
Merom Cube V.1 was built out of an old aluminum breadbox, like this one (http://www.widefault.com/whs/whscube01.jpg). Hardware is a Commell LS-371 embedded motherboard, T7200 Merom Mobile Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR2-667, 80GB Seagate SATA drive, slot load slim DVD, flash reader, and cooled by a single 120mm fan. It's quiet, under 60 watts under load, and was amazingly reliable as my work PC for nearly a year of service. It has since been semi-retired since I changed office locations and now half to use the corporate standard Wyse Thin Client. Bleh. Anyway, here's a pic of Merom Cube V.1. Size is around 9" tall, and 7" wide and deep.
http://www.widefault.com/35c2d/mermini19.jpg (http://www.widefault.com/35c2d/mermini.htm)
Click for more pics
I still love that little beast, ended up so much better than I had hoped for. Now that it's home, I had intended on using it as an HTPC, but the video is very underpowered and there's no real expansion beyond USB or mini-PCI which already has a wireless card installed. There are also only four USB ports, with two taken by the flash reader(which has an external USB port), and the other two would be used for KB, mouse, and MCE remote. I'd have to tack on a USB hub, which means more parts and more mess. Also, the design uses a 3.5" hard drive, but only one. It's probably going to end up as the "guest" PC in the living room or as a simple jukebox system.
So what's my next plan? Well, I've been slowly amassing a buttload of embedded motherboards and happened to pick up this beauty a few weeks back. EBX form factor, 5.75" x 8", or roughly the same size as a DVD drive.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm001.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm002.jpg
It's the same 945GM chipset as the board in Merom Cube V.1, but if you look close you can see a 16x PCI-e slot. Also has a regular PCI slot and a 4x PCI-e. One 10/100, one gigabit ethernet, 6 USB, 2 SATA, and all the other toys you would expect.
For a size comparison, here it is with a 7900GS in the PCI-e slot.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm003.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm004.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm005.jpg
Yeah, it's not much bigger than the video card itself.
Did a bit of brainstorming on the design, and came up with this beautiful MS Paint masterpiece for the motherboard tray.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpmtray.jpg
The idea is to create a wind-tunnel on the left side where the CPU is AND leave enough room to mount a pair of hard drives in that location. I have enough space for a 92mm exhaust fan there, and will have a 120mm in the front of the case for intake. Since my overall case design is going to have a fair amount of mesh, I'm not too concerned airflow will get unbalanced. I guess I'll see when I have more built. I also had come concern about the weight of the drives deforming the shape too much, then noticed some well placed holes on the video card I intend on using(PNY 8600GTS). Determined I could put some standoffs on the drive cage, and have the card attached that way to help stabilize everything.
With that plan, I got out the dremel, files, drill, bending brake, aluminum, and came up with this.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm006.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm007.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm008.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm009.jpg
Then I went back and started laying out for mounting a slim DVD drive off the bottom of the tray, installed more standoffs, and cut a hole for the 44pin ID cable to run through. One very nice thing about embedded boards is that most have a 44 pin IDE cable, so with the right adapter it only takes one cable to run IDE and power to a drive.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm010.jpg
So far so good, everything is lining up pretty well, but there are a few issues to be dealt with.
- the PCI-E slot puts the edge of the video card on a different plan than the USB, VGA, and ethernet ports. I'm going to have to make a multi-layer back panel to compensate.
- the PCI slot doesn't quite line up, either, so if I use it I'll have to come up with a solution, probably another layer on the back panel :(
- the 4x PCI-e slot is fine, but it's right next to the 16x so cooling the video will be a pain AND the CD-audio plugin could get in the way
Right now I'm contemplating my back panel. I figure I better plan on bumping it out for the PCI slot. I may never use it, but better to have the option down the road. It's also only 1/4" or so difference, so not that much. Just have to figure out how I want to do the layering. Currently, the video card is out about 1/16" further than the ethernet and VGA port. I can get around that by making a plate for the VGA and ethernet, and then another plate that would have the DVI ports poking through. If I do that method, the video card plate will probably also hold the exhaust fan and attach to the far side of the hard drive windtunnel area. Hmmm, that gives me another idea. Doing that, I could set it up where the PCI card would be against the case back, which would recess the tray's panel. Would leave a smalll gap, but I can live with that since it would be on the back of the case where no one can see it anyway.
Merom Cube V.1 was built out of an old aluminum breadbox, like this one (http://www.widefault.com/whs/whscube01.jpg). Hardware is a Commell LS-371 embedded motherboard, T7200 Merom Mobile Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR2-667, 80GB Seagate SATA drive, slot load slim DVD, flash reader, and cooled by a single 120mm fan. It's quiet, under 60 watts under load, and was amazingly reliable as my work PC for nearly a year of service. It has since been semi-retired since I changed office locations and now half to use the corporate standard Wyse Thin Client. Bleh. Anyway, here's a pic of Merom Cube V.1. Size is around 9" tall, and 7" wide and deep.
http://www.widefault.com/35c2d/mermini19.jpg (http://www.widefault.com/35c2d/mermini.htm)
Click for more pics
I still love that little beast, ended up so much better than I had hoped for. Now that it's home, I had intended on using it as an HTPC, but the video is very underpowered and there's no real expansion beyond USB or mini-PCI which already has a wireless card installed. There are also only four USB ports, with two taken by the flash reader(which has an external USB port), and the other two would be used for KB, mouse, and MCE remote. I'd have to tack on a USB hub, which means more parts and more mess. Also, the design uses a 3.5" hard drive, but only one. It's probably going to end up as the "guest" PC in the living room or as a simple jukebox system.
So what's my next plan? Well, I've been slowly amassing a buttload of embedded motherboards and happened to pick up this beauty a few weeks back. EBX form factor, 5.75" x 8", or roughly the same size as a DVD drive.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm001.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm002.jpg
It's the same 945GM chipset as the board in Merom Cube V.1, but if you look close you can see a 16x PCI-e slot. Also has a regular PCI slot and a 4x PCI-e. One 10/100, one gigabit ethernet, 6 USB, 2 SATA, and all the other toys you would expect.
For a size comparison, here it is with a 7900GS in the PCI-e slot.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm003.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm004.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm005.jpg
Yeah, it's not much bigger than the video card itself.
Did a bit of brainstorming on the design, and came up with this beautiful MS Paint masterpiece for the motherboard tray.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpmtray.jpg
The idea is to create a wind-tunnel on the left side where the CPU is AND leave enough room to mount a pair of hard drives in that location. I have enough space for a 92mm exhaust fan there, and will have a 120mm in the front of the case for intake. Since my overall case design is going to have a fair amount of mesh, I'm not too concerned airflow will get unbalanced. I guess I'll see when I have more built. I also had come concern about the weight of the drives deforming the shape too much, then noticed some well placed holes on the video card I intend on using(PNY 8600GTS). Determined I could put some standoffs on the drive cage, and have the card attached that way to help stabilize everything.
With that plan, I got out the dremel, files, drill, bending brake, aluminum, and came up with this.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm006.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm007.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm008.jpg
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm009.jpg
Then I went back and started laying out for mounting a slim DVD drive off the bottom of the tray, installed more standoffs, and cut a hole for the 44pin ID cable to run through. One very nice thing about embedded boards is that most have a 44 pin IDE cable, so with the right adapter it only takes one cable to run IDE and power to a drive.
http://www.widefault.com/hpm/hpm010.jpg
So far so good, everything is lining up pretty well, but there are a few issues to be dealt with.
- the PCI-E slot puts the edge of the video card on a different plan than the USB, VGA, and ethernet ports. I'm going to have to make a multi-layer back panel to compensate.
- the PCI slot doesn't quite line up, either, so if I use it I'll have to come up with a solution, probably another layer on the back panel :(
- the 4x PCI-e slot is fine, but it's right next to the 16x so cooling the video will be a pain AND the CD-audio plugin could get in the way
Right now I'm contemplating my back panel. I figure I better plan on bumping it out for the PCI slot. I may never use it, but better to have the option down the road. It's also only 1/4" or so difference, so not that much. Just have to figure out how I want to do the layering. Currently, the video card is out about 1/16" further than the ethernet and VGA port. I can get around that by making a plate for the VGA and ethernet, and then another plate that would have the DVI ports poking through. If I do that method, the video card plate will probably also hold the exhaust fan and attach to the far side of the hard drive windtunnel area. Hmmm, that gives me another idea. Doing that, I could set it up where the PCI card would be against the case back, which would recess the tray's panel. Would leave a smalll gap, but I can live with that since it would be on the back of the case where no one can see it anyway.