The Filing Cabinet Server

I posted a while back in the Idea section about using 'found' parts. So, after some planning, a little bit of shopping at the Home Depot, and some work with my drill and propane torch, I have started a third (gasp!) mod.

At this time, I am planning on using the old PIII mobo from Mach I of the Frankenstripe as my fileserver. This machine will eventually get a SATA compatible mobo along with a minimum of 1 TB storage configured in RAID 5.

Enough chitchat, on with the pics!

As you can see, this poor old filing cabinet has seen some better days. One of the front doors is completely busted off. I had originally planned on using both of the front doors as one large door and have it open from the side. But that just wasn't meant to be, as I seriously screwed up the intact one while trying to take it apart. Oh well.

More or less gutted. The four rails have to go, so out comes the propane torch. A few minutes later, and I was left with this:

At first, I thought this was riveted together, but it's either JB weld or some really good oxy-acetylene welding. I'm guessing the latter, since the ol propane torch couldn't heat it up enough.

Some plywood (although I know that's not what it really is--I'm having a brain fart atm) to cover up the bottom of the cabinet.

And it mocks up nicely. As you can see, I still need to rip out the other set of rails. This is on the to-do list for this coming weekend.

The new front door. The dude @ Home Depot cut it just a tad bit too wide. No big problem, I'll have access to some power tools this weekend.

Utility hinges, handle and a new lock. Kinda self-explanatory.

Thought I would share this one too. I was trying to heat up the weld from the outside and did a good job of beginning my stripping.

So here's what's left (no particular order):

Cut the back panel for the mobo tray and the PSU.
Drill and mount power/reset switches.
Buy casters so this thing is somewhat mobile.
Install mobo and hard drives that I have lying around
Burn xUbuntu and install on system.
Prime and choose paint color.
Build HD rack.
And probably a few other things I cannot think of at the moment.

Anyways, I will be taking 4 days off this coming weekend and spend at least a day working on this. We'll have to wait and see what'll happen though.

Looking interesting. What are you planning on using it for?

And its MDF :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Olen

Looking interesting. What are you planning on using it for?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrumThumper

At this time, I am planning on using the old PIII mobo from Mach I of the Frankenstripe as my fileserver. This machine will eventually get a SATA compatible mobo along with a minimum of 1 TB storage configured in RAID 5.

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Today, I shall drill the holes for the on/off and reset switches. Or I might just play with the PSU.

Not too much of an update, since I have to work in a bit, but I did manage to get some control over the inevitable rat's nest:

What did you use for the cable sleeves?

looks like split loom to me

b4i7 is correct, it's split looming out of the grab bag that I won from Crimson Sky.

I've also decided to completely stealth everything with the exception of the power cord and the CAT-5 cable. And both of those will be out of sight, since they'll be residing on the backside.

Update time--it's HOT OUTSIDE. What better weather for chopping up a filing cabinet?

I thoroughly pissed off the neighbors over the last 20 minutes or so with my jigsaw. Oh well, it was a one time deal. I much prefer working in a garage or shop.

This isn't the best looking work by far, but damnit, form follows function with me, so here it is in all of it's glory:

Marked up and pilot holes drilled.

Whoops, was a bit off on my measuring. This is why we measure twice and mark (or cut) once. No big deal, just needs a little more jigsaw lovin'.

It fits. Sorta. These standoffs:

Caused just a bit of a problem. Nothing a little dremel action won't take care of:

Inside view. Now I have to mount the MDF bottom so I can start placement for drives and the PSU.

Now that the mobo tray has finally been installed, I had a realization: This is gonna be a bitch to get the motherboard screwed down onto the tray. I'm forseeing some scraped knuckles in my future.

Off to the hardware store, I need some nuts and bolts.

So I just spent the last hour or so fighting with a couple of screws on this thing. Sucks when you can't find your magnetic screwdrivers. :mad:

Anyways, I now have the old PIII mounted. A couple of pics:

front

back

It's almost 9 pm and I need some more damn bolts.

Probably should get a bite to eat as well--all I have had today is half a large bag of popcorn at the movies.

I've got an hour before Home Depot closes, so if everything works out tonight, I should at the very least get everything mounted, if not up and running.

Think I'll take a chunk of the loom that I used on the PSU and see if I can get a decent color match. Or at least something that will compliment it.

One last update before I call it a night:

I pulled the mobo out, as I am still very much in mockup stage. So I decided to see if I could get xUbuntu installed on a 4 gig hard drive I have laying around here.

Then I found out that the drive is pretty much dead. Spins, writes, but can't read.

No biggie there, I have a pair of 40 gigs at my disposal, along with roughly 300 gigs between two drives that I can use for storage until I get this mobo replaced with something that'll accept SATA.

So JBOD it is for the time being.

Anyways, a few interesting pictures:

My testing/workstation. Just threw this together and it worked quite well. I'm thinking about keeping this chunk of MDF around and adding some standoffs to it.

I realize this looks like either a) the computer is turned off or b) Thumper's camera is a BAMF. Actually, the heatsink fan just flat out wasn't working. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the fact that I currently do NOT have a case fan hooked up to the board through a 3 pin.

Attempting to install xUbuntu. Seemed to work just fine until I rebooted. So my 4 gig hard drive will probably become a clay pigeon, along with a similarly ancient 2 gig hard drive.

She's got wheels! I just might throw my blue CCFL's underneath to give it a nice glow for nighttime use.

Stay tuned, thanks for watching, this shall continue some more tomorrow. I'll be taking the hole saws to the case and making some, well, holes.

I'm liking this project, lots of elbow room in there!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdbnsn

I'm liking this project, lots of elbow room in there!

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Oh yeah. All sorts of room. In fact, I'll see if I can find a pic of me actually working on it.

I'll have another update up in a bit. This one's almost done.

Here's what's left to do, and it'll be done by next weekend!

Find and install some molding around the fan holes.
Hang the front door.
Install lock on front door.
Install handle on front door.
Tear down and paint.
Final assembly.

Cut a few holes in the cabinet, and managed to gouge it a bit as well. Hence the need for some molding.

Intake fan hole.

Closeup of the exhaust fan hole. Holesaw got away from me just long enough to do this.

Since the PSU is going to reside inside, I had to make a hole for it's cord. Still needs a bit of cleanup done to it.

A perspective shot.

$9.99 a piece at Radio Shack. So I got two.

My method of drilling holes worked, but next time, I'll try to find a template. This side is just a bit off. No biggie. Form Follows Function.

$4.99 @ Ace Hardware. I now have enough mesh to do quite a few computers. I just might cut the door panel up some and install a bit of this there as well.

Speaking of the door, I didn't measure correctly the first time around it seems--was off by 1/4" inch. I took it back to Home Depot to see if they could cut basically a saw blade's thickness off of it. They tried, and while it looked good in the store, it STILL DOESN'T FIT. I might be rethinking the door over the next few days.

And the Mrs. and I decided on a dark purple for the color. I'll have to pick that up before next weekend.

After much deliberation, the front door is actually going to consist of two independent pieces: top and bottom. I'll add two more hinges (in fact, I might have to jump up in size a bit), and have a 14 1/4" X 24 1/2" piece of the MDF cut into two 14 1/4" x 12 1/4" pieces. Why? Because I can.

The top door will have a rectangular hole cut into the middle of it, and the afore-mentioned mesh will make another appearance there as well.

And lights. I was planning on my blue CCFLs to be on the bottom of the case, but I am now thinking that they are going to reside inside and the single lazerleds that Crimson Sky sent in the grab bag (I believe I have four of them) will highlight each wheel. So, two separate switches are going to be incorporated into the backside of the cabinet. Or perhaps I'll incorporate two of the military toggles (from Crimson Sky as well, thanks a ton man!) on one of the sides or the top.

And I still need to go get my two 40 gig hard drives from uncle Bob (yes yes I know :p), since he's almost as crazy as I am when it comes to computers--one of these days I'll talk him into modding a case.

Alright, update time. This one's pretty much done except for the painting, which will happen this weekend.

I got another sheet of the 1/4" MDF and had a front panel cut that is more or less flush with the rest of the cabinet. I then drilled holes for the hinges, handle and lock, and here's the results:

Handle and mailbox lock, all mocked up.

Holes for the hinges.

And here's a couple 'minor' problems:

These screws are a bit long. A quick trip to Ace can remedy that.

This needs to sit flush. So I'm gonna have to do some handywork with the dremel tomorrow so I can get one of the ridges built into the lock through the bottom, that way the metal clasp can go underneath as well.

I'll find a hard drive cage and probably just bolt it down on the bottom panel.

Almost there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrumThumper

These screws are a bit long. A quick trip to Ace can remedy that.

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So can a hacksaw.

Save yourself some gas and change and just cut the screws to length. No need waste time, fuel, and money for something minor like this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chaksq

So can a hacksaw.

Save yourself some gas and change and just cut the screws to length. No need waste time, fuel, and money for something minor like this.

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True enough, but Ace is literally right next door to where I work, so it's not a biggie.

+rep for the idea though!

save the world saw your screws :D /offtopic

this thing is greaaat maaan :)

ARGH!

People here have no damn clue what I'm looking for--I just spent the better part of 2 hours looking for trim and getting shown sealant.

So screw it, when all else fails, improvise.

What I'm looking for is nothing more than tubing, so I'll just get some of that.

Oh, and I'm jetting town for a few days. Expect the final pics up by Tuesday at the latest.

Trim problem solved with some vacuum line. I bought 4 foot of the stuff, as I have one more hole to do on this mod and one on Frankenstripe as well.

Having said that, I'm gonna pack for a 3 day modfest/get out of town/enjoy the outdoors mini-vacation.

See everyone Monday,

DT

Have fun! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by slytherock

Have fun! :)

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Did I ever. Sadly (or not, depending on one's outlook), not much work was done to the FCS while I was out in beautiful Central Montana. I did, however, manage to put 60 + rounds through my 870 Express 12 gauge in roughly 45 minutes--left a bit of a bruise on my right shoulder/bicep area. The joys of skeet shooting!

That, coupled with a relaxing tube float down Big Spring Creek in Lewistown, MT made for a relaxing 4 day get-away.

As soon as I find my camera, I'll post some pictures.

Sounds like an awesome time man. Just what I wish I could be doing. Just chilln' out and relaxing.

Small update--got the door hung. I'm not all that satisfied with the end results. But I think I know how to make it work properly.

I did get a chance to take an angle grinder to part of the inside of the case and got the riser that the rails rode on removed from the left side. After that was done, I fired up the dremel and cut the left inside lip so I will have better access to the bolts for the hinges like this:

Here's the door open:

And closed. Notice that the damn thing is crooked.

I'm thinking I might get some bigger hinges and redrill.

I've still got to sand the lock hole a bit too. That will probably get done tonight when I get home from work.

And on a different front, Xubuntu is giving me hell--can't install it to the 40 gig hard drive that I wish to use for the OS. I'm going to try to set said drive up as a slave and see if I can get it to cooperate with me that way.

Some minor progress made tonight in the OS realm--turns out my 4 gig hard drive isn't bad at all, so I installed FreeNAS on it.

It's too damn hot to paint, and it looks like it's going to stay that way for quite some time, so on Friday (or maybe later today, we'll have to wait and see), I will reattach the front door and migrate everything that I have available into the cabinet.

And the PIII is about to be retired. I just found a dirt cheap Socket 478 board on Newegg. 4 IDE drives and 2 SATA drives equals a 5 disk RAID 5 array. Until I get the money socked away to buy the 5 drives (which will most likely be 500 gigs each), I'll run a JBOD configuration that will have roughly 200 gigs of storage.

2 Terabytes of storage. I'll have room for all my bootleg concert FLACs, that's for sure!

looks great man!

I just started on my socket 478 fileserver...

With the exception of painting and installing my newly ordered hardware, I think it's safe to say that this part is finished.

All that is left now is a bit of soldering for the fans and switches. Still undecided if I'm going to add a HDD activity light.

Anyways, onto the pics!

Installed the new hinges, and I'm really tickled with the results this time!

Front shot, all nice and even this time.

A bit of a closeup of the top.

Enlarged the hole just enough to get the locking mechanism installed properly.

Backside of the door.

I'm also still undecided on whether or not to install the two blue CCFLs that I have on the bottom of cabinet or inside, or even install them at all.

Finally, I'm going to have to get a new soldering iron and some solder as well, since I have no idea where my old one is.

So here's the recap of what's left to do:

Hardware
Solder
Paint (hopefully late August or sometime in September).

looks much better with the new hinge setup. once you paint it, it will look like a miniature of a rackmount cabinet... xD

Alright, the fans have been mocked up, the weather is getting a bit cooler, and in addition to having to work the next six days, I also start my next block of college classes on Monday. Dunno how this is gonna work out here, I guess we'll have to see.

Mock up of the CCFLs. Looks alright, but I kinda like this better:

That's what it looks like with the lights inside. I'll ponder it for the next few days.

And as promised, fan mockups!

Bottom fan. Forgot to put my spacer in, and it rubs a bit on the gutter guard. This is why I'm doing mockups.

Top fan. Spins freely, due to the way it's installed.

I'm thinking of installing this inside of the case as well:

An 8 port 10/100 switch. Expandability literally built in if I do.

Just to give you an idea how small it is:

I might try my hand at shaping the gutter guard so it will sit flush with my ghetto grommets. Shouldn't be too hard to do, I'll use a CD spindle as my mold.

Mobo and RAM arriving on Tuesday. I won't bother you, dear Constant Reader, with the mundane task of getting that up and running.

But I will, however, give you the current specs:

Intel Celeron D 315 Prescott 2.26GHz 256KB L2 Cache Socket 478 Processor
BIOSTAR P4M80-M4 Socket 478 VIA P4M800 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Kingston KVR400X64C3A/128 128MB DDR400 PC3200 Memory

As previously stated, I'll be running a 5 disk RAID 5 array once I buy all the disks (roughly $100 a pop). Until then, I will be tearing Blue apart and canabalizing the 200 gig HD out of it and using it in conjunction with 2 80 gig HDs for a total of 360 gigs plus whatever isn't being used by my 4 gig (yes, that is correct, a 4 gig hard drive) by FreeNAS.

More than enough storage for the time being.

The gutter guard looks perfect!

My RAM showed up on Monday, and supposedly the board will be here later today.

I already have the proc, so this should be up and running by Wednesday at the very latest.

Brown dropped off my mobo, so here's a few pictures:

Ooooh....shiny

Everything is all hooked up, just waiting to POST

{/best Dr. Frankenstein voice}It's alive!{/end voice}

For some odd reason the mobo is only detecting 64 megs of ram, and yet it's a 128 meg chip. I'm going to play around with it tonight via knoppix and see what the hell is going on.

I'm also working on a new design for the fan ports. Again, I know what I want but I can't draw worth a damn.

Oh, and Friday, I'm painting!

Just in time for Halloween....I'm resurrecting the dead.::banana: :D

It's back, and will be done before the end of the year in some shape or form!

I've torn everything down to damn near the basic file cabinet; the floor is still attached due to some minor work that will be done tomorrow (read: installing the PSU). Then I'm going to strip that ugly beige off and toss a coat of primer on, weather permitting of course (supposedly going to be in the 60's tomorrow, that's good enough for me).

And I ran into one minor problem:

The back panel of the mobo is a tad bit newer than the flimsy cover on the back of the tray. Nothing the dremel can't knock out.

So for tomorrow:

Cut the back of the cabinet so it will accept the PSU.
Grind the fan holes, since they're still a bit ragged.
Install HD chassis (1 for now, but it will receive another in the future).
Paint (door for sure, the rest might get primered).

Mockup stage, as far as I'm concerned, is complete. Looks like this will temporarily hold 220 gigs (roughly) of storage, as I have two 80s and a 60 gig at my disposal.

And with RAM prices plummeting, I'm also looking at two gigs for Blue. The one gig that is currently in here will end up in my wife's machine, and the 512 meg chip that she has will go to the FCS.

Alright, first off, the weatherman lied (big surprise there).

And secondly, I did a little research on another mod that who's worklog has been posted here, and has inspired at least one other modder (yes jbdnsn, I do mean you! :D).

So I played around a bit with some balsa wood and did a bit of a mockup:

I'm planning on wrapping this motif, if you will, down the sides. And I've got an idea for an improved door as well. This will also allow for me to fix the flub on the exhaust hole.

I'm also kicking around a couple different ideas regarding the paintjob. The purple, obviously, is out the door. Olive drab green is too overdone in my opinion, but it might work as a base. A trip to Ace is in my imminent future.

I'm also hoping to get a bit more done this weekend, as I'm taking 4 days off and heading out to my parents for some much needed rest, relaxation, and enjoying the great outdoors with my .270 and 12 gauge.

Woohoo! Joe's back to work on my new server! Heehee, glad to see you are still plugging away at it man.

More goodies for the Server, although it's slowly turning into a multipurpose system now. I kinda figured as much.

Couldn't pass this deal up. $20 clearance item @ Shopko, and there's one left just in case I screw this up. And as an added bonus, I found a guide for modding the gamecube version of this unit. So, just a little bit more research and we'll see what happens!

I'll be tearing this apart *maybe* this afternoon. We'll see what happens for sure though.

More screenwork done for tonight, I'm going to leave the unit stripped as it for now. I also ran into a minor problem that will be resolved with a quick trip to Radio Shack.

Back cover off, crappy speakers disposed of, just need to finesse the bottom plate off.

Missed a screw. Was having a helluva time trying to get it off, then inspiration hit and I removed the label.

Like I said, was having a helluva time. This piece is permanently bent like this--the powers of a hairdryer!

I stayed at this part for a good 30 minutes, during which time I was surfing the net trying to find some schematics so I could figure out what wires do what. After several dead ends and a little bit of spyware, I said screw it and googled the screen model (Sharp LM6Q4O1), and found out what pins do what thanks to the guys over at MP3car.com. Kudos to them!

And here's where I'm at:

And here lies my minor problem: the connector is a POS. Like I said, a quick trip to Radio Shack should remedy that.

The pins themselves go like this: (cut and pasted from the other site)

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10

1 - NC
2 - Blue
3 - Red
4 - +12v
5 - Gnd
6 - NC
7 - Composite Sync
8 - Green
9 - +12v
10 - Gnd

And the VGA connector is like this: (also copied from the other site)

DB15 or VGA connector:
1 - Red
2 - Green
3 - Blue
13 - Horizontal Sync (connect to composite sync)
10 - Gnd

Power comes from a molex on either 4 and 5 or 9 and 10, but not both from what I've read.

I'll hopefully will be busting out the soldering iron this next weekend after hellweek in the grocery business is over with.

Lookin good man. + rep.

5 1/2" x 4 3/8" x 1 1/8". Those are the overall dimensions of this lil screen. So now that I know what I'm working with, away we go to Sketchup to work out some ideas for the housing:

Head on with some dimensions. For reference, metal colored part is the actual housing, the black part is the plexi cover that I popped out of the Gamer's screen unit and the smoky grey part is the actual LCD screen.

And a side view.

Here's the deal though: I don't like the boxy-ness of my mounting housing. The front face plate needs to protrude more than the rest of the housing. So, back to Sketchup. Here's where I'm at:

It's starting to look decent. The top cover extends 1" on each side, which will allow enough room for an on/off switch and a LED light to show that it's on.

First off, my main machine had a few 'issues' over the weekend. I've got some new RAM coming my way, and have installed three of the four hard drives into Blue that were originally going into the server. No biggie, as this actually opens up a bit more space (~320 gigs vs. ~250 jbod configuration I had originally planned).

So having said that...

A quick update:

Borrowed a donor case from my wife's uncle. This will allow me to get this beast up and running...

Decided that a LAMP configuration would be my best choice. If nothing else, it will give me a bit of 'real world' experience.

RAM should be here by Wednesday at the latest. Once I install the 1 gig of matched DDR into Blue, the remaining 512 meg chip is going to go into the 478 board. 640 megs *should* be enough for Xubuntu. And I also need to find the tutorial that was posted elsewhere on the net (bit tech iirc).

Tuesday is looking like the beginning of 'armor'ing the cabinet. I bought a coping saw and a set of blades at Home Depot Saturday, along with a soldering iron, as my old one got lost due to many a move. I'm hoping to shorten the wires leading from the HSF to the connector later today (Monday).

And I'll get some pics up tomorrow as well. I'm running a gimped system at the moment (dual channel architecture + 1 stick of RAM = FAIL), and don't wish to put an overly heavy load on Blue atm.