Hpres-server

HPSERVER

After recently re-wiring and water cooling our home server in a sad attemp to achieve "quietness" i relised that poor case design was more to blame for heat and noise than the parts i was using to cool.


In the case of our home server the 5xHDD's are what generate the most heat....ther-for need a harder louder working fans to to over come poor case design cool them.... and with plans to add 2 more HDD's somehow things wern't looking good.

As seen on a lot of home case mods, fans can be installed into the top drive bays to help with upper case and HDD cooling.

Not many case's offer a solution to "upper case cooling" if your one who installs HDD's high up in your server or pc mid sized towers. Most cooling solutions are applied to the lower front of the case.

With HP SERVER i have decided to design (well a few ideas in my head) and build another HP-8000 series case into a custom purpose built solution for our home server needs.

The main Feature of the mod will be it's grafted UPPER and LOWER 120mm Turbine style custom blow holes!

To work in with this design, i have thought out a MID MOUNTED Cdrom mod! and will graft in a sexy "flipdown" type STEALHED cdrom door :)

These 2 mods will allow for the addition of HDD Bay setup wich will inturn also allow me to now add upto a WHOPPING 12xHDDS! and have them quietly and efficiently cooled buy the dual 120 front upper and lower fans.

Extra features so far include possible DUAL 380mm Top Mounted Res's! of course some custom internals, watercooling and some side mounted info guages!

Let the MOD begin!


The front panel.

I'll be using left over panels from all the other mods! some are already modded so this should helps things move along a lil quicker.

Of course the holes need to be marked.

The top section of the front panel has its cdrom area plated and hole cut as well

Some good old stormwater 110mm pipe is cut and sat into the holes.

Scared yet?

A floppy is no good to me! so in it's place is where the CDROM flip down front mod will be.

a bit more prep work

Time for bondo action!

for HPR-SERVER ive decided to go with a more pronounced lip on the both blowholes, i figured if i'm ganna have 2 blow holes! they may as well stand out.

i also decided to do away with the lower contour to try and even the front look up a bit.

The CDROM was/is going to take a bit of work!! around the edges are a pain to get right, the door closes flush with the face of the front panel.

If not done perfect will most definatly spoil the look of the case... extra time and care is taken.

Very early and crude! but i need a look see :)

The panel is left to sit over night to allow all the bondo to settle and go off.

Next day is more work on that CDROM opening.

As you can see the upper lip of the door must sit perfectly flush!!

Amost there! some small pits to be filled

will leave this sit over night again then sand and sprayputty tomorrow.

Some more putty and sanding work is done to the blowholesand sat back on to get an idea of what fans i will run,

I'm thinking 2 Turbine style fans will prolly have the best effect!

Some final shots for now before sprayputty tomrrow

The front panel is given it's first few coats of spray putty and allowed to sit over night under the dry lamps. This is where i'll first see all the highs and lows and nasty edges! and theres going to be alot!!!

The next day the panels again are wet rubbed with 800

The final uncercoat is primer

A few more spots "flare up" this can happen, in this instance it's the thinners in the paint biting into the edge of the first layer of putty. The panels are joined and yet again wet rubbed and spray puttied.

A final few coats of primer are applied to seal everything down, this is final now with just a web rub before paint.

With the front panel finally done i can move onto the how the 8-12 HDD/cd rom bay will install.

Perfect for this mod is the section form an old Plex case! with a very minimal modding the bay will install right in!

With the front panel bolted in i can now sit the CDROM in and install the plex mounts in.

The plex panel thatmake the bay are very old! and have a lot of small scratching on them.

a quik machine buff using fine compound will remove most of the smaller ones.

8 custom clear plex adapter mounts are cut and drilled to fit HDD's into the top bay section.(these will be re made the first 2 are just for testing and of course are a bit ruff)

You can now see with the Clear mounts installed and some Older workshop HDDs, how the new setup will easily house and effectivly cool 8-12 HDD's somthing not normally seen in a standard size mid ATX tower.

Finally i can fit the the custom flip down front CDROM door for a test run :)

I'm really really happy with the look of the cdrom panel graft! once under paint it will look factory.

:)

While this may look a bit confusing posting this now!

I need to know if the idea to paint the HP-SERVER black is going to be the look i'm after with this mod.

The the next update i'm gioing to give the front panel a qick lick with some Acrylic Gloss back! and do a quick mockup using some HP-1 panels.


The paint you see here..if i decide to stay with the black is only a base coat that will be rubbed flat bfore final paint job..

A good trick for you guys painting @ home is to give your paint area a light spray with water bfore you paint!

this helps to settle down any dust that flying around in the area.

I use a generic type 2 dollar sprayer set to fine mist.

The choice for me as always when dealing with can paint is ACRYLIC paint. NOT Enamel.


The primered front panel is given an initial "dusty" coat.....left to sit for a min then a few more "wetter" coats applied.

So i can get a good feel to this mockup ive decided to add the spinners to the chosen fans now.

The fans ive chosen for the mod are top qual PABST's , these are high flowing 12v fans wich i'll run of Zalmann speed controllers.

The Center cones are the same as used on HP-4
the larger 70mm type.

Of course to match the cones are painted using "Bumper trim paint" this is used for its plastic sticking propertys and the fact it drys a plastic matt finish to match the rest of the fan.

The cones are "HOT GLUED" from the rear to thyr new homes.

With the Fans ready and the painted front touch dry ..the front of the case can be fitted up for a looksee :)

To help get an even better idea! ive grabbed a few penels off HP-1.

Im very heppy how the HP-1 side penel with the moulded window vents actually works in quiet well with the 2 front blowholes! and may end up making another panel the same :)

Change of PLAN




I was scratching around out in the workshop and i found this! It was sent to me months ago i just
never really had a use for it.

Until now!

I already decided to put a 15" side mounted LCD into HP server but thought why not go the whole hog
and do a DUAL LCD install!

The victem is a Shinko 7" LCD i like the fact that this unit uses a Romote! should make a fun lil addition.

A qick measure and shows it's a squeeze but a possible one :)

Time to bust her open!

With the LCD out i can now mark up the front panel for cutting.

The front panel has a round shape so inserts are cut from plex and added.

A check to see all is square

Some minor stress cracking was caused with the clamping so a lil extra work needs to be done.

The screen spacers are glued into place then time for some bondo action!

A qick fit to the painted chassis to check screen placement.

Back off for some sanding

A second coat

another sand

and a final coat of finishing putty

Cheers guys! ty all for the great replies :)

Nagoshi :) cheers mate, i'm prolly not the best person to ask about paint, altho i do use cans i primarily paint using a 2pack paint system. I'm sure paul would have somthing posted here @ TBCS.

the effect you see in the pics are simply cause i used can paint with no clear to just give me an idea of how the mod would look black.

I'll usually try a mock up in can paint just to see if i like that look, then i rub the case back and 2pack it.


Rankenphile , cheers mate! as always tyvm for your support :)


nil8 cheers too mate :) yer the cdrom was a nice mod! but its on the shelf and can be used in a later mod :)

I feel the LCD will add more to the mod as well as be functional in server duties, it will also work in well with the next update :)

I did have a full bondo guide posted over @ the now defunct CMG site, ive recently added it to a local aussie site and you can view it here.

http://forum.ozcasemodz.com/viewtopic.php?t=647

it's still in the middle of being ported over but theres enuf info there to get you started :)

Resume.

Today was one of those days where everything just falls into place! and you finish
your days modding eager to get to the pc and post the days work!

First off was to get the newly modded front panel ready for paint.


after a qick sand some spot filler is used to fill pits and the panel is taken over for some spray putty.

Next was time to move onto what will prolly be the main feature of this mod!


I originally did this mod on HP-2! the Side window mounted LCD mod! Not wanting to just copy the LCD mod over to HPR-SERVER
i decided to take the mod one step further, this time rather than just mounting the LCD behind the window i decided to improve it
to a Side mouted "flush fit" window LCD.

For this mod to work perfect i needed to have the a full 6mm thick tinted side window with and exact laser cut out of the LCD.

the laser cut is perfect! something i just cant achieve freehand for this type of mod.

The 6mm window thickness was chosen to match perfectly with the thickness of the LCD!

Even tho the window is 6mm thick and tinted you will still see thru it with nps.

As you can see here the LCD and window are almost a tollerance fit!

The first step is to fit the custom window into the side panel, hot glue is used to hold the window to the side panel.

The paper is removed and the panel is ready for the LCD

Next is to strip the LCD from it's original HP-2 window mount system.

The system that will be used to flush mount the LCD to it's new home will be even simpler and cleaner than its original.


With the old rear mount still attached

flipped over you can see the original system used to mount the PCB this will be kept and re-used on the new system.

the Screen is separated from the PCB

Next is to cut and drill the new mounting bracket

The PCB mounting holes are countersunk to stop the screw heads digging into the back of the LCD .

Next the PCB assembly is located onto the 4 mounting screws.

The protective clear plex backing is placed and screwed down.

The simplest but most effect way to attach the LCD to it's new mounting bracket is clear SILICON tape

The new bracket is stack to the LCD and the power and signal plugs are reconnected.

Clear silicon tape can be appied to the overhanging tabs

And the whole assembly is now stuck down to the window!

Flip the completed side panel over for a looksee :)


As promised! a Flush mounted tinted window LCD mod!

The front 7" LCD is setup very similar to the side one,

the bracketing system that will hold the LCD will be mounted to the front panel

The orig metal locating plate is removed and a new tinted clear backing plate is added.

Again Silicon tape is used

Clear spacers , screws and nuts are used to attach the new tinted plex back

From inside the case the 7" LCd fits perfectly between the upper and lower 120mm blowhole fans.

A few shots of the of the LCD mounted from the front

And with the side LCD panel on

Thanks so much guys! the plan was for a simple server mod!......... well that was the plan :)



HP Server will be internaly lined much like HP flame'D but using GLOSS Black plex!

The Section to go in will be the Back wall,

The old spare back panel comes out to use for mesurements. theres abit to do to fit the new panel in.

The back of the chassis is removed and the new panel can be slid into place.

The shiny black thats the whole inside will eventually be can be seen on the floor panel.

Next is to move onto the Front Fan and LCD box section.

The idea is to make a simple solution to house the fans lcd and front electonics.

the circles are traced thru the front portholes to make sure they line up perfectly.

A "thingamajig" is used to find the centers of the markled circles ( i honestly have no idea what these things are called!
but if you see one buy it! it is the most usefull tool i have ever owned! )

Over for some hole cutting 101

Next is somthing ive been hanging to use! Some MNPC mesh! ive been waiting a long time to get my hands
on some of Bill's awsome modders mesh! This stuff is pro ! easy to shape and looks so damm sexy check
www.mnpctech.com . ive been lucky enuf to get my hands on both styles of mesh, for this mod i'll use the hunycombe.
chosen for it's less restrictive and quieter air flow.

The mesh is layed over one of the holes , using a rubber hammer is carfully shaped.

The effect is a grill that sits flush and looks more factory.

Again SS Hex heads are used to hold 120mm fan into the new box

With both the fans and new sexy grills installed the box section is slid into place

Thanx guys :)

HDD BOX is simple by design, orig the idea was to use an old plex rack from a clear case i had here, but i thought a custom made

matching black HDDBOX would suit the mod better.

Ive decided to go with a max of 6 HDDS... thats more than a enuf for a few TB's and will allow me to keep my antec350 psu in service.

Just to spice things up a bit ive decided to mount the Upper and Lower HDD's in and an angle! :)

The top 3 HDD's will slid in Upwards! and the bottem three Downwards.

to help with the HDD mounting holes... a small " Hole Jig" was made.

Drill time!

For Guide runners a long strip of 3mm Sqr rod is cut into 12 strips

Glue time!

4 Workshop drives are slotted in for a test look

The Rack is sat in the case for final bracket mesurments and to check clearances on the rest of the parts.

With the Side LCD panel mounted as well.... it's tight but a few CM's is more than enuf clearance all round.

Cheers ttp! it would be great to see you start mate :) youve got all the support you need right here mate :)

I do have plans for lighting! remote controlled lighting too! :)



Today i decided to do some more work to the front LCD, i needed to devise mount and link system,

the idea behind this is to have "some adjustment" in the the screen when alining and bolting the screen in.

The Main bracket is just a solid peice of plex that is perma glu'd to the inside middle of the Front fan box.

The common or joiner link will be this bent peice of plex, this will act as a swivel joint that will allow for adjustment both sideways
and back and forwarth.

The link is bolted the the main mount wicth is drilled ansd tapped.

@ this stage the link is left finger tight to allow for movement and silicon tape is applied.

Rather than trying to guess work or measure the right spot to stick the LCD to! the best way to ALIGN the LCD up with
its new link bracket is cheet by temperarily sticking the LCD to the front panel!!

Then it's just a matter of removing the silicon tape's backing and silding the Whole unit in so it presses up against the LCD!

Once the LCD has stuck to its new bracket...the front panel can be removed leaving the LCD stuck to its new bracket

the whole LCD is now an adjustable unit allowing it to but up perfect against the front frame :)

Perhaps the coolest feature of this LCD mod is that it has "Remote Control" Features!

There are many controlable features from the remote but perhaps the coolest ones are the one/off , selectable inputs!, + video out!am radio! and......
Remote control lights! this will alow me to switch lights on and off using the Remote! this should work in very handy when any maintinance
needs to be done or for light features!

The remote light control is fun to play with! testing here with a single blue LED

With the daughterboard hooked up and the unit powered you can see the remote selectable inputs!
The son has already twigged that the XBOX can be hooked up to the second input :)

And a qick bootup into windows to test both LCD's!

Thanx again guys !

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by taste_the_painbow

how did you hook up your lcd's. they look amazing and i was wanting to do that myself. btw good job on making it in the featured worlogs again.

---

for now all monitor connections are temp! but more will come in the next few updates :)

for now soz guys just some boring stuff..... but it needed to be posted so i'll get it out of the way and go mod HP3 some more :)




Now that the front LCd is mounted, it's daugter board need a a home as well!

The oprif plab was to mount it @ the side of the case, where the access to the upper HDD's screw mounts are.....

This would just prove to be a pain... and a better position was found.
With a little bit of fiddling and a few mm's to spare the LCD daughter board was squeezed and guled into place between the LCD and Lower Fan.

This solution actually works much better! keeping the whole unit as one!

The Fans 120's are connected to the 5V rail, this still moves plenty of air and keeps them nice and quiet.

The Front LCD as seen before is REMOTE controlled! i needed to work this function into the front of the case.


The simple solution was to just drill a how to allow the signal to pass thru the front of the case.

To fill the hole a small peice of tinted plex is "wittled" to shape, rather than just glue a peice to the back i decided make the peice sit flush with the front of the case.

The ruff edges are filed smooth

The window is poped in for a "looksee"

The panel is poped back on the case and the Quality Control Cheif is brought out for some stringent pruduct testing!!!

cheers once again guys!

FyR, Cheers mate :) seems ok?

The original plan was to put a Coolermaster water kit in the mod, the previouse server had a Modded version for about 4 months now and i was very happy with this setup.

As you can see here the setup fits easily... but i was left with the problem of mounting a RES!!

This unit isn't really that much better than good aftermarket air cooling.... it's just quieter! :)

I decided to use AIR COOLING... the only drama with aircooling is that imo with a motherboard cover heat becomes a problem.

To over come this problem, ive decided to ADD some ACTIVE cooling to assist airflow under the MOTHERBOARD COVER.


2 x 80mm fan holes are cut this will help to draw flow over the cpu and back out the side of the case... the fans are 2 x 80 super quiet coolermasters...which unlike the rest of the fans in the case can be left on the 12volt power.

For the side of the case i'm going to steel the side vent idea from HP4-FlameD.... :) but this time ive decided to go with the "bling Chrome Vents". the contrast on the All Back Case should look nice.

To make sure the Vent Holes are perfect rather than hand dremel cut and risk any wobbly lines ive decided this time to SCORE linecut the holes.


First score with a carbide but marker

The the final cuts are done with a stanly knife.

Then just press!

And Presto! perfect Dual side vent holes....i'll give them a smooth and paint the all the panels later.

A qik test ( excuse the messy wires for now )

Now that the Cooling and layout of the internals were sorted it was time to sort out Break out jacks for the front screen.

the front screen has 2 inputs.

The simplest solution is to use a blank!

The new breakout plate can be connected to the RCA on the Screen.

and can be screwed into place.

The signal can pass thru from the card to the input.

The good old standoff post is used to hold the motherboard cover inplace.

The mother board cover can be installed ! and final wires are cable tied behind the HDD Box.

Hard drives are fitted into thyr new home and SATA and power cables are fed from the hidden side then back out to each drive.

This method while not as clean as fully stealthed will allow for the qick changing of drives :)

The idea is a clean practical server solutin with goold flow and no messy wires.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nil8

Are you doing a raid setup defyant?
Can the mobo take that many sata drives or are you going to use a card?

---

No raid mate :) theres an extra SATA card as you can see in the pics :)


Got a few days to play modding this weekend :wink: and finally got HP-SERVER done......... for now!


I know i already did cut these holes on a previous panel... but had had some "fryups" .... prolly caused by the previous owner painting all the panels with cheep enamel paint. So i decided rather than take a chance a new panel is cut and painted.

To get the lines streight a longblock is used.

The new side panel and front panel are given one last sprayputty and touchup.

Theres nothing really special about HP-SERVERS paint job! i just want a basic server black look... ive chosen to use midrange can paints all the way thru this mod.


These run in around 10 bux AU a can! so a paint job will still cost you around 70 bux ... with 2 cans of the black and 2 of the spray putty being used,


With all the panels now under putty.. and the front penal under primer.

The penels are all given a wetrub flat using 1000grit wet and dry.


To help with wet rubbing the panels are all given a "dust coat" of black.... this is called blackshadow.... the idea is this guide coat acts as your guide while wetrubbing,

While all the panels dry from the dust coat a qick ATX on/off switch hole is added to the fron panel.


Nothing special here! the less this button stands out...the better !

A small hole is drilled opposite the infra red hole.

This panel is the first to get its new skin..... as you can see it has a flat sheen to it.... acrylics need to be chopped and buffed for a shine.

The panel is given a wetrub with 1500 wet and dry

You can see in this pic.. the paint is still NOT flat eunf... those small "pits" still need to be chopped out.

This is what your after....flat!

Nothing special about the buffing process! all hand done using everyday auto products. A 2 stage process hard cut and fine cut.

The same is done to all the newly painted panels

All the panels after buffing are given a THICK final rub and buff with WAX.

It's nowhere near the standard of a proper 2PAK pro j0b... like HP2 & 3 but as you can see for a server case that will NOT get handled alot it's more then good enuf.

Time to add the SIDE CHROME VENTS.

I'll just be using Clear silicon tape to hold the vents in..this stuff is great!

These vents will more than allow the side 80mm exhaust fans to flow.

Next is to RE-GLUE the Flush mounted LCD window panel back into the newly painted and buffed side panel.

The infra red sensor window is glued into the front panel.

The front ATX switch is also glued in.

The completed panels are put aside and time to get back to work on the rest of the chassis fit up and hardware install.



I wasn't happy with the finish in the ealier shots of the chhassis after adding the side fans.

I stripped the case of hardware and RE-PAINTED the side using MATT-BLACK , this just gives the side a more "finished" look.

A LOCKING device is made to secure the base of the HDD BAY .. a simple "Slide lock" is made.

A ruff square key hole is cut into the base.

The lock is bolted the the base of tha case

A FRESH set of SATA cables are cracked open and the HDD's are afitted back to the RACK.

All the SATA Cables are routed thru the side of the RACK.... a rubber grommet is added.

A SUPERFLOWER PSU is the choice of PSU.... the super quiet 140mm Fan is whats needed for this mod.

The MOTHERBOARD COVER is installed for test a fit.

It's a simple theory! The air WILL FLOW in thru -->the FRONT FANS! EFFECTIVELY COOLING 3 HDD'S EACH... The--> REAR 120MM FAN will help PULL <----> that air towards the CPU FAN.
THE CPU FAN <----> will draw the air under the MOTHERBARD COVER where it is ------> EXHAUSTED out thru the-----> SIDE mounted 80mm FANS-----> THEN OUT THE SIDE VENTS.

Simple LOW FLOW..

NExT is some wire management. The BULK of the wireing will be placed out of site behind the upper farside of the HDD CAGE.

The FRONT FAN/LCD box assembley can be placed back into the case. It simpley is a PRESS tight FIT! which is held into place once the HDD CAGE is bolted in.


The RCA INPUT and POWER leads for both the FANS and the LCD are FED out the FARSIDE of the box.

The LOWER and UPPER HDD keylocks are bolted in.

An extra lock is added half way up the FAN BOX.

The HDD BOX is added.

And all the EXCESS wires from the PSU FANS are cable tied as neatly as can be.

The wires will not impeed the flow dynamics of the case in anyway where they are.

NEXT is to a fit the MOTHERBOARD COVER into place. The cover is bolted to the EXTENED stand off posts.

The server is switched on to test all the fans are working.

COVER removed using a TEMP CDROM And HPSERVER is loaded with windows :)

With HPSERVER now loaded it's time To fit the panels on :)

I'm really NOT happy with the end result of the "quicky" can paint job!

Its not Magazine pub quality and it will get a 2PAK paint going over when the bad weather here stops.

THE Side LCD panel uses EXTERNAL 12V source! i could hook this up to the PSU but the EXTRA drain with the FRONT LCD and the 6x HDD's would be too much even for a 600W PSU.

The inside connectors for the side LCD

The SIDE LCD is the HP SERVERS main screen! The front screen with its DUAL INPUTS and be REMOTELY switched between a DIAGNOSTICS DISPLAY SCREEN or a FUN SCREEN.

The decision NOT to use LED fans does take away from the WOW factor in pics! but this is a POURPOSE built server! and i didnt want to have a bright glowy case in the corner of the room.

Thanx heeeps guys for the great replys, ive just re-painted cna cleared the case for a deeper finish.

As suggested by some ive also added some LED type fans.

isunktheship :) cheers mate, i'll try to get a proper howto done :)

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