Framed - 4PC Test System

[TheGreatSatan]

My Single Core P4 arrived today.

I haven't put the stand offs in yet. I'm waiting till I have all of the boards and am sure of their placement.

[TheGreatSatan]

Finally, All of my systems are here!

First I have to mount the PSU's, then I'll get the standoffs in place.

[TheGreatSatan]

I know all the systems run, but I haven't actually hooked them up to a monitor to see if they post. Hopefully, there will be no unexpected surprises.

Also, I'm going to be adding the PSU's too. I will cut off all wires I am not using. I'll keep the Motherboard cable, 12V (when necessary), and probably just one molex line with at least 2 connectors on it.

The I/O plates will be lined up and connected to small sheets of aluminum that will cover up all non-essential back plate areas. I will probably leave the PCIE/AGP slots open to add cards for future testing needs. The actual systems will be using onboard audio and video.

So, tonight I will install the standoffs and at least prep the back areas.

[TheGreatSatan]

I spent another $140 on on 4 PSU's

I added the stand-offs

I added a little silicon to hold them in

I'm using thumb screws to hold on the removable side, but don't have enough yet.

So here's where we are now. I'm waiting for the PSU's to come and I'm going ot start on the individual front plates for the DVD drives and Power Switches

[TheGreatSatan]

Thank You!

My PSU's arrived

And I cut off the excess wires

Then I attached the first one and discovered a problem.

If I have one PSU for each system and bolt them all in to the frame, I will not be able to slide each of the motherboards into place. The PSU below will always be in the way of the motherboard above.

So, I will use one PSU and snake the motherboard connection through each level until I plug it in the system I need to run.

I guess I cut all those wires for nothing.

[TheGreatSatan]

I got mail!

[TheGreatSatan]

Alright, more wonderful news.

I've decided to use 1 slim external DVD drive for laptops (powered/runs off USB). This was becuase I was mounting the DVD drives when I realized that the drives will cut off a lot of airflow in the system. Also, I decided that I would mount all of the hard drives on the bottom behind the KVM switch and run the SATA cables up to each board.

Then I discovered another hiccup. The Single core AMD mobo does NOT have a SATA connector! All I bought were SATA HD's!! Now I'll have to get one IDE drive for the lone mobo at the very bottom. of the rack. Here's the current direction:

[TheGreatSatan]

So I found a square bar that was left over from Hard Drive PC and cut a hole for the bar to feed all the way to the bottom

I'll have to cut holes as marked for each level to feed in its SATA Cable

I'll be able to mask the onslaught of cables that I may have in this project.

I still need to find a seal of some kind at the top to lock the bar into the plexi

Same goes for the bottom. I'm thinking rubber or silicon maybe?

[TheGreatSatan]

Framed is pretty much done. I'm in the process of loading XP onto all of the drives.

[TheGreatSatan]

New Concept photo.

I just need to buy the bracket which will hold the LCD on top. Maybe you can help. I need a bracket like the one I drew up. I don't know where to start looking for one, but I may have to make one myself.

Link To Original Worklog