My Custom Case Build

[CartmanSPC]

In the process of building a custom case for my mining rig. Thought others may find it interesting to see the progress.

It will be going into a 19" rack so the dimensions were made to fit.

Dimensions
Length     600mm
Width      446mm
Height     221mm (5U)


What I have built so far



Using rivets to hold the pieces together



Made one of the holes too close to the others so the rivet wouldn't fit :/
Luckily I had enough room to drill another hole. Lesson learned.



Will update my progress as I get further into it.

[notlist3d]

Looks very nice and clean so far.

[kuusj98]

Looks very nice and clean so far.

Indeed...

[broken_pixel]

Let me out of my cage!!! 

[CartmanSPC]

  Thanks!

This is really turning into a labor of love. It doesn't help that I am a perfectionist when it comes to this type of stuff
Trying not to let that extra hole drive me nuts  

Slowly making progress.



This is what the GPU holder will look like. Going to fasten it down somehow. Perhaps with some kind of quick release clamps on either side. Measured that there is room for 23-24 slots. That will allow me to have a bit more than one slot of room between cards (7 is the goal).

[borgfish]

i see you already used like 24 rivet's, keep us updated any time you use another one

seriously, it's gotta have taken you more time to upload those pics than asselmbe this 12 pieces ??

guess we have a summer hole in news here

[CartmanSPC]

For those hanging on my every rivet I have 12 more done

[flipper]

I'm impressed at the quality, so far. Want to see more.

[mazedk]

Looks very nice.

Why did you make it 5U though? - From my experience you can go 4U and still move quite a big amount of air with the right fans (which you could do seeing as you are hosting it in an rack/server room im guessing?)

[peonminer]

oh man looking good! Can't wait to see the finished product. Love the airflow.

[The Goat Master]

Where did you get the parts?  It looks really nice!

[CartmanSPC]

Why did you make it 5U though? - From my experience you can go 4U and still move quite a big amount of air with the right fans (which you could do seeing as you are hosting it in an rack/server room im guessing?)

I initially wanted to make it 4U but after measuring I felt it was a bit cramped. I may enclose the case to build a wind tunnel type enclosure if the temperature on the cards are too high with the stock fans. The power supply's will be in the front half of the case so I also wanted to have some space for more air to flow in.

I can fit 8 5U cases in a 42U rack vs 10 4U cases. The power requirements to support 8 cases may already be higher than can be provided as the environment has strict watts per square foot restrictions. I currently have one 20amp PDU to power the rig and I know I can get at least 30amp PDUs when the time comes but don't know if I can get anything higher. By that point I may need to acquire more floor space to accommodate the watts. I will have a better idea how many amps/watts each rig will draw after I get the first one going.

Basically my thinking was that case space was not an issue and I wanted to error on the safe side. If/when I build a second one I will have more experience to see if a 4U case will work. I will also be purchasing a nice mider saw if I build anymore as cutting the aluminum with a hacksaw and then smoothing out the edges with a dremel took a lot of time and effort!

[CartmanSPC]

Where did you get the parts?  It looks really nice!

I initially looked at using 80/20 for the case but found it to be too expensive. Consisting of 1" square extrusions I also think 80/20 takes up too much valuable space on the interior of the case. Trying to fit 7 GPUs in the width of 442mm is going to be hard enough without also loosing 2" for the side walls.

The way it is now I have 442mm of space for GPUs. 4mm for the aluminum sides (2mm each side) and then another 2mm for the side panels (if I decide to use them) for a total of 448mm. Looking at how it turned out I think I could of increased the interior to 444mm and put the sides on within the space between the long aluminum pieces.

This is a learning process for me so I'm finding what works along the way

I think these are the two size angle bars I am using:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Crown-Bolt-1-2-in-x-96-in-Aluminum-Angle-Bar-with-1-20-in-Thick-56780/202183473#.UfNGEiTn-M8
http://www.homedepot.com/p/3-4-in-x-96-in-x-0-050-in-Aluminum-Thick-Angle-56930/100337439#.UfNGDCTn-M8

Larger pieces for the exterior frame. Smaller ones will be used for the interior GPU stand.

[CartmanSPC]

Here are the aluminum part used:


...and one more for the Power Supply section:


Worked on the motherboard section tonight. Screwing in the MB standoffs worked better than expected.


Really had a hard time drilling the holes since the top part of the frame interfered with the drill. In hindsight I should have turned it upside down and drilled from the bottom :/


Test for fit. MB screws not tightened down.


Finished MB section:

[letuslook]

Look's really good en clean!

[networkgeek24]

How do you plan on attaching this case to the rack? Very interested in this as I have an old unused server room with many 4 post racks that I'm eyeballing for a similar build.

[locke9342]

That looks really good. Wish I could make stuff like that.

[CartmanSPC]

How do you plan on attaching this case to the rack? Very interested in this as I have an old unused server room with many 4 post racks that I'm eyeballing for a similar build.

For this first one I will use my existing rack shelves. In the future I plan to use something like this:



http://www.racksolutions.com/tool-less-rack-rails.html

[Dougie]

Is it your basement that you're building this? What are the cages for? Sorry. I'm just nosey. Interesting thread.

[CartmanSPC]

I live in a high rise so this is my version of a garage. Storage units for resident use. Well lit and free electricity but gets hot down there.