Worklog: My Epic (4 systems in 1 Case Labs case)

[Smasherbasher]

This will be the last mod I ever do for myself. And it's not really for myself. It's for the folding@home team. I am taking 2 Case Labs M10s, stacking them, integrating a built-in 20" monitor and articulating arm with hard-plumbed water cooling. This thread isn't really getting off the ground until I have everything planned out completely all the way down to the last screw. It's just serving as a placeholder for pics.


Current Phase: Planning / mocking up

 

[Smasherbasher]

Table of Contents

1) We begin.
2) Project is feasible!

 

[Smasherbasher]

Final

 

[Smasherbasher]

Begin....

Cases are stacked together to size things up. That's a 7 year old boy standing next to them to give you an idea of their size.

When I put them up on my mod cart to bolt them together, they're taller than me.

Here's how they are going to sit. One case is upside down and the bottom of the top case rests on the case feet from the upside down case. The feet from the top case will be transplanted to the bottom case later on.

Hardware to bolt it all together.

• 12x 1.5" Stainless pan head screw (6-32)
• 12x 1" threaded aluminum spacer
• 12x flat washer
• 12x Nylon Insert lock nuts

Each corner oriented like this. I can only use 3 screws per corner due to the case feet being in the way of the 4th hole.

It works.

I will be placing an order at Mc Master-Carr for some nice thumbscrews I can use in place of the 1.5" long stainless bolts that I can thread directly into the spacers for easy disassembly.

 

[Smasherbasher]

This project is officially feasible. Thanks to Case Labs literally thinking of everything, this is what happens when you want to do modding. They laugh at you and say "Sorry. Already thought of that."

So I had already a vertical accessory mount sitting here for something else and decided to whip it out and see if I could adapt it to work for this situation so I could decide if a horizontal accessory mount would do the trick.

Sure enough. when I removed the backplate section from the motherboard tray, it fits perfectly into place with the accessory mounts installed. Now I need to order 8 of them to fit the 4 boards. Power supply placement is not an issue. I am picking up some small Corsair CX 430s for these systems, so weight won't be much of an issue. I'll still need to brace the tray somehow just in case.

Pics of my accomplishment.

It sits just so perfectly!

:applaud:

Thank you Case Labs for making my life easy! Order for parts incoming.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I'm excited to see all the hardware go in these cases.

Looks like an epic project. Keep the updates coming

 

[Smasherbasher]

I never even added the list of hardware

• 3x Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z
• 3x 2600K
• 4 or 8GB of 2133 RAM each
• Corsair CX430
• 2x WD Caviar Blue 320GB
• 1x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
• NO ADDITIONAL GPUs in the Maximus systems. They are for Folding@home only

System 4 will be a midrange do-it-all build what will have a Phenom II X4 or X6 in it with maybe a 6850 for light gaming but that's about it. I already have a Corsair TX650 V2 for that system.

 

[lsv]

I never even added the list of hardware

• 3x Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z
• 3x 2600K
• 4 or 8GB of 2133 RAM each
• Corsair CX430
• 2x WD Caviar Blue 320GB
• 1x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
• NO ADDITIONAL GPUs in the Maximus systems. They are for Folding@home only

System 4 will be a midrange do-it-all build what will have a Phenom II X4 or X6 in it with maybe a 6850 for light gaming but that's about it. I already have a Corsair TX650 V2 for that system.

Why do this with CaseLabs cases and not some el cheap super quiet cases? Or use the extra money and grab 4x4U cases and stack'em?

 

[Smasherbasher]

Why do this with CaseLabs cases and not some el cheap super quiet cases? Or use the extra money and grab 4x4U cases and stack'em?

I already had the cases on hand from previous builds so what better way to reuse them?

 

[aigomorla]

nice! case labs cube!