WorkLog: Project Old Skool Compaq

[FLECOM]

oook, so anyway for the last year or so ive been trying to make my pc fit into a tiny/light case for easy transport and such...

anyway ive finally given up on the idea since really... i have wayyyyyy too much crap to fit into one of these crap aluminum cases and the feeling of your case bending when you pick it up is not reassuring...

sooooo anyway...

i was thinking about a giant server case type deal... i really wanted an IBM xSeries case since they are dead sexy... but its impossible to find just a case and the servers still run about ~$3000~$4000 a little out of my price range for a case

so anyway one night while i was thinking of sexy servers past, i remembered one in particular that i always drolled over in NT Magazine hehe...

anyway i got on ebay and ordered what was probably my fav server back in the day... it hasnt gotten here yet so these are all pics ive pulled from ebay and goole...

i present...

the Compaq Proliant 3000 (Tower Edition)

its beastly and weighs in at 120lbs (ship weight) hehe... casters... : )

that IS a piece of plexi with vents on it in front of the drives... now im not sure how nessicary those vents are... so i may replace the plexi with a solid tinted/colored piece... and perhaps etch something into it...

the 8 bay scsi cage is going to come in very handy as my pc now has 4 SCSI hd's and the compaq tray system allows you to put both 80 and 68 pin disks in the same cages using different trays...

the lcd appears to be a standard 4x20 HD44780 display... im probably going to swap it out for a different color later... and probably wire the buttons to a serial port or something...

ok here is the side... the mobo is fricken huge... and has an impressive 8 PCI slots... which is ok since a normal case has 7 rear card slots anyway... so thats convienent...all the front fans and ducting are probably going to go as this machine is going to be water cooled and that seems like a perfect space for a heatercore and pump : )

the rear fan is wonderfully placed and is more than likely going to stay there...

ok here is the back... the backplate where th emobo is looks almost like ATX... but im not counting on it as it dosent look like its going to line up correctly... and im thinking im going to have to cut out a slot above the top slot for my AGP card because of the spacing between the backplate and the cards... and i would really like to not have to replace the whole backplate as its bascially most of the rear supports for the case...

this pic shows one PSU, the one i got has two... @ 750watts each thats an impressive 1500 watts of redundant goodness...

this is probably going to be the most challenging part, as i would really like to keep the redundant psu's...

only problem...

not exactly an ATX connector eh? hehe... this is the connector for the PSU... and they both connect to this little guy

soooo probably going to be a while with the DVM in there hehe...

anyway, im definately planning on cutting out a window... not sure what im going to do yet...

and i may paint it... but im not sure what color yet... i have a guy that works @ an auto shop and he sais he can do anything for me... (including candy!!!) but im not 100% sure yet... was thinking flames but thats so overdone... meh, dunno... i really love those NVidia faries (say something and die) but im not a big nvidia fan, and i have an ATi card sooooo think it would be weird for them in there together lol

any questions and comments are welcome... ideas are always very welcome...

 

[jayjaya29]

Its a great idea for a project. Its gonna be tough to keep those 2 PSU's working for this, but I think some people can help out. The case is so big, so you can do a lot for paint. I would suggest a solid color and then having details all over. Hmm...definitely a lot you can do with this case.

 

[FLECOM]

well the guy who would be doing the paint job is a beast... he does all sorts of designs, fades, and he does candy colors... which are probably the hardest paints to apply to vehicles, becuase one screw up and you have to start again from the beginning... plus the stuff is about $200/pint... thankfully for me they always order extra (if they run out during a car run they have to start over again, since a different lot of paint may have a slightly different tint) so he has a lot of left over cans, and he sais that it shouldent take much to paint the case, even as large as it is...

 

[jayjaya29]

Thats kool, maybe it would be a good idea if you gave the guy or shop the case and told them to do whatever they want. Sometimes they can be really creative and come up with a sick paint job. Or you can figure up a paint scheme that you want. Whatever you decide on I'm sure it will look awesome.

 

[elm669]

Drools at the thought of a 6 monitor workstation

That things a beefy monster, Sure to make a nice mod.

 

[FLECOM]

what im really looking for are ideas for the window/paint job... i definately want a window to show off my duallie amd watercooled lovin... and a kick ass paintjob/design thing... but im totally dry for ideas

 

[DR_K13]

get crackin! I cant wait to see this project get started!

 

[bonzanego]

Got your email Flecom, here is an idea for you.
that thing is bigger than my apartment in LosAngeles!!
Windows I would say yes, and instead of using clear plexi try using some colored plexi, it is not used often enough and you can light it with white cathodes and the color will be uniform when viewed from outside. that box looks like it belongs in a nuclear powerplant. for paint here is somthing different. Fade yellow from the bottom of the case into white, then green candy over all of it, the yellow will become a vibrant green and the white will become a nice tinted green. a pearl white and yellow would look even better, candy colors look best over a metallic base paint. that paint with yellow plexi windows would be awesome looking and definatley different than anything else out there. you might even consider yellow or green uv reactive plexi, but dont use uv lights, ambient uv from the sun will actually make it glow slightly in the day time .colored windows will make a nice accent color to the paint as well. change out all the leds to white or yellow. as a compliment to the white/yellow base color paint the chassis white the window will make it look like whatever color the window is and white hides the defects that are unavoidable when painting a chassis. Go for plexi fan grills and they should be a complimentary color to the windows, not the same color i would even say use the same color but frost them by sanding. The outside of the case is very busy, fill some of the slots and crap with bondo or make faux covers out of plexi and paint them, especially that front panel. Cut out the intakes and cover the front with a faux panel with somthing more appealing to the eye cut out for the fans to breathe. For the window I would say somthing that big should have a geometric pattern like repeating and or overlapping squares 1-4 inches in size. That will also keep the window material from being to dominant colorwise.
The front door being hinged gives you the opportunity to do somthing special with the case. Chop that door up and cover some of that busy stuff up with somthing.

 

[FLECOM]

your enter key broke eh?

seriously i had to copy that into notepad it was giving me a headache lol

anyway, im definately going to take that into consideration...

about covering up the panels... the front panel wont be notcied much since its behind the door... and i need the SCSI bays since i will be using them for my drives... so i cant cover that up... the bottom left of the front panel is for incoming air, and for the front door lock... which i would like to keep functional, as this is going to lan parties a lot... and the SCSI disks can be removed easily... and considering my addition of two 73Gb 15.3 Cheetahs, i want them secure when i pass out on my keyboard lol

as for the front door, the pic of the front door makes it look really weird, the camera they used must have really sucked or something, but all those vent slits are supposed to be straight... not that weird rounded crap

the top right slit is the power light... and the little door under it is the power button...

also the tinted plexi is probably going to get swapped out, as i want to do an etch my gf made for me on it...

im not really sure what you mean by "busy" on the front panel besides maybe the infinite number of little slits for air... i may bondo the slits on the right... or maybe bondo the slits on the right and replace the slits on the bottom left with some mesh.. not 100% sure on that one...

also on the paint, i have to find out what colors the guy has, since if i use colors he already has, i dont have to pay for the paints... which is a good thing considering the cost of some of the colors especially candy...

i like the whole green theme, perhaps a radiation kinda thing since you mentioned a nuclear plant?

i can get a "FPL Turkey Point Nuclear Plant" property control sticker (you know those metal stickers with some long number and the company name on them..) from my uncle and put it on the front when im done perhaps

the only other idea i have for the paints im thinking of is red/black and maybe making it into a [H]ard|OCP case... since this is kinda my home

i thank you for your input, i do appreciate it

 

[siege]

well if you can't get the PSU to work with your ATX board, I would get a small ATX psu and use that for the motherboard, and just use the beasties for everything else..just a thought.

I like bonzanego's ideas about the colored plexi and geometric pattern on the window and the paint.

120lbs and you're expecting to load this in and out of the car all the time? have fun

can't wait to see what happens with it

 

[tylerhskate]

120lbs isnt alot, for a computer it is, but if you cant lift 120lbs you need to workout, plus it has rollers ^_^

 

[DR_K13]

It wont be 120 lbs when you gut it right? ( I hope not )

 

[blindviper]

yeah 120lbs isnt bad its like carring around another person
I can carry my case, monitor, and duffel bag to a lan in one trip im 330 lbs

 

[FLECOM]

It wont be 120 lbs when you gut it right? ( I hope not )

ya i hope not too!!! im going to be ripping out a lot of steel from this guy...

this also might be another reason to dump the powersupplies, as they are very large and heavy

 

[Caffeinatedsoap]

nice. I got a yeong yang cube awhile ago but it isnt good for lans...

 

[DR_K13]

just get a new psu ( I think they make 600 w now )

 

[FLECOM]

if i get a psu im going to get a nice psu, probably a fortron 550 watt... or maybe save up for a PCP&C 510... probably the fortron since im cheap

also there are psu's much larger than 600 watts... ive seen some N+1 systems that go up to 1100 watts but those "600" watt psu's that you see at compusa and computer shows, really arnt 600watts...

also about the weight, im not expecting this case to be light... so the casters will help a lot

but i am planning on adding some handles for two people to carry it, only thing is making sure that the weight of the machine wont actually rip the handles right out of the case would be an issue lol

 

[DR_K13]

I work for toyota, You know we make Forklifts..........

 

[FLECOM]

haha, send one this way

perhaps some mini-fork lift... just enough to get it in and out of my friends truck

but then what would i do with the damn forklift lol

 

[DR_K13]

we make tow truck for forklifts, just kidding,I just do IT , how is the mod going? done anything yet?

 

[jayjaya29]

This is turning out to be an interesting project.

 

[GENET1CS]

i say you paint it a really glossy black and replace the black window with frosted glass and add some lights to it. not sure what color would look good with the frosted glass.

maybe mount the glass on hinges so you can take out cds with out having to open "the black gate" (wouldnt want to upset sauron)

if not then replace the black tinted glass with some other kind of black tinted glass but use the same kind on the side panel window (so it looks uniform and what not)

also thoes seperated grills on the right side of the case next to the window...maybe put some kind of etched plexi glass or something thats blurry. then wire up a few leds and use it as a meter for stuff. cpu load, temps , memory usage, e-penis length, ect. ill photoshop the pic to show you what i mean if you dont get it.

 

[FLECOM]

i got the case today (yesterday? lol its late)

anyway i took it all apart and spent all day outside with my shop compressor cleaning it, it had GIAGANTIC dust things... i swear one talked to me

anyway the PSU's are no go becuase each one has to weigh like 15lbs... but that just gives me loads of room for my WC setup

im thinking about a window on both sides, left to show off the mobo, right to show off the WC... not sure...

anyway i stripped it clean of all the components and im still brainstorming what im going to do to it... its not terribly heavy now that ive removed the PSU's and other components, probably as heavy as my old black case was empty also... (if anyone actually remembers my old black case hehe)

this project is not going to be a quick project, i want to do a really nice job (most of my modding projects have been weekends, weeks max...) i want to get this done by around august... before the next lanmasters lan party

also im thinking about replacing the LCD that is there with either a 4x20 HD44780 display, or a crystal fontz 128x64 graphical display, since it should be small enough to fit in there...

also on the right where you see those fans, well mine had all four (the pic shows 2)... they are huge 120mm fans with three blades and SCARY... fuckers are like tornados lol, i may end up using them, not sure yet...

 

[FLECOM]

ok so i was playing around with it tonihgt (cant sleep ) anywho... the backplane has to go ... realistically its not worth modding it...

also i havent decided if im going to leave it half-split or not... right now (looking from rear) its split into two parts, the right where the PSU's were and the SCSI backplane/drives are... and the left where the mobo is...

if i remove the center devider i could have a mammoth space for my mobo and such... my only concern would be where i would fit my heatercore... but i could probably put it @ the top blowing out, and have the front fans blowing in... if i do top i could fit a dual 120mm heatercore i would think... so it mayyyyy be time for an upgrade

also i havent mentioned it till now but i will be making a custom automated cooling system/fan bus kinda thing... probably based around a digi-doc5 with some "modifications ...

i really want this machine to be quiet when its just here @ home... and turn into a small commuter jet preparing for take-off when its @ lan parties and such

 

[RS3RS]

Sounds awesome, can't wait to see what you do with this. I have a feeling it will turn out nice

 

[FLECOM]

just finished playing with the fans, two of them are Nidec Beta V's with tempreture control, two of them are Nidec Beta V's w/o tempreture control, the ones without are pretty speedy, not as loud as my delta by far, but still pushes quite a bit of air...

the ones w/temp control are nice and quiet, and if you short out the temp sensor to run them full speed they run at a pretty decent speed... while still being fairly quiet...

also all of the fans have a third pin that is either yellow or blue, not a clue what they are for, hooked it up to the DVM in frequency counter mode and it was putting out a few KHz, so its definately not RPM

either way the fans are pretty nice and are definately useful

 

[FLECOM]

ok so like i said before the backplane is completely worthless becuase there is more space between the pci cards than there should be...

only issue with this is that its the major support for the rear left of the case... so that will probably be replaced with some sort of metal rod or something...

anyway, here are more pics since i havent posted any of the actuall case since it arrived

here are the fans, the right one is the high speed one, left is the temp controlled one... you can see the little temp probe on the right of the center part of the fan...

the stripped out front...

top...

rear...

door...

back of door...

regular atx mid tower on top of the compaq, ok perspective pwnt me here, the compaq is actually a little taller than the regular case

here is a shot of the drive bays... with the hot swap UW scsi...

back

what it looks like w/drives... minus the "oops i focused on the backplane and got pwnd by shallow DOF" blurryness

the scsi backplane has to go, its only UW and there is no way in hell im bottlenecking my 15k.3 cheetahs @ 40mb/s

the duplex U160 backplane for this case is pretty much impossible to find for less than a price of an important body part, so im going to rip out the backplane and the little cards on the carriers and just cable all the drives...

this also has the advantage that i can put IDE drives... only disadvantage is that it (obviously) isnt hot-swap, but whatever i dont hotswap drives anyway... and if a drive dies... its not like i have a spare?... anyway...

since im going to loose the piece of paper i wrote everything on (hehe, i know me) here are some dementions for my planning phase...

the case itself is 23" deep, 12" wide and 17.5" high

the opening on the top of the case there is 5" x 14.5"

the drive cage is 9" deep except the top rail is 9.5" deep

the vent thingie front left is 3" x 9.5"

an ATX psu is ~3.4" high by ~5.9" wide by ~5.5" deep

i may be able to just barely squeeze in two psu's... there would be .2" clearance and there might be loads of cutting...

if they dont fit side by side then i will go with a single PSU :\

im definately getting rid of that devider in the middle of the case... which presents me with some structural (sp?) issues... since thats the only center supports there for the entire case im not sure if its nessicary to add more support... perhaps in the back have a rod? like the one for the rear left?

there is not going to be any weight on the top of the case so im more concered about it not getting out of shape from being handled rather than just load bearing ability...

probably going to mount a dual 120mm rad up at the top where that hole is... i would only need to make it .5" wider as a dual 120mm rad is about 5.5" wide x 12" long

as for mobo and everything, since im taking out the center devider the atx tray will be against the right of the case, all the way back, like a normal case... this will give me loads of room in front of the board... also since the atx backplane will be using less than half of the case width i will have more than enough room to fit maybe three 120mm fans vertically in the back...

im thinking of having all the fans blow out and having it just suck in air like crazy from the front... or perhaps having the three rear fans as exaust and the two top fans on the rad as intake... not sure if i want the heat coming back into the case... and IIRC negative air pressure is the goal for good cooling no?

not sure about adding fans to the front vent thingie... maybe like 3 80mm fans... not sure if it would be worth it or just let the negative pressure suck in air from all of the front vents (bottom left and through the drive cages)

anyway i guess thats it for now... i have to drill out a lot of rivets from the center plate and all the psu rails etc...

the PSU's are out of the question also, not sure if i mentioned but they weigh like ~16lbs each... sooo no... lol

 

[DR_K13]

nice!

 

[sandman78]

Awesome case. This project is going to be interesting to follow. Can't wait to see it complete.

 

[Scorpionjwp]

Now you how I feel with modding my proliant 1500, and 5000. In the pictures of stripping it down to the frame, the mod I am working on, that is all I have is a frame and building it up from there.
You better feel lucky about the weight of the two powersupplies, mine happens to have it in one piece. But if you remove them, about half the weight of the case has been removed.

I am pretty sure you have alot of tools to work on your case with, it sucks with me, because I don't have too much to work with. To gauge how big my case is, which by the way don't have enough room to work with in it, is: 2ft 1inch high, 8 1/2 inches wide in the front, and on the side 1ft 8 1/2 inches long.

I can't watercool this computer, but I will have to do something fancy for aircooling it. But I couldn't help myself to this computer at $20.00 for whole thing. I figured that you payed alot for that Proliant 3000.

If you some still need a hot-swap Hard drive, I still a 18.2gb SCSI hard drive for sale. My proliants can't take this drive but a Proliant 3000 can.

 

[rogue_jedi]

that's a nice big case. i'm looking for a really big case i can fit my watercooling into. my pump isn't small, and i have a dual heatercore, so anything under a full tower won't work (unless it is a big mid tower...) that case would do it

and i dunno... i think it looks really good like it is stock. maybe paint it a bit, but i like that look. maybe its just me though

 

[Scorpionjwp]

hey rogue_jedi, how much are you willing to spend on a big server case?

I have been looking at one on Ebay for a few days, it has 8 92mm fans; 12, 5.25in bays and 2, 3.5in bays. Slide out motherboard tray, but it is w/o a powersupply, it would take two full sized powersupplies. All at the price of $179.99 w/o shipping and its made by Antec.

 

[rogue_jedi]

i wasn't looking to spend nearly that much. $180 is a bit much (roughly $150 too much i'd guess... too much other stuff to buy). i'm actually considering building my own case (ground up... whee)

anyway, back on topic...

i just noticed that case has a slotload in it.... please tell me you're keeping it in there!!! slotloads rock!!! (and if it is a DVD-ROM... w00t!)

and the fans are cool too.

 

[Scorpionjwp]

Hey Flecom, how far have you gotten on the proliant 3000? Sorry that we got sorta off track with the thread.

 

[Tos]

Join the Cube Server Case Club !!

I've been using an "AssOld" Netserver LH ( that housed a 486 DX2 66 before I modded it to fit ATX compliant hardware + 16 HDs ) for a couple of years already

 

[Tripper]

FLECOM--I've been looking for an hour for a link to a show the other night I saw that would be a perfect paintjob on this case if you know a good airbrush artist. I saw this dude working on an old 5 window Ford on Discovery or TLC or something the other night and he painted fire (not flames) on this car. Most awesome thing I have seen yet!! I checked the listings on the web and searched...just can't find it. If anyone can help that would be awesome as I think if you can find someone to do this...It would truly be one of a kind.

Figure if you're gonna go all out....go all out

Good luck bro....take your time

 

[eTiMaGo]

That's what I call a nice big blank modding canvas

Just some ideas. some might not be feasible, but it's always nice to dream Personally I see an industrial kind of theme to this beast.

You have a lot of space on the top... why not dual radiators, but use the transmission or oil cooling radiators from cars, those where you can fit 2x 120mms side by side... Or bigger... why not make the top panel one big car radiator if you can find one the right size? You could even use the car radiator fan on top, with ducting to make sure all the air is being forced through... just don't drop anything on the case!!!

For windows, I agree with GENET1CS, they would have to match the window in front of the drives for maximum effect... Maybe in the shape of the Q from compaq? Or be different, mount an LCD panel instead of a window... run it off a PCI video card (plenty of space for that), and use samurize or some other program to constantly display vital system statistics, winamp visualizations, etc...

Paint job, I'd agree with letting the guy at the shop let loose on it. Just let him know what you DON'T want (pink bunnies airbrushed on the case would just not work too well, unless, of course, you plan to keep bunnies in that case, it certainly is big enough...)
A battered industrial paintjob would suit it too... kind of like the project mars city mod's airlock. Since you're watercooling, get some kind of flow gauge with a dial mounted outside somewhere...

Anyway, I hope this rambling can give you some ideas, if not, nevermind, I'll have to put them to use myself someday!

 

[Tos]

any update on that mod coming soon FLECOM ?

 

[draconius]

think of how many mini-itx boards you could put inside of one of those cases!

I have a proliant 6000 that is running quad pentium pro's right now...I love the huge case...cept it blows the braeker in my house when I turn it on lol