Turning a filing cabinet into a case

[arabarabian]

I have an old two drawer 28" filing cabinet lying around and I am contemplating

turning it into a computer case. I could have two complete systems, one in each drawer

or have a water cooling or phase change unit in one and a computer in the other one. I

know I could do it but I was wondering if any else has done it? Also any ideas? I could

mount some massive fans in it and with them running at low rpms it would be very

silent. If I decide to do it I will write up a big post with tons of pics of every single step.

It would be very nice to be able to just pull out all the componants with one quick pull.

[Caeberos]

It would definatly be doable, It would not be that hard either depending on your sheet metal and hacking skills.

You should get some removable mobo trays to make your life easier with that, becuase it is a bitch to make mobo mounts.

for fans, you MUST get 172mm 12v Cormair Rotron Fans from mpja, and 5v them, those things rock. Definatly get a KVM switch and network the two comptuers, if you have any linux experience, you can cluster them, that would be awesome.

don't bother water cooling the systems unless you are going to be doing extreme overclocking, if you just use air, it may end up being light enough to transport to say... a lan party ;) you will be the only one there with a file cabinate PC :beer:

[Ed_VVolf]

That would be pretty awesome, but you would prolly only need one drawer for both the computer and the cooling system. I would use the bottom drawer for stowing all my crap in (i.e. cables, hub, wireless keyboard/mouse, software, etc.). If you put it on casters, It should be very easy to move around (until you get to stairs :-/ ). Perhaps you can put a rack of some sort to put an LCD monitor on for easy transport. There is, however, one drawback: You won't be able to put in a decent window. Instead of a single layer of sheet metal between the world and your mother board, anywhere you would get a decent view of your system, you have the side of the drawer and the drawer railings in the way. In any case, it would be an awesome system.

[k3nshin]

he could always but the mobo in the top drawer and put the window on top

[arabarabian]

Thanks for the recomendations. I do have Linux experience. I am currently running Mandrake 10, easy I know, but soon I will be installing stage 1 Gentoo so I will have an awesome system. If I cluster say two Opteron systems how will the performance compare to a dual Opteron system?

[Fast420A]

The comair's don't kick on with just 5v , you would need to kick them on with 12 and then turn them down to 7 or so.

[arabarabian]

I want some big fans though so I could keep it cool and quite.

[arabarabian]

Any more suggestions would be great.

[Captain Slug]

I'd cut the bottom out of the top drawer so you could pass the tubing between the two. Then make a motherboard tray with ears so you could hang it like a file folder. For big fans I recommend Toren blowers. There are several threads on them in the cooling section and they're very quiet considering the amount of air they move.

[nova7]

I want some big fans though so I could keep it cool and quite.

Holy Sh** batman!

I doubt these are quiet, or that anyone can afford them but they're BIG! (http://www.hydroasis.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=H&Product_Code=5030524&Category_Code=CANFAN)
Am I reading that wrong or does that say 737CFM? :drool: :drool: Top blowhole! :drool: :drool:

[Lord_Zoltan]

Holy Sh** batman!

I doubt these are quiet, or that anyone can afford them but they're BIG! (http://www.hydroasis.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=H&Product_Code=5030524&Category_Code=CANFAN)
Am I reading that wrong or does that say 737CFM? :drool: :drool: Top blowhole! :drool: :drool:

Quiet, not yet...7v mod?

~Zoltan

[orionnt]

Ive got Two systems already, and im building a third system around christmas. I plan on using the oldest of the 3 for a small file server / backup system. and putting the two of the systems into a file cabinet would be an awesome idea.