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Mini LAN rig mk.II (12" x 15" x 3.5")

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Captain Slug

Helpful Senior Member
Joined
May 23, 2001
Location
Asteroid B-612
Woohoo! I got a power sander last week and sanded down my $10 Steel LAN case. Now I don't want to paint it because I fell in love with the "delorian" look of the naked steel.

invader1.jpg

invader2.jpg


The whole case is only 12" x 15" x 3.5" and will soon house a mobile gaming system. Temporarily outfitted with Celeron 300@600, 128MB RAM, 10GB HDD. In September it will switch to a Duron 900 and 256MB PC2100 DDR

I'll add the blacklight and windows soon. Updates forthcoming as I add the hardware...
 
Looks Great!

Instead of that 900 GET A 1600 XP MAN! 60 BUCKS WHO CAN BEAT IT!

You selling anything like that?
 
Zer0fight3r said:
Looks Great!

Instead of that 900 GET A 1600 XP MAN! 60 BUCKS WHO CAN BEAT IT!

You selling anything like that?

Thanks :D
Hmmm, to use the 1600 XP I'd need to use a noisier 1U HSF.
I may just leave this system in it's current silent configuration.

This case comes with a speaker in the front panel and I had to rewire it to use a 3.5mm jack. Now that it works, there's no need to use headphones when I'm gaming on-the-go.

I bought two of these cases and the second one isn't sanded down yet.
The second one is modded to fit a Micro-ATX motherboard rather than a Flex ATX one. So if anyone is interested I could start
modding that one for a possible sale too.

Edit:
<-------------YAY, SIX STARS!!!
 
Zer0fight3r said:
How much would you want?

What grit did you sand it with?

1. This case will need to use a laptop CD-ROM drive and a bracket for mounting the hard drive. So the prices start adding up...

Case $10
300W 1U PSU $60
Slim CD-ROM $30
cd-rom adapter $10
CD-ROM/HDD bracket $25

Total = $135 before shipping

So if anyone finds that a reasonable price for such a tiny/sturdy lan case I'll start trying to acquire more of these cases so I can fix them up.

2. I have no idea what grit I used. I just bought the sander and used the pads that came with it. I could use 230grit if I wanted a finish that wasnt so rough, but I kind of like the look of it this way...
 
Tbird man said:
How would one go about aquireing such an item? I have seen cases of this dimension before but the location of this site eludes my recolection.

The former life of this case was as an IBM Netvista Legacy Free computer. Surplus and Over-stock cases are available several places for $10 to $20 and physical condition of the product varies.
All of them include a 95Watt power supply which is only enough for an All-in-one mobo, HDD, and CD-ROM.
Ebay has a couple dozen.
netvista.jpg


I can work up a tutorial on how to turn these cases into a Micro ATX LAN rig in a few months, because right now I only have enough ca$h to deal with fitting a Flex ATX systen inside.
 
Zer0fight3r said:
I think a 250 Watt would be sufficent, you would be cutting it close.

I have a 1U 300W PSU which I can mount over 2 PCI slots when I DO upgrade. But based on my current ca$h supply (or lack there-of) it looks as though I won't be upgrading this machine unti X-mas time :(

It's a 95Watt for a Celeron based system until then...
 
so does it use a laptop cdrom? if so does it have the adapter to 40pin IDE? i saw the ultmate space saver one time. it was a slim cd rom floppy and had room for a 2.5 in HDD and fit into one 5.25 bay. or you could use a slim cdrom and a regilar floppy and it fits perfect in a 5.25 bay. I plan on building my own mini rig sometime soon using a FATX mobo slim floppy and cdrom a 1U PSU and a slim 3.5 40pin IDE drive. for the expansion cards i am gonna use a 32bit PCI riser with ribbion cable.
 
Tbird man said:
so does it use a laptop cdrom? if so does it have the adapter to 40pin IDE? i saw the ultmate space saver one time. it was a slim cd rom floppy and had room for a 2.5 in HDD and fit into one 5.25 bay. or you could use a slim cdrom and a regilar floppy and it fits perfect in a 5.25 bay.

Yes, Yes, Similar but getting slim FDDs to work with PCs is a nightmare. I bought a bracket that fits the slim CD-ROM and a regular sized hard drive or floppy into one 5.25" bay.

Tbird man said:
I plan on building my own mini rig sometime soon using a FATX mobo slim floppy and cdrom a 1U PSU and a slim 3.5 40pin IDE drive. for the expansion cards i am gonna use a 32bit PCI riser with ribbion cable.

If you need help with that give me a ring because I know where to find all the parts you need.
 
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