PROJECT LOG First Benching Station (first Log)

I got to looking around on the forums and saw all of theses benching stations. A bit of hunting in the basement and some more reasearch i have come up with an idea. I have not finished the blueprints yet but i have already started work.

My idea is to take this old HP and turn it into a NAS server. I got the server idea from lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/5822590/turn-...-streaming-or-torrenting-machine-with-freenas

But, in the picture below, this computer is bulky. Hence the benching station! My plan is to harves the HD cage, the PCi card holder, and the Dvd/r cage from the old computer. Along with the hardware inside (this server isnt going to need very much in the way of performance or power).

Im going to use some acrylic sheets for the main platform of the station and some nice ceder or pine wood for the bottom. Im havent decided wheather to have two open levels or one open level on top and one enclosed on the bottom.

Here are the specs on the recylced hardware (dont be too blown away at the power of it all):
-Im not sure what mobo or cpu but it says the chipset is 845GL and the processor speed is 1.7 ghz.
-We've got a nice and big 40 gig hard drive
-A CDR Disc drive
-A Network card, should come in handy
-and 256 mb or RAM.
-and a Hipro 200W PSU!

The bulky case:


Harvested Parts from basement HP:


Taken apart case:


I drilled out the rivits on the case to get the hard drive cage and the pci holder.

Well. It seams i have run into a problem. I was hoping to reuse thoe mobo standoff that i had in the old HP case but turns out there wasent any. The motherbored was supported by the sheet metal bent upward into point. Cant use those.

I had a similar case which i used the pci brackets from, which also had no mobo standoffs. You can pick up packs of around 50 for a couple dollars. Generally from any computer store, or some electronics places might store them.