Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

[ratdude747]

Going off of Topcat's Dell 1100 sleeper builds, and after finding a Supermicro uATX case for cheap, now it's (maybe) my turn.

Aside from the case and DVD drives (scored a brand new SATA light scribe the other day, so I'm good there), I don't have anything else yet, so this will probably be a long-term project.

I did see (and lowball offer on) this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Micro...torefresh=true

I'd then need to get CPUs (cheap), RAM (Cheap), coolers (not as cheap, I gave away my spare set already and I haven't given up on my X7DWA on the shelf), HDDs (not so cheap if I go where I want to), GPU (may be two to upgrade/SLI my main rig and I move in its current 970GTX, or not), RAID card (if I go there, probably another LSI SAS card), and a PSU (as all of my good ones are used or not appropriate for this). Yeah, I have a ways to go. Long haul.

[Topcat]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

I know where those heatsinks went...

I'll be keeping a watchful eye on this one.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

It's on hold... the most they can do for me (not posting that, PM me if you really want to know) is more than I want to spend after blowing $50 on CPUs and cases this week. (plus another $30 or so at Fry's on Saturday) Maybe next week or later. I have the money, but I have a bunch of other expenses (house repairs/upgrades, travel, etc.) coming up. Ratdude's toy budget is a bit restricted right now.

I could be a real d*ck and put in a non-workstation board and run an SAS RAID card off that... but that would be an insult to the case, so no.

I'm not in any hurry.

[Topcat]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

^
They had a half off special on those about a month ago, $35 bucks....I guess I should have snapped a couple up....but I already have 2 systems based on those boards.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

^
They had a half off special on those about a month ago, $35 bucks....I guess I should have snapped a couple up....but I already have 2 systems based on those boards.

Yeah, that would have fit the bill!

Edit- they are doing that today!. Store-wide earth day sale... Hmm... Sure. Mine. Deal.

Next will be CPUs and RAM... I'll probably borrow the X7DWA-N's coolers to test this with when the time comes. That won't be for a while though.... or so I say.

[Topcat]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

What'd it sell for? I see the prices are back to normal now.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

What'd it sell for? I see the prices are back to normal now.

$40 + shipping. The store was having a 50% off 1 item sale for earth day, so I took advantage of it. To get the discount, you gotta find it through this link:

https://www.ebay.com/sme/usderc/Extr...p2047675.m2197

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Case came in. Took pics, which came out like crap, so I won't post them. But here's what I found out:

1. This used to be a Burroughs Payment Systems machine. Probably part of a POS/cash resister system. Same OE as supermicro's cases, has the same ribbon cable (and breakout adapter, which tells me it didn't have a supermicro board).

2. Clearance for the coolers is going to be a bit of an issue since the quad HDD cage overhangs a bit. If I get some more 4U SM coolers (what I sent topcat), I'll be in luck as they're swapt back from center enough to probably clear (hence the peculiar design?). They're trending at $40 a pop right now , so I'll keep my eyes open for a deal.

3. I'll need to run backplates, as they're no structure (let alone tapped holes) where the CPUs go.

4. The case can accept 1 80mm fan in the front, and one 80 or 92mm fan in the back. I'm thinking arctic cooling f-series fans will do fine here. Edit- found deals on Arctic Cooling F8's and F9's, both CO (ball bearing) and PWM. I have the 120mm version (F12 CO) in Main rig V3.8, and they're nice and quiet while providing good air flow. Bought 1 of each to install.

5. It has provisions for massively long cards. Good for GPUs when the time eventually comes.

6. The metal plates for screwless drives are missing. Luckily, there are screw slots too, so I'm still in luck.

Otherwise, yeah. No supermicro branding anywhere, but it's clearly their case with a Burroughs logo slapped on. Not bad for $27 shipped?

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Project failed: The board doesn't fit the case.

The issue is that the X7DCA-L is 1 slot bigger than true uATX. That PCI slot is actually in slot 5 of the ATX standard; uATX only goes to 4 (ATX/EATX uses 7). Hence the extra 1/4" most cases dont' have. This case must have been intended for one of SM's uATX boards that use single consumer CPUs.

I might have to put a gaming board or the like in it then... as for the X7DCA- time to start checking my stash for compatible cases.

[Topcat]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Nah, project didn't fail.....you'll just be on the hunt for a case that this board will fit. As I mentioned in my thread, it took a little while....but odds are you won't find a mATX case that this will fit that won't need some cutting & modding.....but thats half the fun!

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

The search for a case is on... and looking at my stash at my parents' house, no bueno. I did find something that would be perfect if the board would fit:





That used to be my file server, hence the ancient 3ware 7000 card.

What I like about this case for the build:

1. It's in good condition. Nothing hacked or destroyed
2. It has all the front I/O I want (1 USB port and Card reader plus HDA audio with the Power switch and LEDs on separate leads) and nothing I don't
3. The overall layout lends itself to a dual CPU board with the CPUs in the front (especially if I get top blowing coolers). No HDD relocation required.
4. It's Emachines, which makes it a real sleeper of a sleeper. The only thing "better" would be one of the older cases that were given as free adware boxes back in the 90's.

Ok, time to gut it out... and she's close, but no cigar:



Looks good... but I'm 1/16" out of luck:





Also, I would need to do some minor clearancing to make the upper CPU cooler fit:



(The HDD cage hits the board, so I'd need to cut the back of it off and make it a "U" shape too)

Unless I find some Z-profile steel and cut & tub the bottom, no bueno.

Also the DVD drive is IDE, so I'd need to use a SATA converter to make it work with the board. No biggie compared to the other issues.

Damn, that really would have been a good sleeper! Maybe I'll find something else to put in it... I don't know. All I know is the Celeron D in that thing is JUNK.

It seems like my best bet, other than an old dell case (which would be a Topcat ripoff, so no) would be a newer "upside down" case which puts the "bottom" of the board towards the PSU where presumably I'd have a better shot at making things fit. Dell did make 5-slot clamshell cases (I have one!) but the 3.5" cages interfere badly and the front I/O is on a fine pitch ribbon cable, so I'd have to design and spin a converter (breakout) board. Ugh. No.

It looks like it would fit in an older Powermac G4 Sawtooth-era case... although that mod has been done many times before (just not with a SM board, AFAIK).

Looks like more window shopping on ebay is in order...

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Too late for a proper pictorial. I did some heavy hacking to the emachine case... not done yet obviously, but I'm getting closer (if it turns out, I'm not super happy with how it's turning out so far- I really needed a band saw for this to be honest)

These pics will go in a later pictorial.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

More pics... will write up later. The last pics are a mock-up... no way in hell I'm using IDE HDDs or a rewired 135W Dell PSU

[Topcat]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

You like livin' dangerous working with that with those sockets unprotected! You've got more floor clearance than I did in my Dimension 1100 case. Mine wasn't touching, but slipping a piece of manila folder under it was tight. Did yours come with the IO shield?

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

You like livin' dangerous working with that with those sockets unprotected!

Nah, too cheap to spend money on CPUs :slap: (that smiley is at me, not at you)

You've got more floor clearance than I did in my Dimension 1100 case.

Mine wasn't touching, but slipping a piece of manila folder under it was tight.

I do now, after shifting everything south of the PSU up 1/8". I don't like how the mobo tray turned out to be honest; My tin snips ruined it. It will work (once I add adhesive standoffs and epoxy in backplates), but if I had a band saw (or even if I had used my angle grinder) the result would have been so much better. That one cutoff corner was due to snip warpage, not because it needed cut for clearance. If I ever come across another emachines/acer case of this vintage, I'll probably re-mod it (or at least recut the mobo tray) and move things over.

Did yours come with the IO shield?

Of course not. I'm sure the X7DWA-N one matches but I'll probably buy fresh... as some day I'll get around to buying a cheap hot air station and reflow the NIC controller to try and fix it (Since heavy force in that area started the problem, I'm thinking cracked BGA joints is the issue).

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Did some PSU window shopping... Best options I've seen:


https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-LENOVO-...0AAOSwns1a6yVZ


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Delta-Elect...ty!47250!US!-1

The first one only has 1 PCIe plug... so depending on what GPU I obtain, may be no good. The second isn't a bottom-fan layout, which for this cramped mess might be problematic.

Choices, choices, choices...

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Looked around for heatsinks... based on what I can obtain, the winners are either the stock Intel E33832 (solid copper, the aluminum ones probably can't handle 80W in a less-than-ideal cramped case) or the Dynatron H46G. In the best case for either, right now it's $70ish shipped for a pair ... so yeah, that will wait.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Ordered some parts... And time for more pictures.

I ended up going for Xeon L5430 CPUs. They're the fastest Low Voltage Quad Core Harpertown chips one can buy... 2.66Ghz, only 50W per chip. Since the pocket rocket won't have the world's greatest cooling, I wanted to play it safe.

For RAM I bought a bunch of 4GB modules... only to discover that the 4 Rank limit still is a thing, even though it's not in the BIOS . The modules are 2 ranks a pop, and it will only POST with one or two.

Anyway, here's the Mobo all dressed up:



(yes my workbench is a mess )

After some fiddling with my KVM, I was able to do some POST testing using the onboard video. The BIOS is a smartass:



In the case:



It's a tight squeeze and I'll have to reclearance the HDD cage again (shave off 1mm) to clear the coolers and backplate edge.

Progress at least?

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Look what I found:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=321819231529

That's the same case. The plastics are shot/missing, but all I care about is the steel. Spare card readers are nice too.

If they'll do local pickup, that's a deal since these cases seem to be a needle in a haystack to find. That would allow me to recut the back panel the way I originally wanted to, now that I know not to use tin snips.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Other options for cases:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/eMachines-T...ry!47250!US!-1

Gateway also used that bit of steel (and drives) for cases too:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gateway-Com...ry!47250!US!-1

(I found other cases with the curved drives but the steel was different not easily respaced)