Experimental Cruncher House

[Nordic]

I got this "stereo cabinet" as it was called for free. Its of pioneer brand not that it matters. I saw potential to stick at least two cruncher s in here, more if I can fit them and manage the heat of.

This is what it looked like when I got it. You can't see it in the picture but the back is partial.

To make it suitable for holding some pc's I made some modifications, although I am not done yet. I am still waiting for a friend to drop off a 5 inch drill saw for 120mm fans.

Spoiler: Pics of current progress

As it started

Partial backing

Removing backing

Replaced backing

Some incomplete scribbles of plans for cable management etc stuff

Beginnings of cable management, waiting on large hole saws

More pics will come as I have them.

Heat Managment
My plan to manage heat is lot of exhaust fans. I am going to put 2 yate loon highs, unless a better/bigger high cfm cheap fan is available, in the middle rows where the computers will be. I might put more fans too. hopefully causing a negative pressure. There is about an inch of space up and down the length of the glass on each side for air to be pulled in. I can open the glass door if need be. I can always add more fans of varying cfm cause I have a bit of them. It might be better to put two big 10 inch fans or so but I don't have them already, or know where to get them.

I will post results when I have them.

I am not looking to put any money into this. I already have the fans. The case was free.

 

[[Ion]]

From my experience, I think you'll be unhappy with the results if you leave the door shut (although what you put in does matter--a few Ivy Bridges will throw out much less heat than FXs with GPUs)

Subscribed!

 

[Nordic]

Atm it will just be no more than two 95w cpu's and two 200w gpu. My two 7930's put out a lot of heat. Glass can be open or even removed in the future. If it does not work out as I hope, I may just mount a 20inch box fan on there for massive airflow.

 

[sneekypeet]

Those cabinets are used for high wattage amplifier and other audio video components, I think it will be fine. You may need to open the back up a bit and maybe mount a fan or three to it, but I think this is very do-able.

 

[Nordic]

Those cabinets are used for high wattage amplifier and other audio video components, I think it will be fine. You may need to open the back up a bit and maybe mount a fan or three to it, but I think this is very do-able.

Thats the plan. Read the heat management in the OP. I'll make it more prominent.





This is one system that will be in there, a c2d 6300 + Power Color 7870xt. It is 4 feet from me right now and I can very much feel the heat coming off of it.

The other system is this, a phenom 965 without one of the 7870xt's pictured. This will be upgraded to something steamroller one day.

 

[shovenose]

Atm it will just be no more than two 95w cpu's and two 200w gpu. My two 7930's put out a lot of heat. Glass can be open or even removed in the future. If it does not work out as I hope, I may just mount a 20inch box fan on there for massive airflow.

What is a 7930?

 

[Nordic]

What is a 7930?

Sorry I am loose with that term. They are the 7870 xt's which are essentially 7930's because they have Tahiti cores not Pitcairn. I think of them as 7930's is why I used that then, but when I want to be specific I use 7870 xt. I blame amd for the silly naming.

 

[shovenose]

Sorry I am loose with that term. They are the 7870 xt's which are essentially 7930's because they have Tahiti cores not Pitcairn. I think of them as 7930's is why I used that then, but when I want to be specific I use 7870 xt. I blame amd for the silly naming.

Got it, thanks for the clarification.

 

[Peter1986C]

Subscribed

 

[t_ski]

Subscribed.

1. Nice boots
2. You could fit 4 or 5 rigs in that thing. I would say four, add a KVM and monitor to the top and you're in business.

 

[Mindweaver]

Sub'ed! I like it! those old cabinets kick ass. It would be cool if you gutted the old pioneer receiver and put a pc in it for an HTPC, but a farm is even better!.. lol

 

[AlienIsGOD]

Sorry I am loose with that term. They are the 7870 xt's which are essentially 7930's because they have Tahiti cores not Pitcairn. I think of them as 7930's is why I used that then, but when I want to be specific I use 7870 xt. I blame amd for the silly naming.

blame the 5830 for this. AMD has been gunshy using that monikor and instead use crap like 7790 and 7870XT for naming rather then the gpu family that they belong to.

 

[Nordic]

Subscribed.

1. Nice boots
2. You could fit 4 or 5 rigs in that thing. I would say four, add a KVM and monitor to the top and you're in business.

1. Not boots. Actually a cheap pair of slip on dress shoes. Just what I like to wear.
2. I could fit 4-5 rigs if they were mitx or matx.

Sub'ed! I like it! those old cabinets kick ass. It would be cool if you gutted the old pioneer receiver and put a pc in it for an HTPC, but a farm is even better!.. lol

I thought about doing that with my main pc and making a uber watercooled monster. I have other plans for my main pc's case that will happen when I upgrade my cpu to skylake if it pans out.

 

[Nordic]

Small interim update. I was going to use a friends hole saw but he lost it. So I ordered a small set for myself which should be here soon. I could use another tool like a jigsaw or a dremel but I got the hole saws coming so... I will use them.

Heat will be less of an issue. I am selling the two gpu's that were going to go in there, so that is 400w less heat to worry about. With them not in there I don't even think temps are even able to be a concern.

 

[Nordic]

Soo... lost my camera sometime and was unable to take proper pictures. So here is a teaser pic from my phone for the time being.

 

[[Ion]]

So it's hard to tell; did you decide to ditch the back panel or not? Either way, looks cool!

 

[Nordic]

So it's hard to tell; did you decide to ditch the back panel or not? Either way, looks cool!

I took the original back panel off and put a new solid one on. My reasoning for this was I did not want open air.. I wanted negative pressure. I have four high airflow fans all pulling air out of there. I can easily feel the suction force with my hand when the glass is shut.

 

[Nordic]

So it's hard to tell; did you decide to ditch the back panel or not? Either way, looks cool!

I took the original partial back panel off and put a new solid one on. My reasoning for this was I did not want open air.. I wanted negative pressure. I have four high airflow fans all pulling air out of there. Detailed in the heat management section of the OP. I will get better pictures that show everything as soon as I find my camera. I will also right a summery of how this project has gone and my other ideas that I could do with it also.

 

[Nordic]

Spoiler

Yes those fans are zip tied in there, and only the top holes.

To reiterate what the plan was to handle heat, it was to have a lot of airflow from the four fans pulling air out the back causing a negative pressure inside the case pulling air in from the front. This worked as planned. All four fans have ~90cfm so with all running that is ~360 cfm total. Having all four fans going at full speed I can very much feel a suction force with the glass closed. To give an example of how temps got lower, the phenom on the lower half averaged 52c in my haf 912. In here it averages 45c. The c2d 6300 I have currently unable to get to crunch for the time being so am unable to test temps for that. Noise is really at an acceptable level also.

The project was not much. I just got a free stereo case. I replaced the back with something whole, and put fan holes in it. I cut some holes for minor cable management, more just to make it easier to get a cable from one level to the other. The stereo case was not in the best condition when I got it. The glass door nearly fell off entirely twice while I was working on it. I had to reattach one of the wheels on the bottom because fell off. It was free so I did not expect much. For what I envisioned this turned out to be a great success.

If I was really ambitions and had more cruncher I have a nifty idea of how I would handle that. I would buy some or cut out some motherboard trays with the pci slots attached. I would screw/bolt them on to the inside sides of the stereo case, two per side. I would have the pci slots on on top in what I believe is a vertical orientation like silver stone does it.
If I really wanted to make something cool, I would watercool all four computers and have a car radiator on the back on the stereo case. I could put a 1 gallon jar in the bottom for the reservoir. Can you imagine have four computer systems in a stereo case like this with tubing zig zagging across? Quick disconnects would be mandatory in a system like this or else maintenance would be a bigger chore than it already is for water cooled systems.

 

[xvi]

I was going to say if you could cut a bit of a gap out of the front of every other shelf, you may be able to get cold air going in to one compartment, going down between the glass and have the hot air exhaust out of the second compartment.

I'll try to ASCII this out..

 Side view
         Front-->

cold   |=======|
in   ->| comp1 |
       |====== | <--cut out gap between shelf and glass
hot  <-| comp2 |    large enough for proper airflow.
out    |=======|

Should give airflow and let you keep the glass.

Also, if the PSUs are the "old" front intake, rear exhaust (as opposed to bottom intake, rear exhaust that's quite popular these days), they'll help you create that negative pressure you're looking for if you mount the exhaust to the new back. (I guess the new style would work too if you mount them with the fan facing up.

 

[Nordic]

I was going to say if you could cut a bit of a gap out of the front of every other shelf, you may be able to get cold air going in to one compartment, going down between the glass and have the hot air exhaust out of the second compartment.

I'll try to ASCII this out..

 Side view
         Front-->

cold   |=======|
in   ->| comp1 |
       |====== | <--cut out gap between shelf and glass
hot  <-| comp2 |    large enough for proper airflow.
out    |=======|

Should give airflow and let you keep the glass.

Also, if the PSUs are the "old" front intake, rear exhaust (as opposed to bottom intake, rear exhaust that's quite popular these days), they'll help you create that negative pressure you're looking for if you mount the exhaust to the new back. (I guess the new style would work too if you mount them with the fan facing up.

With your diagram wouldn't I want:

 Side view
         Front-->

hot  |=======|
out   <-| comp1 |
       |====== | <--cut out gap between shelf and glass
cold  ->| comp2 |    large enough for proper airflow.
in    |=======|

There are a lot of ways I could of done this. This just seemed the easiest. It works though. My temps dropped 7c on my phenom. There is a negative pressure already. From the hole in the top, and the gaps around the glass I can very easily feel a suction force. I do not have to resort to the paper trick to see if there is airflow.