I have been sidetracked for a couple of months, but now am again making some progress.
I looked into salvaging some server chassis here but found a big, easily customizable case to put my MDD in. It is a Thermaltake SwordM which was getting liquidated. Tonight I removed the built-in mounting plate and bolted in the stripped-down door of a spare MDD case. I eyeballed the measurements and plotted the holes with a scrap of metal and a marker and was surprised that it fit together so well. I just finished putting the rest of the case together. For the rest of the weekend I will go over the wiring to adapt it to the MDD, such as an ATX power cable so I can use a supply with more headroom. Also the front panel controls are getting modified so I can use the MDD switch, USB and firewire. There is a mini-DIN for eSATA which I am replacing for connection to my Stealth serial port. Also my OASYS card is getting permanent i/o on the case, instead of the flimsy breakout wires the card comes with. My Matrox RTMac video box might get a similar treatment.
Also I bought an XServe dual 1.33GHz processor for cheap, it looks like new. Once I have the case and wiring set up I will drop this in and see how the liquid cooling goes.
This is also freeing up enough parts for me to make a FW800 for The Mrs.
I looked into salvaging some server chassis here but found a big, easily customizable case to put my MDD in. It is a Thermaltake SwordM which was getting liquidated. Tonight I removed the built-in mounting plate and bolted in the stripped-down door of a spare MDD case. I eyeballed the measurements and plotted the holes with a scrap of metal and a marker and was surprised that it fit together so well. I just finished putting the rest of the case together. For the rest of the weekend I will go over the wiring to adapt it to the MDD, such as an ATX power cable so I can use a supply with more headroom. Also the front panel controls are getting modified so I can use the MDD switch, USB and firewire. There is a mini-DIN for eSATA which I am replacing for connection to my Stealth serial port. Also my OASYS card is getting permanent i/o on the case, instead of the flimsy breakout wires the card comes with. My Matrox RTMac video box might get a similar treatment.
Also I bought an XServe dual 1.33GHz processor for cheap, it looks like new. Once I have the case and wiring set up I will drop this in and see how the liquid cooling goes.
This is also freeing up enough parts for me to make a FW800 for The Mrs.