Building CigarBox Server

Bash

I've decided to use some cash in my bank account towards a Mini ITX board. If you don't know what Mini ITX is, it is a motherboard that is 6.7" by 6.7" (or 17cm x 17cm). Very small, usually one PCI slot.

My dad gave me a clean cigar box that was in his garage. I will post pictures when I get the board, when I install it, and the finished product. I'm hoping I get this into a somewhat decent looking project.

Q

What's the purpose of the server?

-Q

Bash

Just for a basic development web server, a file server, and an irc server. Here are the parts:
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813181026
The PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813995001

Hardest thing would be is cutting back of the box for the I/O ports.

Q

Make sure the box isn't valuable first!

-Q

Bash

Holy shit. Mini ITX boards are small. I will take a few pictures later on when I cut stuff out, etc

Bash

Double Post: My dad just helped me cut the box (I guess I can't use a saw decently) So yea, I sanded out around the edges so it looks a bit nicer. Pictures soon!

(Sorry for the double post)

Q

Bash wrote:

(Sorry for the double post)

It's OK for cause.

So, is the processor removable on these things?

-Q

Bash

Well the CPU isn't removable. There is a plastic screw cover, or so it looks like, to prevent tampering. The board has a composite TV out, and supports IRDA. It also has a nice little lan booting thing onboard.

Q

IrDA to a cigar box sounds interesting.

Then again, almost anything to a cigar box sounds interesting.

-Q

NTL1991

You can do so much with cigar boxes... It's about time someone here tried to build a PC in one. It sounds very interesting, though. Good Luck on the project!

Nick

Bash

Well I have some news. I decided to pull up info on the CPU.

Here are the instruction sets it has:
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr cx8 sep mtrr pge cmov pat mmx fxsr sse up rng rng_en ace ace_en

Yet only 64KB of cache.

Q

A good 7/8ths of those I don't recognize.

-Q

Bash

I should look up some of those.

As a side note, one of the C3's type were advertised as i686, yet are missing one instruction set to make it fully i686 compliant.

Bash

PICTURES!

NTL1991

Very nice... Are you planning to put an IO Cover or something like that on the back of it?

I'm fascinated by those PSUs... I've never seen one like that before...

Nick

Kirk

That server is the leetness dude! What'd it end up costing you for the parts?

-Kirk

Bash

NTL: I was thinking of using the IO cover it came with. I might just even go and put a piece of rubber across it to make it look a bit nicer with the wood. That PSU I have is great.

Kirk: About $180 for the parts.

Right now, I am installing Gentoo Linux on it, haha. I am going ot see how much heat it is going to push out of it when I compile a few things.

Q

The PSU is officially weird, but I find the entire setup ingenious and worthy (Sorry, I've been reading old literature that likes to make use of such language).

-Q

JackTheStripper

You should put some kind of LCD on it and you can output some nice stuff. It'd look pretty neat.

beanboy89

Wow! That is awesome. Nice work, Bash.

If I had more experience and patience with computer hardware, I'd like try something like that myself.

JackTheStripper

Pretty easy anyone can do it. Just get an ITX mainboard.

Not take away credit though, the whole idea is genious.

Bash

JackTheStripper wrote:

Pretty easy anyone can do it. Just get an ITX mainboard.

Yea, basically.

I was considering putting an LCD screen, near the front. I just need to save some money.