My apologies in advance for the really bad pun, because this week's post is going to be about...cases! Computer cases, specifically.
The supercomputer I build needs to be both compact and robust, able to handle massive amounts of data. We are planning to build our HPCC with eight quad core motherboards, and we are currently considering both micro ATX motherboards and mini ATX motherboards. Mini are a bit smaller (5.9 × 5.9 inches), but they can't use as much memory as the micro ATX and are more expensive. Micro ATX cards are typically 9.6 by 9.6 inches, but can be as small as 6.75 by 6.75 inches.
This divergence into motherboards was basically to illustrate the point that a lot of cases aren't deep enough to fit 2 micro ATX boards side by side. Besides which, we need enough space to add fans for cooling the system, otherwise it will crash! We want to fit four motherboards in a case, and then perhaps stack two cases to get the desired 8 motherboards. So our main constraint is depth.
Also, we'd like to minimize the amount of metal-cutting and welding that we have to do, so we're looking for a case with removable parts and a lot of space to change things around. Not to mention- we also have to fit in hard drives and power supplies. Most cases have a set place for the motherboard, power supply, hard drive, and fans already built in. Convenient for most people, but not for us, since our design will be completely different from that of most computers.
We've visited the Fry's electronics in Gilbert and the one in Phoenix and looked at all the cases they have. Some of them don't even look like computer cases! Online, we're looking at cases from Newegg.
It looks like we're going to have to think of an unconventional housing for our computer system, so we visited IKEA on Thursday. Some people have actually built a computer cluster (that looks very nice) in an IKEA cabinet. Check it out at this link: http://helmer.sfe.se/
Hope to have a case soon!
Anvita
The supercomputer I build needs to be both compact and robust, able to handle massive amounts of data. We are planning to build our HPCC with eight quad core motherboards, and we are currently considering both micro ATX motherboards and mini ATX motherboards. Mini are a bit smaller (5.9 × 5.9 inches), but they can't use as much memory as the micro ATX and are more expensive. Micro ATX cards are typically 9.6 by 9.6 inches, but can be as small as 6.75 by 6.75 inches.
This divergence into motherboards was basically to illustrate the point that a lot of cases aren't deep enough to fit 2 micro ATX boards side by side. Besides which, we need enough space to add fans for cooling the system, otherwise it will crash! We want to fit four motherboards in a case, and then perhaps stack two cases to get the desired 8 motherboards. So our main constraint is depth.
Also, we'd like to minimize the amount of metal-cutting and welding that we have to do, so we're looking for a case with removable parts and a lot of space to change things around. Not to mention- we also have to fit in hard drives and power supplies. Most cases have a set place for the motherboard, power supply, hard drive, and fans already built in. Convenient for most people, but not for us, since our design will be completely different from that of most computers.
We've visited the Fry's electronics in Gilbert and the one in Phoenix and looked at all the cases they have. Some of them don't even look like computer cases! Online, we're looking at cases from Newegg.
It looks like we're going to have to think of an unconventional housing for our computer system, so we visited IKEA on Thursday. Some people have actually built a computer cluster (that looks very nice) in an IKEA cabinet. Check it out at this link: http://helmer.sfe.se/
Hope to have a case soon!
Anvita
I have to admit I'm curious to see how the Ikea computer might turn out. How much work would you have to do to turn one of those cabinets into a case?
ReplyDeleteLots of cutting, mainly- for the fans and wires! Most of the cabinets are wood and not metal, so a little bit easier to cut...but still we want to minimize the amount of tampering we have to do.
DeleteI didn't realize how much physical application you'd be doing and I'm amazed that you'll be doing both the physical and theoretical for your project.
ReplyDelete