It's that time again, I've got my hands on another ITX board (the 6th time, hence V6). Time for a project!

Unlike other ITX boards I've had in the past which were based on Via C7/C3, Pentium 3 etc which are dead slow nowadays this board has an Intel 1.2GHz Celeron 220. It's really a 1.2GHz single core Conroe chip (Conroe-L) that runs at 19W passively cooled.

The ITX board for this project is: Intel D201GLY2

Not to be confused with the Intel D201GLY which has the older Yonah chip and lacks SATA ports, only £5 cheaper though.

Yeh, it's got a SiS chipset so no media center or anything with fancy graphics, no idea why Intel didn't shove a 945G in there or something equivalent.

My main idea for this project is to run a mini file server, maybe throw in 2x 500GB-250GB SATA HDDs and 512MB RAM. Rig a 2x20 LCD screen to show disk usage etc. I think I'll be using a "snap in" DC-DC PSU so keep efficiency high and waste heat/noise down.

Now the thing I'm choosing is a case to put all of this in to, initial thought is to buy a metal box from Maplin and mod that for ITX use.

Ideas? Comments please

How about one of these:



You can get them pretty cheaply from here.

Some talk about that motherboard; http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php ... t=D201GLY2

Personally don't see the point in a seperate machine with only 2 disks just to be a file server, but cool board and like the idea of keeping things mini.

It'll also be used for downloading. I want a file server as I only have a gaming rig and a laptop, neither are suitable for serving files. I used to have a Dell GX1 set up as a NAS but the PSU died a few months ago, I'm really missing being able to get files off the network so I think this is an ideal opportunity to build another one.

After some thinking I decided not to get a metal CD case, they're too tall . Also decided to get a Pico PSU, they're really small and efficient but requires an external PSU brick.

I went to maplin a this morning and got a small £7 plastic box, the depth of the box is a perfect fit leaving just enough room for one 3.5" HDD so I've revised my plan, instead I'm going to get a 1TB 3.5" drive and a smaller 250GB 2.5" drive.

As you can see... the box is really dull, beige... urrgh. It'll be sprayed with some zinc undercoat as a RFI shield and then some nice metallic enamel.


Notice the PCI extension, it'll be used for a gigabit NIC.


Now I'm waiting for the D201GLY2 ITX board, it's coming from the US as I can't find a single place in the UK stocking it. Because the dollar is weak against the pound I got the board for £36, the D201GLY in the UK is £50!

cool, i look forward to the next update.

nice man, you like your server stuff don't you lol , keep us posted

Finally, the D201GLY2 arrived this morning. The HDDs, NIC and RAM came yesterday.

Building will start on Friday.

Update...

I have to get rid of the Gigabit NIC, I'm having trouble fitting it in the case so I'll be using the onboard 100/10 for now. Looks like I have to shop around for a shorter card instead.

To test everything is working ok I've put together everything in an old temporary Mini ITX case,



It's a tight fit so getting it all into a smaller case is going to be a tough challenge, you can already see by the amount of cables this is going to be one hell of a challenge.

However, I may ditch the Maplin box in favour for this case, it's small-ish, works OK and not bad looking. But beige , nothing some sand paper and metallic enamel paint can't fix!

Cool, thanks for the pics

Is it me or does it look like this leaves yo very little space for DVD drive?


Looks good.

Looks like enough for a slim line drive but i could be wrong.

If you're right then it will be a tight sqeeze.

There is just enough space for a slim optical drive but cables will run wild and unless I use low profile RAM which is 3-4 times as expensive as normal stuff it'll have to be mounted at an angle. Anyway, this machine won't be needing one, the OS has already been installed and backups are done elsewhere.

A further update: I've noticed the 3.5" HDD is getting pretty hot so I've mounted a fan directly above it, it's a cheap 50mm fan connected to a 56 Ohm resistor which reduces the fan from 12V to 10V, not a lot but it's the difference between a whiny fan and a quiet one.

To do this I had to move the 2.5" drive, the slim optical drive mount was an ideal location, it hides the wires and allows me to remove the 2.5" easily when needed.

Lastly, the 40mm CPU fan has been replaced with a quieter 60mm.

Pics:

Cool, good job with the mods