So back a few months ago when VM capability was announced, I saw the opportunity to replace my media center PC (Intel i3 NUC) and my Office PC (i7 3770 16GB RAM) with VMs hosted by Unraid. (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=40349.0

 

I already had a Supermicro board with an Intel Xeon E5520 on board, so I decided to start to look into a dual CPU Motherboard to move things forward and stumbled on the HP Z800 Motherboard on Ebay. Dual CPU, 6 open ended PCI-e slots, one PCI, 12xDDR3 and 14 SATA2\SAS ports. There are some drawbacks, which include the fact that all the power ports on the motherboard are propitiatory, so need a custom cable to get everything plugged in. 2nd, and main drawback which hit me was the size.. this thing is MASSIVE. The only case this thing is likely to fit into would be something that supports HPTX. Well into the £300+ range of cases, which was a little more than i was hoping to spend!

 

So, enter my new case. The Ikea HOL Side table (£19)....

 

 

No, its not really inteded to be a PC case, but heyho, its only £19, is completely open, so heat shouldnt be an issue, and is 100% wood, so easily manipulated, skrewed into etc etc.

Unfortunately, I don't really have many pictures of the steps that went into the build. but essentially, i attached some rails that lined up with the (unstandard, all over the place) motherboard mounting points, and just gradually added things as needed. Also had quite alot of help from the father as he's much more DIY equipped than i am! These are the pics i have:

 

Imgur Album (Pictures re huge so broke the post here!) http://imgur.com/a/cMU6T

 

Full Spec:

 

HP Z800 Motherboard

12GB DDR3 ECC Memory (soon to be upgraded to 48GB)

2x Xeon E5520 CPUs

2x AMD 5450 Graphics Cards

1x Asus Xonar Sound Card

1x USB 3.0 Expansion Card

1x Dell H310 SAS Card (In the post)

Nice!  But, you may want to put a little more thought into hard drive access. It seems like a lot could go wrong when trying to diagnose a problem with a drive or cable.

 

Also, you need to switch your CPU fans 90 degrees.  You don't want one CPU blowing hot air into the second one.  In this case, you should turn them to that they each blow toward the top of the "case".

Hi Steven,

 

Ive been keeping a close eye on CPU temps and they are well under what youd expect, so nothing to worry about on that front. in the pictures the HDDs do look a little messy, but they are in 4x4 bay mounts and have plenty of space for access\replacement.

Have you noticed any RFI effects on other household items like radios and such? Normally the motherboard has a nice grounded plane all around it to keep any spurious emissions contained. Of course, I haven't seen too many complaints about full windowed cases, so maybe that's not an issue with modern motherboards? Many years ago (286/386 era) I could hear the interference in a cordless phone if there was a exposed powered up motherboard nearby. You could even hear the difference between turbo and crippled mode.

Nothing like that at all Jonathanm. All working 100% with no interference anywhere.