Dell PowerEdge 4200 Mod
From Hive13 Wiki
| Hive13 Project | |
| Dell PowerEdge 4200 Mod | |
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| Status: | Active |
| Start Date: | 6/20/2010 |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
[edit] Summary
We have two large, beasty Dell PowerEdge 4200 servers at the hackerspace. They both have dual Pentium Pro's in them with 128 MB of ram (that is 8x 16 MB sticks of ram), 700 W PSU's, and hot-swappable SCSI drive bays. I am modding the case so that it will be able to house modern ATX compliant components.
[edit] Project Manager
[edit] Contributors
- Add yourself here if you have contributed to this project.
[edit] Goal of the Project
The goal of this project is to modernize the Dell PowerEdge 4200 server into a computer that I can use with modern computer components to house my fileserver.
[edit] What needs to be done
- PSU
- Secure the PSU mount.
- Find a method to extend standard ATX PSU cables.
- Determine pinout and create adapter cables for the existing PSU.
- Hot-swap bays
- Figure out a method to mount SATA drives in the hot-swap bays.
[edit] What has been done
- Installed a removable ATX motherboard tray.
- Fitted a PSU mounting plate.
[edit] Currently on the ToDo List
- Examine SCSI hotswap trays for possibility of use w/ SATA drives.
- Determine exact pinout of orig. PSU and see if a 20 pin socket can plug onto it in any way.
- Bring SATA cables into Hive, see how easy // hard it is to plug into the mounted drives.
- See if we can re-use the drive indicator LED panel.
[edit] Gallery
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[edit] Work Log
This is a living log of work that has been completed on the machine.
[edit] June 23, 2010 - Mounted PSU Bracket
I finished mounting the PSU bracket today. Picked up 8x metal screws since I was not sure on the exact size I wanted to use, so I bought 4x #6 1/2" and 4x #8 1/2" metal screws. I did a some test drills in a piece of scrap and determined that I liked the way the #6's looked and felt more than the #8's.
The procedure for mounting the plate was rather simple. I just marked the top two holes on the plate, drilled them out w/ holes large enough that the screws just slipped through them. I then used those holes to mark the case for where I needed to drill the metal screw pilot holes. After center-punching the holes it was a simple matter to drill out the pilot holes and then insert the screws. The only tricky part was that I did not leave enough of an edge on the bottom of the plate to easily drill through it. To solve this I created a tab that I can just tighten down.
Pictures to follow soon.
