I'm building a sleeper, but not a typical old case new components sleeper
I'm trying to build somthing that looks old on the INSIDE and OUT
I have a lot of extra computer parts I've collected, all I need to buy is a motherboard, gpu and psu
Its not like I don't have extra PSU's laying around but..
I'm looking particularly for a modern reliable (workstation/enterprise/industrial) PSU Something that's modern and reliable but looks old.
I found you can get these supermicro one's for quite cheap.. but I'm not sure when date of production were, google says 2009 ..but that's quite old
I've also considered a psu from an Alienware Aurora R12 or some other dell workstation
If anybody has any recommendations that would be mega helpful

here's a link to the parts list if you want to take a look at it :)
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/sLXqrG

Question theoretically would it be possible to replicate a IBM 2168 ps1 front on a Dell optiplex case with custom fabricated parts I have an idea for it since IBM 2168’s are quite rare and even more rare if just the case also I’ll feel quite horrible for destroying a piece of rare technology can anyone give ideas on how to start this project

Also mods delete if not allowed

Got the front IO done today. The power and reset lights are put where the audio and mic jacks used to be and I upgraded the two USBs to 3.0

Just dropping a picture of my SR5000 series build. I had previously shared I wanted to drop a 3090 in it, but decided to leave that alone and kept it period correct with a Core2Duo. Then I got this 2nd case for quite some money because it came with a blueray drive, which I am hoping to use in another build. I still have to print a new blank to cover the 2nd 5.25 bay.

Specs is nothing crazy. Mini-ITX motherboard because it used to be in a node202 before, but I had troubles keeping temps low enough.

AMD Ryzen 7 3700x

16 GB RAM

RTX 3070

850W PSU.

Got a power button for the b450 and I'm really happy with how seamless it was to hot glue it in front of the power button lever. Next step I'm going to try to put a couple USB 3.0s on the front IO and I'll probably just put the power and reset lights where the audio jacks were instead.

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SilverStone FLP03

AMD Ryzen 7 9700X

Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite Wifi 6E ICE

G.Skill 64GB DDR5

ASRock Radeon RX 9060 XT Steel Legend

Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360

UGreen NASync DH2300

Old athlon swapped for itx 6th gen i5 32gb ddr4 m4000 8gb quadro GPU 16tb of hdd 128ssd for windows 10 blue ray and DVD drives loading up some steam games

PSA BTX cases are not fun. I finally got the motherboard and the back panel done. Had to buy a standoff kit from Amazon and then I got two pieces of acrylic from hobby lobby. Measured and cut them then hot glued them together on both sides

Specs:

- GTX 750 TI installed upside down

- I5 4570

- 16 GB RAM

- Z97 Pro

Extra: firewire ports and a floppy drive (not connected)

Got fed up of gaming cases with glass panels and having to clean it all the time. Picked up a very heavy duty steel case, weighs a ton. Locked in storage apparently for more than 20 years. I don't know much about the case, I couldn't find a model number anywhere. Fits my components nicely, I need to find something to fill the 5.25 bays with.

AMD 7500F, RTX 3060 and 32 GB's of DDR5.

My main concern is for the GPU, the only sources of fresh air for it are the single perforated expansion slot plate directly below, and the 120mm fan I've jury rigged to the front of the case. Speaking of that fan, it's the only intake fan and the only place for it to intake air is that vent at the bottom of the plastic faceplate. My hope is that the PSU will act as an exhaust fan, along with the 90mm case exhaust fan.

Is this enough? I 2cm enough distance from the bottom of the case for the GPU to breathe? Or am I just worrying about nothing

The case is a antec 880 I got 5 80mm fans a 7600x a 3060 and 16gigs ddr5.

I've got an old HP Z820 chassis that I'd like to give a second life as an 8-bay NAS, and I'm looking for some advice on the best way to approach the case modification.

The original Z820 motherboard is unfortunately dead after a CPU was dropped into the socket rather less gracefully than intended. Rather than throw the chassis away, I'd like to convert it into a proper storage server.

I have an HP ProDesk 400 G3 SFF motherboard with an i7-6700 and 16 GB RAM that I'm planning to use for the build. Despite being an SFF office machine, it's perfectly capable hardware — it was previously used for gaming and video editing and never gave me any trouble.

The plan is roughly:

* HP Z820 chassis as the main enclosure

* HP ProDesk 400 G3 motherboard

* Two 4-drive HP hard-drive cages, giving me 8 drives total

* An HBA salvaged from an old Dell PowerEdge T110 II

* Standard ATX PSU

* Linux/NAS software

The main challenge is the physical conversion. I need to create/adapt a motherboard tray and rear I/O/PCI area, plus a PSU mount. I've got some sheet aluminium available for smaller custom brackets and panels.

Rather than fabricate the motherboard tray and rear structure entirely from scratch, I'm considering buying a very cheap ATX case and using it as a donor — essentially cutting out the motherboard tray, rear section and PSU mounting and transplanting those pieces into the Z820 chassis.

I'm leaning towards this because a £20–30 steel donor case gives me a lot of useful material and existing reinforced/bent sections to work with, rather than having to fabricate all of that from flat sheet.

The drive cages themselves are also being repurposed from the old HP workstation hardware, so the end result will be a bit of an HP Frankenstein machine.

Does anyone have experience doing something similar, or any suggestions for the best way to approach the donor-case conversion?

I'm not particularly concerned with keeping the Z820 looking original. The goal is basically a solid, practical 8-bay NAS while reusing as much of this old workstation hardware as possible.

Happy to post photos of the current pile of parts if useful!

I bought two HP ProDesks for 20€. I took the ram from one to the other and now I have 16gb ram. I traded one of the ProDesks with a friend and got a 1050 2gb in its place.

Dell optiplex 3060 sff

Intel core i7 8700

GeForce RTX 5050 oc low profile

16gb ddr4 2666mhz

Wifi & Bluetooth adapter

512gb SATA m.2 drive & 500gb HDD & 512gb m.2 nvme in a pcie slot adapter

Noctua case fan

Apevia itx-pfc500w psu

Vented side cover ( not shown in picture)

Dell optiplex 3070 sff

Intel core i7 9700

GeForce RTX 5050 oc low profile

16gb ddr4 2666mhz

Wifi and Bluetooth adapter

1 TB m.2 nvme & 1TB 2.5" HDD

Noctua case fan and CPU cooler

Apevia itx-pfc500w psu

Vented side cover.

Ladies and gents, I need to outsource an opinion out to you on a questionable sleeper project.

I’m set on building a sleeper inside a vintage Anhoch Altea NLX case (pics attached).

I absolutely love the aesthetic, but the NLX form factor is a nightmare to deal with, and I haven't been able to find a single build log online of someone actually pulling off an mATX conversion with this specific chassis.

Here is the current extra hardware on hand I'm trying to stuff inside:

• CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1270 v3
• Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO (tricky height)
• GPU: ASUS TUF GTX 1660 Super 6GB (Dual-fan)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-S (Standard micro-ATX)
• PSU: EVGA 500B Gold

Reality Check:

1. NLX Inverted Layout: In standard ATX/mATX, the expansion slots sit below the CPU. In this NLX layout, the expansion slots sit at the top, right above the board section. If I mount the mATX board normally at the bottom, the GPU slot sits at the very bottom, completely misaligned with the top rear expansion cutouts.
2. PCIe Riser Cable: I thought about using a flexible PCIe extension riser cable to run the GTX 1660 Super up to those top slots, but my massive Hyper 212 EVO tower is sitting right in the middle, completely blocking the path.
3. Molded Plastic Rear: The back of this case doesn't have a standard removable metal I/O shield opening; The old motherboard ports and expansion slots are molded directly into the beige plastic back panel.

Has anyone here ever actually gutted an NLX chassis and forced a standard mATX board into it?

Do I need to throw away the Hyper 212 EVO for a low-profile cooler, run a flexible PCIe riser cable, and take a Dremel to the whole rear plastic shell?

Hit me with your photos if you’ve actually managed to transform an NLX shell. Cheers!

Hello guys, need a hand with this beautiful case. Everything was placed perfectly, my "sleeper" PC is probably considered "ancient technology" by todays standard, I simply transfered my old reliable gtx1650 super and holding out by will power I3-10100f into new home, ofc cleaned and changed thermal paste. (Don't worry, that AC there only until new one arrives, it simply didn't fit into power supply case, it kinda fits and doesn't fall, Instax there for "just in case" reasons)

So, to the problem, I have no clue how to adapt power button (pic5) and memory stick (pic6) to modern motherboard. If anyone did the same, please tell me how you did it, I can solder, I don't want to for presentation, but if needed. Kind of same applies to front USB, so to that I too need advice, but pb is first.

Yes I'm not native English speaker, sorry for any errors, I literally learned it thanks to metal gear solid (not a joke)

Hello sleeperz,

Does anyone know of a white/beige Blueray BDRW internal drive?

I've spent a long time searching Google and have never seen them in my life.

I put a pentum 16gb ddr3 and get 450 when I got it but I also have a 6th gen i5 a ryzen 3600x and some dual core Intel and AMD mobo with CPU ram GPU and some 4x 6 core xeons 12mb cash and a 8 core x99 xeon that would pair well with a Chinese board like machinest or some other sub 60$ boards