MiniPC rack Part 1: the pc and case

Hardware

I was looking start my homelab with a mini pc and I finally found a good deal on the second hand market:

HP EliteDesk 705 G4 with AMD Ryzen 5 2400GE, 16GB RAM DDR4 2666 Mhz (sodimm/laptop), with 90W power supply for only 450 lei (~90€ / ~95$).

It offers a very good price to performance ratio because the CPU has 4 cores 8 threads at 3.8 GHz. The CPU performance is the most important thing for me.
I got one for testing, and then I get 2 more:

minipcs

Then I found another deal for TeamGroup 512 GB NVMe M.2 SSD for only 120 lei (~24€ / ~25$) (new/sealed).

ssd image

Perfect !

Software

I started researching for a good and free VM hypervisor, easy enough to configure and use.
I tried out Proxmox but then I found XCP-NG with XEN Orchestra on Lawrence Systems’s youtube channel and the search was over. It has multiple features that convinced me it is the best choice for me:

Free and open source
User interface easy and somewhat similar to VPS providers’s interfaces
Ability to replicate and migrate VMs on different hosts
Snapshots

3D Printing the case

After a while I found a good deal on a 3D Printer and I started learning how to 3D print, mess around with settings, then I learned how to model basic small and simple parts.

I started searching around on yeggi.com (search engine for 3D models) for compatible cases for this MiniPC and I found the best one:

HP Mini Staggered Rack Mount by @dsluo_362876

minipc case model image

The idea is great: incorporate the MiniPC and it’s power supply in the same case. The execution is great ! The model is very good quality.

One problem: My 3D printer BambuLab A1 Mini has a small bed size at 180x180x180 mm and I have to rotate the model at 45 degrees, and cut the very thick top part of the case.

model too big

Problem solved ! It fits perfectly in the bed ! It’s print time !

I stopped the print after 2-3 cm just to make some fitment checks make sure I dont print the whole thing for nothing it it does not fit.
This is a very good practice and I recommend you do the same !
Good thing I did this because I found out that the power supply I have is bigger in every dimension than the one the author had. He wrote the power supply dimensions in the model description but I did not read it.

I’m stuck! I need to modify the model to fit my power supply but I don’t know how to do it and I don’t have the source files, I only have the STL mesh file.

To be continued… check part 2

Last modified on 2024-11-19