Concept Project Raptor- Full Carbon case

jpmomo

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Feb 23, 2018
38
51
I am about 1 week away from finishing my custom carbon fiber case. It started about 6 months ago with the goal of building a powerful server in a sff case. It needed to be quiet and also keep cool. This is something that the folks on the sff forum deal with all the time. I was able to get a lot of ideas from this forum and felt that it would be good to share. Perhaps this project might help others with their builds.

The components consists of something a bit different from most of the builds on this forum. I needed to build a sff server that had a lot of high speed ethernet interfaces. It didn't need a discreet graphics card and that opened up some options for cooling and power.

I decided to go with the new supermicro xeon d skylake cpu. this is an embedded cpu with relatively low tdp (100w tdp). It has 16 physical cores and supports QAT for SSL acceleration. This server was designed to be used as a test and measurement tool that is able to generate very high data rates for 5G testing among other types of tests. It uses 128G of ddr4 2666 ram, 1 samsung 970 pro m.2 ssd, 4 x 10G ports (2 x sfp+ and 2 x 10GbaseT) and 4 x 1G plus an ILO port for remote headless management. All of these ports are built into the mb. I can manage this server remotely or if needed connect a keyboard and monitor up for console access. I use various hypervisors including vmware, kvm and openstack as the base os. I then install various VMs depending on the test case.

Because this new xeon d skylake processor uses a socket that is not that common, I needed to custom fabricate some mounting brackets for the noctua nh-L12S cpu cooler. This cooler is able to cool the server pretty good so far and remains relatively quiet. The case was originally design to be 90mm high but during the build wound up being only 85mm. Luckily the cooler still fits with about 2-3 mm of clearance from the top of the case.

The case was designed to be round at 13" in diameter. I wanted to design something a bit different from the normal rectangular box type cases. I also didn't want to have any screws connecting the pieces so it was designed with special magnets where ever possible. This included the solid carbon feet and the top cover. It also included the rear io plate for port access. I wanted it to be seamless but with easy access to all components.

I have been working with Larry from HDPlex for a while trying to get the 160ac/dc combo to work with this new mb. We haven't been successful yet but are still trying to get this combo to work. As a backup, I was able to get the Streacom fanless 240 psu to work. I needed to build a custom bracket to mount over the mb so that the front vandal switch would have enough clearance. Those of you that have gone down this path know that it is all about these little details! It becomes a matter of millimeters for just about every component.

The entire case was custom fabricated using a carbon fiber mold with special gold weave. I worked with a local company called common fibers out of seattle. They have been the main reason that this project has been able to proceed. I originally looked at companies like dragon plate to try and build this case but they didn't want to work with this type of form. I also looked into 3d carbon printing but they didn't have that carbon weave that I was shooting for.


After a lot of funky math, I think the volume would be appox. 7.28 liters. 13" diameter by 85mm (3.35") high. I am working on another project that will be kept to 1U and use a xeon sp 8160 cpu with custom water cooling. That will be 24 cores with dual port 100G nics (really need pci-e 4.0!) all in 1U. The big challenge will be to keep this beast quiet.

I should be able to post detailed pictures of the raptor in about 1 week when it is finished.

Thanks for the tips about posting and uploading images as this is my first try at it for sff forum.
jp

MOD EDIT: Merged multiple posts
 
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chyll2

Master of Cramming
Jun 27, 2018
431
362
You can use Imgur. You can host picture as a guest or using a registered account.
 

jpmomo

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Feb 23, 2018
38
51
Thanks for the tips. I will try and link to my gdrive and start to post the progress.
 

Thehack

Spatial Philosopher
Creator
Mar 6, 2016
2,800
3,650
J-hackcompany.com
Please edit your own post if you need to add additional comments. If you need to, take additional time with the write up. You have a lot of posts within a short period of time and it segments the discussion.

The project looks interesting.
 

confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
SFF Network
SFF Workshop
SFFn Staff
Jun 19, 2015
4,129
7,057
sff.network
@jpmomo Please do not multi-post. There is an edit function to add additional thoughts to a post. I've merged posts above.

@Thehack done for him :)
 

jpmomo

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Feb 23, 2018
38
51
Thanks for correcting my post. I will edit appropriately with future posts.
jp
 

jpmomo

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Feb 23, 2018
38
51
Finally finished this project! (or is it actually just the beginning!)

Some pictures of the final build:




final components:
supermicro x11 xeon d-2146nt (embedded cpu)
The mb is also an odd size...flex-atx at 9x7.5 which makes it a difficult fit for most m-itx cases. I have one of these in Josh's S4M but needed to put the psu external!
128GB DDR4 ram
Custom Noctua L12S cooler
Streacom fanless 240w ac/dc psu (with custom carbon fiber mount plate)
8 x high speed ethernet ports plus 1 ILO port
Completely Silent
Runs very cool (48C at idle, 54C at full load (not prime95 but proprietary traffic gen app at full load)
No exposed screws
Seamless built using custom carbon fiber mold
Special magnets to easily disassemble
Removable carbon fiber feet with magnets as well

I need to thank a lot of people but I will start with the following:

Gabe from Common Fibers and his team especially David (I will be sending some toys your way shortly!) This project started out with a square box and wound up with this roomba looking contraption! I would highly recommend any one with a need for anything (I mean anything!) carbon fiber, look up the folks at Common Fibers and they can make it happen.

Brian and Alexey from ICC for finding a way to get the Noctua to fit into the odd xeon d socket. They were also the source for most of the hw including the new and hard to get xeon d2100 series.

Larry from HDPlex. Even though we could not get the 160 ac/dc and dc/dc combo to work with this odd mb (at least not yet!) He was very helpful in sorting out a lot of other odd electrical issues along the way.

And last but not least to the SFF Forum! Is has been the real source for imagination and finding a way to make it work and more importantly, make it fit!

I have a lot of other pics if anyone wants just let me know. Now on to the next project......xeon platinum with custom 1u water cooler (of course all wrapped in carbon!)
jp
 
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Windfall

Shrink Ray Wielder
SFFn Staff
Nov 14, 2017
2,117
1,582
This is cool! Any thoughts on production? Also- why xeon and 128GB. What is this for?
 

jpmomo

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Feb 23, 2018
38
51
This is cool! Any thoughts on production? Also- why xeon and 128GB. What is this for?
There is a mold for this so it could be produced cheaper than the prototype. This is a device that was designed for a traffic generator type appliance. A bit different from most of the projects here but similar in the sff sense.
jp
 
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chyll2

Master of Cramming
Jun 27, 2018
431
362
Intake fan + removable washable filters at the bottom. Kidding aside, really nice build definitely unique