Ultimate LAN system Idea: Everything in 1 Tower

The idea that popped in my head came in after seeing a couple different builds involving huge towers that not only housed a full size ATX form factor PC in the main compartment, but also a Mini ITX system sitting in a top or bottom compartment separately or an Xbox 360 like in the Origin PC Big O.

Idea:
The concept is to include all the large systems you would normally want to have at a lan. Gaming PC, Server system, Xbox 360, wireless router and/or Gigabit switch

Enclosure = Big tower Case like the Case labs STH10 or as "small" as standard full tower like a Corsair 800D or my preference make a tower setup with each mobo parallel to the ground like in a mATX desktop/HTPC case but with 3 floors

Split it into 3 Main compartments + smaller top compartment for networking and I/O

Bottom = heaviest = mATX/ITX server board with RAID array of preferably 2.5" HDDs (weight and space savings) and a 4+ core CPU to handle any server duties it may need to.
Middle = gaming rig = mATX/ITX mobo with SSD + 2.5" laptop HDD storage + single GTX 670 or HD 7950 GPU
Top = Xbox 360 slim with custom cooling maybe try to adapt a AIO H2O system like a corsair H100 for it
Tippy Top = high quality N900 router and gigabit 16 port switch + 2 Hot swap HDD bays for diagnostics/file sharing, etc. + KVM switch to allow a single set of peripherals for the server and gaming PC.

Layout ideas:
I think that a heavily customized tower would be the best way to go by fusing together more than 1 prebuilt chassis but in order to fit everything listed in there it would be borderline scratch build because it would be nothing like the case(s) you started with.
In order to lay the boards on their backs like in a HTPC/server rack setup the chassis would need to be a minimum 12" X 12" foot print with a height looking pretty tall around 24" if you account for a minimum 3+ 120mm exhaust fans on the back (estimate made by tripling the width of a standard ATX case with 120mm exhust fan = Cooler Master Centurion 534 = ~8" measured on the outside of the case panels)

Form factors: Using mATX would be best for ease of use and expandability, but size and space issues would come into play if you didn't want it to be too much bigger than a double wide tower like a Danger Den 21 series (HxWxD = 23"x14.65"x16.65") this case is about the target size I would aim for as the largest enclosure:
http://www.dangerden.com/store......html#tabs

But the case layout inside would be more like 2.5 Danger Den torture racks stacked on top of each other:
http://www.frozencpu.com/produ.....s810#blank

Using mini ITX would substantially limit future hardware upgrades in terms of expanding the functionality of the system since there is usually only a single PCI-E slot on an ITX board. You are also usually limited to 1/2 the ram capacity. Size however could allow some alterations to the design to leave space for a 4th main board (3 PC + 1 Xbox) that could have a different use. As a whole I would think that only the gaming PC could be an ITX mobo because it wouldn't really need any more expansion just CPU/RAM/Graphics card upgrades along the line.

Enough spitballing. I am already working on a relatively budget limited LAN rig for myself but should those megamillions tickets work out.............yeah. I'm going to do more modding Razz

Tell me what you think! Also if something similar has been done before please let me know I would like to check it out!

decripple

This would be awesome, Beavis, Bob, Or Brian... Get to it...

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Danger Den Lan Tower 450, GIGABYTE GA-Z77N, Intel i3 2100, 8gb Corsair Vengeance, Crucial M4 60GB, Western Digital 1tb Black, ZOTAC GTX 560ti, Silverstone 450W SFX.

Danger Den has a double-wide with horizontal mobo trays which they can modify to add yet an additional horizontal tray and make the case ANY size you want. For flexibility on this type of project I would use them. If you want a metal case you could use the double-wide Case Labs case but you would need to mount parts vertically. The addition of a pedestal would free up space in the main compartment.

I built in a gigabyte switch and HDMI switcher into the first Big O. Danger Den has the drawing needed to mount an Xbox Slim optical drive. I would also include a Kinnect.

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Blah Blah Blah

DarthBeavis wrote:

Danger Den has a double-wide with horizontal mobo trays which they can modify to add yet an additional horizontal tray and make the case ANY size you want. For flexibility on this type of project I would use them. If you want a metal case you could use the double-wide Case Labs case but you would need to mount parts vertically. The addition of a pedestal would free up space in the main compartment.

I built in a gigabyte switch and HDMI switcher into the first Big O. Danger Den has the drawing needed to mount an Xbox Slim optical drive. I would also include a Kinnect.

Kinect would be a cool add on but sadly I have no monies to make this happen. I did put together a couple shopping carts on newegg.com and FrozenCPU.com and there was about $7500 in hardware for top quality internals and $1800 in case mod/water cooling parts (3 separate water loops) before adding the actual case(s) to the mix.

I have always wanted to have a PC and a 360 within the same computer case, but a PC, Server, 360, and networking!!!

So awesome, but like you said, mighty expensive.

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Desktop:Intel i7-3770K, 16GB G.Skill @ 1600, Intel 240GB SSD - 3TB total HDD, ATI RADEON 5870, ANTEC 300
18, 18.5, 20

Or just wait for Windows 8 coming out, and you can play xbox 360 game on pc..

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Gaming Rig #1: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 | intel Core i7 3770k oc 5.2ghz | eVGA nVIDIA GTX 680 SLi | eVGA GTX 460 for PhysX | Bitspower full water cooling loop | PATRIOT Viper Xtreme 16GB DDR3 1866 | 2x120gb PATRIOT WILDFIRE | 1tb WD Cavaier Black | CORSAIR AX1200 Modular | Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | Displays: 3x 22" SAMSUNG 3D surround display | Custom NWware Exquisite wood case.

PDXLAN 14, 14.5, 15, 16.5, 17, 18, 18.5, 19, 20, 20.5, 21 and 22

nVIDIASLiRig wrote:

Or just wait for Windows 8 coming out, and you can play xbox 360 game on pc..

I didn't here about that!?!? If true would be AMAZING! Please link if possible!

PS: Anyone feel like trying this feature out in one of the developer builds/releases that just came out?

Thanks,

decripple

you could also look in to a mountain mods case. they have quite a few designs that would work for this.