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Ammo Can PC

Ωhmbreon

I had this idea a while ago to make an ammo can into a ITX case, and once I knew the motherboard would fit, I knew I had to do it.

 

Wanted specifications:

- Can fit a CPU cooler taller than 60mm

- Can fit a standard size power supply

- Can fit a 10-series Founder's Edition GPU

- Have good airflow

 

After designing it on sketchup and getting an ammo can, I found some pros and cons.

 

Pros:

- Small (about 7.5L if I remember correctly)

- Doesn't look like a computer from the left

- Highly portable

- Can become a sleeper PC

- Unique?

 

Cons:

- Can only have a non-modular power supply due to the desired GPU length 

- Extremely tight fits for some parts

- Corners of the can are curved and the sides are slightly warped

- Can only fit two hard drives (not including M.2 possibilities)

- Can only fit small 50mm fans on the chassis

- Cutouts may compromise the structural integrity of the can.

- Kinda smells

 

Despite many downsides, I decided to proceed with it anyways.

 

Sketchup model (External and internal structure):

 

Note: Ignore the boxes by the I/O shield, they serve no purpose.

 

5b5fde7f56b06_ScreenShot2018-07-30at11_40_27PM.thumb.png.0b598f6e3b3453664bbbc96631c85f61.png5b5fde8a7697d_ScreenShot2018-07-30at11_41_13PM.thumb.png.2e6bc83bf5f1b7d68a40f8d30d5d27e6.png5b5fde9dc40ab_ScreenShot2018-07-30at11_40_41PM.thumb.png.7eb61f199b3aadfde0b254634ba68ce8.png

5b5fdea14804a_ScreenShot2018-07-30at11_40_56PM.thumb.png.a9763517c154298942d0487b777407ed.png

 

This took several attempts with several different layouts. It was difficult because I wanted to keep the left side, front, bottom and top undisturbed. I would have done this with a much smaller power supply, but I do not have the budget to buy one. The parts list reflects this:

 

Motherboard: Wade-8656 ITX (LGA 775)

CPU: Some salvaged Core 2 Duo or a Xeon E5440 if the 771->775conversion kit works

CPU cooler: Salvaged LGA 775 stock 

RAM: 4GB DDR2

PSU: Some cheap non-modular SFX

GPU: Salvaged 750Ti 1 or 2GB that probably won't work with the system so I have a salvaged 8400GS 1024MB that might be broken (Basically I don't know)

HDD: Salvaged 2.5" (x 7mm thick?) 500GB HDD

 

It was originally going to have a Pentium G3258 on an ASUS H81 ITX motherboard with a stock cooler but my friend lost it. I did get the 8400GS, and the 750Ti from him.

 

I do have the first measurements drawn out on the ammo can. Other than that, that's all the physical progress I've made besides gathering parts.

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12 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Is this a build log?

 

Also this would be an amazing LAN PC.

Yes, it's going to be a build log.

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Being a retired marine I have always wanted to do this, and I worked on the range and had many of these cans at my disposal. Just never got around to it, definitely following this one. Good luck with it

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First major issue was encountered with the motherboard. I'll create a separate troubleshooting topic about it.

 

(Edit) Here it is: 

 

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very cool idea man was thinking of doing this myself but using a mini zotac 1080 card and an SFX power supply with the itx board cant wait to see how this progresses i have alot of things i want to turn into a pc now including a small pelican case.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The motherboard I bought to put in the system was doa, at least I got a refund. I thought it was a leaking capacitor but replacing it led to nothing.

 

I also don't have the tools I thought I have to cut the steel, so I'll do it at school when that starts in a couple days.

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  • 3 weeks later...

A minor change was made to the internal design, replacing the slot for the hard drives with two actual hard drive trays.

 

It's been taking some time due to software issues. Our school got new workstations and software so it's taken a bit to get around the issues. I got it to work today, so cutting should start soon.

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Bloody awesome mate! 

Like @TekRed I have a few of these cans at my disposal and wanted to do this. 
 

I'll have to have a look at which size can fits me best and I might just make one!

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not sure if they sell them in the states, but at Costco here in Japan they sell them really cheap

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15 hours ago, Netivity said:

Bloody awesome mate! 

Like @TekRed I have a few of these cans at my disposal and wanted to do this. 
 

I'll have to have a look at which size can fits me best and I might just make one!

Mine is about 7" tall, just big enough to fit a ITX motherboard. 

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Finally laid it out in AutoCAD. I'll insert a picture when I have better connection.

 

Anyways, from here I need to cut it out, weld the pieces together, give it a nice coat of black paint and cut out the spaces in the ammo can for airflow and I/o.

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So I cut it on the plasma cutter, and it went terribly, so I went back to fix my mistakes. I'll try again tomorrow or Tuesday depending on time. I'm also learning how to weld so I might weld the pieces together.

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I bought a Gigabyte GA-H110N motherboard and a Pentium G4400 processor for the build.

 

I also had a question about M.2 wifi cards, which is here:

 

It has been solved.

 

 

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More pieces were cut out the other day and all of them turned out useable. I only have three more to cut, and I can get to cutting the holes in the can and welding the pieces together.

 

Meanwhile, I have gotten the system working and installed Windows 10, where it inexplicably activated itself. Anyways, I still need to buy a bunch of stuff before the system is complete:

- Power supply (looking at a 400w unit)

- PCIe extender 

- RAM (8gb)

- 3x 50mm fans (looking at EVERCOOL EC5015M12CA)

- WiFi card and antennas

- Fan splitter 

- Various screws and standoffs

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All the pieces have been cut.

IMG_5320.thumb.jpg.6c7da4a38cd3af90e11e7ac7f2ead2b7.jpg

 

Although they're not very good-looking, they're good enough to be used in the build.

 

The next few steps are to clean up the edges, weld them together, and give it a nice coat of paint. My plan is to just drop the completed assembly inside the ammo can so in case I completely screw up the cuts in the can, I can just slide this out and put it in another can.

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Interesting build, can't wait to see how this turns out.

Case: Corsair 460X RGB bby, CPU: I5 8600K, Motherboard: MSI B360M PRO-VDH, RAM: 8GB Hyper X 2400MHz , Graphics Card: GTX1060 6GB, PSU: Corsair RM750x,

Cooler: BEQuiet!  Pure Rock Slim SSD: Kingston 240GB, HDD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm still working on this, don't worry. The hard drive trays are almost done and I have begun to weld the internal structure. I have also made cutouts for the 50mm fan intakes and the CPU fan intake. It appears that I may have to significantly reenforcebthe can from the inside, but it'll all work out.

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I got a power supply, just a cheap 300w unit, and 8gb ram. I need to recut a piece and just continue building. 

 

As a bonus, I overclocked the 750Ti and got +168 core and +553 memory for maximums of 1397MHz core and 3252MHz memory.

 

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The hard drive I currently have for the system is pretty much dead so I'll need to replace that. It came from a water-damaged laptop so I didn't intend it to last.

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I went out and bought an SSD to replace the hard drive since that one was not going to last long. It boots so much faster and feels so much better overall.

 

DAB01A55-6EDA-498A-8EFF-AD5C83DEC0DC.thumb.jpeg.998ddccfa863f29b5ffee1e331ff0aa8.jpeg

 

It's just an Inland Basic 128GB but has a pretty nice read/write speed at 1550/540MB/s. I got M.2 since it is more compact and does not need power and data cables.

 

I do have the system up and running as I wait for screws, a pcie extender, a few fans and a fan splitter.

 

image.thumb.jpg.274be3f7642f0d7464311d592fae2fb8.jpg

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