Building a bunch of mATX cases

[commandlion]

So here's the situation: I have exactly a week to pull like a dozen routers out of my behind for a 700 person hackathon. I need them to be as cheap as possible, so I'm building them myself. I've priced out the cheapest possible hardware that will run pfsense (pcpartpicker link). The components aren't what important. I'm here because I need a way to house them.

 

The absolute cheapest mATX cases are like #30, which is 1/4 of the price of the overall device! I'd like to try to build or mod my own cases. Because this is a hackathon, I thought it would be cool to go with the home-brew/techy/hacker aesthetic of exposed electronics and whatnot and I had two sort of working ideas:

 

1. I collect whatever old retro (think beige) computer cases and chop them up to show the inside, add lights, etc. I'm thinking it shouldn't be hard to get a few of these for free from the circles I run with.

 

2. Maybe laser cut wood or 3D print? Just a basic box with holes in the sides and maybe the hackathon logo cut on to one of the surfaces.

 

The issue with both is that I have no idea what I'm doing and I need to be *fast*.

 

Thoughts? How would you tackle this? Should I just cardboard box it? Am I in the wrong forum section?

[commandlion]

A friend just suggested cutting up the wood with the whiteboard surface on it that they sell in bulk at Home Depot and just drilling standoffs into it so the MOBO would rest on the white board test bench style. It looks hackery and you can draw on it.

 

I might do that.

[79wjd]

PFsense can run on a potato, so you could save a lot of money by buying old used systems (like Optiplex 760s) for like $50 a pop. 

[commandlion]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

PFsense can run on a potato, so you could save a lot of money by buying old used systems (like Optiplex 760s/780s) for like $50 a pop. 

This is true. In fact it's what I did with my own router at home. My only concern is sourcing appropriate machines in time. I'm going to my university's surplus store today to see if I can pick a few up. That's my plan A, but in the past my university in particular tended to stock higher end systems (last I was there they were selling 1st gen i7 desktops for $200). I worry they'll only have hardware that is overkill

[commandlion]

I just got confirmation that NAU Surplus is selling Optiplex 780s(? the guy on the phone wasn't exactly sure) for $35/each this week. Definitely going that route.