Found a 2013 27" with a dead display/broken front glass and a beat-up chassis. Gutted the machine, mounted logic board, graphics card and power supply on small risers inside a 1U rack case with a mesh front and all sides/top/bottom vented. Kept the original fans in their places. I then extended all the ports to female panel mount connectors on the back panel of the new rack case - three USB 3.0 on the back, one on the front, extended the Ethernet port to the back with a female-female panel mount, and one of the Thunderbolt as well (panel mount). The second TB port was not extended as I use that internally in the new case with a mini DP>VGA dummy display adapter, so I can screen share in a useful resolution.
Power button was extended to the mesh front by drilling a hole and adding a small momentary button, connected to the original power button cable. I'll soon add some kind of white led to the front of the case so I know if it's on.
-
Runs El Cap server, has 8GB ram and a small SSD.
+
Runs El Cap server, has 8GB ram and a small SSD. If I can get my hands on a small (cheap) PCIe SSD that'll fit in the socket on the board, I might use the now-occupied SATA port for a back panel eSATA port.
+
+
Used as iTunes and Time Machine server.
+
+
Didn't document the build with photos unfortunately, and I'm traveling for the next few months so I can't snap a few to show here. When I get back I might update this post with pics.
Yeah I did that too.
Found a 2013 27" with a dead display/broken front glass and a beat-up chassis. Gutted the machine, mounted logic board, graphics card and power supply on small risers inside a 1U rack case with a mesh front and all sides/top/bottom vented. Kept the original fans in their places. I then extended all the ports to female panel mount connectors on the back panel of the new rack case - three USB 3.0 on the back, one on the front, extended the Ethernet port to the back with a female-female panel mount, and one of the Thunderbolt as well (panel mount). The second TB port was not extended as I use that internally in the new case with a mini DP>VGA dummy display adapter, so I can screen share in a useful resolution.
Power button was extended to the mesh front by drilling a hole and adding a small momentary button, connected to the original power button cable. I'll soon add some kind of white led to the front of the case so I know if it's on.
Runs El Cap server, has 8GB ram and a small SSD.