The Rackmount DJ Case Project

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Joined
2 Dec 2013
Posts
11
Location
Essex, UK
Hey there, this is my first post over at the OC forums so bare with me on this one. ;)

This computer is not mine but I have helped on the project and all the photos are taken by me so I am "in charge" of the build log apparently.

The Story in Brief:
A close friend of mine is a DJ and needed a system to run his software and store his music. Another friend used to work for a coach company and happened to have an old rack cabinet from work that they were throwing away. Long story short, we ended up with a really old crappy cabinet with an old Pentium 4 computer and some really heavy amps and stuff.
We decided the whole thing was perfect for his DJ setup and away we went.


The cabinet as we received it (minus the PC as we were too eager to take it out and have a look!):
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And the lovely beast itself:
(Ignore the third-party xbox fans in the front, my friend was seeing if they fit.)
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Now I don't have any images of the hardware that was used in the computer as I wasn't there when it was all pulled out to take photos but I do know it had an Asus P5PE-VM Mobo, Intel Pentium 4 CPU, 20GB HDD and I think about 512MB of RAM.

Anyway on with the show - We took all the old stuff out and gave it a little clean over with a sponge.
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The colour my friend decided on was blue so off we went painting the case and it's naughty bits...
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While the paint was drying we got to work on the flight case, ripping all the amps and wiring out and cleaning and painting the exposed wood on the inside.
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We then went a bit crazy with wires and setup a distribution board to power all the amps and the computer, complete with it's own plug socket on the front and custom made speaker wiring throughout to all the amps. The fans you see in the image were already in the case, we reused them and damn can those things blow!
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Anway... paint was dry!

I had an old temperature reader I had purchased from eBay many years ago so decided to put it to good use, even though there was already 2 on the front, you can never have enough illuminated numbers!
Here's my hand (and disgusting looking thumb) cutting a hole for the display.
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Now the computer was ready for components! The only images I have of that part (as I wasn't there and they didn't take photos!!) are these 2:
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Everything is all fine and dandy so far, the motherboard, CPU and RAM have been ordered by my friend and this is what he chose for his DJ rig:

Mobo: Gigabyte (I'm unsure which one he has but I know it's blue and comes in a bundle package >.<)
CPU: AMD FX6300
RAM: Kingston HyperX 16GB
GPU*: Nvidia Geforce GT610 2GB
*This is correct at time of this post. Due to the nature of the case it can ONLY have low profile graphics cards but we are thinking of changing it to a low profile version of one of AMD's R9 series cards.

Whilst the components were on order we decided to cut a window into the lid of the PC and place in some perspex and UV LEDs around the edge.

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And last but not least, we placed some LEDs into the case itself and the final product is as follows. I'll let the photos do the talking from now on.

If you wish to view the full collection of photos they can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/VOUct#0 (Including a lot more of the flight case build process)

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PC build looks pretty awesome, shame you can't see through the window normally!

What's the deal with the two white boxes in the back of the rack? 12V PSU's or something?

Also, what's the rest of the system like speaker wise? If your friend was looking to upgrade my next port of call would be those amplifiers, there's so much good quality 2nd hand PA kit available for not much money.
 
That is one sweeeeeeeeeeet build, love the case and how it all slots in.
I agree, pretty pleased with the work we all put in, thank you :)


What's the deal with the two white boxes in the back of the rack? 12V PSU's or something?
The 2 white boxes at the top of the rack are fan controllers, they were then when we got it and they control the fans on the side of the whole rack box and my god do they blow a storm in there! :P

Edit: Sorry forgot to answer the speaker question >.< They're definitely good enough, I think he has maybe 6 speakers and 2 big subs. I'll try get a photo and post it next time I go round there. :)
 
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Just a little update for those who may want to see the whole lot in action, I know it's not really a DJ forum but the main point of the computer apart from some occasional gaming was to be for DJing.
(Sorry for the bad phone quality :P)

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woh woh woh... are you ginger?

we dont take kindly to your folk around here

(all lies - welcome to the forum man, and that is one sweet build, im thinking of building a computer into a flight case for LANS, so this is particularly interesting :D )
 
woh woh woh... are you ginger?

we dont take kindly to your folk around here

(all lies - welcome to the forum man, and that is one sweet build, im thinking of building a computer into a flight case for LANS, so this is particularly interesting :D )
Haha! That's not me in the photo, that's my friend whose setup it all is but even so, neither of us are ginger :P
Thanks for the welcome and kind comments, it's made me want to get a rack mount computer for myself actually, one day I might do just for the sake of it. haha

Great idea that turned out to be a nice build :) good job!
Thank you very much :) I didn't want the whole process to end to be honest, was very fun to make!
 
Is everything secure enough in that flight box that you'd be happy to actually check it in at the airport, deal with all the potential rough handling of the baggage handlers and go in the cargo hold during flight?

Really cool build!
 
Is everything secure enough in that flight box that you'd be happy to actually check it in at the airport, deal with all the potential rough handling of the baggage handlers and go in the cargo hold during flight?

Really cool build!
Haha! Well it's not designed for that and it would never happen BUT personally I would trust it yeah, it's heavy and solid enough as a whole unit to not all fall apart inside anyway. :P
Thanks for the kind words! :)

+1, Love the unique idea/setup
Cheers! :)

beautiful build love it!
Thanks very much, I'm pleased with how it turned out and my friend is happy enough with it :)
 
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