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Need a quiet, energy-conserving storage and print server? Here, I describe how to stuff one, the Thecus N2100, into a vintage external floppy casing, the Commodore 1541.
In our flat, we have several laptops, some of them running MacOS, and a PC, and so we wanted to have a central storage solution (what is called a NAS: network attached storage). We chose the Thecus N2100, because it is one of the cheapest RAID devices, runs Linux and people seem to be happy with it. But when we realized how noisy the little bugger turned out, I decided that it would need to go into a new case.
Here, I describe a rather simple case mod. Almost no tools and only a little soldering required. As a result, you get a very compact and super-silent home-server.
In our flat, we have several laptops, some of them running MacOS, and a PC, and so we wanted to have a central storage solution (what is called a NAS: network attached storage). We chose the Thecus N2100, because it is one of the cheapest RAID devices, runs Linux and people seem to be happy with it. But when we realized how noisy the little bugger turned out, I decided that it would need to go into a new case.
Here, I describe a rather simple case mod. Almost no tools and only a little soldering required. As a result, you get a very compact and super-silent home-server.
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The main components needed are obviously the Commodore 1541, the Thecus N2100 and a couple of harddisks.
For those of you who grew up on a Commodore 64 home computer, there will be no need to explain what the 1541 is: a beautiful external disk drive, made for slightly floppy disks that measured 5.25 inches. You can get them very cheaply at ebay. Or you might have still sit one around.
The Thecus N2100 is also called "Yesbox" by its manufacturer and rebranded by several importers, for instance Allnet in Germany. It has about the same height and half the length of the 1541, comes in a cheap metallic PVC box and makes a lot of noise with its tiny fan. Currently, it sells for about 250-300$ without drives. That's a lot of dough, but still cheaper than the RAID competition.
The N2100 runs on its custom brand of Linux (you may also install Debian). It offers two independent Gigabit Ethernet networks and can take two SATA drives. If you get two 500GB drives, you get a terabyte of space - or half a terabyte in a secure RAID configuration. (I bought two Samsung Spinpoint drives at less than 100$ each.)
You will need few additional parts:
- A couple of harddrive enclosures, such as the Scythe Quiet drive. These are optional (and as it turns out, may be very difficult to fit), but the reduce the noise of the operating harddisks significantly, and they also dissipate the heat much better than the naked drive alone.
- SATA and power extensions (from male to female). These turned out difficult to come by in Germany (I have seen an American vendor of these, though). Fortunately, they come with the "Scythe Quiet drive", and for one which was too short, I have salvaged a SATA extension backplane (about 5$ in your local computer store).
- A push switch to turn the thing on. I have bought a blackish round button that fit through the hole of the floppy latch (about 4mm).
- A few bits of stiff packing foam to cushion the drives against the casing and each other.
Tools:
We will need to cut a bit of metal and PVC. Also, we will have to solder a couple of wires. And hot-glue helps enormously. (I had it all done, very unprofessionally, on the kitchen table in little time, and I am a pretty unexperienced tinkerer.)
For those of you who grew up on a Commodore 64 home computer, there will be no need to explain what the 1541 is: a beautiful external disk drive, made for slightly floppy disks that measured 5.25 inches. You can get them very cheaply at ebay. Or you might have still sit one around.
The Thecus N2100 is also called "Yesbox" by its manufacturer and rebranded by several importers, for instance Allnet in Germany. It has about the same height and half the length of the 1541, comes in a cheap metallic PVC box and makes a lot of noise with its tiny fan. Currently, it sells for about 250-300$ without drives. That's a lot of dough, but still cheaper than the RAID competition.
The N2100 runs on its custom brand of Linux (you may also install Debian). It offers two independent Gigabit Ethernet networks and can take two SATA drives. If you get two 500GB drives, you get a terabyte of space - or half a terabyte in a secure RAID configuration. (I bought two Samsung Spinpoint drives at less than 100$ each.)
You will need few additional parts:
- A couple of harddrive enclosures, such as the Scythe Quiet drive. These are optional (and as it turns out, may be very difficult to fit), but the reduce the noise of the operating harddisks significantly, and they also dissipate the heat much better than the naked drive alone.
- SATA and power extensions (from male to female). These turned out difficult to come by in Germany (I have seen an American vendor of these, though). Fortunately, they come with the "Scythe Quiet drive", and for one which was too short, I have salvaged a SATA extension backplane (about 5$ in your local computer store).
- A push switch to turn the thing on. I have bought a blackish round button that fit through the hole of the floppy latch (about 4mm).
- A few bits of stiff packing foam to cushion the drives against the casing and each other.
Tools:
We will need to cut a bit of metal and PVC. Also, we will have to solder a couple of wires. And hot-glue helps enormously. (I had it all done, very unprofessionally, on the kitchen table in little time, and I am a pretty unexperienced tinkerer.)
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OK, while it physically hurts me to see any part of a C=64 gutted, it is a great idea.
One suggestion, you should make linkage to use the original “flip lock” for the disk drive to turn it on and off. That would add some REAL geek points!
Thanks for taking the time to post this!