Ikea EKET Homelab Build
So I decided I wanted to fit a computer inside an Ikea EKET box because well, why not!😅 The previous case for this machine was my old Define R4; big, ungainly and covered in stickers, it did not fit in with the surroundings (more Ikea EKET boxes).
Hardware
At the time of building, these were the specs of the PC;
- Aliexpress Micro-ATX X79 Board
- Intel Xeon E5 2670
- 16GB HyperX DDR3
- MSI RTX 2070 Super
Plus a fully modular Corsair PSU I planned to use in the EKET, so there would be no unnecessary wires inside the box.
To start, I needed to mount the board to the base. All I did was simply mark the holes using the mobo, drill small holes and screw in some standoffs. Easy right? First issue, the backplate for the cooler was quite thick, requiring some spacer washers on top of the standoffs to ensure the board was sitting flat.
Next up, mounting the PSU somewhere out of the way. For this, I found some L brackets in the shed and screwed them into the top and side of the box. I also found a Velcro strap and used this to keep the PSU securely in place.
Of course, I had to cut a few holes in the thin backing of the box. One for the PSU, another for a 140mm fan and finally one to run the cables through (no rear I/O so cables had to be run inside then plugged in). In hindsight, I could've mounted the board facing the rear of the EKET, like a regular PC, however I decided this wouldn't look as nice and may be worse for cooling.
Another struggle was actually plugging cables into their ports, as they had to be bent 90 degrees with minimal clearance.😑 For the HDMI, I got a couple of right angle adapters from Amazon. As for the USB and ethernet, I coerced them in and hoped I wouldn't have to unplug them any time soon.
And that was it, up and running!🥳 I will cover software further down, but first, several hardware changes!😆
After a week or two, I got fed up of looking at ugly wires through the glass door. I snatched a 2TB NVME on sale from Amazon, and naturally installed it into my PC, removing the old 512GB drive for use in the EKET. This replaced a spare SATA SSD I had in there, allowing me to rip out some wires.
Now I was pleased with the aesthetics, but wanted more performance than an old first gen Xeon E5. After some googling and browsing Aliexpress, I realised I could acquire an 'X99' board and Xeon E5 v4 for roughly the same price I originally paid for the X79 setup.
So after a short few week wait, I had my shiny new parts, consisting of a Machinist X99-PR9 mobo and Intel Xeon E5-2680 v4. Physically the machine looked similar, apart from the Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E I fitted for mildly better cooling.😳
I also removed the GPU as that was required elsewhere, so I installed a Radeon 5400 series purely to have display output in case it was needed. You may see some RAM at the top of the above pic, which I had acquired from a favour. I was in the process of installing and testing this 64GB kit, but came across constant crashes. Instinctively, I ran memtest and straight away got plenty of errors.🤦♂️ So I removed the sticks, cried a little inside and reinstalled the old 32GB kit - which is plenty for now I guess.
Now happy with the setup, I could stop messing with the hardware and have a play with it!🤔
Software
Coming soon