Building a Test Bench from a Reused HP V6 20 Case

As I began working on my test bench, I found myself wanting something simple and quick to get started with. The more time that passed, the more work that required, and I just wanted to get it done. Upon looking at the project, I realized that I could do it a certain way and that's exactly what I did. To attach the various parts of the structure together, I used automotive "goop" or as I like to call it, button. This stuff holds incredibly well and is like no other bonding rubber I've ever used.

It was clear that this setup wasn't going to be my final product, but rather a temporary solution until I could get to more permanent repairs. Riveting the important parts of the structure together would be my next step, which will provide more durability and security for the build. However, since it's holding well enough to carry the load, I can consider this a successful test run.

I also had concerns about the top part of the case, as it didn't have complete support, making it prone to flexing. To counteract this, I decided to attach the power supply to the inside of the case using double-sided gorilla tape and placed it towards the center for balance. This allows for easy handling and minimizes any risk of damage.

One of the most appealing aspects of reusing an old HP V6 20 case is that you can still utilize its existing features, such as the front USB ports. I was able to keep them intact, providing me with a convenient way to open up the case without having to create an alternative solution for power management.

Unfortunately, this particular motherboard didn't align perfectly with standard mounting patterns, which made connecting certain components more challenging than usual. The HP V6 20's power buttons were also placed in a less-than-ideal location for easy access, requiring me to bridge jumpers instead of simply flipping the button on and off. However, I discovered that this motherboard does have an integrated power button on its back, which is a welcome feature.

Using the existing drive bays proved to be an excellent solution, as it allowed me to place my hard drives directly where they were supposed to go without any modifications or creative solutions required. If you wanted to use an optical drive, there's still room available underneath for either of these components.

The underside of the case provides ample space for storing cables and other accessories that might be needed during setup or usage. The overall result is a tidy build with an air of portability due to its lightweight design. A supplemental fan has been added behind the unit to provide some added airflow, even if it's not crucial in this particular situation.

My test bench turned out quite well, considering its origins as a reconfigured HP V6 20 case. The key takeaway is that with enough creativity and resourcefulness, you can breathe new life into an old project or component – or, in my case, turn it into a powerful tool for testing future projects without breaking the bank.

**The Official Specifications of the Test Bench**

This test bench features an HP V6 20 motherboard, which houses an Intel Sandy Bridge-E processor with 8 cores and 8 threads. The CPU operates at base clock speeds ranging from 3.6 GHz to 3.9 GHz and has a turbo boost frequency up to around 4.0 GHz. While not the latest or most powerful chip available, it provides a respectable level of performance within its budget constraints.

For those wondering about my reasoning behind selecting this processor, I wanted to keep costs in check while still achieving good results for general use cases like video editing and gaming. The test bench is intended to serve as a reliable and efficient tool for evaluating future projects without excessive financial outlay.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys this is Chris with coalition gaming and I just wanted to talk about an open-air DMI test bench to the HEC together so as I get further and further into testing things testing processors testing graphics cards any any sort of equipment for computers it became apparent to me that I need an easier way to test things so I started looking at test benches and all that but I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on it because it's something that I feel that I could obviously just do without spending any money on anything just putting on a piece of cardboard putting it on a table it is a bit of a messy solution but it works but I want something that I can move around as I see fit just to be there when I needed so I can just drop things on take things off swap things out no problem so I looked into open-air DIY test benches that were made out of old cases I happen to have a few old cases so a little bit of research and it turns out that is not that hard to do what I ended up doing was drilling out a bunch of rivets on this case taking it apart as much as possible to just get it down to a bare case and as I looked at it and the cool thing about this this case is an old apamea Explorer case it has a removable motherboard tray so with this removable motherboard tray I was able to just get the part where the motherboard sits on out and work around it and it's really cool that I can just pull the pull the tray out because I makes things easier to work around so I took the case apart after drilling out the rivets this is what I what I ended up with so I was looking at it and I honestly I wanted to cut it at a point that would shorten the case so it wouldn't be in the entire size of a case just laid down but the more I looked at it the more time that that was required the more work that would also require I just wanted something simple something quick and the more I looked at it then I realized look I can do it this way I'm going to have to attach it a certain way and what I use with shoe goo mine is called automotive goop button same stuff it's like a really really strong bonding rubber some this stuff holds like no other and right now that's everything that's holding it together so I wouldn't call this exactly finish I plan on riveting the important parts of the structure on it but it holds well enough where I can now everything to it carry it around move it from place to place and you know it seems relatively reliable in the way that it is the power supply though I didn't want to mount it in the top part that you can see right there because I didn't want to make things too top-heavy you know this top part it's not completely supported so it does have a little bit of flex to it it's nice that it's there for graphics cards to attach to so that way they won't fall over in the socket but but it's too much to put the power supply up there too much weight so I figured you know what how am I going to get this attached to the bottom what ended up doing was using double-sided gorilla tape and putting it towards the center of the inside of the case so it would be relatively balanced and if you were to hold the case with one hand you can hold it right where the power supply is at and it's relatively balanced and easy to hold the cool thing about reusing the entire case is that you can still use the front USB I have those pleasure in you can open it up and you know maybe there's may or may not open but you can mean you can continue using the power and the reset button so you don't have to hack together a separate solution to power it on unfortunately because this is an HP v6 20 motherboard stuff isn't exactly in the same place that it should be for a firm motherboard the power buttons didn't reach that are connecting the connectors for it but the cool thing about this is that it has its own power button right on the back so I can turn off and on just as needs to be I don't need to bridge two little jumpers to do it it has a button already built onto the board and a lot of boards nowadays they all have power buttons right on them so it's an optional thing depending on the board but it's good that it's there another plus for it being an old case is that I can just use the drive bays I don't need to find a creative solution to put the hard drives in I just put them right in where they're supposed to go and it works just fine that way if you wanted to use an optical drive but it has that capability as well but who really uses them anymore right so the way that the case worked out it's got plenty of room on the underside to store cables or anything else going to stuff down there it looks tidy relatively tidy up top and easy to carry easy to move around I have an extra fan on the back there just for a little bit of added airflow I'm not sure if it's really going to help but I have extra fan so I figured why not overall I really I'm really happy with the way this came out so this is now the coalition test bench this is what I'll be testing things going forward the official specs of the computer is an HP v6 20 motherboard we have 8 gigabytes of ddr3 1600 of xeon e5 1620 which is a three point six agree hertz base to 3.9 gigahertz turbo i believe three point eight maybe four core eight thread CPU this is a sandy bridge-e p so this is just as good it actually has a higher base clock than the i7 2626 hundred 2700 attire it's it's in that category of performance so it's not it is a bit old but it's not that far behind in terms of performance I can't overclock up to some other board so this is the fastest quad-core that I could find for this and I think it's going to do pretty good as it just a general test bench to get the idea of how games will perform going forward when I do video card reviews or anything like that you know I do have a budget to worry about because I'm not some big youtuber or anything so I get what I get right so that does it so if you guys have some questions regarding doing a case mod like this to turn it into a test range feel free to leave a comment subscribe there's more comics to leave a like if you like this video and I'll see you guys in the next one byehey guys this is Chris with coalition gaming and I just wanted to talk about an open-air DMI test bench to the HEC together so as I get further and further into testing things testing processors testing graphics cards any any sort of equipment for computers it became apparent to me that I need an easier way to test things so I started looking at test benches and all that but I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on it because it's something that I feel that I could obviously just do without spending any money on anything just putting on a piece of cardboard putting it on a table it is a bit of a messy solution but it works but I want something that I can move around as I see fit just to be there when I needed so I can just drop things on take things off swap things out no problem so I looked into open-air DIY test benches that were made out of old cases I happen to have a few old cases so a little bit of research and it turns out that is not that hard to do what I ended up doing was drilling out a bunch of rivets on this case taking it apart as much as possible to just get it down to a bare case and as I looked at it and the cool thing about this this case is an old apamea Explorer case it has a removable motherboard tray so with this removable motherboard tray I was able to just get the part where the motherboard sits on out and work around it and it's really cool that I can just pull the pull the tray out because I makes things easier to work around so I took the case apart after drilling out the rivets this is what I what I ended up with so I was looking at it and I honestly I wanted to cut it at a point that would shorten the case so it wouldn't be in the entire size of a case just laid down but the more I looked at it the more time that that was required the more work that would also require I just wanted something simple something quick and the more I looked at it then I realized look I can do it this way I'm going to have to attach it a certain way and what I use with shoe goo mine is called automotive goop button same stuff it's like a really really strong bonding rubber some this stuff holds like no other and right now that's everything that's holding it together so I wouldn't call this exactly finish I plan on riveting the important parts of the structure on it but it holds well enough where I can now everything to it carry it around move it from place to place and you know it seems relatively reliable in the way that it is the power supply though I didn't want to mount it in the top part that you can see right there because I didn't want to make things too top-heavy you know this top part it's not completely supported so it does have a little bit of flex to it it's nice that it's there for graphics cards to attach to so that way they won't fall over in the socket but but it's too much to put the power supply up there too much weight so I figured you know what how am I going to get this attached to the bottom what ended up doing was using double-sided gorilla tape and putting it towards the center of the inside of the case so it would be relatively balanced and if you were to hold the case with one hand you can hold it right where the power supply is at and it's relatively balanced and easy to hold the cool thing about reusing the entire case is that you can still use the front USB I have those pleasure in you can open it up and you know maybe there's may or may not open but you can mean you can continue using the power and the reset button so you don't have to hack together a separate solution to power it on unfortunately because this is an HP v6 20 motherboard stuff isn't exactly in the same place that it should be for a firm motherboard the power buttons didn't reach that are connecting the connectors for it but the cool thing about this is that it has its own power button right on the back so I can turn off and on just as needs to be I don't need to bridge two little jumpers to do it it has a button already built onto the board and a lot of boards nowadays they all have power buttons right on them so it's an optional thing depending on the board but it's good that it's there another plus for it being an old case is that I can just use the drive bays I don't need to find a creative solution to put the hard drives in I just put them right in where they're supposed to go and it works just fine that way if you wanted to use an optical drive but it has that capability as well but who really uses them anymore right so the way that the case worked out it's got plenty of room on the underside to store cables or anything else going to stuff down there it looks tidy relatively tidy up top and easy to carry easy to move around I have an extra fan on the back there just for a little bit of added airflow I'm not sure if it's really going to help but I have extra fan so I figured why not overall I really I'm really happy with the way this came out so this is now the coalition test bench this is what I'll be testing things going forward the official specs of the computer is an HP v6 20 motherboard we have 8 gigabytes of ddr3 1600 of xeon e5 1620 which is a three point six agree hertz base to 3.9 gigahertz turbo i believe three point eight maybe four core eight thread CPU this is a sandy bridge-e p so this is just as good it actually has a higher base clock than the i7 2626 hundred 2700 attire it's it's in that category of performance so it's not it is a bit old but it's not that far behind in terms of performance I can't overclock up to some other board so this is the fastest quad-core that I could find for this and I think it's going to do pretty good as it just a general test bench to get the idea of how games will perform going forward when I do video card reviews or anything like that you know I do have a budget to worry about because I'm not some big youtuber or anything so I get what I get right so that does it so if you guys have some questions regarding doing a case mod like this to turn it into a test range feel free to leave a comment subscribe there's more comics to leave a like if you like this video and I'll see you guys in the next one bye\n"