The Thermaltake Core P5 is an open-frame case designed to show off a single build. I wanted a second machine alongside my main one — a Linux home server — and I didn’t want to buy another case. So I designed a mount that turns the Core P5 into a dual-system chassis while keeping the original host system completely undisturbed.
The constraint
No permanent modifications to the case. No drilling, no cutting, no bent metal. The mounts had to attach through existing bolt points and distribute load correctly for two full systems’ worth of components.
The design
Printed mounting brackets that reuse the Core P5’s existing mounting hardware, plus a set of secondary standoffs for the second motherboard, PSU cage, and drives. The second system sits offset from the primary, with airflow paths checked against the original layout so neither system thermally interferes with the other. It looks intentional rather than bodged, which was the bar I was aiming at.
Afterlife
I used this for years. The primary machine ran Windows for work; the secondary ran Linux as a local server and, at one point, had ~145 TB of Seagate drives mining Chia. I posted the STL files on Thingiverse — a handful of other people have downloaded and printed it for the same “I want two PCs in one case” use case.