THE CRUNCH
YouTuber EastMakes has repurposed a 15-year-old HP ProLiant N40L tower server by designing his own motherboard around a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5. The original AMD Turion II system lacked modern connectivity, so EastMakes created a custom PCB to add NVMe storage, USB 3.0 ports, and Ethernet, while preserving the physical layout of the server chassis.
EastMakes kept the original server chassis but replaced the integrated motherboard and processor with a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5. The CM5 is essentially a stripped-down Raspberry Pi 5, designed for embedded applications, and EastMakes adapted the standard I/O board to fit the N40L's form factor. He printed a 3D prototype to align the mounting points and ports correctly.
The custom design includes a single HDMI output, a stack of Ethernet and two USB 3.0 Type-A connectors, and a dedicated NVMe slot for the system drive. EastMakes optimised the PCB traces to avoid timing issues and chose a yellow-on-black finish for a distinctive look. The board worked on the first attempt when installed in the server.
The project highlights the performance gap between the original AMD Turion II chip and modern single-board computers. The Raspberry Pi 5 offers significantly higher computing power and efficiency while fitting into the same physical space. EastMakes plans to add a SFF-8087 connector for the hard drive bay in a future update.