Techie makes his own motherboard to refurbish 15-year-old HP ProLiant N40L tower server — Raspberry Pi CM5 adds NVMe and USB 3.0
Techie makes his own motherboard to refurbish an HP ProLiant N40L — Raspberry Pi 5 Compute Module to the rescue
Tech enthusiast EastMakes decided to give new life to his old HP ProLiant N40L micro-server by designing a custom motherboard using the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 (CM5). The original N40L motherboard was outdated, lacking NVMe slots, USB 2.0 ports, and featuring an underwhelming AMD Turion II chip. The CM5, a Raspberry Pi 5 variant, outperforms the original hardware in terms of computing power and power consumption.
EastMakes started with a premade I/O PCB from Raspberry Pi, but developed his own variation using the project's open-source diagrams and documentation. He extended the board to match the size of the original ProLiant N40L, printed a 3D prototype for accurate port and screw-hole placement, and added enhancements such as a single HDMI port, an Ethernet connector, two USB 3.0 Type-A connectors, and an NVMe slot for a system drive.
EasternMakes ensured trace lengths matched to avoid timing issues, and gave his new motherboard a yellow-on-black finish with a Boop and Reboop switch for added flair. After testing, the custom motherboard seamlessly fit into the N40L, booting without any issues. EastMakes confirmed the USB and Ethernet connection speeds were up to spec, although he did not include the SFF-8087 port for the hard drive bay, indicating future plans for expansion.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
