I've been toying with the idea of putting together an ammo-can PC, but first I had to make a couple of decisions: What will the PC be used for, and how big do I want it to be?

I was shooting for something that looked cool and was very portable. At first I wanted it to be a hard-core gaming rig, but a gaming PC needs to be full-size, so I decided to make it a portable file server instead. An ammo-can PC would be perfect for MP3-swapping parties.

Parts list

Next I decided on the components to use. Here's what I used:

• Via Epia motherboard
  An easy choice. I wanted to go as small as I could on all components, and I happened to have this motherboard in my workshop. No outlay of cashola is always good.
  
• Lynksys WMP54G 802.11G PCI card
  
• Sparkle Micro ATX power supply
  A little hard to find. I finally found one in stock at a hole-in-the-wall retailer in my neighborhood.
  
• Western Digital 120GB special edition HD
  Another item I already had in my workshop. I really believe in using what I have on hand rather than just spending more money.
  
• 7.62 mm, 200-round surplus ammunition case
  The ammo case was the smallest case I could find that could still hold all my components. See the case.
  

To save space, I skipped on the CD-ROM drive. If I really want to install a program, I can always do it from a network drive or use an external USB drive.