I'm somewhat serious about building one of these boxes myself.

I have to buy a lot of little parts from a multitude of vendors, fine. A small premium to pay over their quoted price.

My question falls to: where the heck do I buy a "Chyang Fun Industry (CFI Group) CFI-B53PM 5 Port Backplane (SiI3726)"?

Spend a few minutes and try and find that part for sale.

--frustrated--

real CS is about much more than just programming. Look at any 1st-tier CS school's curriculum. There are very few actual how-to-program classes. There are lots of classes on theory and principles. None that give you a limiting certification.

a certification teaches you how to answer questions and follow a set of instructions. a real education teaches you how to think and solve problems.

i'd rather hire one CS student that went to a 4-year, second tier school, than a thousand 2-year certified programming monkeys.