ProfQ

Excellent job. But have to ask, why the CPU upgrade? CD or actually needed it? Looks great.

I have been using a fully populated Norco SS-500 cage for a few years now, with a low noise 80mm fan in the Caribbean without ever experiencing temperature extremes in any of my drives. All things being equal-good case air flow, reasonable ambient temperatures, etc., you shouldn't have heat issues with a quality low noise fan in this cage.

Hi, You might want to consider the fans (with a fan speed controller most probably), and soundproofing. That's what I had to do with my Unraid server AND the Zalman media PC to have them in the living room. Eventually moved the server to another room, but for aesthetic reasons, not noise. Good luck!

Three pin fans are the way to go, and more so if you want to consider fan speed adjustability via a DLNA or similar fan speed controller. Besides they are cheaper. The Nexus silent fan range is considered a reference low noise (silent) fan. Hope this helps.

Hi henris Nice looking cages. About your fan question, please keep in mind that the link you posted is to a PWM Nexus fan. Norco 5in3s use standard fans. If your cages also use standard non-PWM fans, then you can't go wrong with the Nexus silent fans. Here's the link http://www.nxstek.com/NXS-nexus80mmrealsilentcasefan.htm Good luck ProfQ

You're welcome. Glad we could help!

Just took a close look at the interior of the Nexus Edge case-impressive. Seems quite simple to adapt for 5in3 use. It has large holes on the side of each bay. You could either use some of the Nexus tool-less parts as intended, or create metal tabs to pass screws through, and attach the Norco cages easily. Don't know about the upper 5 1/4 bay, though. You might want to take a close look in there, and see if that upper bay opens up fully in the front as the rest of the bays do, and the switches and cables give you enough room for an upper 5in3 cage. Overall, this case seems to be a good choice for a Tower build. I'd grab it! Good luck, Ramon

Excellent news! Hope your HDD temps stay acceptably low. ULNA cuts deeply the fan speed-thus making it virtually silent. You should consider replacing the Zalman case fans while you're at it and get rid of the brushed sound signature typical of the Zalman units. I'd suggest either Nexus (reference) silent fans, or the higher flow Noctua units. Either should be able to keep your case airflow at a safe 35CFM or so level, and virtually silent. Welcome to the silent PC (and tower) world.

Good idea. I got Noctuas in my media PC. Noctua fans are available in two basic variants, either designed for low (general use case fans) or high static pressure scenarios (can be used as CPU cooler fans). Only a high-pressure fan will work properly pulling air through five hard drives in a 5in3. Their NF-B9 model should work from factory in your install, and maybe with the LNA, but with the ULNA adapter (8db install) static pressure drops to 0.64 mm H2O and ~24CFM. That seems quite low to pass enough cooling air through five hard drives. About the noise level, remember the decibel scale is logarithmic, and anything at or below 18db is considered virtually inaudible in a real life setting. In a real life situation three 8db fans should stay under 12db. An 8db fan is considered 'silent' in real life, and three should prove as loud as your hard drives or similar. If you are looking for a silent PC level of operation you should consider using soundproofing in your case (like Accoustipack, available from Quietpc and others). Ramon

I believe by now it is evident with all the comments, that running your 5in3 without a fan could turn into a very risky move. Why exactly are you trying to do it? A silent fan option with more than average airflow might be the safe way to go. Something like a SilenX (40CFM+ and rated at 14db) will do the trick.

For this test run, I'd recommend to first make sure you have adequate airflow in your case. Let us know how it goes.

Glad the Coolink fans have worked out for everyone!!

Those drive temps should not be an issue. HDD temps tend to go up as drives spin up, and temps in the mid 20s are acceptable. You should keep an eye on how far temps drop where your server is located. Lower temps could be a concern.

Back side is power, and LAN gear This is the bottom half, the top has is all WAN gear. +1 Excellent techie porn! Thanks for posting!

+1 Aside from these, which I totally agree with, Drive temps and/or noise will also be a problem with a setup that has so many Enterprise drives in a home environment. You could save some money Now and in the future by going w green drives.

Good! It seems you are on the right track. Be sure to consider all your hardware and each component's needs for airflow/cooling when you decide on your heat zones or where to direct/block airflow. Anything, pls post or PM me if needed. good luck! -Ramon Edit: Here you might find some ideas on baffling/heat zone designs for your case, http://www.silentpcreview.com/article595-page2.html

Talking about HDD temps is a bit on the edge and notions are plagued by personal preferences. It's more to try and keep your drives in an 'ideal range' for optimal life. Manufacturers talk about max temps, not much about ideal temps. But the internets are full of 'data' on this. Caveat is, although we try to keep our tower's drives at or under 40 C, there's a lot out there that might not directly agree with that notion. Thing is, to help extend drive life (and hopefully reduce failures) you should keep the drives within a safe temp range no matter the seasons, or if you're running parity checks or rebuilding drives. 50 degrees should be out of the question, and continued operation at mid to high 40s should be avoided. Thus, at the risk of seeing a lot of disagreement pop up in here-- since you asked directly-- I'd say you should try to shoot at not under 30, and not over 40 C HDD temps. Although I've seen the occasional mid to high 40 in my rig's drives, as well as low 20s, my personal safe range is about 29 to 39 degrees. In short, I'd suggest you aim for mid HDD temps in the 30s, and if airflow is adequate, you should not see extremes unless there's a specific failure. R

It is a nice G4, indeed. Did you see his G5 Asus mods? The air zones/ducts I was suggesting could be something like that on his G5/G4 setups. You decide how shiny/elaborate. All you really need is to direct airflow thru your hardware and in/out. Plenty of examples in the web. About HDD spacing, I'd suggest 1/2 to 1 inch between HD should be fine, if there's a gap bet HDDs and the case floor. Temps look better, but far from optimal. Recycling the fans might be a good idea- careful that more fans does not always = better cooling or improved airflow. Yet almost always it is more noise. Play around with the mesh and try to create heat zones in your case with diffusers (tape and a few pieces of plastic or cardboard will do for testing). I have access to a G5 case. Thus, very interested in seeing how your rig setup behaves at the end. Cheers Ramon

WOW thx - Just did & ref-ed exactly insanelymac - talking about psychic thinking & timing! ;D Excellent!! Another cool source is aquamac i.e http://www.s155158671.websitehome.co.uk/winmacpcinaapple.html ;D

People in the InsanelyMac Forum went thru this fan wiring exercises on a G5 case. Maybe this can help http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86729&st=40 Or simply swap the G5 fans with conventional silent ones, and create air/heat zones inside your case. Good luck!

Totally agree, anything close to 50C has to be avoided. Sorry I didn't see the temps in jo2k's post. Although I'd consider creating airflow diffusers to direct airflow inside the case, a possible Short term solution could be a pci fan bracket with one 120mm fan on top, or a properly oriented spot fan. Point is, you need to be sure air is flowing freely from intake to exhaust. hope this helps.

Very Nice use of a G5 case indeed! +1

it is the Rosewill RSV-Z2000 If you use a bottom mounted PSU in a rack, the server above it suffocates it. if you have it with nothing above it, it prone to debris (say a loose screw!) falling into the PSU. Its actually not to bad. There is a decent gap between the PSU and the top of the Chassis also the two front fans move enough air over the top to cool the PSU. The vents in the top of the Chassis help out a bit too. Were its going in the rack there will be a 1U gap on top of the server and then another one of my servers that will have no loose screws on the bottom lol. You could always put a DEMCi Flex Fan magnetic Filter on top of the PSU air intake. Loose screws, dust or debris is not a problem with one of these. I've had one on the top vent of my Zalman HTPC for over a year. Ramon

Thanks Shawn, It was fun testing this little silent fan in the Norco SS-500. Now I have the cage fully populated with five 2TB green drives. It remains virtually silent and temps of all 5 drives steady at 33 and 34 C. I think we have a winner in this Coolink SWiF2 801 80mm fan. I would recommend this Coolink fan as a safe swap for the Norco factory 80mm fan without hesitation. Best, Ramon

Thanks Raj, It seems they have. As can be seen below, the Drive temps inside the Norco SS-500 stayed within acceptable limits with the Coolink SWif2 801 fan. I had to change my testing protocol due to a data drive failure within the array. Data disk 8, an older 1TB Seagate drive in my array, failed. Although this need to rebuild a drive interrupted my original testing protocol, I saw in the forums that a drive rebuild tends to stress the server and temps increase. So took this as an opportunity to take the tests up a notch. As soon as one of the new Hitachi Greens in the Norco cage finished preclearing (drive VM3D in slot D of the Norco cage) I stopped the array, reassigned that new drive as Drive 8 and started the rebuild. Only one of the new drives in the cage (MY1D in slot B) hadn't finished preclearing at that stage. Preclearing was re-initiated for that drive, and is yet to finish. Testing of drive temps in the cage were then during a drive rebuild and preclears. New (modified test) results: Norco SS-500 with SWiF2 801 80mm silent fan Drives in cage- 4 Hitachi 2TB 5K3000 Greens Ambient temp 23 C Fractal XL Case internal temp 29 C Norco cage: Slot A - drive serial AM0D max temp during preclear - 37 C max temp during rebuild process - 38 C temp stable at 34 C Slot B- drive serial MY1D (being precleared) max temp reported - 39 C temps stable at 37 C (@12:40 Hrs into preclear) Slot C - drive serial 83PD (drive 9 in Array) max reported during preclears or rebuilds of other drives in Norco cage - 37 C temps stable at 35 C Slot D- drive serial VM3D. Now drive 8 in Array with the required rebuild. temps during preclear 38 C temp during rebuild 39 C temp now stable at 34 C Slot E- still empty with vents closed. Other temps of note during rebuild (inside Fractal case): A few drives in the array reached 40 or 41 degrees during rebuild process. Both Parity (Hitachi 7K2000) and drive 4 (Seagate ST2000 Green) in array reached 40 C, drive 1 (Hit 7K2000) in array went up to 41 C. Now stable at 35, 34 and 36 C, respectively. I'm thinking of moving Drive 4 to the Norco cage (for slot E), and then run the parity check. What do you think? Hope this helps, Ramon