February 7, 201115 yr This is my first build. I had most of the parts from an already running computer. The most expensive parts were the hard drive cages. I over purchased SATA cables, extensions, since I'm always wanting to be ready for whatever comes up. Brief intro OS at time of building: unRAID 4.7 CPU: Intel Core Duo E7500 @ 2.93 Ghz Motherboard: Intel DQ35MP RAM: 8GB generic Case: Cooler Master Centurion 590 Drive Cage(s): iStarUSA 5 in 3 x 3 Power Supply: Seasonic X Series 660W SATA Expansion Card(s): Super Micro AOC-SAS-LP-MV8 Cables: 3ware SFF-8087 forward breakout cables Fans: 1 120mm generic Parity Drive: Western Digital Black 2TB Data Drives: Western Digital Black 1TB x 6 Data Drives: Western Digital Black 2TB x 2 Cache Drive: NONE Total Drive Capacity: 8TB Primary Use: Media Server / personal document storage / MP3 server / App server Likes: Everything Dislikes: Power Hungry Add Ons Used: NONE Future Plans: Add more 2TB drives as needed [added 030411] Boot (peak): 300W Idle (avg): 140W Active (avg): 158W Light use (avg): NA Will update interior photo
February 7, 201115 yr I really like the Black and Blue colors. I'd like to buy some cages like that, but I'm well broke. LOL
February 7, 201115 yr Hey Opentoe... Nice build. I'm thinking of ordering one of those iStarUSA 5x3's for my Antec 1200 case. (I wish the power led was blue; oh well.) I was wondering, I've read in reviews that you have to power-on each drive with a pen tip. Is this true? Also, do you need to do that at each reboot or just the first time? Thanks for helping me make a decision about this drive case.
February 7, 201115 yr Author Yes, each drive has it's own on/off push pin. You push it in, it stays on. You push it in again, it turns off. It is a mechanical function, so nothing will turn it off except yourself. When I first powered everything up and NO cages powered up I was very nervous. Then forgot I have to turn them on! I'm also not using the very bottom cage yet, so they all are turned off, hence the fan is off.
February 7, 201115 yr Ah, that probably explains the 1-egg "2 units DOA" review then eh? I like the look of this much better than the icydock modules I have started purchasing. What are your drive temps like?
February 7, 201115 yr Heres what he posted in another post. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=10802.0
February 8, 201115 yr Author No temps over 37. Which is great for a Western Digital Black. And that's with the fans turned down to "low". If anyone does get these, please note that EACH drive slot has it's down power switch. If you do not power on your hard drive slot it will seem like the cage is defective and not working. Everything is accessible right from the front, do not have to open up case.
February 10, 201115 yr Very attractive build, I too like the look of those drive cages. Are the fans noisy? Also, are they easy to replace? It looks like the fan cover might be separate from the rest of the backing, but I can't quite tell from the Newegg pics.
February 11, 201115 yr Author Very attractive build, I too like the look of those drive cages. Are the fans noisy? Also, are they easy to replace? It looks like the fan cover might be separate from the rest of the backing, but I can't quite tell from the Newegg pics. The fans are not noisy at all. I had them on high speed but didn't need to keep them there since the temps stayed the same when I lowered them to the LOW setting. I already took off the rear black fan cover which is only 4 screws. Very easy to do. I even found out which exact fans are in this model. The fan model is DFC802012H which is this website: http://en.yltc.cn/newEbiz1/EbizPortalFG/portal/html/ProductCategoryList.html?CategoryID=c373e9047a29ab398ffe6a9085e40b44&ProductPicker_action=Searchcategory I wish I had a portable decibel meter, I could find out how "noisy" or "quiet" it really is. If you want/need anymore information please don't hesitate to ask. I want to give back here when I can.
February 11, 201115 yr http://www.photopiks.com/front.jpg[/img] Awesome build! Very functional, compact, and easy to expand and maintain. Wish the CM-590 weren't discontinued - that was an awesome unRAID case. Looks really sharp with your 5 in 3s! Premium drives should serve you well and provide that little extra performance boost. Overall A+! Looking forward to some internal shots.
February 11, 201115 yr Author Hhahaha. That is where I drop the ball. It is a mess right now inside and I almost procrastinate making time to straighten up everything. But I will get to it one day very soon then post the pics up there. Thank you.
February 17, 201115 yr Are those iStarUSA cages cubes so they can be installed with the drives being vertical or horizontal? Can you remove all the drives in the cage and take a pic into the cage? I'd like to see the fan slots so I can compare them to other docks. Looks great, nice work
February 17, 201115 yr No, they aren't cubes, they have to be installed vertically in a case like this. You could at least chose if you want the handles to point up or down.
February 18, 201115 yr Author Are those iStarUSA cages cubes so they can be installed with the drives being vertical or horizontal? Can you remove all the drives in the cage and take a pic into the cage? I'd like to see the fan slots so I can compare them to other docks. Looks great, nice work Sure, give me a little bit and I'll take some pics.
February 19, 201115 yr Author I bought a noise meter and 5 feet away from my unRAID server is 40 decibels.
February 27, 201115 yr Author Just grabbed a 2TB drive. I'm getting tired of hanging around 1.5TB available. I thought I would increase it a little so I would have more space left.
March 4, 201115 yr Just grabbed a 2TB drive. I'm getting tired of hanging around 1.5TB available. I thought I would increase it a little so I would have more space left. Out of curiosity, which 2TB did you go with?
March 5, 201115 yr Author I installed a WD 2TB Black drive. Swapped it out with a 1TB, let it rebuild. Then added the 1TB back into the system on the add-on card. I'm trying to put my largest drives on the main controller mainboard and 'other' drives off the add-on card. Took a very long time but worked ok.
March 7, 201115 yr Author You don't have to do a rebuild to move a drive from one controller to another. The rebuild happens when I put in the 2TB drive in place of the 1TB drive. I do that first, then move them to another controller. Trust me, I wish I didn't have to do a re-build.
March 7, 201115 yr I installed a WD 2TB Black drive. Swapped it out with a 1TB, let it rebuild. Then added the 1TB back into the system on the add-on card. I'm trying to put my largest drives on the main controller mainboard and 'other' drives off the add-on card. Took a very long time but worked ok. Cool. I know what you mean on the parity rebuild. I just upgraded from a 1TB to a 2TB parity drive myself. The part that I was having trouble having patience for was preclearing 2 2TB drives at once! Took about two days! Then the parity rebuild on top of that! Glad I won't need to do that again for a while, lol. Nice looking build, btw. I just got done with a new build using that same case. I like it a lot.
March 7, 201115 yr You don't have to do a rebuild to move a drive from one controller to another. The rebuild happens when I put in the 2TB drive in place of the 1TB drive. I do that first, then move them to another controller. Trust me, I wish I didn't have to do a re-build. Let me just clarify - - You wanted to add a 2T disk to your array - You wanted to renumber an existing 1T disk with the existing 2T disk - You may or may not want to move the data from the 1T disk to the 2T disk If that's it, you don't need a rebuild.
March 7, 201115 yr You don't have to do a rebuild to move a drive from one controller to another. The rebuild happens when I put in the 2TB drive in place of the 1TB drive. I do that first, then move them to another controller. Trust me, I wish I didn't have to do a re-build. Let me just clarify - - You wanted to add a 2T disk to your array - You wanted to renumber an existing 1T disk with the existing 2T disk - You may or may not want to move the data from the 1T disk to the 2T disk If that's it, you don't need a rebuild. Yeah. Shouldn't you have been able to move the 1TB to another SATA port. Then in unRAID, reassign the drive to that new port (no rebuild). After that is done, but the 2TB on the old port and assign it. Then both drives are in and no rebuild necessary? Then you can move data from one drive to the other, if necessary.
March 7, 201115 yr You don't have to do a rebuild to move a drive from one controller to another. The rebuild happens when I put in the 2TB drive in place of the 1TB drive. I do that first, then move them to another controller. Trust me, I wish I didn't have to do a re-build. Let me just clarify - - You wanted to add a 2T disk to your array - You wanted to renumber an existing 1T disk with the existing 2T disk - You may or may not want to move the data from the 1T disk to the 2T disk If that's it, you don't need a rebuild. Yep, makes sense. My comment was assuming (incorrectly) that he was upgrading his parity drive.
March 8, 201115 yr Author Was not upgrading parity drive. Done and over with that one. I have several 1TB drives connected to the mainboard which I wanted to replace with 2TB drives AND move the larger drives to the mainboard ports. I wasn't aware that I didn't need a re-build. So next time I can replace my 1TB drive with a 2TB drive and then install my 1TB drive into another port/connection without a rebuild at once?
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