March 3, 201115 yr This is my rebuild of my POC unraid system. Started out with the 3 drive free version in a CM 690 case. Two mounths later and being infected with UCD now at 4.7 pro with tweleve trayless hotswap bays. OS at time of building: 4.7 CPU: AMD 4400+ X2 Motherboard: Asus A8N32-SLI RAM: 4x Corsair ValueSelect 512MB DDR 400 (2GB Total) Case: Antec 902 V3 Drive Cage(s): 3x IStar BPN-DE340SS Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-650TX SATA Expansion Card(s): Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 Cables: HighPoint Int-MS-1M4S Parity Drive: Samsung HD204UI Data Drives: 1xSamsung HD204UI, 4xSamsung HD154UI, 3xSeagate ST375033AS, 1xSamsung HD753LJ (11TB Useable) Cache Drive: Samsung HD103SJ (1TB F3) Primary Use: Pictures, Home Movies, Blu-ray backup, and stoarge group for 13 tuner MythTV system Add Ons Used: unMenu
March 3, 201115 yr Author The drive temps are very good so far. 8 hours into a parity check 30C was the peak for the 7200rpm Seagates which are my hostest drives. These cages are pretty nice. They have a standard 80mm user replaceable fan, LED on/off switches, and a fan speed control switch. I've left mine on high just to see what they can do. The backplane fans in these aren't even audible over the case fans so i'm just going to leave them on high. Also the cages come in four colors blue,red,silver and black. IStar product intro video for the bpn-de's
March 4, 201115 yr Author Looks like (2) Sata Power connectors and (4) Sata Data connections in the rear. Yep. That is correct. Makes for minimal cabling at least. I've used a bunch of different sata cages 1-in-1s, 3-in-2s, 4-in-3s, and 5-in-3s, form a bunch of different manufactures in other non unRaid builds. From IStar, ABS, Kingwin, Icydock and supermicro. These by far are my favorite so far. They are extremely light being all aluminum. The first one i got I was a little bit worried cause the box was so light I figured that they had sent me nothing or the wrong thing. These were a bit hard to get. IStar announced them on 1/5/11. I'd been looking for them for a few months with no luck. I had been doing part number searches on google daily since I found them in January and a few weeks ago they showed up on newegg.ca. So i went to the US newegg and they only showed up if you did a part number search. Due to low inventory, it took me three different orders to get all three cages. I believe I actually have the cage that newegg used in the photos. It was the second one i got. The first and third ones I got were shrink wrapped. The second was not.
March 4, 201115 yr I just noticed the YouTube video you posted in your reply up above. That is a nice little presentation. The mic could of been in a better position, but nice show and tell. I'm kinda liking those cages.
March 4, 201115 yr Very nice looking build. The blue cages look good in it. Haven't seen those iStars before - Love the std 80mm fan and locking trays. I wonder if iStar plans on doing a 5 in 3 model in this series. If they did, I might have to give it a try. Question: the video mentioned blue leds for power; is there a drive activity indicator as well? If so, what color?
March 4, 201115 yr Author Very nice looking build. The blue cages look good in it. Haven't seen those iStars before - Love the std 80mm fan and locking trays. I wonder if iStar plans on doing a 5 in 3 model in this series. If they did, I might have to give it a try. Question: the video mentioned blue leds for power; is there a drive activity indicator as well? If so, what color? There is a single LED for each drive. It is blue for power and flashes purple for activity.
March 4, 201115 yr Are the fans on all the time or do they shut off when a drive is not in use? I have (3) 120MM fans on the front of my Cooler Master 590 that I've recently under volted to 7volts and I can nearly hear them however they are on 24/7 and I thought it would be nice to shut them down when not in use, but unless I buy some kind of controller its not going to happen. Thats why I wondered if these shut down on their own or do they constantly run.
March 4, 201115 yr Author Are the fans on all the time or do they shut off when a drive is not in use? I have (3) 120MM fans on the front of my Cooler Master 590 that I've recently under volted to 7volts and I can nearly hear them however they are on 24/7 and I thought it would be nice to shut them down when not in use, but unless I buy some kind of controller its not going to happen. Thats why I wondered if these shut down on their own or do they constantly run. Not really sure if the the fan spins down if all drives in the cage spin down. I'll do some checking and let you know. I left the fan speed on high and they were surprisingly pretty quite.
March 4, 201115 yr So the fans are quiet? That's my first criteria but those do look really nice. And I've been looking for a backplane that will keep my Seagate 7200 rpm drives cool. Can the fan be replaced by the user if/when it gets old?
March 4, 201115 yr So the fans are quiet? That's my first criteria but those do look really nice. And I've been looking for a backplane that will keep my Seagate 7200 rpm drives cool. Can the fan be replaced by the user if/when it gets old? Looks like the answer to your question is yes, based on info buried in one of jaybeck's earlier posts in this thread. ... They have a standard 80mm user replaceable fan, LED on/off switches, and a fan speed control switch... @jaybeck Thanks for the info on drive activity led. Good luck with the cage (and the build), it looks like a good one.
March 5, 201115 yr I have a Samsung 1.5TB and 2TB also, and I don't trust the temps from the 1.5TB drive since they're a few degrees below ambient, even when I put the thermometer on the floor with the case. Here's to hoping iStar makes a trayless 5in3 version.
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