An unRAID server as wall art?

[jamerson9]

Came across these 1TB modified hard drive offered by Convar, called the Byte Spotter.

 

 

I've always had the pleasure of showing off my multimedia setup to friends when they come over and even helped some to setup their own system afterward. However, the real power house of the system, my unRAID server, is well to a layman pretty unimpressive to look at. A dark steel/plastic box stuck in the basement, emanating a constant stream of white fan noise.

 

After coming across these drives, it got me thinking. Costs wise its definitely not practical as one of these is around $400 for 1TB, but as a work of art and to show off the unRAID server? It's a bit of a fantasy so I'm not posting this in the U.C.D. forum, but I was day dreaming of ways to incorporate these drives into a visual show piece of the server.

 

How about mounting about three of these on a nice piece of paneling, recessed in with SATA and power connectors built in and collected in a backplane. Mount the panel to the wall and drop down the power and SATA cable into a cabinet with the other components of the server.

 

The only draw backs I can think of (other than the costs) is the noise from these drives. I could not find any info on what make and type of drive were modified. It might get annoying if they were a bit too loud. But, sure would be a conversation piece. 

 

[Spectrum]

Ouch $400/TB is steeeeap for rotational media even if they do look sweet.

 

Reminds me of a rig I built back in the 90s.  I took the guts of a Dell P2 system and mounted the MB, power supply, and 1 hard drive to a piece of plexi and hung it on the wall.  It served up mp3s and acted as a web browser.  Made for a good conversation piece

[Longinus]

That would be pretty sweet!

Specially if you made it look like an old tape storage system.. (

)

 

You could spin down all the disks, and then start playing a movie or something... and see all of the drives spinning up... 

[Longinus]

I could not find any info on what make and type of drive were modified.

 

Hitachi, apparently.

http://www.convar.com/ByteSpotter/manufaktur.htm?po=4&language=1

 

Though I'm not sure I would trust a random company to open up a drive and re-assemble it.

[S80_UK]

I could not find any info on what make and type of drive were modified.

 

Hitachi, apparently.

http://www.convar.com/ByteSpotter/manufaktur.htm?po=4&language=1'>http://www.convar.com/ByteSpotter/manufaktur.htm?po=4&language=1

 

Though I'm not sure I would trust a random company to open up a drive and re-assemble it.

 

Nothing random about them.  They are a large and well established data recovery company that has simply found an innovative way to generate additional revenues from their facilities (even if an expensive one for the consumer).  http://www.convar.com/

[Joe L.]

I could not find any info on what make and type of drive were modified.

 

Hitachi, apparently.

http://www.convar.com/ByteSpotter/manufaktur.htm?po=4&language=1

 

Though I'm not sure I would trust a random company to open up a drive and re-assemble it.

You can always just use a Dremil tool and do this yourself... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<only kidding>

[PeterB]

<only kidding>

 

Awww, shucks.  I was about to make a start on the 2TB EARS I'd just removed from my server!

[jamerson9]

You can always just use a Dremil tool and do this yourself... 

It's actually possible and been done. 

 

http://case-mods.linear1.org/hard-drive-mod/

 

Again, its one of those things done to see if can be done rather than for a practical use.

[kizer]

What no LED lights or fans? Man that guy is lazy. LOL