Hi guys and especially to Raj that started a thread for a small box.

 

Being thinking for a very cheap build. Remember parts in Europe are always more expensive so trying to keep the budget to a minimum decided to come up with this 6 drive build.

 

WARNING: It needs modding!!!!!

 

Case: SuperPower Mustiff MX-31

 

Motherboard: ASRock A330ION Intel Atom 330 PBGA437 NVIDIA MCP7A-ION Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

 

SATA card: SIL3132 chipset.

 

Memory: 2GB Kinston DDR3 1066

 

The case comes with a 420W PSU from Codegen.

 

I am thinking of stacking 5 drives like this on top of the motherboard by creating a home made rail, which will be screwed to the visible rail where the hard drive is meant to be.

 

Do you guys think it will work and moreover will the PSU be able to accomodate the 6 2TB green drives?

 

Waiting for opinions before making any moves. With 2 GB of memory the whole system will cost me 185 euros without unraid license and hard drives.

 

Cheers!!!

 

 

any dimension on that back fan ?

i would remove the one tray above the back fan and if size is similar or same put a coolermaster 4 in 3 with fan and everything with very long bolts to the back fan opening .... you can secure the other side of the 4 in 3 if needed with a ziplock or a bolt to the side rail

should be enough strong and i guess enough air will be blown out if you reverse the fan

 

just my 2 cents

 

BRILLIANT idea!

 

Edit: Seems that it is 80mm fan for the case. I think the Coolermaster is 120mm.

Hmm, interesting.  What are the specs on that PSU?  Also, how do you propose to build a custom drive rack?  It doesn't look to me like there's enough room to stack 5 HDDs, but of course I don't know the dimensions.  I like sacretagent's idea about the CoolerMaster cage, if it fits.  I could also imagine maybe removing the built in HDD mount and mounting 5 HDDs vertically on their side (with the help of a custom rail).  I think this would provide the best cooling, especially if you can still fit an 80 or 120mm fan in the back (you might have to use a slim one).

 

Here's my vision for this box:

 

 

 

Haha, that's some laughably bad photoshop work

 

Note that you may also have to relocate the rear power cord to another spot, or possibly just cut a hole in the side vent near the PSU so that you don't need the cheesy little internal power cord extension cable (I've had bad experiences with those in the past).

 

If there's actually room to fit 5 drives like I show in the pictures above, then there should also be room to fit another one or two above the PSU.

 

All told you are looking at a LOT of modification to get this case to work...and even still you won't have hot swap drives (unless maybe you could remove the entire rear quarter of the case and mount a 5-in-3?).  If you can get it, I think this case will prove much easier to work with and result in a nicer SFF server (though of course it will be more expensive if you use a 5-in-3):

 

QBox 4

To the OP - If you need to save money, why use an ION enabled board?  The fancy graphics hardware isn't needed for unRAID and there are cheaper and faster mini-ITX boards with low power Atom CPUs and four SATA ports.

 

 

All told you are looking at a LOT of modification to get this case to work...and even still you won't have hot swap drives

 

I didn't think that unRAID supported hot-swap...?  or do you mean "easy to remove/exchange when powered down"?

To the OP - If you need to save money, why use an ION enabled board?  The fancy graphics hardware isn't needed for unRAID and there are cheaper and faster mini-ITX boards with low power Atom CPUs and four SATA ports.

 

 

All told you are looking at a LOT of modification to get this case to work...and even still you won't have hot swap drives

 

I didn't think that unRAID supported hot-swap...?  or do you mean "easy to remove/exchange when powered down"?

5.0beta6 will allow you to swap drives when the array is stopped, but not powered down.  Not quite hot-swap, but close.

 

Joe L.

All told you are looking at a LOT of modification to get this case to work...and even still you won't have hot swap drives

 

I didn't think that unRAID supported hot-swap...?  or do you mean "easy to remove/exchange when powered down"?

5.0beta6 will allow you to swap drives when the array is stopped, but not powered down.   Not quite hot-swap, but close.

 

Joe L.

 

OK - that's cool.  I was not aware of that.  I have avoided the beta's since joining the unRAID community, simply because I needed to get my main server running again and stable. 

 

Thanks Joe L.

... I have avoided the beta's since joining the unRAID community, simply because I needed to get my main server running again and stable. 

 

This is a policy 99% of users should follow unless they are actively involved in the debugging process.  The last few beta releases have caused much headache for the unprepared.

"easy to remove/exchange when powered down"?

 

Yes, this is more or less what I mean by 'hot swap' since as you said the current stable release of unRAID doesn't support true hot swapping.  Nice to see that what I'm calling 'warm swap' is on the horizon, though.

I like the concept you're going for here. Swapping drives will be painful as you'll have to lift your whole drive assembly out. (unless of course you figure out how to shoehorn a 5-in-3 cage in the back of that case) Other than that I'd echo that you'll probably want to relocate the power socket. I would also install two fans on the outside of the back panel to pull air between the drives and out of the case. The fan's don't need to be running at full speed, so a controller may not be a bad idea either.

That's gonna be 1 warm puppy.

 

Ok if I had to do what your trying, I'd see if I could put the mobo and powersupply where they belong. The measure out several 5in3 drive cages.

 

I would drill out all the rivets holding all the front drive mounts. Dremmel an opening in the front of the case for the 3in5. Then make some sort of bracket to secure the 5in3.

 

That case will get toasty we tried something close one with a shuttle. We needed 2 120mm to keep the drives alive.

 

Otherwise... If you don't own This case yet. Look as a chenbro or LAN li case. It may cost more. But worth the investment in the end. I also saw a nice case with 4 pullouts and a pci slot in the uk for sale

http://www.piezo.com/prodfan3lv02.html#priceinfo

What about the Fractal Design Array R2 mini box. Fits 6 x 3.5 and 1 SSD drives. I am hoping they release a 8 drive hotswap case. No modding though I know how everyone loves to tinker.

 

*Update - Just noticed this case is $289 in Aus so not the cheapest. Might be cheaper in EU.

 

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2∏=42

 

 

What about the Fractal Design Array R2 mini box. Fits 6 x 3.5 and 1 SSD drives

 

in the review i saw for that case, its a nightmare to build, a nightmare to swap a drive. and the 2 outer drives dont get cooled due to poor airflow.. soooo idk

http://www.piezo.com/prodfan3lv02.html#priceinfo

 

This is a fan?  I had to see it in action, so I found this video.  Looks neat!  I'm still not sure how one could use it in a server, and the price is a bit off-putting, but there's definitely some potential here.

 

Also, looks like it only works with AC, so I wonder what would happen when the server is running off a UPS?  Or does a UPS output AC?

http://www.piezo.com/prodfan3lv02.html#priceinfo

 

This is a fan?  I had to see it in action, so I found this video.  Looks neat!  I'm still not sure how one could use it in a server, and the price is a bit off-putting, but there's definitely some potential here.

 

Also, looks like it only works with AC, so I wonder what would happen when the server is running off a UPS?  Or does a UPS output AC?

 

Potential for what?  Wasting money?  The fans at the link produce .75 cfm max (15VDC) and only .5 cfm @ 12V.  A typical 80 mm fan produces 20-40 cfm @12 VDC.  So you need 40-80 of these piezo fans  to replace a single 80mm fan.  At $250 per fan, it would cost you around $10,000 to replace a single $5 80 mm fan with these piezos.

There is no way you will fit six 3.5" drives into the case posted by the OP, without a total mod of the case.  The case is only about 180mm wide internally. A single 3.5" HDD is 26 mm thick.  So 5 side by side touching is already a 130mm stack.  And you can't have them that close together.  Both top bottom of the HDD need air circulation, so probably at least 3-5 mm of separation between each HDD and side of case.  This puts you at 160 mm.  So there is no room in the stack for a sixth drive.  This means it would have to go in the 3.5" tray above the PSU.

 

So at that point, you've already:

 

Relocated the rear power connector.

 

Created a new rack from scratched that will hold 5 HDD's vertical above the CPU, attached to the back.

 

You have completely removed all cooling from the case, other than the PSU.  So you will fry anything it.

 

At that point you would need to cut holes in the case and mount fans externally.  Since the rear of the case is now structural (supports you custom HDD rack, so can't cut that out.  You could cut two holes in the top and externally mount two fans there (one for the rack and one to cool the tray mounted HDD), blowing down.  But that just blows hot air onto your motherboard, which has no cooling.  So you save the HDDS and fry the MB.

 

You would probably have to cut a hole and mount two more externally mounted fans, one on each side, blowing across the motherboard.

 

So at this point, you will have done a ton of modding and ended up with a case that looked like crap, with external fans mounted all over it, and a PSU adapter plug sticking out the side.

 

And none of this has taken into consideration that there are only 4 SATA ports for your  drive system on the MB.  You would need to install a card for the other two, and I'm pretty sure that card wouldn't fit because there would be a HDD mounted directly above the slot, blocking it from use.

http://www.piezo.com/prodfan3lv02.html#priceinfo

 

This is a fan?  I had to see it in action, so I found this video.  Looks neat!  I'm still not sure how one could use it in a server, and the price is a bit off-putting, but there's definitely some potential here.

 

Also, looks like it only works with AC, so I wonder what would happen when the server is running off a UPS?  Or does a UPS output AC?

 

Potential for what?  Wasting money?  The fans at the link produce .75 cfm max (15VDC) and only .5 cfm @ 12V.  A typical 80 mm fan produces 20-40 cfm @12 VDC.  So you need 40-80 of these piezo fans  to replace a single 80mm fan.  At $250 per fan, it would cost you around $10,000 to replace a single $5 80 mm fan with these piezos.

 

In this case, yes, it is a total waste of money.  I certainly wouldn't buy one of these.  I just mean that the concept has potential.  If it could be made cheaply enough, you could fit a fan (albeit a weak one) into a very small space.

There is no way you will fit six 3.5" drives into the case posted by the OP, without a total mod of the case.  The case is only about 180mm wide internally. A single 3.5" HDD is 26 mm thick.  So 5 side by side touching is already a 130mm stack.  And you can't have them that close together.  Both top bottom of the HDD need air circulation, so probably at least 3-5 mm of separation between each HDD and side of case.  This puts you at 160 mm.  So there is no room in the stack for a sixth drive.  This means it would have to go in the 3.5" tray above the PSU.

 

If you look in the post I just created (Yoshi's little server that could), I have shown pics of my case open and apart. Getting the drives out is a huge problem (does involve 12 screws though, just to get the top off and the cage out). All drives sit at around the same temp, so I don't think there is a flow problem. (and I have just upgraded the fan)

 

Yoshi

 

 

Derp @ me 

 

I realised you were referring to the original case, not the one just before your post went up.

 

**rants at self**