ProfQ's first Home Server

[ProfQ]

I've been tinkering with my build for three months now. Although my initial inspiration came from Smurf's unRAID build at AVForums, it wasn't until I came here and saw Raj's prototype designs that I convinced myself to take on this project-My first server build. So, I got rid of my little NAS box, removed a couple of 2tera drives from my HTPC, and got on with the parts list for my  new server. After 5 or 6 attempts to decide on a final shopping list, I bought most of the bits below. Now that my project has stabilized at 9 11 12 Data drives in the array, I think it's time for my little rig to find its way here, although I admit my wiring job leaves a lot to be desired.

 

These are my specs:

 

OS at time of building: 4.7 Pro on a Lexar Firefly 4GB USB

CPU: AMD Athlon II X260

Motherboard: ASUS M4A78LT-M LE

RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) Kingston Valu-Ram DDR3 1333

NIC: Intel Pro 1000 GT PCI NIC Card

Case: Fractal Designs Define XL Black

 

Edit 07 July, 2011:  

Drive Cage: 1 Norco SS-500 with 1 Coolink SWIF2-801 80mm fan

 

Power Supply: Seasonic S12-II 620W Bronze

SATA Expansion Card(s): 1 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 Controller Card, New: 1 SIL3114 4-port Generic PCI card

Cables: Supermicro FW Breakout cables

Fans: 1 Prolimatech 140mm Hi-Flow Lo-Noise fan, 2 Fractal Lo-Noise 140mm, 1 180mm Fractal Lo-Noise

Others: NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller, APC Power-Saving Back-UPS ES 700VA, 3Com Office Connect 16 port Gigabit switch

 

Parity Drive: Hitachi 2TB 7K2000

Data Drives: 2 Hitachi 2TB 7K2000, 4 Seagate 2TB Green LP, 1 WD 2TB EADS, 5 Hitachi 2TB 5K3000 Green

Cache Drive: 1 Hitachi 2TB 5K3000

 

Total Drive Capacity: 18 drives

 

Add Ons Used: preclear, unMenu, cache_dirs, DS_store cleanup, ssmtp, clean powerdown, safe powerdown, etc.

 

 

Primary Use: Home Media Server

Likes:  Virtually silent, Solid and simple, Fast transfer speeds

Dislikes: Big and heavy case

Future Plans: Expand, tinker, add more drives.

 

 

Parts bin 1 (Sorry for the bad photo):

 

Server at Home:

 

Fr angled view of server:

 

An initial HDD list with Build date:

 

HDD temp and fan speed on Sentry 2 fan controller:

 

Front View w Door/fan grills open:

 

MB gets lost in the XL case, still trying an SSD as cache:

 

Latest internal view after PSU w fan up and showing ghetto USB drive mount:

 

Looking up at the MB tray:

 

PSU bay after turning over w fan up:

 

 

I am really happy with my server build. That is not to say that the build itself was without its moments. First with my Silent PC approach to a build, and one that will reside in my study, parts selection bordered on clinical OCB at times. Case selection was difficult, mostly because the 5in3 cages are really expensive here in Australia, and I wanted 10 drive plus capacity.

With our harsh summers temperature control is crucial for all my builds. As with all my home based units, I prefer to take the cool enough while quiet approach to a system build. This has been a challenge with this case, as was the huge cavernous size, and cooling of the lower HDD cage. Also, even with a Seasonic PSU, I found myself using MB power cable extenders to be able to mount the PSU with its fan facing up, as I wanted.

 

Upon build-up I found myself asking a lot of questions in the forums, and the community exceeded all my expectations. First I ran into problems with my LE version MB selection. Although this board had the 6 sata ports, fast PCIe, and other specs I wanted, the LE version of this board has an onboard Atheros NIC card. Although network connections seemed to work at Gigabit w the Atheros, data transfers were slow w the onboard NIC, and I eventually found out that unRAID's drivers for Atheros are not yet up to par.  Thought about replacing the MB, but all the other MB specs were exactly as I hoped for. A simple fix offered by forum members worked perfectly-I installed an Intel PCI NIC. Then had file system errors on one drive, but Rajahal guided me through the fixes. It has been smooth sailing ever since, even during testing of a couple of cache drive options, as well as a number of airflow and  fan options, with my build.

 

Thanks to Rajahal for posting his prototype designs, and in particular to Craig, Joe L, Aiden and all the other members of the unRAID UCD community that helped me get things right during this build.

 

Needless to say, it has been a lot of fun to make this new gadget work. Now about a second build...., and having a life again.

 

---

 

 

[Blofeld]

Nice build...love the blinky fan controller....it's a little like watching the innards of the beast at work 

[Meteorite]

Nice build love the case, Got the same case and also the smaller one.

 

Fractal Designs case with those fans are realy silent.

[ProfQ]

Nice build...love the blinky fan controller....it's a little like watching the innards of the beast at work 

 

Thanks Biofeld. The so blinky was new to me, but with the neon light this case has in the power button...it seemed like a natural evolution, a Vegas show once you popped the lid. 

And it actually does something useful!

 

Cheers,

Ramon

[Blofeld]

...well, someone said my build looks a bit like a brothel, so yeah...I guess I like it blinky 

Keep them blinkers blinkin'!

[ProfQ]

Nice build love the case, Got the same case and also the smaller one.

 

Fractal Designs case with those fans are realy silent.

 

Thanks Meteorite. Although I've kept an eye on the Fractal cases for a while, somehow I've tended to favor Antec and Zalman cases. Thus, I was originally planning to use an Antec 900 V2 with the 5in3s, until I saw the number of white HD caddies that fractals have, and the price of the 5in3s in Ozz!!

How do you like your smaller FD case? The R3, I suppose?

Fans improved a lot in these newer fractals. Though I bought an extra Fractal 140mm to use in the lower chamber, ended up using a Prolimatech there. Prolimatechs have similar Lo-Noise signature as the Fractals but at least twice the airflow (87CFM at 1000rpm). Hope it's enough to prepare for summer.

 

Thanks again,

ramon

[ProfQ]

...well, someone said my build looks a bit like a brothel, so yeah...I guess I like it blinky 

Keep them blinkers blinkin'!

 

Well, I have to admit I like what you did with your build...it has character. And mate, brothels have been part of humanity's history, and some would say an important part of history. So even if that was the case, and it looked brothelly, which I for one disagree, it looks great. 

I like to just admire the blinky bling, and once in a while open the door on my build (to check the temps?!?), and there's my little bit of Blinky. 

[Blofeld]

...well, someone said my build looks a bit like a brothel, so yeah...I guess I like it blinky 

Keep them blinkers blinkin'!

 

Well, I have to admit I like what you did with your build...it has character. And mate, brothels have been part of humanity's history, and some would say an important part of history. So even if that was the case, and it looked brothelly, which I for one disagree, it looks great. 

I like to just admire the blinky bling, and once in a while open the door on my build (to check the temps?!?), and there's my little bit of Blinky. 

...totally...tenderly admiring the blinky bling - it's a favorite pastime    (and thanks!)

[Meteorite]

Thanks Meteorite. Although I've kept an eye on the Fractal cases for a while, somehow I've tended to favor Antec and Zalman cases. Thus, I was originally planning to use an Antec 900 V2 with the 5in3s, until I saw the number of white HD caddies that fractals have, and the price of the 5in3s in Ozz!!

How do you like your smaller FD case? The R3, I suppose?

Fans improved a lot in these newer fractals. Though I bought an extra Fractal 140mm to use in the lower chamber, ended up using a Prolimatech there. Prolimatechs have similar Lo-Noise signature as the Fractals but at least twice the airflow (87CFM at 1000rpm). Hope it's enough to prepare for summer.

 

Thanks again,

ramon

 

Like both cases. But the R3 is tad smaller but still has like 8 internal hdds and you can use the 3x 5.25 bays the fans are smaller but still quiet.

voor my R3 build look here Tower.

 

My second build I used the LX like in your build, its bigger and has a lot of more room 10 internal hdds and the 4x 52.5 that lot of hdd's to store

 

For scalability the LX wins in my eyes but it cost more than the standard R3 but gives a lot in return.

 

[ProfQ]

Thanks Meteorite. Although I've kept an eye on the Fractal cases for a while, somehow I've tended to favor Antec and Zalman cases. Thus, I was originally planning to use an Antec 900 V2 with the 5in3s, until I saw the number of white HD caddies that fractals have, and the price of the 5in3s in Ozz!!

How do you like your smaller FD case? The R3, I suppose?

Fans improved a lot in these newer fractals. Though I bought an extra Fractal 140mm to use in the lower chamber, ended up using a Prolimatech there. Prolimatechs have similar Lo-Noise signature as the Fractals but at least twice the airflow (87CFM at 1000rpm). Hope it's enough to prepare for summer.

 

Thanks again,

ramon

 

Like both cases. But the R3 is tad smaller but still has like 8 internal hdds and you can use the 3x 5.25 bays the fans are smaller but still quiet.

voor my R3 build look here Tower.

 

My second build I used the LX like in your build, its bigger and has a lot of more room 10 internal hdds and the 4x 52.5 that lot of hdd's to store

 

For scalability the LX wins in my eyes but it cost more than the standard R3 but gives a lot in return.

 

 

I also like both Fractal cases, and was prepping up to go 'no Antec' to the R3 for my build. But when it was time to buy the case, could not find the R3 Titanium I wanted in stock. Then found a new LX for sale in Sydney (not fell off the back of a truck, but almost). A local PC service tech got one for a client, and the client decided not to go with it, so it was a surplus to his needs. Picked it up via eBay, BNIB for way less than $200. A very good price in Ozz at the time.

Got the extra scalability you mentioned plus a chance to play with the air flow/noise signature at my own pace. Thus, also XL wins for me. Though I have to admit that your R3 is one beautiful and clean build. Congratulations!

[ProfQ]

Decided to up the ante and expand my server to 15 bays. Just bought a Norco SS-500 5in3 for my Fractal XL. Since I don't yet need the extra drives, will have time to try out a few silent fan configurations, and post any results and pictures, as they happen.

[sloandsteady]

How did you get this case to have 18 total drives capability?

[ProfQ]

How did you get this case to have 18 total drives capability?

 

Hi,

 

The Fractal's 10 bays, the Norco 5 Bay ss-500, plus an Antec 3 Drive bay from one of my Antec cases gave me an 18 drive capacity. Since I'm only using 12 drives in my system, only have populated some of the Fractal's original bays, with the Norco SS-500 fully populated. Antec is empty for now.

 

 

Since this Fractal XL is so big inside, placing the Antec drive caddy inside the case was not a problem. It goes besides the upper 4 Drive caddy, where the USB drive is in the photos.

 

Thanks for asking,

R

[Meteorite]

Nice 18 drives

 

Going for 14 drives in my LX

 

just added my SASSLP-MV8 card.

Now preclearing the extra HDs.

 

Just love the room in this case even with all the stuff in it is still spacey in side and not a cable mess in sight

[ProfQ]

Thanks!

 

14 drives! quite a beaut in the XL. You're thinking of a 5in3 cage?

 

I've got four extra drives in a drawer, but still got a couple of drives empty in my tower. Will wait until I actually need them.

 

Pls post photos when u get to 14 drives.

 

Ramon

[Meteorite]

have those sharkoon tray less HD racks, 4 of them.

So 10 in side and 4 in each rack.

 

When all is done ill surely will make another topic with pictures  

 

Don't think ill go more then 14 drives. (still you never know)

 

6x onboard sata and 8x SASSLP-MV8 sata ports

[ProfQ]

have those sharkoon tray less HD racks, 4 of them.

So 10 in side and 4 in each rack.

 

When all is done ill surely will make another topic with pictures  

 

Don't think ill go more then 14 drives. (still you never now)

 

6x onboard sata and 8x SASSLP-MV8 sata ports

 

Excellent!!

I have the same body count (Sata ports) -6 onboard and 8 from the SASLP. My personal 'limit' is at around 16 to 18 drives max right now.

 

For further expansion I am limited by having just one PCIe slot  in my MB. Thus, for 14+, I've yet  to decide, if keeping the second Supermicro card (the AOC-SAT2, a PCI-Sata version)- which will most probably be a bottleneck w more than a few drives, using a 4 port Sata PCI card, or a two port PCIe sata card.

 

Sharkoon and Antec are good low count options for HDD mounting. Another option for more drives and that might even help with HDD cooling is a built aluminum rack for 6 to 8 drives, and a a 12CM fan in it.  We could place the built HDD rack where our caddies lay now, or bolted/hanging from the top of the case, close to the 180mm fan (w no 120mm fan, thus one less fan to make noise). Let's see where the tinkering takes us, but 8 drives up there are simple to place vertically.

 

But definitely 14, 18 or even 22-23 drives is doable in the XL, if we ever decided to go that far.

 

Will look forward to your new post w pictures.  Soon I will post pictures of my setup w the Norco 5in3, and the Antec tray.

 

[sloandsteady]

ProfQ - Would you mind posting pics of your rig with the SS-500 installed? I'm thinking of going this route myself.

[ProfQ]

No problem. Later today, I'll take a photo or two of my Fractal w the SS-500 and gladly post them.

[sloandsteady]

thanks in advance.

[ProfQ]

Hi,

As promised. Hope it helps.

 

R

[sloandsteady]

It definitely does as I didn't know how it would be oriented in the case. Thanks.

[sloandsteady]

What length should I get for my forward breakout cables, keeping cable management in mind? .5m? .75m? 1.0m? I don't want to have too much excess in length if I don't have to.  Seems like 1m might be a bit long for this case. Thanks.

 

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10254

[ProfQ]

Hi,

 

Glad I could help.

I think final FW cable length depends on cable brand and construction.

These are the FW cables I used: Supermicro CBL-0108L-02 79576-2134 39cm IPASS to 4 HDD

 

These are 39cm, and seem to fit just right for my install.  But Supermicro cables are a bit stiff, and not easy to bend so my cabling isn't that clean.

 

I also bought generic FW cables as spares, and those are as pliable as normal Sata cables.  Saw the monoprice link-I'd suggest either the 0.5m or 0.75m versions.

 

One tip about cable lengths and the Fractal XL case-something I learned the hard way:

Power supply cables have to be very long, like those from a Corsair or similar. After installing my Seasonic PSU, I had to remove it and invert it to allow a couple of extra cm of cable reach for the  MB power leads, and still had to use PSU cable extenders.

 

Good luck with your build!

 

 

[sloandsteady]

I also have a Seasonic PSU that I'm going to use, 750W I believe. What PSU cable extenders did you use? Honestly, I didn't even think about that.