First build question

[Johnm]

I'm interested in building myself a nice budget box. I'm tried of having random external HD's and have about 6TB of data already. How many TB's can the OP's case hold?

 

That case can hold

5x 3.5" drives in the swappable rack

2x 3.5" drives and 1x 2.5" drive on the bottom plate. (or 3x 2.5" drives on the bottom plate.)

 

That = 12TB of data storage assuming you use the 2.5" drive for cache and not data if you use 2TB drives.*

That = 18TB of data storage assuming you use the 2.5" drive for cache and not data if you use 3TB drives.*

That = 24TB of data storage assuming you use the 2.5" drive for cache and not data if you use 4TB drives (not likely at this point, but future growth).*

 

 

* this is with minus 1 drive for parity.

 

 

[dinggus]

Dinggus- The case has a drive bay that holds 5 3.5" drives and you can add two more 3.5" drives or 3 2.5" drives to the bottom. The number of TB depends on your drives (7x3tb = 18tb + parity). I am using it for pretty much the same thing you are planning on and it works fine so far. Hope that helps.

 

Thank you and Johnm for the reply. How hard is it to build one of these? All it'll do is sit on my desk connected to my network.

 

I don't know how many TB's I'd truly need, I'll probably start out with 12TB. But, I'm really interested in building one and merging all my files into this box. Very annoying having random hard drives everywhere.

 

Do you have any photo's of your build? I would like a case that has the same metallic look as an iMac.

[prostuff1]

Thank you and Johnm for the reply. How hard is it to build one of these? All it'll do is sit on my desk connected to my network.

They are not overly hard to build, but that is coming from someone that builds servers (unRAID and otherwise) for others.  Some people are more adapt at it than others, and it really depends on how comfortable you are.

 

I don't know how many TB's I'd truly need, I'll probably start out with 12TB. But, I'm really interested in building one and merging all my files into this box. Very annoying having random hard drives everywhere.

I completely agree!!  It is the main reason I moved to a unRAID server for all my file needs.  I just recently put and SSD in my MacBook Pro that is/was small than the drive that was in there.  I now have even more of a need to store my documents and the like on the unRAID server.

 

Do you have any photo's of your build? I would like a case that has the same metallic look as an iMac.

The case that will match your iMac might be a little hard to find... especially one that will hold the number of drives that you need.  With that being said if your interested in someone building a server for you see the link in my signature to Greenleaf Technology and we should be able find something to fit your needs.

[Rajahal]

Rajahal,

 

Talking about editing Hosts files I was just looking at doing this.

 

This may seem little a very silly question, and it is bizarre what you find when searching, but I many years ago made the mistake of naming my Unraid server name with two words (and thus including a space). Talk about bad practice that comes back to bite you. Is there a way of being able to enter the address with the server name and not with the IP given this space in the server name?

 

If there is I was going to add it to all my Hosts files on every machine.

 

-Alex

 

I'm not sure, I haven't had that issue.  Why not just rename the server to something without a space?

[dinggus]

Thank you and Johnm for the reply. How hard is it to build one of these? All it'll do is sit on my desk connected to my network.

They are not overly hard to build, but that is coming from someone that builds servers (unRAID and otherwise) for others.  Some people are more adapt at it than others, and it really depends on how comfortable you are.

 

I don't know how many TB's I'd truly need, I'll probably start out with 12TB. But, I'm really interested in building one and merging all my files into this box. Very annoying having random hard drives everywhere.

I completely agree!!  It is the main reason I moved to a unRAID server for all my file needs.  I just recently put and SSD in my MacBook Pro that is/was small than the drive that was in there.  I now have even more of a need to store my documents and the like on the unRAID server.

 

Do you have any photo's of your build? I would like a case that has the same metallic look as an iMac.

The case that will match your iMac might be a little hard to find... especially one that will hold the number of drives that you need.  With that being said if your interested in someone building a server for you see the link in my signature to Greenleaf Technology and we should be able find something to fit your needs.

 

I'm pretty tech savvy and built a computer in high school as a classroom project. Your products already come with those hard drives?

 

What if I bought Mac Pro Tower or one of these mini-cases on Newegg?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007583%20600006325&IsNodeId=1&name=Silver

[prostuff1]

I'm pretty tech savvy and built a computer in high school as a classroom project. Your products already come with those hard drives?

Drives are sold separately.  The price you see there is for a fully configured server without shipping and drives.

 

What if I bought Mac Pro Tower or one of these mini-cases on Newegg?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007583%20600006325&IsNodeId=1&name=Silver

That might be doable.  A Mac Pro style case is not ideal for a high drive count server.  Typically when looking for a case we look for one that has a lot of external 5.25in bays so that 5-in-3 drive cages can be used to fit a lot of drives in a fairly small area.

 

I have painted (rustoleum spray paint does a darn good job) half a dozen cases or so to make them match, disappear, blend into, etc whatever I needed.  Rustoleum comes in a bunch of colors and finishes so that could be an option.

 

Something like the Nextus Prominant 9 painted a silver color to match the iMac would probably look pretty good, could hold 15 drives with 5-in-3 cages, and be fairly silent to start.  It would be even more quite with Fan upgrades all the way around.

 

 

If you want a quote on a custom server use this page on our website and give us some details on what you are looking for.  We will be able to work something up and get back to you.

 

EDIT:  If you want to match your Mac then something like these hot-swap-bays would probably look pretty good.

[dinggus]

Thanks for the offer, I'd like to learn how to build one just incase I run into any issues. Doesn't seem hard, just plug and play basically.

 

How do these work, what OS do I need to install or how do combined all the HD's together?

[prostuff1]

Thanks for the offer, I'd like to learn how to build one just incase I run into any issues. Doesn't seem hard, just plug and play basically.

For the most part it is plug and play.  Proper testing can take a while and don't overlook that step!!

 

How do these work, what OS do I need to install or how do combined all the HD's together?

There is no special OS needed.  You just need the proper cables to hook it up.  For a 4-in-3 like I linked above you can use 4 SATA cables going from the motherboard to the cage and if you need a SATA controller card (like the SASLP) you will need Forward Breakout cables.

[dinggus]

Seems easy enough. I don't want to thread jack, so I started my own thread with a proposed build.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=17491.0