This is in response to a YouTube comment from lapdcrash. I can't post the link on YouTube so I'll do it here.

 

Q:wow, that is? quiet......... Nobody asked yet on the forum, what are you using to hold up the hard drives?

 

 

A:I'm using metal shelf brackets to hold the array together. The whole thing is attached to the rack by 4 nylon ties and can be removed as a unit in a couple of minutes. Here's a link to the original post where I described this http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1311.msg8879#msg8879

Here are some poor pics of my unRAID setup with my external enclosures.

Wow, that's a lot of external enclosures!  All eSATA?  How many drives?  I count 18 drive bays.

Wow, that's a lot of external enclosures!  All eSATA?  How many drives?  I count 18 drive bays.

Twenty drives in the external enclosures(four 4 bay and one 5 Bay--one four bay has 3 drives in it). Then I have the cache and parity drive in the 3in2 enclosure in the PC case.

That reminds me of several WHS builds i have seen.

 

1 mediasmart server and lots and lots of external boxes.

I just finished my first UnRAID build that will be used as a storage server for my website.

 

Everything with the build went as planed and I'm doing the Parity Sync right now. It only has 500 + minutes to go. 

 

I think I may be building another one of these in a month or so as a second storage server.

 

 

 

 

 

 

what case is this ?

seems a weird one.. but maybe usable for a double row of standing up disks is it is high enough ?

move the vent midplane a bit to the back and it should be managable...

Possibly the Rosewill RSV-R4000?

Possibly the Rosewill RSV-R4000?

 

it is the Rosewill RSV-Z2000

newegg has had this server on shell shocker a few times for about $20 off.

 

I am not a fan of how the power supply is mounted in it. it has a poor airflow design.

 

If you use a bottom mounted PSU in a rack, the server above it suffocates it. if you have it with nothing above it, it prone to debris (say a loose screw!) falling into the PSU.

 

If you used a rear-exhaust PSU, the hot air from it gets blown out the front of the server and sucked right back into the drive bay. (that's still better then suffocation)

 

other then that, for what it is, it looks fairly "clean" and an inexpensive way to get 9 hard drives into a single 2U server.

Just 'upgraded' from Antec 300 to R3, see my sig for the finer details

 

I say 'upgraded' because there is a few things I actually don't like, considering all the praise heaped on it, pretty disappointing.

 

1: really not much quieter( 2 x 120mm intake Noctua running at 600rpm + 140mm output antec on low) same as what I had on the Antec 300.

 

2: the 4th from the bottom and the top HDD aren't covered by the front fans so they don't really get any cooling affect, thats not mentioned in any reviews! really needs 140mm fans in the front.

 

And one of the hdd trays was bent and a rubber missing, this would have been ex factory, as the box was unmarked/undamaged when I received it, we even unpacked it instore to confirm no physical damage(externally anyway). Didn't see the the bent tray till I'd already transfered everything over.

 

I think this case will become my HTPC.

 

Later

 

 

 

Possibly the Rosewill RSV-R4000?

 

it is the Rosewill RSV-Z2000

newegg has had this server on shell shocker a few times for about $20 off.

 

I am not a fan of how the power supply is mounted in it. it has a poor airflow design.

 

If you use a bottom mounted PSU in a rack, the server above it suffocates it. if you have it with nothing above it, it prone to debris (say a loose screw!) falling into the PSU.

 

If you used a rear-exhaust PSU, the hot air from it gets blown out the front of the server and sucked right back into the drive bay. (that's still better then suffocation)

 

other then that, for what it is, it looks fairly "clean" and an inexpensive way to get 9 hard drives into a single 2U server.

 

Its actually not to bad. There is a decent gap between the PSU and the top of the Chassis also the two front fans move enough air over the top to cool the PSU. The vents in the top of the Chassis help out a bit too.

 

Were its going in the rack there will be a 1U gap on top of the server and then another one of my servers that will have no loose screws on the bottom lol.

Possibly the Rosewill RSV-R4000?

 

it is the Rosewill RSV-Z2000

 

 

If you use a bottom mounted PSU in a rack, the server above it suffocates it. if you have it with nothing above it, it prone to debris (say a loose screw!) falling into the PSU.

 

 

Its actually not to bad. There is a decent gap between the PSU and the top of the Chassis also the two front fans move enough air over the top to cool the PSU. The vents in the top of the Chassis help out a bit too.

 

Were its going in the rack there will be a 1U gap on top of the server and then another one of my servers that will have no loose screws on the bottom lol.

 

You could always put a DEMCi Flex Fan magnetic Filter on top of the PSU air intake. Loose screws, dust or debris is not a problem with one of these. I've had one on the top vent of my Zalman HTPC for over a year.

 

Ramon

My humble rig: 11 Drive Bays:  okay I promise better quality pics to come - blame it on iPhone 3GS @ 2am!

 

 

Nice!  I think that's a first on these forums.  What are your hardware specs, and how are your drive temps?

Nice!  I think that's a first on these forums.  What are your hardware specs, and how are your drive temps?

 

Thanks - a week on/off gutting/dremeling/drilling and the result is not too bad!

 

Specs (free donor PC from a friend  - I have to admit it's kinda lame, was testing AirVideo last night OMG u can imagine... ):

System: ASUSTek - A7V400-MX (2 IDE connector for 4 IDE HDs)

SATA add-on Card: Syba PCI-3114-4IR-01 PCI SATA Controller Card 4-PORT

CPU: AMD AthlonTM XP - 1.916 GHz

Cache: 128 kB

Memory: 1 GB - Generic

Network: 100Mb/s - Full Duplex

 

Enclosure PowerG5 (free donor Mac from a friend... again  )

 

HDs (k these are not free but all loose from the past):

IDE: 120GB, 300GB, 320GB, 320GB

SATA: 160GB, 1.5TB, 1.5TB, 1.5TB, 1.5TB

 

Drive Temps:

IDEs (Maxtor & Hitachi) are around 35 ~ 45C

SATAs (SEAGATE 1.5TBs! gotta look into firmware some day but so far they been running okay) ~50C

 

Packages:

AirVideo

iStat

YAMJ

Transmission

Very Nice use of a G5 case indeed! +1

 

 

50C is way too hot for the Seagates.  At those temps they will die in a matter of months.  As a temporary solution, you can put an 80 or 120mm fan on top of the drives blowing up (pulling hot air from the drives and forcing it up into the case).  Your side fans should then take care of the rest.

50C is way too hot for the Seagates.  At those temps they will die in a matter of months.  As a temporary solution, you can put an 80 or 120mm fan on top of the drives blowing up (pulling hot air from the drives and forcing it up into the case).  Your side fans should then take care of the rest.

 

Totally agree, anything close to 50C has to be avoided. Sorry I didn't see the temps in jo2k's post.

 

Although I'd consider creating airflow diffusers to direct airflow inside the case, a possible Short term solution could be a pci fan bracket with one 120mm fan on top, or a properly oriented spot fan. Point is, you need to be sure air is flowing freely from intake to exhaust.

 

hope this helps.

 

Great idea. The problem you will need to overcome is airflow. The entire front is mesh so getting directed airflow will be a challenge. Also with the drives laid like that, there is no way to properly cool them unless the bottom is mesh and you can pull air up from bottom.

 

I would build some sort of drive rack like this http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.msg14880#msg14880

You also could block off some of the mesh from the inside to help direct/control air flow. Cooling is key for storage servers.

 

Awesome Idea. Let us know how it works in the end.

The problem you will need to overcome is airflow. The entire front is mesh so getting directed airflow will be a challenge. Also with the drives laid like that, there is no way to properly cool them unless the bottom is mesh and you can pull air up from bottom.

 

You can quickly/easilly try duct tape over the upper half or so of the front mesh, this will force the air to be pulled in through the bottom half, over the drives and motherboard and out the back, which appears to have the fans on the lower half.  If this improves your temps, you can look for a neater look or leave it a bit getto...

UPDATE:

 

Had 2 G5 rear case fans hooked up to molex @ 5V (quieter mode) now - seagates showing ~+/- 45C and IDEs showing ~<40C

 

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Wow thanks everyone for the comments - I wasn't really aware the temps being a big issue now certainly do!

 

drive layout besides the clearance & misc consideration when laying out the HDs at bottom in a row, one thought also is that this does avoid the thermal stacking effect (11 stacking HDs prob would easily cook the top HD to be 5C hotter than bottom) and the heat from individual drives rises up affecting little to one another.

the rational is: heat rises from HDs at bottom, get pulled out by rear case fans; residual heat passes mobo/CPU cavity rising to top compartment where it gets sucked in by PSU belly fan then shoot out by PSU rear fan.

 

air flow one big factors that contributes to the high temp is the 2 rear G5 case fans are in fact yet to be hooked up (been slacking off - stock G5 rear fans need to be rewired to work - having the seagates right under the CPU certainly doesn't help either), hence there is next to none active air circulation so far (as a temporary measure the case side panel is left open with a big room fan blowing air away and it seems to bring the seagate 1.5TB temp down to ~47C).

after reading all the wonderful comments, I plan to implement 2 measures to see how it goes:

1, wire the G5 rear case fan to work (duh.) - done

2, to add rows of perforation holes in between the drives to allow air intake from bottom

 

I'll report back with results hopefully around end of week... Thanks very much again everyone - happy unRAID-ing!

 

 

 

People in the InsanelyMac Forum went thru this fan wiring exercises on a G5 case. Maybe this can help

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86729&st=40

 

 

Or simply swap the G5 fans with conventional silent ones, and create air/heat zones inside your case.

 

Good luck!

People in the InsanelyMac Forum went thru this fan wiring exercises on a G5 case. Maybe this can help

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86729&st=40

 

Good luck!

 

WOW thx - Just did & ref-ed exactly insanelymac - talking about psychic thinking & timing!   ;D

People in the InsanelyMac Forum went thru this fan wiring exercises on a G5 case. Maybe this can help

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86729&st=40

 

Good luck!

 

WOW thx - Just did & ref-ed exactly insanelymac - talking about psychic thinking & timing!  ;D

 

Excellent!! Another cool source is aquamac

i.e  http://www.s155158671.websitehome.co.uk/winmacpcinaapple.html

;D

Excellent!! Another cool source is aquamac

i.e  http://www.s155158671.websitehome.co.uk/winmacpcinaapple.html

;D

 

Nice! lovely G4.

 

A further exam shows the gaps between the HDs are prob too small for further perforations - I'd prob try recycling the rest of fans from G5 by mounting them on top of the seagates pulling air up.