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My goal is to build a rack mount server to hold all my movies (Bluray and DVD).  This should be a very reliable system based on some sort of RAID technology.  There should be enough storage space to hold at least 400 BluRay formatted movies and 500-700 DVD formatted movies.

 

Assumptions:

BluRay movie Storage Space             30 Gig (average)

DVD Movie Storage Space 5 Gig (Average)

Current Collection                          600 DVD’s                         (3.0 Terabytes)

60 current BR disks             (1.8 Terabytes)

340 new BR discs             (10.2 Terabytes)

Total storage required (15.0 Terabytes)

Total Storage (Design) (20.0 Terabytes)

 

The player will be the new Dune player (Dune base 3.0).

With 24 terabytes of usable storage (10 data drives, 1 parity drive, 1 hot Spare) I can hold my current collection with sufficient capacity for growth. The house LAN is 100 mbit. Eventually there will be two more players, one in the master bedroom and one in the guest bedroom.

 

Server Design:

The design is for a rack mount system using the unRaid storage structure running over a Linux (Slackware) kernel.  System will boot from a flash drive, 1st boot device; or a CD-ROM, 2nd Boot device; or a HDD, 3rd boot device.  System will have Windows XP x64 installed on Partition 1 of an IDE HDD which is not part of the Raid storage.  System will have Ubuntu installed on Partition 2 of the same IDE HDD drive.  There will be a slim CD-DVD reader for Windows maintenance. If the unRAid flash drive is plugged in then the unRaid system is booted, if it is not plugged in then the Grub loader allows for Windows XP or Ubuntu.

 

Parts list with mfg/model and Vendor information:

 

Component;          Mfg. Model Supplier

Motherboard Gigabyte             GA-MA785GM-US2H Newegg

Processor AMD Athlon II x2 240             Newegg

Memory Kingston             DDR2 4x 1Gig 800 mhz Newegg

SAS/SATA HBA SuperMicro AOC SASLP MV8 ProVantage

SAS-SAS Cables 3 Ware SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 RackmountPro

System Case Chenbro 3012 RackmountPro

Power Supply Zippy R2W6500P RackmountPro

SAS-SATA  Cable SFF-8087- 4x SATA PC-Pitstop

Unraid Flash Lime-Tech PRO 2 Drive Set 4.5.3 Lime-Tech

SATA Drives (4) Hitachi Deskstar 2TB 2700 RPM Newegg

 

The mobo has 1 PCIe x16, 1 PCIe x1, 2 PCI, LAN O/B, Video O/B, 1 IDE, 5 SATA, 1 eSATA, 6 USB

The system case is 3Ux26" with 12 Hot Swap drive bays, internal Sapce for 2 Drives (I Sata, 1 IDE), 1 slim CD ROM

The PSU is 2U/3U Redundant @ 500 Watts per unit.

 

All is now assembeled and running with 5 HDD's (4 in the array and one spare)  The 4 in the array are connected to the motherboard Sata ports and the spare is connected to the SASLP MVA HBA.

 

The server rack has a 1500 VA UPS and with all the equipment in the rack and auxiliary home automation devices it is loaded at 54% of capacity. Half of the house has a power buss with a 15KW standby generator.  Naturally the server room is powered from that buss. The generator kicks in after 20 seconds of utility power loss and the UPS starts to charge again. I live in Central FL USA so power outages are quite prevalent.

 

 

 

 

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This is an update to my unRAID Server. Since my last post on this thread, I've replaced the original Gigabyte MA770-US3 with a Asus M4A785T-M board and have installed another (and final) disk enclosure to occupy another four disks in the near future. I guess when I fill up the last 4 - 3 disk enclosure, I'll be (and I'm already thinking about) building a replacement server.

I sucessor to this server would include an Antec 1200 case or something good and sturdy which has 12 5.25 bays, use SuperMico CSE-M35T-1 Black for disk enclosures, get a replacement heavy duty PSU like what I have currently, a SuperMicro mobo and some SATA cards too. I might replace all of the existing SATA cables and get all of them with new one which are all the same type and brand (when I have spare time). The current hardware specifications I have at present with this rig are as follows:

 

Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 590

Power Supply: Antec TruePower 650W

Motherboard: Asus M4A785T-M (6x SATA ports on board)

Disk Enclosure(s): 4x SNT-3141 SATA-II Hot-Swap 4 Drive RAID Enclosures

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.9GHz CPU

RAM: Kingston DDR2 2GB ValueRAM module

USB Drive: SanDisk Micro Cruzer 2GB

SATA RAID Controllers: 2x Generic PCI SATAII Controller (Sil 3124-based Chipset)

Hard Disks: 8x Seagate 1.5TB 7200RPM 32MB Cache disks

unRAID OS: unRAID Pro 4.5.1

 

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Looks nice.

 

How do you find the cooling? I notice you're using the two top fan mounts - as well as a fan per enclosure.

 

Are your temps ok overall? Were the additional top fans required or did you install them regardless?

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Very Nice.

 

I'm almost wondering if we should have a separate forum for pimp'ing and system layout.

I love this thread and what we do with it. But it's long and when I want to refer back to some posts.. whooooo...

 

hahaha. Almost feel like it's a car club show off or something!  heh.. Thanks everyone! I love the participation.

 

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Thanks for the comments guys.

 

@boof: The top 120mm fans I installed them as I got a bargain on four CoolerMaster 120mm fans, but I would of installed them eventually after getting past the 4 disk mark. The cooling in general I find to be up to standard. It operates between 23 ~ 25C (73 to 77F) at start up, being that it has been running for about five minutes or so in room temperature.

Normally the server sits between 37 ~ up to 39C (99 ~ 102F). On a summers day with air conditioning set to 23C, the disks can run as high as 41 ~ 43C (106 ~ 110F). 43C or even 45C without no air con is the highest that I've seen the disks run at, and if the disks run any higher then that, I would switch it off soon as possible. The CoolerMaster 590 case makes cooling a breeze (pardon the pun) as you can add up to five 120mm fans and a (I think) 82mm fan behind the location of the CPU socket too. The last couple of cases I've bought have been Antec and they seem to offer very good air flow, cooling and operate much more silently too.

Last week I build a new desktop (recycling the Gigabyte mobo mentioned before) and bought an Antec 600 case (http://www.techpowerup.com/106392/Antec_Readies_Six_Hundred_PC_Case.html). I was surprised on how quiet and cool it operates, the same for my Antec Fusion Max case for my HTPC as well. My next unRAID server I will highly consider an Antec case or a Lian case, though the metal tabs dividing the 5.25in bays in most cases these days seem to be a pain with most disk enclosures on the market.

 

@WeeboTech: I too like to look at this thread and it is my favourite on this forum. It helps with ideas and how creative people are. From the very humble/basic of designs to the most complex and beastly rigs that members have built. It is 'each to their own' in terms of how people build their rigs and in the end does what we all want the any unRAID server to do, host our files with redundancy (and with other services/addon no doubt too ;)).

 

@Joe L: All the SATA cables are 50mm in length, but has time has when on, I bought these cables from different suppliers and some have slightly different headers and differ in the red cable colouring (yeah, you're probably thinking I'm a nut), but I like to have everything the same, neat, tidy and as symmetrical and even as possible (It must be a condition I guess ;D).

I might buy a complete set of SATA cables from one supplier one day, make sure their all the same type/kind and re-cable it all again. At the moment, the server works fine and I guess it isn't by any means a priority job to get done anytime soon. I cannot think of another way to re-cable it besides the style that I've done so. Thats what make me take so long to build a rig or PC, the cabling part! ;).

 

 

 

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Greetings all, I've been lurking around the board for a month or two now after reading an article on bit-tech.net praising unRaid. I finally decided to get my feet wet and figured I should start with a (relatively) cheap build. I wanted the ability to eventually expand all the way to the 20 drive limit so I knew I needed a 12 5.25" bay setup or a server chassis. I was seriously planning to go with the Antec 1200 as I could upgrade along the way. In the end, it seemed cheaper to just buy the server chassis than the Antec and 5-in-3 drive docks.

 

I had read the fans in the 4220 were loud but they didn't seem horrible. My wife seemed to disagree though so I took the chassis over to my dad's house where he has plenty of tools to modify the fan wall. I've read of some 3x 120mm and 3x 140mm builds, but I wanted to try something different. This machine will be living in a closet near my office and the guest bedroom so I wasn't allowed to have anything too incredibly loud. Here's the results.

 

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So thats 9 x 80 mm fans?  Wow!  Great work!  What type of fans are you using?  I assume you won't use the ones that came with the 4220.

 

Once you get it all set up, I would appreciate you posting the drive temperatures you see.  I also have a 4220 and I would like to make it quieter eventually.

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Thanks. Yeah I plan on using just the 9 on the fan wall. I removed the back two as I don't think they'll be doing much except getting in the way. I've only got some temporary fans rigged up at the moment, just mixed brands and colors, but I've got some Cooler Master ones on order from Newegg. I think they were $6 or $7 each. Around 20dB and 24CFM if I remember correctly. It will be a little less CFM total than the stock ones but it should be much more quiet. I'll post pictures and results once I get it rocking out.

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Thanks. Yeah I plan on using just the 9 on the fan wall. I removed the back two as I don't think they'll be doing much except getting in the way. I've only got some temporary fans rigged up at the moment, just mixed brands and colors, but I've got some Cooler Master ones on order from Newegg. I think they were $6 or $7 each. Around 20dB and 24CFM if I remember correctly. It will be a little less CFM total than the stock ones but it should be much more quiet. I'll post pictures and results once I get it rocking out.

I'll bet you can put them on 7 volts instead of 12 to slow them down and still get a lot of air flow, and much less noise.

 

Joe L.

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Mine's a simple unRaid free version.  I just needed something to becakup my home data to and i used all old drives i had laying around.  It sits across the room from my core i7 at my desk and i can't hear it at all.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154087

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688&cm_re=athlon_240-_-19-103-688-_-Product

              Underclocked to 1 GHz to consume less power with the poor PSU.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128342&Tpk=gigabyte%20740g

 

It fits three drives (1 TB, 1 640, 1 160 (soon to be replaced with another TB)).  I also modified a rear case PCI slot exhaust fan to intake cold air and blow straight on the 1 TB parity drive.  In my room, it averages around 25 degrees C.

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I just got the first two drives in and started a parity-sync. The sync is up to 30% now and I haven't seen the drives go about 29C yet. The fans are very quiet and didn't interfere with me watching a BD in the same room. These Cooler Master fans are roughly half the thickness of a normal 80mm and probably about one third the thickness of the stock ones. I just gotta save up for more drives and some controller cards now.  Here's what it looks like at the moment:

 

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I just got the first two drives in and started a parity-sync. The sync is up to 30% now and I haven't seen the drives go about 29C yet. The fans are very quiet and didn't interfere with me watching a BD in the same room. These Cooler Master fans are roughly half the thickness of a normal 80mm and probably about one third the thickness of the stock ones. I just gotta save up for more drives and some controller cards now.  Here's what it looks like at the moment:

 

Very nice! When are you going to sell the plates to help offset those drives/controller cards? :)

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Senjo, how many drives do you have and what type? I've looked above but couldn't find that info (see only 4 SATA cables). I also don't think you will have enough static pressure (!) with those fans for cooling 20x 7200rpm fast and hot drives as all the fans are the thin design and also run at low rpm. The thing with those server type cases with high-density disk drive bays is that a "regular" cooling is ok for say up to 10 drives with whatever fans but if you fully populate all bays and with all drives spinning and writing you will run into high temperatures. The only solution for proper cooling would be thick fans, max 120mm in size that have high static pressure (function of rpm, thickness and diameter). You may of course get PWM fans and use a script for sophisticated rpm control if drives aren't spinning and such in order to decrease noise level, but your cooling solution must be designed for full load on hot days!!

 

Just imho, but very interested to see details and your results. Thanks for posting!

 

Edit: Btw, I would replace the cpu cooler for something like this http://i41.tinypic.com/2uiwyty.jpg or anything else that blows in the same direction (ouf of the case) as any other fan in your case. The one you use just totally screws up airflow in your case.

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I was also curious as to the choice of 80mm over 120mm fans, or even 140/160mm?

 

3x 140mm definitely don't work. I have tried different types (including the Noiseblocker XK2) in the 4220 and they just can't cool fast Seagates when fully loaded.

I am in the process of switching to three 120mm PWM Delta AFC1212DE and will RPM control them from a script based on actual temp reading from the harddrives.

 

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I'm not sure 80mm vs 120mm vs how thick the fans are is an issue (other then sound).

What matters is how much air they move under load.

 

What model of fan are these? The specs for them would be interesting.

For example, 9 fans which have the possibility of moving 20cfm each provides allot of air movement.

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In a rackmount server type design you don't need solely air movement, what you need is HIGH STATIC PRESSURE in order to pull the air between the almost non existing space between the drives!! You get high static pressure with thick fans rotating at high rpm. The thicker a fan for a given diameter and the higher rpm, the more static pressure it can develop. This is just physics. Thin fans with big diameter can't develop high static pressure and are absolutely useless in rackmount server cases!  

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I chose the 80mm fans just to be different. I thought they also filled the available space well. The particular fans in question are Cooler Master R4-SPS-20AK-GP. You can see the full specs on NewEgg but they are basically 24CFM with 20dBA at 2,000 RPM. I was leaning more in favor of quiet versus efficient. I totally agree about the CPU cooler and I've been looking at different LGA 775 coolers. I was pondering possibly using a fanless one but I don't know how much heat that little Celeron 430 is going to put out. The drives in question are WDEARS 2TB Green drives. They're only running at 5,400 RPM so I don't think they'll overheat the case, even when I get 20 of them in there. I've currently got 2 drives and I'm going to move the 3rd out of my workstation once I get the data moved to my array.

 

Here are the fans in question:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103081

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Ok, the WD drives run pretty cool, they won't overheat but fans with low static pressure won't pull air from outside through the drives when you fully populate the 20 bays. No problem finding high pressure 80mm fans, there are a lot of them out there. Running at least 10 of your WDs with low noise standard fans won't be e a problem at least not when you are not calculating parity. I would suggest you consider swapping the fanboard for one with three 120mm as this would be the best and is already proven by a lot of 4220 advanced users.

 

Regarding the CPU cooler: I am using a Scythe Ninja 2 passive cooler in a 4220, works excellent. It has a PWM controlled 120mm fan attached to it, that almost never spins. You have to remove the decorative top caps on the Ninja 2 (just pull them out with pliers, they aren't threaded) in order to fit the height in the 4220, but other than that this is a dream combo.

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I would consider taping up some of the underside front vents on the case.

 

Also a celeron 430 is not going to generate allot of heat.

I'm not sure swapping the stock cooler for a ninja is even worth it.

If you plan to do vmware or other jobs such as transcoding or md5/par2 checks, then you could use the ninja if you upgrade the CPU later.

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I would consider taping up some of the underside front vents on the case.

 

This can be done of course and helps a little, but even than, standard fans are just not capable to pull enough air through the disks in a server case like the 4220. I guess all things has their pros and cons.

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