Pimp Your Rig


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yep same :0

 

thinking of buying 2 more and remove the original bays ... i know i can remove the bays ... not sure if i can remove the fans yet but i guess a hacksaw can do miracles if needed :P

i moved my parity drive into one of these docks and he stays cooler in there ....

so might as well buy 2 more of these cheap puppies and no more hassles to remove a drive :P

 

was today again in pantip plaza and saw a 20 bay case for 19.000 bath (divide by roughly 32 for us$)

it is tempting me .... but it would mean i need to buy another mobo ....

 

gonna have to sleep about that one :P

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Just noticed that you used the 4-in-3s, not the 3-in-2s.  How loud are they?  I found the 40mm fans on the 3-in-2s to be a bit too loud, so I replaced them.

 

19k baht for a 20 bay case is about double what we pay in the US, but I understand that most of the world doesn't these types of things as cheaply as we do.  Ironic, since you are probably far closer to the factory than I am.

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19k baht for a 20 bay case is about double what we pay in the US, but I understand that most of the world doesn't these types of things as cheaply as we do.  Ironic, since you are probably far closer to the factory than I am.

eehm. Most likely because most of the world has a fine socialist "mixed" economy.

Have to feed the bureaucrates.  ::)

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eehm. Most likely because most of the world has a fine socialist "mixed" economy.

Have to feed the bureaucrates.  ::)

No, we have socialized services like education and health care, not socialized economy. Taxes are high, but it's our choice to universalize these kind of public services, so we have to pay for them.

 

Hum, I fell uncomfortable with these 60mm fans, seem not a very efficient way of cooling drives, but I like trayless design.

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@sacretagent

 

I was just looking at this thread again. Its nice to know that my office/computer room is just as messy as anybody else's that is a computer tinker. ;) Messy meaning I have the same parts boxes everywhere and I refuse to throw them away because I can store screws or something in them. LOL

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Ok, time for me to show what your help has brought me! My orginal thread asking for some advice can be found here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=9192.0

 

My hardware list is:

Case: Sharkoon Rebel9 Pro Economy € 49,00 x 1 = € 49,00

Case fan: Nexus 120mm Real Silent Case Fan D12SL-12 - 120 mm - orange   € 4,94 x 1 = € 4,94 (not included in my case, well tested and the orange version is cheap  )

RAM: Kingston ValueRAM - 2 GB - DIMM 240-pins -DDR3 - 1066 MHz / PC3-8500 - CL7 - 1.5 V - non buffered - non-ECC   € 24,09 x 1 = € 24,09  

HD: Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS - 2 TB- intern - 3.5" - SATA-300 - 5900 rpm -buffer: 32 MB   € 91,88 x 1 = € 91,88  

HD: WD Caviar Green WD20EARS - 2 TB - intern- 3.5" - SATA-300 - 5400 rpm -buffer: 64 MB   € 83,70 x 2 = € 167,40  

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240e / 2.8 GHz Energy Efficient - Socket AM3 - L2 2 MB ( 2 x 1 MB ) - Box   € 57,99 x 1 = € 57,99

HD cage Sharkoon SATA QuickPort Intern 3-Bay -  3.5" - SATA-300 - 300 MBps - SATA-300   € 56,54 x 1 = € 56,54

HD cage Sharkoon SATA QuickPort Intern 3-Bay -  3.5" - SATA-300 - 300 MBps - SATA-300   € 40,00 x 1 = € 40,00 (slightly used, local private sale)

Motherboard: ASUS M4A78LT-M - micro ATX - AMD 760G - Socket AM3 - UDMA133, SATA-300 (RAID) - Gigabit Ethernet - video - High Def   € 52,73 x 1 = € 52,73

PSU Seasonic S12II-520 Bronze  - ATX12V - 220 Volt AC V - 520 Watt - active PFC   € 70,35 x 1 = € 70,35  

 

During the order I added another 2 Gb of RAM, bringing the total costs of my initial build to 358 EUR (excluding disks).

 

All the components together (was only awaiting one Sharkoon HD cage which was delayed)

PC220213.jpg

 

Starting unpacking

PC220216.jpg

 

A closer look at the Sharkoon Rebel9 Pro case (the economy version comes without fans)

PC110198.jpg

 

Showing the cable management

PC110202.jpg

 

The Sharkoon HD cage (sold as Kingwin in the US)

PC110206.jpg

PC110208.jpg

 

I covered the case with damping plates for car-audio. Don't know if it helps much, but was cheap and at least it dampens the case down so less vibration.

PC220219.jpg

PC220220.jpg

PC220222.jpg

 

Ok, on to building the box!

 

First, before I forget, jumpers on the WD EARS disks. Also checked the Seagate disk, no firmware update needed!

PC220217.jpg

 

Getting the CPU in...

PC220223.jpg

 

A populated motherboard!

PC220226.jpg

 

And in the case it goes...

PC220227.jpg

 

Mounting the PSU, cable spaghetti!

PC220229.jpg

 

Attempting to hide it using the cable management room of the case

PC220233.jpg

 

Time for a break. It's really cold here in the Netherlands, so time for a traditional Dutch winter meal: pea soup with smoked sausage  ;D

PC220234.jpg

 

Ok, it's about ready. Also I mounted the USB stick internally

PC220235.jpg

 

It's alive! You can see the print with BIOS settings I got from the forum.

PC220236.jpg

 

A few days later I added the second HD cage

PC280243.jpg

 

Tidied up the cables

PC280241.jpg

 

The first three disks

PC280244.jpg

 

I'm currently fiddling with the airflow. I've covered every air entrance except, and use the case fan and PSU fan to extract air from the case. In this way I aim that all air sucked into the case is pulled through the drive bays. There is an opening for an 140 mm fan on top of the case, I'm probably adding a low-speed fan here to maximize air being pulled out (and removing need to cover this hole). As long as not all 5,25 bays are filled I've closed these 'ghetto style' with plastic to stop air entering the case here.

PC280246.jpg

 

Some further comments:

*Was a bit surprised by the motherboard SATA port, ports 2 and 3 seem to be reported mixed, my disk on port 2 was reported correctly in the BIOS, but in unRAID it appeared on 'host 3' and as 'sdc', with the disk on port 3 as 'host 2' and 'sdb'. So I swapped the SATA cables for port 2 and 3.

*The Sharkoon/Kingwin cages are ok, but not the most convenient. First they use a SATA power plug per disk, so you don't reduce the number of power cables needed. Furthermore the fans and HDD lights only work by using a molex to SATA + HDD/fan cable adaptors supplied with the disks. As my PSU has 6 x molex and 6 x SATA, that means I have to use molex splitters to get more molex plugs, and then use the adaptors. A bit messy, as opposed to using the free SATA connectors.

I've now worked around this by mixing the molex cables + adaptors and SATA power cables over the cages. So the top cage has 2 x molex + adaptors and 1 x SATA power. The bottom cage has 1 x molex + adaptor and 2 x SATA power. This means that the cage fans work if a disk is present in the slot powered by the molex + adaptor. The HDD leds of the SATA powered slots do not work. So it's a working solution, but not very 'professional'.

Also Ive broken the plastic part of the SATA power plug on one bay of the cage. Managed to fix it though.

But the cages are on a friendly budget, and I like the trayless design which is very hard to find here.

 

I've set up the shared and split levels, and I'm now transferring files from my Vortexbox (music) server with rsync using the instructions on: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Transferring_Files_from_a_Network_Share_to_unRAID.

But only getting around 20 Mb/s max...?  :(

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Pity there are so few Euros around here, but I'm sure it'll change with time (I'm based in Berlin)

LOL - That's because they are all out protesting and rioting in the streets.  But don't worry my German friend, the Americans will be out there as well in a few years (once this massive debt we've run up comes due). :'(
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nice build Bolle

 

heres my build, is chose silence as my main focus while building.

 

so all fans are quite ones there running at ~500 rpm.

case is a Fractal-Design R3 Bleack Pearl, a real nice silent case

 

first the case

SAM_0005.jpg

argh the dust is alway easy to see on a shiny black case

 

SAM_0006.jpg

also nice fans like the black/white style, you see here some anti noise padding

 

SAM_0009.jpg

the bitlumen padding even the fan holes are covered but can be removed if your placing a fan.

 

SAM_0008.jpg

 

SAM_0007.jpg

 

the shot of motherboard got lost some how so the next will not show the motherboard.

but the hardware is as follows

 

Intel DG43NB, S775, G43, 2xDDR2, ATX

Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold, 600Watt, ATX

Intel Celeron Dual-Core E3300 2.5G,800MHz,S775,Box

Adaptec 1220SA 2p SATA RAID, PCIe

Fractal-Design Define R3, Black Pearl

2GB OCZ DDR2 800Mhz 5-5-5

some WDEADS/WDEACS and 2 Samsung

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Posted this in Hardware but I guess it really belonged here in Pimp your Rig...

 

So far this is my build

Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced

Intel DG965RY Motherboard

Intel Pentium D 820 2.80GHz

Don't remember where the power supply came from or what brand it is.

2x1GB PC-4200 DDR2

Memorex 1GB thumb drive

I just ordered 3 2TB WD20EARS drives today as well as a Corsair CX500 power supply.  Should all be in by the end of the week.

 

There is a 80GB 3.5" and 120GB laptop harddrive in the case right now I used as a test bed for unRAID before I ordered drives.

 

I love this case, def the best I have ever owned, makes for a very clean install and for $79 shipped from Amazon, Can't complain about the price either.  The only negative part on my build is I lost the metal I/O panel for the motherboard while it was in storage.

 

Here are some pics, wiring is not final as I plan on replacing the Power supply as well as the hard drives this week.

P1060297.jpg

 

P1060299.jpg

 

This server will serve as storage for MKV and Bluray ISO's to be streamed to a yet to be purchased network media device, thinking of a popcorn hour A-210 or C-200 as well as to store personal pictures and videos from my GoPro HD Hero video camera.

 

I will update pictures as I finish the build later this week.  I am going to search for one of the USB header to USB port adapters at the office tomorrow to move my thumbdrive internal... I know I have a bunch that we got with new motherboards.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry for top posting, but it is a quick question. Does anyone know which way the exhaust is flowing through the chassis? Assuming the 5 in 3 fans are blowing out, is the rear fan also blowing forward?

 

 

 

 

Hey guys, first post!

 

So I recently built my rig after trolling around the Lime-Tech forums/wiki for the past couple of months and decided to make the jump for it.  The box I built was mainly to complement my HTPC running XBMC.  Prior to unRAID, my HTPC consisted of a ~1 year old Mac Mini with two 1.5tb external drives connected via USB, shared via SMB so that 4 other possible XBMC clients (2 PC, 1 other OSX, and 1 Ubuntu) can watch from the same library.  With my growing HD obsession collection, it's no surprise that I've quickly outgrown my ghetto storage solution.  I needed something expandable!  So here's my rig.

 

23udl36.jpg

qq92j5.jpg

2mmtipz.jpg

24149bs.jpg

300az4h.jpg

30biuxk.jpg

2dlu6ix.jpg

 

Specs..

 

Case:  Cooler Master Centurion 590

Mobo:  Asus M4A78L-M

CPU:  AMD Sempron 140 2.7GHz

Mem:  OCZ Gold 2x1GB

PSU:  Corsair CMPSU-550VX

HDD:  2 x WD20EARS + 4 x Seagate 1.5

Backplanes:  SNT-SAC3051TL 5 in 3

+ Koutech "jeezus-is-that-little-thing-really-worth-$10?" USB Header-Pin to Dual Type-A adapter

 

So I originally ordered everything without the backplanes, and I only had 6 drives.  Once the parts arrived, it didn't take me long to figure out that I couldn't install #6 without looking like it was built by Leeroy Jenkins.  So I decided to order the three 5in3's on the cheap.  Hell, the electricity was out at the house anyway, I can wait (no, no I couldn't).  I don't have any SATA controllers though, but I figure I'll get some and wire the last backplane when I outgrow my storage in about 6 months 3 months 3 weeks tomorrow.

...

<adds to cart>

 

Overall I'm a happy, geeky, and slightly OCD-ish camper.

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If the rear is blowing outward and the hard drive cages are blowing outward then there is no air flowing through the case. Would this be ok for like a 15 drive system? I guess if the CPU has a good fan it should be ok.

 

If that's the case, they both expel hot air out of the case which is always a good thing. Low pressure, cooler air can get into the case from the top.

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If the rear is blowing outward and the hard drive cages are blowing outward then there is no air flowing through the case. Would this be ok for like a 15 drive system? I guess if the CPU has a good fan it should be ok.

 

If that's the case, they both expel hot air out of the case which is always a good thing. Low pressure, cooler air can get into the case from the top.

 

This is not good thermodynamics. Heat rises so drawinig air in from the top is fighting against the natural convection of heat rising.

Your also likely to starve the interior of the case of air flow, which result in a rapid temperature increase.

 

In order to cool a system you need good air flow, typically in from the bottom/front and out from the top/back.

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This is not good thermodynamics. Heat rises so drawinig air in from the top is fighting against the natural convection of heat rising. Your also likely to starve the interior of the case of air flow, which result in a rapid temperature increase. In order to cool a system you need good air flow, typically in from the bottom/front and out from the top/back.

 

You are right and maybe this is not the most efficient setup but if you look closely, in this particular case, the airflow is inverted as the air enters the top and is expelled to the front (hd cages), back(read fan) and bottom (through psu fan). Yes, the fans are working a bit extra to fight the raising current of warmer air but I would say there's plenty of them in the system and their combined airflow must be higher than the one generated by the thermodynamics in the case (keeping in mind that most of the heat is generated by the hard drives). My only concern is that there isn't much room around the case once fitted onto the rack, which could potentially overheat the system.

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Am I looking at the same case as you guys?

 

23udl36.jpg

 

Air enters from the front and is blown across the entire case. The air now is pulled out via the top fan and is pulled out via the PSU.

 

I have the same case except my PSU is flipped per Cooler Masters directions so its not sucking air out of the case because the PSU already has an in/out via the opening at the bottom and felt cold in hot out. Also all of my openings I have sealed with a simple piece of paper to keep air from blowing out of the holes, which honestly I couldn't tell you one way or another if it makes a difference. There are large fan openings at the top of his case that you really cant see, but anyways.

 

My CPU sits around 19C and my drives when on are around 25-30C.

 

As long as his temps are OK and hes happy with it, its still a nice build and I need to take a lesson from him on cable management.  ;D

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From re-reading some posts it seems the problem is some people say the cage fans that sit behind the hard drives are sucking in (into the case) air and then some people are saying the cage drives are blowing air out.

 

If the cage fans are sucking air INTO the case then all that air heated up by the hard drives in coming into the case. You really need to have good exhaust fans to expel that hot air.

 

If the cage fans are blowing out, then you are sucking air in from the inside of the case which isn't fresh cool air, it probably is warm air.

 

I think in the end I guess since the hard drives is what will heat up the most is to make sure my cage fans are sucking air into the case which would be fresh air. Then have good exhaust fans at the rear and/or top.

 

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Some small additions to my build:

*installed a 4 pin ATX extension cord so the power cable could be routed behind the mainboard.

*added a 140 mm low-speed exhaust fan, I expect airflow to be ok like this. All fresh air enters the case trough the two Sharkoon cages (2 x 40 mm intake fan per cage), and I've tried to create as much suction from the case, the PSU is pulling air out together with a 120 mm and 140 mm case fan, to assist in pulling in fresh air through the cages. Seems to work, disks have maxed out at 29 degrees, but of course we're still in winter.

*put in a molex 1 -> 4 splitter, to get 6 molex plugs from one PSU molex cable (3 molex plugs). These 6 plugs are used with the molex -> SATA + HDD/fan interface cables of the Sharkoon cages. So all fans and HDD light now work properly.

*Added a cache disk (2 Tb Seagate) and got unRAID 'plus' license. Using 2 Tb as cache disk might be a bit too much as with the mover script it hardly gets filled. So I might put in a 500 Gb/1 Tb disk as cache and move the 2 Tb Seagate to the array.

 

The server in the hallway cupboard.

server_kast.jpg

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  • 5 weeks later...

My NAS setup is two Unraid servers. Both are based on Antec cases.

 

MediaServer1:

 

img1826no.jpg

 

screenshot20110214at907.png

 

This server is based on an EP35-DS3R mobo. This mobo has 8 sata ports onboard, with 2 being J-Micron.

 

Unraid

EP35-DS3R

intel Core 2 Duo e4500

1 (for now) x 1GB DDR2 667 memory (Kingston)

Antec Twelve Hundred

Antec 620 Neo

Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

ATI 7500 PCI GPU

COOLER MASTER GeminII

Cooler Master 4 in 3

Scythe SCY-HDSX4 Hard Disk Stabilizer x 3

OCZ Diesel 16GB USB Drive

 

1 x Seagate Barracuda XT (parity)

1 x 1.5TB WD Green (EADS)

1 x 1.5TB WD Green (EARS)

1 x 1.5TB Samsung EcoGreen

1 x 2TB WD Green (EARS)

1 x 2TB 7200RPM Hitachi

1 x 2TB 5950?RPM Hitachi

 

I built this server second. I credit other builds here for the suggestions for most of the parts. Each bay is a different kind of HD to 100% take advantage of Unraid's amazing mix and match ability and I hope to keep it that way. I have a 2TB 5900RPM Seagate that is going in as soon as I get the firmware straight.

 

MediaServer2:

 

img1825v.jpg

screenshot20110214at902.png

 

This server is based on a P35-DS3L mobo. Honestly this is an odd mobo to use for Unraid as it only has 4 onboard sata ports, but I had it left over from a previous Hackintosh build so I wanted to not waste it.

 

Unraid

P35-DS3L

Intel Pentium e2140

2 x 1GB DDR2 667 memory (Kingston)

Antec Three Hundred

Antec 420 Neo

3x Sil 3132 cards

Nvidia Fanless 7300 GS GPU

Scythe Mini Ninja Fanless CPU heatsink

Cooler Master 4 in 3

San Disk Cruser 2GB USB Drive

 

9 x 1.5TB 7200.11 Seagate drives (yes THOSE drives)

1 x 1TB Western Digital Black

 

 

I am using the second to most recent bios (F8) to avoid HPA problems. I am using the six internal 3.5inch bays, plus a Cooler Master 4 in 3 in the top bays for a total of ten drives. All the drives in the server will be the infamous 1.5TB 7200RPM Seagate drives, except for one that is a 1TB WD Black (that I basically got for free so why not use it?). Average temps are 27-30, but it gets up to a top of 35 when copying over data.

 

My favorite part about this build is that because I am using a fanless CPU HSF and GPU, it is pretty quiet. Everything is Antec where possible (I am kinda nutty loyal to them), but because the built in drive trays lacked any sort of vibration management I used rubber washers to secure the drives. This server holds only movies for me.

 

 

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