My 20T Budget / Ghetto Build

[Squid]

Just thought that I'd post up my build for a couple of laughs just so that other people can see that its possible to build a large server while on a tight budget for items that aren't 100% necessary.  And, I think that while its nice to see the pics of the systems that have had an unlimited budget, there should be more posts of people's systems that have had very tight budgets and emphasize function over form.

 

Most of the parts I've had kicking around the house for a while, and finally put them to good use about a year ago.  My budget has been tight for everything except for the hard drives.  I have never had to justify to the wife when I need another hard drive.  Purchasing a Norco case for the system is a completely different matter.  But, the system itself is sitting in an usused storage room in my basement, so how it looks isn't really an issue to me.

 

 

Yes, it may be ghetto, it may be ugly, but my pride and joy  file server can easily stream media to 4 computers in the house concurrently, with no glitches or stuttering.

 

Most of the equipment I've had lying around the house for quite a while, so the actual build cost has been close to zero.

 

Parts List:

 

M/B:              Intel D915GAV

CPU:              Intel P4 3.0 GHz

RAM:              2.5 Gig DDR2 (2x1 Gig, 1x512Meg Generic Sticks)

Power Supply: ThermalTake 750Watt (See note below)

Case:              Custom built Hard Drive Rack

Cooling:          5x120mm, 1x80mm (Undervolted to 9V)

Controllers:      1x StarTech 4 Port PCI (http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_19_918&item_id=037146)

                      2x IO Crest 4 Port PCIe x1 (http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_19_918&item_id=037843)

                      1x StarTech 2 Port PCIe x1 (http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_19_918&item_id=037175)

NIC:                Intel Pro1000MT PCI-X (Running in a PCI slot however)

 

Hard Drives: Mix of Hitachi, Western Digital, Seagate

 

3x 3T (1 is parity)

3x 2T

7x 1T

3x 500Gig

 

Total Space Exluding Parity: 20.5T

 

Notes:

 

Power Supply: With this many hard drives, there is inevitably going to be some issues with the 12V line.  The thermaltake 750 has multiple 12v rails, but only a single 20A rail dedicated to the molex connectors, what I chose to do instead was to take the power connector that would normally feed a PCIe video card, add the 5V line from the floppy connector, and create another chain of power connectors.

 

Also, there are absolutely NO plug in power splitters anywhere in the system (with the exception of the fans).  Whereever I've split the power feeds, the wiring is soldered to each other (Powersplitters are inherently flakely, and also induce voltage losses which are mitigated by using wires soldered to each other)

 

Harddrive Rack:  Quite obviously home built (and I am no carpenter), but designed for ease of access with the flip up fan door

 

Cooling: They're standard 120mm fans (and a single 80mm - haven't gotten around yet to replacing it with a 120mm).  Instead of drawing power from the powersupply, they are connected to a 9V Walwart.  This effectively lowers the speed and noise output from the system while ensuring that the maximum harddrive temperature I've ever reached is 31C.  At some point, I think I'll get around to buildiing a temperature controller for each fan to adjust the speed automatically.

 

HardDrives:  Since I'm not using a case with a backplane, I found that I was having some intermittent issues after the build with the power connectors at the harddrives coming loose.  This was solved with just a drop of hotglue to hold the connectors in place while still allowing relatively easy disconnects in the event of a drive failure.

 

Controllers:  I was originally using all PCI controllers, but while read speeds were awesome, write speeds were ok, but parity check speeds were in the toilet.  So, as extra funds have freed up, I have switched over to the PCIe controllers.  Luckily for a MB this old, I really lucked out in that it had a PCIe x16, and 2 PCIe x1 slots. 

 

NIC: The onboard NIC is only 100MB/s, so I really had no choice but to add an expansion card to upgrade to 1GB/s.  I had a PCIe card available, but unfortunately all of my slots were taken up by the controller cards.  But I canabalized my old Dell PowerEdge 2800 Server for its PCI-X card (Nice Xeon server I originally bought at auction for $50, but unfortunately its backplane only accepts SCSI drives).  I just put electrical tape around the edge connectors that weren't used.

 

Parity Check speeds:

    Up to 500Gig: ~19 MB/s

    500-1T: ~40 MB/s

    1T-2T: ~65 MB/s

    2T-3T: ~87 MB/s

 

Single Drive Read Speed: ~100 MB/s

User Share Write Speed:  ~19 MB/s

 

Power (According to UPS):

 

Parity Check: ~250W

Idle:            ~100W

 

Numerous areas need to be improved aesthetically (case, longer cables for better management, etc), but right now given the choice between longer cables or larger storage space, I will take the storage.

 

[Squid]

Motherboard area

[Squid]

Back of harddrive rack

[Squid]

Front of hard drive rack

[Squid]

Hard drive access

[BLKMGK]

Looks good to me, the 80mm really looks out of place though :-)

[Joe L.]

Looks good to me, the 80mm really looks out of place though :-)

Looks excellent.  Probably easier to manage a disk replacement than almost any other arrangement.

 

Joe L.

[batt01]

This build transcends the concept of ugly and has become a thing of beauty.

I sincerely hope you display it proudly in your living/family room.

I am sure your wile will love it.

 

8)

[mr.sparkle]

I love your Frank-unraid.

 

You made that 6-fan mount?

[jbrodriguez]

looks awesome !

[Influencer]

This is something only a geek or storage nerd would enjoy, and I absolutely love it. Inspires me to run out to the wood shop(I am/was a carpenter) and have at it, 

 

Again, love it, makes me think my pretty perfect cable management case isn't so great now!

[ldasilva]

looks awesome !

 

 

+1

[Squid]

Yeah, I know the 80mm looks really strange there.  I just haven't made the trip down the street to the local store to grab another 120mm.  Too lazy.

 

The wife has said "Definately No!" to proudly displaying it.

 

And just so you guys don't think that I'm a complete wiring slob, here's the only visible part of the main HTPC.  All anybody can see is an external blu-ray drive with the IR receiver sitting on top.  I lucked out in that my server (furnace) room is directly behind the rec room, so it was super easy to hide the actual computer and wiring for the receiver.

 

My other HTPC's are using "real" HTPC cases with LCD displays, but this is the one that looks the best because its so minimalist.

[Johnm]

I fail to see the problem with this solution..

 

Many times i have walked through the lumber section of the hardware store and thought that I could build a better mousetrap.. or server in this case (no pun intended).

 

If you have a place to hide it, a frankencase can save you hundreds and hundreds of dollars that you can then put to the price of storage (drives).. after all, storage is what this forum is about right?

 

 

Here I am trying to figure out how to shove more drives into an already full norco. With this solution, I would just need some scrap MDF/plywood.

[Joe L.]

Here I am trying to figure out how to shove more drives into an already full norco. With this solution, I would just need some scrap MDF/plywood.

And, with what you can sell the norco for, you can buy a lot of MDF/plywood, glue... perhaps even a few fans. 

[kegler]

I really hate to throw cold water on your build, but unless you live out in the sticks and/or have no amateur radio enthusiasts nearby, you are going to have radio emission problems with your neighbors.  Commercial cases are designed to meet FCC regulations under Title 47 Part 15 B

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_47_CFR_Part_15

 

I would at minimum try to keep your motherboard inside a commercial case, since that will be the primary radiator of radio waves.

 

I don't hear much about enforcement of these regulations anymore nowadays but it something to consider before going this route.

[neilt0]

Other issues:

 

1) Dust!

 

2) Is everything grounded?

 

3) When you move it will everything fall apart?

 

Otherwise...err...great!

[Johnm]

Here I am trying to figure out how to shove more drives into an already full norco. With this solution, I would just need some scrap MDF/plywood.

And, with what you can sell the norco for, you can buy a lot of MDF/plywood, glue... perhaps even a few fans. 

 

.....

 

[Influencer]

Here I am trying to figure out how to shove more drives into an already full norco. With this solution, I would just need some scrap MDF/plywood.

And, with what you can sell the norco for, you can buy a lot of MDF/plywood, glue... perhaps even a few fans. 

 

.....

 

 

I have tons of MDF and plywood around, trade you for the norco,  ;D ;D

[Johnm]

Here I am trying to figure out how to shove more drives into an already full norco. With this solution, I would just need some scrap MDF/plywood.

And, with what you can sell the norco for, you can buy a lot of MDF/plywood, glue... perhaps even a few fans. 

 

.....

 

 

I have tons of MDF and plywood around, trade you for the norco,  ;D ;D

 

Let me think about that... I'll get back to you..

 

 

 

back on topic.

One thing i thing I would change about the "drive rack". I think I would have the drives slide out the side with the cables and have the fans just screwed to the wood frame. I would not bother with the hinged fanwall door (I'm not saying it is a bad idea, I am just thinking more like KISS).

the downside to my idea is that possibility of knocking a connector loose on an another drive. that might already be a problem if one has an untidy cable nest anyways.

its all about personal preference.

 

If I knew someone with a CNC (traditional or laser), I have some backblaze type ideas for both horizontal and vertical drive arrays.