April 12, 201313 yr Author Totally agree. I've been meaning to get one for a while now, just never got around to it. I'll have some hard numbers up Tuesday after it gets here. I'll even stop all the plugins so I can spin the cache drive down to get a true idle reading. I plan to measure 1) true idle (plugins stopped, all drives spun down), 2) normal idle (plugins running, cache spun up), 3) all drives spun up but otherwise idle, and 4) parity check.
April 15, 201313 yr Author So turns out the Kill-A-Watt got here a day early. Power consumption numbers have been added to the OP (just above the pictures). Much lower power draw than I originally thought.
June 2, 201313 yr Was the front fan hard to change out? Neither fan is hard to change out. They both have rubber grommets that screw into the fan, then the fan just pops into the chassis, quick disconnect style. There are no screws that physically screw the fan into the chassis. Just remove the grommets from the stock fans and put them on the new fans and pop them in. If I recall correctly, for the front fan, you push it to the right (if looking at the case from the front) and then move it rearward. It will come right out. To put it back in, line up the grommets with the holes, move it towards the front of the case, then push left to lock in place. I know it's a small space, but it's easier than you think. Look in there with a flashlight and you'll see how it mounts. Yes this can be helpful, to pull that out you have use the suggestions. This is help me but if i need something more i will come back to this one.
June 3, 201313 yr Looks like a sweet case but just curious... What are you guys planing for expansion? And how does thi differ from the HP Microservers (Other than horsepower for transcoding)? You can only have 5 drives in these. So.. 1 cache, 1 Parity, that's only 3 drives for storage or at most 12tb of usable storage. This can be quickly filled up as I have noticed once I actually built a server... Any comments?
June 3, 201313 yr Author Looks like a sweet case but just curious... What are you guys planing for expansion? And how does thi differ from the HP Microservers (Other than horsepower for transcoding)? You can only have 5 drives in these. So.. 1 cache, 1 Parity, that's only 3 drives for storage or at most 12tb of usable storage. This can be quickly filled up as I have noticed once I actually built a server... Any comments? I'm not planning anything for expansion. I intended this build to hold 7 drives max. It differs from the HP microserver in that it can hold 7 drives, as well as the horsepower difference you mentioned for transcoding. While the built-in hot swap drive cage only holds 5 drives, the bottom plate in the case can hold 2 additional 3.5" drives, for a total of 7.
June 3, 201313 yr Author Forgot to add, if you use 4TB drives (and you use both cache and parity) it gives you 20TB of storage in this case. If you needed even more you could even shoehorn a 2.5" laptop drive in there (for cache) and have 7x 4TB for 24TB with parity. I believe the bottom plate will hold 2x 3.5" drives and 1x 2.5" drive concurrently. Even if not there's space in the case to place the 2.5" drive.
June 5, 201313 yr Forgot to add, if you use 4TB drives (and you use both cache and parity) it gives you 20TB of storage in this case. If you needed even more you could even shoehorn a 2.5" laptop drive in there (for cache) and have 7x 4TB for 24TB with parity. I believe the bottom plate will hold 2x 3.5" drives and 1x 2.5" drive concurrently. Even if not there's space in the case to place the 2.5" drive. Also, 5TB drives will be out in fall/winter. That ups the total potential storage space to 30TB.
June 5, 201313 yr Author Also, 5TB drives will be out in fall/winter. That ups the total potential storage space to 30TB. Exactly, and 24TB (soon to be 30TB) is A LOT of storage for such a small form factor server.
June 8, 201313 yr Also, 5TB drives will be out in fall/winter. That ups the total potential storage space to 30TB. Exactly, and 24TB (soon to be 30TB) is A LOT of storage for such a small form factor server. Agree ... and with the new limits on Plus licenses, this is the perfect case for a Plus system. Pop in 7 5TB drives and shoehorn two SSDs in for a RAID-1 cache pool, and you'll have 30TB of fault-tolerant storage with write speeds limited only by the Gb network AND the cache will be fault-tolerant, so there's no disadvantage to using it !! I suspect my media server (my original UnRAID ... on a C2SEE board with 24TB of storage) will migrate to EXACTLY that system next year [When 5TB WD Reds are out] That only real question is whether I'll use another X7SPA D525 Atom board or one of the new Asus Socket 1150 boards with a Haswell CPU.
June 8, 201313 yr By the way, these little mini-ITX systems are definitely addictive. I'm planning on upgrading my desktop this fall, and am almost certainly going to use a mini-ITX Socket 1150 board with an i7-4770. Still debating which case => I love the Q25B for UnRAID use, but it doesn't have any reasonable way to add a DVD drive, so I'll probably use something like the Q28B or possibly a Q08B ... but it's VERY tempting to build a system with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112393 (The main problem is I need far more than just one disk drive !!)
June 8, 201313 yr ... but it's VERY tempting to build a system with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112393 (The main problem is I need far more than just one disk drive !!) So what you're saying is it might be, "the little engine that could?"
June 8, 201313 yr So what you're saying is it might be, "the little engine that could?" 8) It's simply S.. Cool !! Actually there was another more-expensive version of the same thing that's now been discontinued that was ever SLICKER !! [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112392 ] It came with some track and a power-pack, and the whole thing would actually move up and down the track when the PC was on :)
June 8, 201313 yr ... Look at about the 6:20 point in this video: Woo-WooT! This is the dawn of steampunk computing!
June 8, 201313 yr The Fractal unit is nice for a file server (like UnRAID) but has the same problem a Q25B case has when looking at desktop systems => i.e. no way to mount a DVD drive.
June 28, 201313 yr Do you see any issue with going with this PSU in the same case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048&Tpk=CX600M&IsVirtualParent=1 Reason I ask is I want to get a bigger PSU for future proofing but go with the ITX case for now. It's slightly longer @ 6.3" for the 600W modular instead of 5.5" for the CX430 (The CX430M - modular is longer as well - 6.3")
June 28, 201313 yr Do you see any issue with going with this PSU in the same case: Just one minor issue => It won't fit In fact, the dimensions of this unit are EXACTLY the same as a 400w PC Power & Cooling unit that I bought for that case -- and couldn't use because it doesn't fit. The CX430 JUST fits ... it's so close you have to remove the sticker from the side As for "future use" ... considering the CX430 is available for only $24.99 I wouldn't worry about that http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026
June 28, 201313 yr ... FWIW, a good SFX power supply fits much nicer in that case. e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256063
June 29, 201313 yr Thanks garycase! Would the CX430 be enough to support 6 7200 rpm drives? those are the only one's I have right now - 2 Seagate Barracudas (2TB each) and 4 seagate go-flex externals (2x 3TB and 2 x 2TB)- I think inside they are 7200 rpm drives as well.
June 29, 201313 yr I hope I'm not hijacking this thread. But my last question on this CX430 PSU : I see that it has just 4 SATA connectors - Is it correct to assume that the other two drives will need molex->SATA cables and use the peripheral connectors?
June 29, 201313 yr Author No worries at all, you're not hijacking the thread. Yes, the CX430 is more than enough to power six 7200 rpm drives. My build has 5 drives and during a parity check it only pulls 70W. 4 SATA connectors is just enough for 6 drives if I remember correctly (on vacation ATM so can't look at the server) but if memory serves, the 5 bay backplane takes 3 SATA power connectors to run those 5 drives, then the 4th connector can be used for the 6th drive on the floor plate. Worst case scenario you just use a molex connector with a molex-SATA converter for the 6th drive.
June 29, 201313 yr The CX430 has all the connectors you need. The backplane for the hot-swap bays doesn't use ANY of your SATA connectors [it uses 3 Molex connections for power]
June 29, 201313 yr Author The CX430 has all the connectors you need. The backplane for the hot-swap bays doesn't use ANY of your SATA connectors [it uses 3 Molex connections for power] Actually there can be slightly different versions of the backplanes in the case. I've seen pictures of one (spencers) that had only molex connectors. My case has SATA power connectors (and if I remember correctly it has molex as well, so you can use either). My backplane is currently connected via SATA power connectors.
June 29, 201313 yr The CX430 has all the connectors you need. The backplane for the hot-swap bays doesn't use ANY of your SATA connectors [it uses 3 Molex connections for power] Actually there can be slightly different versions of the backplanes in the case. I've seen pictures of one (spencers) that had only molex connectors. My case has SATA power connectors (and if I remember correctly it has molex as well, so you can use either). My backplane is currently connected via SATA power connectors. I'll have to pull my case off its shelf and take a peek, now that you've got me curious. I simply looked in the PDF manual, which clearly shows Molex connections ... and popped the side off the case, which clearly shows some unused SATA power connections -- so assumed the manual was correct. It's more difficult to get to the rear of my case where I've got it sitting ... but next time I shut the system down I'll take a peek just for grins
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