The Cave - 10 Drive server on a budjet

CaveBox · February 13, 2014

I'm writing this to give something back to this tread that was a greate inspiration for me when I was building this server. It's not much, and a fairly standard build I guess, it is what it is.

After living with 4 WD Mybook world II nas boxes for a few years, one added after another when full, I desided I could not keep doing that.

I allmost ordered an Asustor AS-608T before i stumled on to this place, and was more or less sold after reading a few treads.

OS at time of building: unRAIDServer-5.0-i386 pro

CPU: AMD CPU APU A4-4000 Socket-FM2 3.0GHZ 65w

Motherboard: S-FM2 AMD A55 mATX F2A55-M LK

RAM: 2xPATRIOT Memory 4GB DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 Module Signature Line

Case: Case Elite 344 Minitower

Drive Cage(s) :CHIEFTEC 2 x 5.25" bays for 3 S-ATA HDD, Hot-Swap

Power Supply: Cooler Master G650M, 650W PSU

SATA Expansion Card(s):2x PCI-E RAID Express Card to 2 SATA II Controller

Internal USB: 9 / 10 Pin Motherboard USB Header to 2 Ports USB 2.0 A Female Adapter converter

UPS:APC Back-UPS pro 900

Parity Drive: WD40EFRX

Data Drives: 1xWD40EFRX + 3xWD20EARX + 4xWD20EARS

Cache Drive: WD5000AAVS

Total Drive Capacity: 18.5TB

Primary Use: Plex Media Server

Likes: 100% reliable from day 1

Dislikes: no more room

Add Ons Used: Sick Beard / SABnzbd / Plexconnect / Plex Media Server

Future Plans: Replace 2tb drives with 4tb when needed

Boot (peak):110w

Idle (avg):45w

Active (avg):90w

Light use (avg):60w

External picture with ups:

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Internal:

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Hacked up wd Mybook world case:

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Ebay Sata-controller:

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Internal USB-adapter:

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I found the cheapest mb with 6 sataports that I could find, with the cheapest cpu that mached. The case was dirt cheap, and a mistake, as it's to small. It only fits 6 drives, and I had to get a 2 to 3 drivecage to add more drives that was two times the cost of the case. I allso had to remove the external usb-sound connectors from the cage to fit one of the drives inside. The last of the 10 drives is in a hacked up wd mybook world cage velcroed to the bottom of the cage.

The motherboard does not have an internal usb port, but as most do have internal connectors, so I got an adapter on eBay that works great: http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-10-Pin-Motherboard-USB-Header-to-2-Ports-USB-2-0-A-Female-Adapter-converter-/111161473158?ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:US:1120

I'm allso running two sata kontrollers from eBay that works just fine: http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-E-PCIE-RAID-Express-Card-to-2-SATA-II-Controller-/120665817623?ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:US:3160

Well, that's it....