Suggestions for small, silent case for 10 hdds?

[CaptainSpalding]

I was thinking of Fractal Design R4, but as I have a mini-itx passive cooled MB, I really don't think I need the depth so much.

 

Are there cases that are better designed for mini-itx mobos and server use? Something like HP Microserver.

 

I dont like large racks and don't plan to use drive cages.

 

I wonder why gamers even need those big boxes with 8-10 hdd slots? 

[trurl]

I was thinking of Fractal Design R4, but as I have a mini-itx passive cooled MB, I really don't think I need the depth so much.

 

Are there cases that are better designed for mini-itx mobos and server use? Something like HP Microserver.

 

I dont like large racks and don't plan to use drive cages.

 

I wonder why gamers even need those big boxes with 8-10 hdd slots? 

Some of us are interested in the new Silverstone DS380. 8 hotswaps (3.5") + 4 (2.5") for 12 total.

[CaptainSpalding]

Looks very nice! Thanks!

[garycase]

Definitely second the DS380 => That's a VERY nice looking case.  It has all the features of the Lian-Li PC-Q25B that I like, but holds more drives; is very close to the same size; and the drives are accessed from the front, so no side-panel removal is required.

 

My next UnRAID build will almost certainly be with this case.

 

Looking at the pictures of the case, it seems you could easily mount 2-3 more 3.5" drives vertically behind the drive cages (in front of the rear fan).  Assuming 2 drives there, that would let you have 10 3.5" drives and 4 2.5" drives => an amazing amount of storage for such a small case !!

[CaptainSpalding]

That really looks like a nice case, but I'm really into silencing the server.

 

Has anyone here tested suspenders for the hdds?

 

My Sharkoon Rebel 12 would be a case that could use those, as I can get rid of smaller hdds, and that way could make room for better airflow too. And the humming from the drives would be lower.

 

I have not find any place to order these from.

 

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Nine_Suspended_HDDs_and_Testing

[garycase]

By far the quietest cases I've used in the last year or so were the Fractal Design Define R4 and Define Mini units.  They don't use "suspenders" ... but they do have shock-mounted hard drives, inside a VERY well acoustically-insulated case.

 

The R4 can hold 8 drives in its standard configuration; and there's plenty of room to internally mount a couple more ... especially if you use elastic mounts 

[CaptainSpalding]

Hmm... Witch would be faster, copy files from unraid server to another or replace the old server with new drives and make the file transfers internally (from smaller drives)?

 

Is it possible to move files with out assigning parity to the new drive and do parity build when I'm near done?

 

Just that the transfers speeds are soooo low (~25MB/s), it will take ages to move from server to server with parity assigned.

 

If I replace the disks to my old build there are the parity checks before and after and hours of moving the files.

[trurl]

Hmm... Witch would be faster, copy files from unraid server to another or replace the old server with new drives and make the file transfers internally (from smaller drives)?

 

Is it possible to move files with out assigning parity to the new drive and do parity build when I'm near done?

 

Just that the transfers speeds are soooo low (~25MB/s), it will take ages to move from server to server with parity assigned.

 

If I replace the disks to my old build there are the parity checks before and after and hours of moving the files.

Are you trying to end up with an additional server or are you just wanting to have larger drives in perhaps a new server?

 

I have "renewed" my original server several times, sometimes changing cases, sometimes changing mobo/cpu, sometimes just rebuilding smaller drives onto larger ones.

 

If all you want is to "renew" your current server you could just move the drives into a new build and then rebuild each drive onto a larger one as you need to add space.

 

[CaptainSpalding]

I'm trying to maximize the use of space, by using only 4TB drives. I counted I now have 16 2TB hdd's on my current array witch I could make into 8.

 

But the thing is that it's difficult to know how much different components make noise and what could be done to minimaze that. But the 22 drive tower I have now makes a hell of a lot more noise than the 3 drives that are preclearing with 2 x 1200rpm fans. I'm most certain that the drives themselves are the biggest noisemaker than any other component. I have even removed the CPU fan to hear that my self.

 

So the construction of the case is one thing, damping another (but needs good airflow too). The fans are the lesser evil.

 

The Sharkoon has so great airflow, but maybe the Fractal R4 is as good when it's not filled with drives like my current case. Well I'm going to make a little more thought work with this one. Till this day I have just added more drives when I needed space, but now that it's full and the 4TB drive prices has come down, I want to make use of the little knowledge I have gathered over the years from previous two builds.

 

[WeeboTech]

The Fractal case I have, has sound dampening material on the sides.

The internally removable drive trays have rubber dampers for the hard drives.

Given the right psu and fans, it would be pretty quiet.

 

 

[Helmonder]

The Fractal case I have, has sound dampening material on the sides.

The internally removable drive trays have rubber dampers for the hard drives.

Given the right psu and fans, it would be pretty quiet.

 

It is.

[CaptainSpalding]

I think the R4 it is then! 

 

I have another question also about my Dune. I have the unraid been connected to a switch (D-Link DGS-1005D) and thats connected to router D-Link DIR-655. Now if I turn on the Dune and the server is turned on after it does not find it? I need to power cycle it to do so. Is that something to do with the server being behind two networks? Or is this just problem with the Dune itself?

 

 

[trurl]

Your description doesn't sound like 2 networks. Is everything using DHCP from the router? Don't know anything about Dune.

[CaptainSpalding]

Yes they are using the DHCP from the router. Ok, so it's one network. Hmm...

 

It must be the Dune then. Dune 3D Base that is.

[CaptainSpalding]

I just precleared 3 4TB Seagate DM's and they took almost 47 hours! Must be a record?

 

I saw in User Benchmarks that someone had it done in little over 38 hours on the same model, what effects the speed?

 

Now that I'm planning to move my stuff to a second unraid server, can I leave assigning the parity drive to get better transfer speeds. I'm going to copy so a drive fail would not matter.

 

And if I use split level one the hierarchy from file to top level folder will be created to a one disk per file?

 

I was also thinking about using cache drive. I found a cheap WD Red 1 TB SATAIII 16 MB. Is 16MB gonna be much slower in basic file transfers?

[BobPhoenix]

Just doing a single cycle?  I don't trust less then 3 cycles and I've had drives fail shortly after adding them to the array after running 3 cycles and no errors showing.  Most I'll grant you are in the first or second cycle but I've had enough fail after the 1st cycle that I just don't trust a single pass.

[garycase]

... can I leave assigning the parity drive to get better transfer speeds. I'm going to copy so a drive fail would not matter.

 

Sure.  You can copy all the data and THEN assign a parity disk.  If you do that, the copies will be at your Gb network speed, since the modern 1TB/platter disks can sustain writes even faster than that.  ... i.e. about 3-4 times the speed of writing to a parity-protected array.

 

 

And if I use split level one the hierarchy from file to top level folder will be created to a one disk per file?

 

Individual files are never split among disks no matter what the split level is.

 

 

I was also thinking about using cache drive. I found a cheap WD Red 1 TB SATAIII 16 MB. Is 16MB gonna be much slower in basic file transfers?

 

The drive's cache size has virtually no impact on write speeds.    Personally, I don't use a cache drive, as I want all of my writes to be fault-tolerant as soon as they're done.

 

[CaptainSpalding]

Individual files are never split among disks no matter what the split level is.

 

Hmm... Not the individual files, but I need to whole path to be moved. When I got to a disk share I see the top folders, but when I go to file level, there might not be nothing or some of the files. When I go from a share that I have added the path is complete. I'm just thinking that if I want to move files first from the smallest drives, I need to some how know that the folders have all the files in them before the move.

 

Could it be because I have changed the folder structure after I started using this server years ago?

 

Or how could I move files from disk only? Or so that I could "empty" one disk at a time?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

 

[garycase]

If you want to ensure all the files in a folder are together, one fairly easy way is to copy FROM the share and TO a disk share.

 

e.g. if you copy the folder "Stuff to keep together" from a share, then all of the files in that folder will be copied, regardless of which disk they're actually on.    ... and if you copy it TO a disk share, then the entire folder will be on that share.

 

You could also just set the split level low enough that it couldn't split out the subfolders ... but this is likely to vary by folder in terms of what works best; so it's simpler to do the organization as I just outlined.

 

[CaptainSpalding]

Thanks!

 

But if I move folder like Movies from my old server to my new servers disk share, the files are moved, but on the new server how do I make a new share with similar or same name? So that on the new server I have the Movies folder (that has been spread across the old server) would be on multiple disks, but I could access it from share Movies? I have understood that I would have to move from share to share, but moving to disk shares is a "no no"?

[garycase]

As long as user shares are enabled, a "share" is simply any folder in the root level of a disk.

 

So, for example, if you have a folder named "Movies" on disk1, disk2, disk3, etc., then you can access everything in the Movies share via \\Tower\Movies

 

But you can copy data to the individual disk shares to force it to be on a specific disk.  i.e. you can copy an individual movie folder to \\Tower\disk1\Movies to ensure it's on disk1 ... but still access it via \\Tower\Movies

 

This lets you put individual folders on whatever disk you want.  And as I noted earlier, if you have folders with the individual files within that folder spread across different disks on your old server, if you simply copy FROM the share [i.e. \\OldTower\Movies\Movie-thats-on-multiple disks]  TO a disk share on the new server [i.e. \\NewTower\disk2\Movies] then the entire folder will be on the new disk.

 

Note that your two servers DO have to use different names    [i.e. both can't be "Tower"]

 

 

[CaptainSpalding]

Yes, thanks for the clarification!

 

 

[CaptainSpalding]

Is there a command line to copy folders with command line using screen?

 

Would be preferred if I could see also a log of what has been copied.

[garycase]

I prefer to use Windows commands, but in Linux you can use cp

 

Examples:  http://www.computerhope.com/unix/ucp.htm

 

[CaptainSpalding]

Nice, thanks!