From looking at probably every off-the-shelf rack mount chassis available on the web, there are very few that are ideal for unRAID.  Usual show-stoppers are price, or fan noise.  And why do they put the reset button right next to the power button?

 

Anyway, we have found a couple good rack mount chassis solutions and will be announcing a new rack mount unRAID server product soon.

 

I'd like to find out people's opinions on rack mount configurations.  I may not be offering the correct set of poll responses, so recommendations are welcome & I'll tweak the poll appropriately.

 

Also, I'd really rather have comments appear directly on the Poll Results page, but the stock Joomla! poll module does not support this & I haven't found one that does - so if anyone knows of a Joomla! poll module that supports comments, please let me know, thanks!

From looking at probably every off-the-shelf rack mount chassis available on the web, there are very few that are ideal for unRAID.  Usual show-stoppers are price, or fan noise.  And why do they put the reset button right next to the power button?

 

Amen brother.  Amen.

probably won't change stuff around soon but when I get out of school and have some extra money to spare I will probably try to move stuff to a rack mount case.

 

Since I am currently in an apartment I rent it is basically pointless for me to set up anything to permanent.  When I get my first house and find a closet to dedicate this stuff to then I will probably move to a rack mount case.

A pro setup (either real business pro or home cinema pro) REQUIRES a rack mounted solution. Nuff said.

 

Usually fan noise is not a real problem since a rack (the first case type) is already full of noise in a computer room. In the second case type (which again in most of the cases is in a separate silenced room and there is a second rack in home cinema room only with silent "user tweakable" equipment) people that set them up replace every possible fan with silent alternatives.

 

Putting the reset button next to power is indeed stupid, but then again, unRAID should sheldomly need any of the two RIGHT? After all both buttons and the possible removable disk trays are locked behind the rack case door and/or the rack door (again: RIGHT?).

 

Go on and add a rack solution in your portfolio. Just do NOT loose focus on the software (now that things start becoming livelier again), unRAID is the software.

 

 

You may find this helpful.  My current rackmount case has nine 5.25 bays, so I can have three 5-in-3 cages.  I went this way because I had both IDE and SATA drives.  I have one IDE cage and 2 SATA cages.

 

The case has three 120mm fins in the center partition.... and they sound like jet engines.... but the move a ton of air.  The 70mm or 80mm fans on the cages are crap.

 

I got a fan controller:

 

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811992003

 

and put it on the partition fans, and monitored disk temps with different fan settings.  I found that I could have very acceptable temps with the fans dialed down to a much more acceptable noise level.

 

Later, after I discovered that the WD green drives report temps even when spun down, I wrote a script that polled the temps, and adjusted the fan speeds on the fly via PWM.

 

In any event, don't rule out an otherwise good case because of fan noise until you try it with the fan's dialed down and see what it does to drive temps.

 

Even for home use, I have gone rackmount.  I bought a CoolerMaster case with 9 5.25" bays up front.  I could not find the Lian-Li (I think it's the PC-A17 or something like that) that I really wanted, but this case was cheap enough.

 

I ended up using a hammer, pliers and some patience and grit to force the CoolerMaster case into a form that would accept three of Supermicro's  5-in-3 SATA drive racks (CSE-M35T-1B)

 

I rack-mount all my computer stuff now because it is sooo nice to be able to simply pop the top off while the whole thing is mounted on rails, replace parts or clean the guts as needed, then slide it all back in place.  No screwdrivers, cables to be unplugged, towers in front of one another making getting to the back one impossible... now they all slide out on rails individually and are easy to service... and thus, life is good 

 

Note that most "mid-tower" cases will fit sideways in a rack just fine, so you can use any case you like.  Instead of mounting rails to the top and bottom of your case, you can simply buy or build a shelf on rails.  This doesn't apply so much in a professional environment, but if you can get a rack for nothing (or next to nothing) then you can rack mount stuff at home, too and clean up your computer area while still keeping it all within reach for when something fails or needs updating.

 

 

I am converting my two systems to rack mount now.  I used the Norco 2040 for one but I am not really happy with it.  I am ording some more fans to boost the airflow.  What cases are you guys leaning towards?  I'd like to know so that I can check them out.

i have a norco 4020 myself, but the cooling seems to be fine. drives don't really get above 33-35c, although now they're sitting at 20-22c because its winter

Making the Norco cooler is simply a matter of changing one or more of the 80mm fans to high cfm shifter and blocking a couple of holes. The case is not perfect but band for buck its a quality bit of kit with a logical layout.

 

Personally i could not recommend rack mounitn gmore even if you dont have a rack. The Norco is cheap for the amount of proper slots you have and can easily be used witout a rack. Should you get one later on it offers a free upgrade path.

 

Some server cases allow rack and upright configuraitons but none i have found match the Norco for density vs price so far. one day though one will exist.

none

 

Yes, I store and stream HD-Video from television recordings on UnRaid plus some (don't have many) BRs.

 

[...]

Later, after I discovered that the WD green drives report temps even when spun down, I wrote a script that polled the temps, and adjusted the fan speeds on the fly via PWM.

Is that script available for public? It solves the problem of high noise e.g. when parity check runs vs. almost no flow required when all disks sleep...

In my living situation right now (apartment), I have zero interest in a rack mount.

 

If I owned a house, that had a decent isolated place for a server, I might consider a rack mount, but I doubt it would be a huge deal.

If I had space left in my rack, the server would be in it. As it is, it sits under a desk in a rack mount case waiting for me to run out of snazzier things to buy than another rack.

 

I'd be curious to see what choices you were considering...

I would say low to moderate.  I currently have no use for one, however, later in life I could see myself devoting a basement or closet to servers.

Take a Backblaze case, reduce the size(length front to back) of it to hold 14 or 15 x 3.5" Hdd's across the front, the option to have 3 120mm/140mm fans cooling said Hdd's, with filters that are easy to remove and clean(eg screwless!). Make it sturdy enough so that it could be used in either a desktop config or rackmount.

 

Mix and stir the following,

 

http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/

 

15 drive across = MB with 6 sata and 1 expansion card(Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8) and 1 cold spare.

 

http://www.lancoolpc.com/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=50&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=96&g=f

 

Great fan/filter setup with a nice front panel(just get rid if the 5.25" bays)

 

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6801

 

Can be used vertical or horizontal

 

My 2c

I was going to suggest a BackBlaze case, but your idea of a reduced size version is great! 

 

Regards,

 

Stephen

 

This thread is 3 years old. They don't sell hardware anymore...

This thread is 3 years old. They don't sell hardware anymore...

 

 

Below is the first sentence from the OP.

 

"From looking at probably every off-the-shelf rack mount chassis available on the web, there are very few that are ideal for unRAID."

 

For me, this still holds true. I wasn't suggesting buy a Backblaze case but use that as a template for the design of a new case, that would be good for UnRaid.

 

Yes this thread is 3 years old, so what?

 

For whatever reason Limetech hasn't put out a case(although I've heard rumours one might be around the corner), maybe this might remind him that the perfect case for UnRaid still needs looking into.