MAIOS - My All In One Server - Water cooled

[Kosti]

Note that there's NO real reason to keep specific categories limited to a single disk.  That effectively eliminates one of the key advantages of the user shares -- the ability to reference a share without worrying about which physical drive it's on.    By setting the appropriate split levels for your shares, you can ensure there are no individual movies or episodes that are split among drives (thus not requiring multiple spin-ups to stream, potentially resulting in pauses during playback) ... but that you also won't run out of space when writing to a share because one drive is full but the others have TB's of free space.

 

If you simply create a share for each category you want to segregate [e.g. Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos, Photos, etc.] the UnRAID user shares will keep those nicely separate for you, regardless of which physical disk they're stored on.

 

Thanks, my music grows as I create my own compilations from tracks that I like and remix, the problem with that is I may grab 20 different albums to find 12 tracks worth mixing 

 

OK, I am looking at this and also high water

 

But before I go any further I would like to get the Clean Powerdown confirmed and working since I am using this in VM, I am not sure if it will do a clean power down if the power button is pressed

 

So I need to do some testing however I am not sure if limetech have made changes or improved this feature or that I should be using WeeboTech pkg?

 

When I do press the button I do it purely for the simplicity and this is a one touch effort, to try and open consoles and issue commands maybe not an option when I need to kill the whole MAIOS in one keystroke, so I would like to get this functioning as best as possible

 

My question is and reading an post about it is to perform the test

 

To test if the power button will send an ACPI message, do as I outlined

 

Type

killall acpid

cat /proc/acpi/event

then momentarily press the power button (press it for less than a second).

If you see a message like this:

button/power PWRF 00000080 00000001

the power button will work to send a message to shut down the server.

You can then type

"control-C" on the screen with the "cat" command to stop it.

then type

/etc/rc.d/rc.acpid restart

to re-start the acpi daemon process you killed earlier.

Then type

grep power /etc/acpi/acpi_handler.sh

 

I assume I cannot stop this shutdonw process since it is in a VM hosted by ESXI, so the whole machine will turn off, will I should I be able to check the logs for a clean shut down?

 

I have no data or even set any drive to the array yet, so I guess no major harm, still curious if the vm tools where to be made available for V6 could it offer a clean shutdown too?

[jonp]

This build is AWESOME! Really great work. Its just BEGGING for you to toss in a GPU and make this a gaming rig with a VM but not sure if you are a gamer at all...

 

On water cooling, I've been building custom and water cooled systems since I was a kid.  The advancements in water cooling over the past decades I think have been substantial enough for me to not worry about it.  The only major issue is the potential for a leak, but if you buy quality kits, you should be fine.  That said, I think the bigger benefit of it on unraid right now is for noise reduction over actual performance gains.

 

Anyway, just wanted to show my appreciation for a quality build. Nice work man.

[trurl]

...

I assume I cannot stop this shutdonw process since it is in a VM hosted by ESXI, so the whole machine will turn off, will I should I be able to check the logs for a clean shut down?

 

I have no data or even set any drive to the array yet, so I guess no major harm, still curious if the vm tools where to be made available for V6 could it offer a clean shutdown too?

Not sure how useful a powerdown test without the array started would be, much less with no array defined. The main point of powerdown is to make sure nothing is preventing the array from being stopped prior to shutting down the system. If the system is shutdown without stopping the array, you could have invalid parity, and it will always trigger a correcting parity check on next startup.

[WeeboTech]

This build is AWESOME! Really great work. Its just BEGGING for you to toss in a GPU and make this a gaming rig with a VM but not sure if you are a gamer at all...

 

On water cooling, I've been building custom and water cooled systems since I was a kid.  The advancements in water cooling over the past decades I think have been substantial enough for me to not worry about it.  The only major issue is the potential for a leak, but if you buy quality kits, you should be fine.  That said, I think the bigger benefit of it on unraid right now is for noise reduction over actual performance gains.

 

Anyway, just wanted to show my appreciation for a quality build. Nice work man.

 

 

What's the real benefit of water cooling over air in this type of setup?

[garycase]

What's the real benefit of water cooling over air in this type of setup?

 

Ditto.

 

While it's true that water cooled setups are generally quieter than air cooling for the same level of cooling performance, I haven't found my UnRAID servers to be anything close to loud with quality 120-140mm fans.

 

However, if a system like this was equipped with a high-end video card (as JonP noted) and used to run a VM for gaming, then I can easily understand how the water cooling option would keep it cool at lower noise levels.

 

Definitely has a nice "slick factor" however 

[jonp]

What's the real benefit of water cooling over air in this type of setup?

 

Ditto.

 

While it's true that water cooled setups are generally quieter than air cooling for the same level of cooling performance, I haven't found my UnRAID servers to be anything close to loud with quality 120-140mm fans.

 

However, if a system like this was equipped with a high-end video card (as JonP noted) and used to run a VM for gaming, then I can easily understand how the water cooling option would keep it cool at lower noise levels.

 

Definitely has a nice "slick factor" however 

Bingo.

 

CPU water cooling to me is just not worth it anymore except for the "coolness factor.". Not even for gaming. GPU cooling however makes a lot of sense for gaming and noise reduction.

 

Generally speaking though, I would not advise overclocking the CPU on your NAS. Not a good idea.

[Kosti]

Obviously U all don't suffer from UCD 

 

Yes was to be a complete replacement for gaming however sold off my two titans to fund my car project that's another story 

 

For now I've very happy with it and looking at ways to improve its cooling factors and epenis hahahaha

 

Cheers

Kosti

[WeeboTech]

I don't suffer that UCD much to go water cooling. LOL!

I had contemplated going with one of those huge passive heat sinks since the case is filled with 140MM fans all over.

 

My unRAID server is smaller, but I find the 140MM fans and internal noise reduction of the Fractal Design R4 to be so quiet I cannot hear it. Maybe it'll be different if I game on it or do lots of hashing/par2'ing for file protection.

That's yet to be seen.

 

Years ago I would install stick on sound absorbing material in all cases that were near me. Worked like a charm.

 

In one server, the back of it would let out some noise. It would bounce off the wall behind it, thus reverberating throughout the room.  As hokey as it was, I stapled some sound deadening foam to cardboard and stood it in back of the serve near the wall. Helped a great deal.

[jonp]

My first water cooling project was on an AMD Athlon from way back in the day. There were no water cooling "kits" back then, so I had a copper water jacket, rubber hosing with clamps, a Tupperware container, a fish tank pump, and a mini radiator that myself, Eric, and our friend Nick assembled ourselves.  Over clocked that proc by 25% and kept it cool.

 

Nothing is as hokey as putting fish tank parts into a computer case ;-)

[Kosti]

Brings back memories of memories of peltier cooling, but now its all about LN cooling / refrigeration 

 

My next project

 

[SSD]

I acknowledge a certain coolness factor, but in a 24x7x365 server, where overclocking is of no benefit for the vast majority of users, I would opt for air. It is a set it and forget it solutions and worst  problem I ever had was a screeching fan that was easily replaced and never brought down the server. With water cooling I imagine 4 years in, a leak or pump failure that crashes my server and now I'm trying to find the instructions, locate esoteric parts, and looking to totally dismantle my server and hoping the MB / CPU isn't fried. All while my wife is POed that she can't watch a movie.

 

Uptime is king for my server.

 

[jonp]

I acknowledge a certain coolness factor, but in a 24x7x365 server, where overclocking is of no benefit for the vast majority of users, I would opt for air. It is a set it and forget it solutions and worst  problem I ever had was a screeching fan that was easily replaced and never brought down the server. With water cooling I imagine 4 years in, a leak or pump failure that crashes my server and now I'm trying to find the instructions, locate esoteric parts, and looking to totally dismantle my server and hoping the MB / CPU isn't fried. All while my wife is POed that she can't watch a movie.

 

Uptime is king for my server.

I get what you're saying, but the WC kits today are really rock solid.  You'd really have to puncture the hosing to cause a leak. That said, I still say it just isn't necessary for CPU unless you're doing some major content encoding or something else.  And even then, only if your overclocking the CPU which I highly advise against when we are talking about unraid. CPU overclocking, even with water cooling, is just prone to more gremlin issues because your stressing the proc to operate outside its tested and supported frequency and multiplier ranges.  With data protection on the line, its just not worth the risk.

 

With GPU over clocking, there is a lot more to be gained with a lot less risk, but even a GPU when OC'd too much can cause a hang up on the host, even when its passed through to a VM.  Dangerous territory only for the super brave (or super foolish depending on how you look at it) ;-).

[WeeboTech]

I see it for gaming/overclocking. I see it for the potential noise factor. I see it for the wow factor. I don't see it for me. LOL. Unless I could stick the radiator out the window or somehow use it to heat the room and save on other resources.

 

I'm more elated with the ideas of a CPU cooler that is passive and having large case fans do the work.

In that case, there's little worry of a cheesy intel CPU cooler failing and causing difficulty in the machine.

 

 

Yet to be real about this, In all the years I've been building, I've never had a CPU fan fail before I upgraded the machine.

What I've loved about many of the supermicro builds is they design them with an air shroud and passive heat sinks.

[garycase]

My #1 goal with my servers is always QUIET ... I don't want to hear them.

 

My Q25B easily meets that;  my Fractal R4 is even quieter (it's a REALLY nice case for a quiet build); and my Define Mini (also a Fractal case) is essentially the same as the R4 except smaller.

 

My q25B has passive CPU cooling and a VERY quiet case fan; the Fractal cases have CPU fans as well as the case fans, but as WeeboTech noted they are VERY well insulated with sound deadening material.

 

I DO like the looks and "slick" factor of water cooling -- but it's not something I'll be using in any of my systems.  I've built a couple water-cooled systems for others, but they wanted high-end gaming capabilities, so the water cooling was really more for the GPUs than the CPUs  [i NEVER overclock a CPU ... if I want more power, I buy a better CPU].

 

[WeeboTech]

<TANGENT>What passive CPU cooling are you using</TANGENT>

[garycase]

<TANGENT>What passive CPU cooling are you using</TANGENT>

 

My Q25B system uses this motherboard, which is a passively cooled Atom:

http://www.wiredzone.com/supermicro-motherboard-x7spa-hf-d525-10020837?gclid=CNXB0Y-XgsMCFepaMgodxDAAKA

[SSD]

I agree a quiet environment is important. Two solutions - make the machine very quiet, our make the machine be very far away. I take the second approach. If I had to listen to it from my media room, I think I'd be more interested in these discussions of quiet servers. My desktop is a little noisy and just got a silent laptop and plan to use for everyday stuff, and remote into my bigger desktop, which will move to the basement next to the unRaid server, when I need to get serious.

 

As far as water cooling being "rock solid", I can't say I'd agree to anything better than "very reliable", at least for it's first few years of use. But a huge copper heatsink, THAT is rock solid - literally and figuratively. Unless the laws of physics are revoked, it will keep the CPU cooled forever!

[garycase]

...  Two solutions - make the machine very quiet, our make the machine be very far away ...

 

I definitely prefer the 1st, although I understand the 2nd => the first hard drive I had (circa 1980/81) was a 14" Winchester that, in addition to being very expensive ($4500 for 26MB) was also very noisy.  My computer at the time was in our bedroom, and the hard drive made it REALLY noisy.  I actually mounted the hard drive on a table in the closet (in the wall behind the computer); cut a hold in the wall for the ribbon cable that went from the hard drive to the controller card in the PC chassis; and put insulated the hold where the cable ran.  Kept the hard drive noise in the closet, which was well insulated