My New Build !


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My Unraid server still serves me great. I have been using it since 2012.

 

My setup is as follows:

 

Primary Unraid server:

Supermicro X9SCM-F with a Xeon E31230 and 32GB ECC  RAM

2 * AOC-SASLP-MV8 as SATA controllers

1 Supermicro 4in1 CSE-M14TB (4 2.5"drives in one 5 1/4"slot)

1 Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B (5in3)

Data:44 TB spread over 10 disks with 2 parity drives

Cache: 4 * 250GB SSD in BTRFS pool.

Unraid PRO key

 

Secundary unraid server:

Supermicro X9SCL with a Xeon E3 1230V2 and 16GB ECC RAM

Data: 4 * Seagate 8TB Shingled disks with 1 parity drive (non shingled)

Cache: 1 * 120 GB SSD

Unraid PRO key

 

Both servers are performing without any bottlenecks and there is no need to upgrade. I however have a convenience issue with the primary server, 5 drives are reachable externally (thru the 5in3) but the others are not. Also: When I grow my array I will get an issue with my secundary server (used for backups), it can not hold to many drives.

 

Therefor I went on the lookout for a big tower case that could hold 20 drives, all to be reachable from the outside. Since I am already using one 5in3 by Supermicro (and am happpy with it), I want to use those more.

 

That is when it all started... It proved to be almost impossible to find a case capable of this.. The Antec 1200 V3 seemed ideal but could not be found anywhere.. In the end I found a used one on ebay (not used, but damaged box), I ordered that one and it arrived. I also bought two 5in3's used thru amazon,

 

This weekend I have started working on the case. For the 5in3's to fit a whole lot of little metal studs needs to be removed from the case, I found that the best way to do this is to weaken them with a Dremel and then just pry 'm out. The metal is actually pretty sturdy so the case itself did nog get bent in any way..

 

I now have 2 5in3's installed and the next is doing the open heart surgery and removing my trusty tower from its Fractal Design XL and moving it into the modded Antec 1200 V3..

IMG_1363.JPG.ff1ee8b4c29cdb6d259dacdb38c6e716.JPG

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A bit of advice -- you may have already thought of this and done it;  but just in case ...

 

... before you start populating the case with electronics and drives, I'd go ahead and remove the metal studs from the other slots so your final 2 5-in-3 cages will just slide in without having to do any "surgery" on the case while it's got a motherboard and other electronics installed.    Any tiny little metal shavings from the Dremel can have a BAD effect on motherboard parts if they happen to get in the wrong place  :)

 

In fact, I'd be inclined to go ahead and get the other two 5-in-3 cages and install them before you move the motherboard, etc.    You don't need to actually connect them, so you can hold off on adding additional SATA slots; but it's be oh-so-much more convenient to not have to bother with the case mods when you get past the 10-drive point in that system.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

The system is build and up and running. I had some issues getting unraid back up, two major issues:

 

1) since I did not have enough molex connectors to satisfy the power sockets for thje 5in3's I used several molex splitters. The system however refused to post, only one continuous beep.. I went thru the motions of disabling parts of the system to asses where the problem was, it appeared to be the drive cages. For some reason the molex spliters cause an issue (even though I have a common rail PSU). I change these to regular power cables, running more molex cables from the (modular) PSU. This has solved this issue.

 

2) Now I did not get unraid to start, weird stuff going on that in the end was solved by using a different usb port, see the following post for the details: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=52979.msg509255#msg509255

 

Whats next ?

 

The system is making way to much noise, I ordered 4 92mm Noctua low noise fants to replace the fans on the 5in3's and also two Noctua's to replace the back exhaust fans that come default with the Antec 1200 V3. I think I will simply deactivate the 20cm top exhaust as I do not think it is needed..

 

Since I now have 20 bays for HDU's I have no space anymore for my 4 SSD's.. I have now simply put them on top of my PSU, which ofcourse is not ideal (no heat issues though). I have ordered a couple of 2.5" brackets to put the SSD's in the 5in3's... Eventually I will need to mod the insides to place the 4in1 op top of the PSU.. That will free up space more for more HDU's. But for the time beiing the brackets will suffice.

 

I need to find some way to clean up the cable mess. It doesn't look good (but does work) at the moment..

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The Noctua fans are in now and the system has quiet down considerably, very happy with it.

 

I did some counting on the storage and I will start of with putting the SSD's in the regular 5in3 cages using adaptors, this will be fine for some time since I have capacity for 22 drives in this system (4+2 on the motherboard plus 16 on the expansion cards) and 20 drive spaces.

 

I now have 12 HDU's plus 4 SSD's, that's 16 drives, leaving room for four more.

 

The moment that is no longer enough I will move my 4 SSD's to two SSD's and put them in an expansion slot, that frees me up for a max of 20 HDU's and 2 SSD's (maximum for the board AND the case).

 

Calculating with current max drives sizes (10TB) that means I can have a 200 TB array in this case.. IO have 42 now.. So I will be fine for the comming years :-)

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... Calculating with current max drives sizes (10TB) that means I can have a 200 TB array in this case.. IO have 42 now.. So I will be fine for the comming years :-)

 

You'd actually have 180TB of capacity, since 2 of the drives would, I presume, be parity drives => but I suspect that's still enough for a while  :) :)

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