The Black Dwarf NAS from WillU Design

[neilt0]

 

http://www.willudesign.com/BlackDwarfTop.html

 

Do not miss the build videos!

 

Part 1:

Part 2:

Behind the scenes:

[Joe L.]

Great artistry, but really really really hard on the disks.

 

Metal filings everywhere.... use of the portable jigsaw probably rattled them to death if the filings did not get into things.

 

Let's see... hard-disks, very strong magnets used to position the heads, metal filings that are attracted to magnets.  Does anyone else wonder about the possible lifetime of those drives or the circuit boards with a tiny filing waiting for just the right vibration to find its way to something interesting...

 

I really hoped those were dead drives to start with.

 

Then I saw the second video and could see he was far more careful with the actual drives that would go into the enclosure.

 

Joe L.

[neilt0]

They were all dead disks used for the template.

[terrastrife]

Great artistry, but really really really hard on the disks.

 

Metal filings everywhere.... use of the portable jigsaw probably rattled them to death if the filings did not get into things.

 

Let's see... hard-disks, very strong magnets used to position the heads, metal filings that are attracted to magnets.  Does anyone else wonder about the possible lifetime of those drives or the circuit boards with a tiny filing waiting for just the right vibration to find its way to something interesting...

 

I really hoped those were dead drives to start with.

 

Then I saw the second video and could see he was far more careful with the actual drives that would go into the enclosure.

 

Joe L.

 

it wasnt build with the 2tb hdds, there was a bunch of random disks.

 

but, isnt that angle probably out of spec for a hdd operational range?

[neilt0]

but, isnt that angle probably out of spec for a hdd operational range?

 

Maybe, maybe not: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21533

[prostuff1]

but, isnt that angle probably out of spec for a hdd operational range?

 

An iMac from Apple with the screen tilted will simulate about the same angle on a drive.

 

I actually kind of like the little thing.  It does not look all that bad and it holds a lot of drives.

[NAS]

Me to but the slope = at least one less drive in the same space

[neilt0]

I like the idea, but I'm not in love with the shape. It reminds me of a floppy disk box:

 

[purko]

I like the idea, but I'm not in love with the shape. It reminds me of a floppy disk box

Funny, that's exactly what I think is cool about it.

 

[dogmanky]

I like the idea, but I'm not in love with the shape. It reminds me of a floppy disk box:

 

 

LMAO.. I still have one of those

[NAS]

The thing about quirky design is when you need another one its not the same

 

I like it but i would never buy one

[Joe L.]

I like the idea, but I'm not in love with the shape. It reminds me of a floppy disk box:

 

 

LMAO.. I still have one of those

I still have about half a case of blank floppies....  have not yet had the heart to throw them away.

(with the end of the disk sheared off, then resulting padded sleeve is perfect for putting the odd cd or dvd into.)

 

Joe L.

[Rajahal]

Definitely looks nice, but I wonder about the cooling.  I guess it can't be any worse than the standard vertical stack of drives.

[neilt0]

Definitely looks nice, but I wonder about the cooling.  I guess it can't be any worse than the standard vertical stack of drives.

 

There's a gap between drives, large holes in the bottom, the drives are attached to alu plates acting as a heatsink (the main case structure is steel) and there is a single fan at the back. It's not designed for unRAID, so I wonder how the heat would build during a long parity check.

[BRiT]

The drive temps should be worse in traditional raid setups since every drive is utilized for reading and writing and none of them will ever be spun down.

[neilt0]

The drive temps should be worse in traditional raid setups since every drive is utilized for reading and writing and none of them will ever be spun down.

 

Not necessarily -- the drives may be idle most of the time, even if not spun down, and a burst of writing -- say 2 minutes, may not raise drive temps as much as 12 hours of parity checking, right?

[BRiT]

Traditional raid's also have lengthy parity checks too, where every bit is read and checked against the parity.

 

In all equal cases, a traditional raid array will have higher temps or at best identical temps to unRAID.