My TinyTen mini-server


queeg

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 I've even considered buying the Norco and ripping the racks out to be used in other cases.

 

I have thought about doing that too for my Antec 1200, but I was told that the Norco's hot swaps are a part of the case...

 

I drill out rivets for breakfast :)

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How about an old time radio looking case modded to fit a 5-in-3 enclosure out the back?  Cool or dumb?  Use an ITX board with HDMI output and it might appeal to some folks. 

 

Imagine being able to have virtual machines running XBMC or whatever and it's got potential.  But...awwww, no virtual machines on stock unRAID. 

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Here are a couple of pictures I took a while ago.  One shows an Icy Dock in the case.  The other shows two Supermicro cages and the psu is an Antec 380 that I had handy just to give some perspective.  The top Supermicro cage is pushed too far into the case because the bezel wasn't on the case.  The lower Supermicro cage is in the correct position.  You can see that there is lots of room between the psu and the 5-in-3 case. 

 

My Corsair 620HX is about a half inch longer than that Antec, so it should fit it looks like.  Thanks for the visual.

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I drill out rivets for breakfast :)

 

When the Norco came out, I remember a little bit of a backlash on a few storage related forums (not here) along the lines of "Those Norcos will destroy the custom made storage niche."

 

Nice to know that somewhere out there someone will destroy a Norco to make a custom made storage solution. For turning the tables I salute you!

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Hey Queeg, how about this guy?  It's got a lot going on with the plastic in front, but otherwise..?

 

Well it's thinner but not quite tall enough to make it a 12 bay.  This is also really preliminary as there is no telling where the bezel pegs are located and they can't be cut off.

Foxconn_TLM566.jpg.1947b6d1ffaecfa042065c2c330868d6.jpg

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Hey Queeg, how about this guy?  It's got a lot going on with the plastic in front, but otherwise..?

 

Well it's thinner but not quite tall enough to make it a 12 bay.  This is also really preliminary as there is no telling where the bezel pegs are located and they can't be cut off.

 

That's nice, you could fit a single 5.25 removable for the parity drive.

A point to consider is where you put the extra PSU cable lengths.

That was a factor with the other tiny ten. I shoved them into the open spot between the icy docks and all was well. Otherwise they would have impeded air flow.

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Hey Queeg, how about this guy?  It's got a lot going on with the plastic in front, but otherwise..?

 

Well it's thinner but not quite tall enough to make it a 12 bay.  This is also really preliminary as there is no telling where the bezel pegs are located and they can't be cut off.

 

That's nice, you could fit a single 5.25 removable for the parity drive.

A point to consider is where you put the extra PSU cable lengths.

That was a factor with the other tiny ten. I shoved them into the open spot between the icy docks and all was well. Otherwise they would have impeded air flow.

 

I'd probably want to move the top 5-in-3 up to the bottom of the first top 5.25 bay.  Then move the bottom 5-in-3 up some from the bottom.  Maybe leave a small gap between the 5-in-3's.  Here's an example.

Foxconn_TLM566_again.jpg.e5b5e3bc6cecf2e252f28810f2e37306.jpg

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Well it's thinner but not quite tall enough to make it a 12 bay.  This is also really preliminary as there is no telling where the bezel pegs are located and they can't be cut off.

 

Well, what I was looking at is that it is an inch deeper, although that's external dimensions so that could just be bezel.

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I'd probably want to move the top 5-in-3 up to the bottom of the first top 5.25 bay.  Then move the bottom 5-in-3 up some from the bottom.  Maybe leave a small gap between the 5-in-3's.  Here's an example.

How about this?  Weebo, one thing I really want is to add a parity drive outside of the 10 data drives, so I've been lobbying Queeg about such a mod...

TinyTenPlus1.jpg.20c2de0b5e1180398de9a47f040b60b4.jpg

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...one thing I really want is to add a parity drive outside of the 10 data drives, so I've been lobbying Queeg about such a mod...

 

I like that idea too.  Physically separating the parity drive from the other data drives makes it much more 'noob friendly' in my opinion.  I think it would be even better if the single drive slot were a different style or different color or something to further differentiate it.  Or if there are two spare slots, maybe designate one for a cache/warm spare as well.

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...one thing I really want is to add a parity drive outside of the 10 data drives, so I've been lobbying Queeg about such a mod...

 

I like that idea too.  Physically separating the parity drive from the other data drives makes it much more 'noob friendly' in my opinion.  I think it would be even better if the single drive slot were a different style or different color or something to further differentiate it.  Or if there are two spare slots, maybe designate one for a cache/warm spare as well.

 

I like the way this looks and is coming about, it all depends if it's do-able.

So.. is there an experimenter fund we can drop a few bucks in for queeg? LOL!

 

I do think that the parity drive slot should be the same removable as the others. it doesn't need to be that different. It's on top (or wherever the best airflow would be).

As far as cache/warm spare 3in2's. Entirely possible.  remember the 3in2's I had available a while back!

So a total trayless 10+1 or 10+2 would be sweet.

 

But after you go through all of this work. Is it really worth it?

The 15 drive cm590 trayless was a really nice unit (exactly what I intended, but my needs outgrew that design).

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Queeg, have you seen this Rosewill case?  It's 3.5" longer as well, but I think the button layout is ideal.

 

But after you go through all of this work. Is it really worth it?

Like all hobbies, is it really about whether it's worth the work, or is it just about constant tinkering because we find pleasure in building systems?  I also am trying to find the right balance of performance, capacity, and cooling, in as small a footprint as possible.  And we all have a different "ideal" number of drives depending on our resources and server role.

 

So.. is there an experimenter fund we can drop a few bucks in for queeg? LOL!

I'm all for it if it helps Queeg finance his prototypes.

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As far as cache/warm spare 3in2's. Entirely possible.  remember the 3in2's I had available a while back!

 

I actually just migrated my server into my Norco 4220 last weekend, so I have those two 3-in-2's that I bought from WeeboTech sitting dormant for the time being.  Queeg - if you need one or both for testing, let me know and we'll work something out.

 

They look very similar to this, but I'm not sure this is the exact same model as mine have locking tabs:

 

http://www.memory-express.co.uk/index.aspx?pageid=17&id=1109744#

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Man, I wish I had seen this thread sooner. I have a gigabyte m68m-s2p in a small Micro-ATX case. It has two 5-1/4  bays similar to this case. I removed the front bezel and made a nice 3 bay slot for a 5-in-3 to fit, modifying the bezel too. However the clearance to the MB is only 7-inches from the front bezel to MB :(  What 5-in-3 would you all suggest? Are there any with removable fans? I tested my buddy's NORCO but it was like 1" longer. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

 

casev.png

 

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If you don't mind trays, IcyDock's 5-in-3 appears to have an easily removable fan:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994028

 

Queeg can confirm or deny that since he has first hand experience with this one.

 

Unfortunately they don't list the dimensions.  If you did install it without a fan, you had better have quite a bit of negative pressure in your case to compensate.  You would also have to block up all other vents to force all the air to be sucked in over the hard drives.

 

The SuperMicro above looks good too, and is cheaper.

 

Also, while I generally don't recommend them because they have some heat/airflow issues, I can confirm that the following will fit easily in a microATX case with a suitably small microATX motherboard:

 

5 in 3 BP-SATA350

W x H x D : 5.79" x 5" x 7.48"

 

So half an inch too long for you (and you can't remove the fans on this one), you may still have to swap your motherboard for a smaller unit.  The Biostar A760G M2+ (the Budget Build board) is one of the smallest microATX boards I've seen.  The combination of these two in a Rosewill R101-P-BK yielded plenty of extra space, as you can see below:

 

g7cDt.png

(click the pic to see my full report on that setup, a.k.a. the miniBox)

 

I feel this generic 5-in-3 is adequate if you use only low heat/low power 5400 rpm drives, such as WD greens.  I would not recommend it if you need to use faster and hotter 7200 rpm drives or if cooling in your case is already an issue.

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What motherboard are you using?  As I mentioned, replacing your motherboard with a smaller one may open up a bunch of new possibilities.  You could also go for a miniITX motherboard (assuming your case will accommodate it) and then you should be able to use pretty much any 5-in-3 without any modding.

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I'd probably want to move the top 5-in-3 up to the bottom of the first top 5.25 bay.  Then move the bottom 5-in-3 up some from the bottom.  Maybe leave a small gap between the 5-in-3's.  Here's an example.

How about this?  Weebo, one thing I really want is to add a parity drive outside of the 10 data drives, so I've been lobbying Queeg about such a mod...

 

That is freakin beautiful!  One thing though...the bottom unit has to be a little higher.  The corners are rounded and the mods have to be on the flat part.

 

 

Queeg, have you seen this Rosewill case?  It's 3.5" longer as well, but I think the button layout is ideal.

 

Nope.  The potential cut out area on the bezel is no bigger than the other case.

 

 

If we could gain a second slot, we could put a 3 x 2 in there, adding room for parity disk and cache, and a spare / preclear bay.

 

I tried but the Foxconn case doesn't have room for 2x 5-in-3's + 3-in-2.  The corners are rounded.  It's lacking about 1".

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