My TinyTen mini-server

[BLKMGK]

I do see some that look good with 4x SATA ports http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157194 and a PCI-E 2x16 slot. But it's $135 which doesn't compare too well to the cheap AMD with cheap AMD CPUs.

 

That board as 4 internal sata ports and 2 external eSATA ports. So in effect you do have 6 ports to work with. Also the ASRock board supports overclocking to 2ghz. I have a small HTPC/nettop ASRock with a similar board. Works great for XBMC.

 

Heh, I have an ASRock 330 running XBMC so I'm covered in the XBMC department Just trying to see what I can do for friends to get them up and running on unRAID. Looks like aside from the drive cages a case of the proper size is an issue. I'd like to avoid modding but the setup here proves it can be done! I guess finding the proper case is the first thing, a proper cheap case of course From what I'm reading some of the low end AMD CPUs use as little power as an Atom and are cheaper so I'm sure not wedded to an Atom that's for sure. i'll see what NewEgg and others offer and hope to get lucky. I'll be very interested to hear how this system works out cooling wise though, looks nice and compact

 

Edit: Sat down and figured out what a "cheap" 3 drive build would cost with 1 dock. $632 at NewEgg using a Sempron and cheap case w/PSU along with 3x 2TB drives. Not too bad IMO, not sure where I could cut this down much as most everything is low buck. Sadly a second dock wouldn't fit this case without mods. A shame there's no small cases with 6 or more exposed drive bays

[queeg]

I happened across this double 2.5 inch hotswap bay that fits in a single 3.5 bay.  It kind of matches the Icy Dock bays.  Nice for running a pair of SSD's in raid 0 outside the unRAID array.  Could run some add-ons off of that nicely.

 

http://www.directron.com/mr2501d.html

[theone]

I believe it is the Rosewill R-102-P-BK.  From the side they match up perfectly.  What makes it confusing is that queeg moved the power/reset buttons from their normal spot into the spot were the case's frontside USB and audio ports normally sit.  That's why the topmost pictures on this thread look different from the rest.  However, if you look at the skeleton pictures, you'll see the cutouts in that area are actually intended for the USB/audio ports.  queeg also must have removed the pieces of plastic separating the three upper 5.25" drive bays.

 

What do I win? 

 

Winner!

 

It is internally IDENTICAL to the THERMALTAKE WING MA VI5000BNS I just bought for my first unRAID build (will be ready in a week).

It can actually fit 11 HDDs without modification = 5-in-3 + 2 in external 3.5" + 4 in hidden 3.5".

 

Very nice and small case.

 

See my signature for the planned build.

 

[queeg]

It is internally IDENTICAL to the THERMALTAKE WING MA VI5000BNS I just bought for my first unRAID build (will be ready in a week).

It can actually fit 11 HDDs without modification = 5-in-3 + 2 in external 3.5" + 4 in hidden 3.5".

 

Very nice and small case.

 

See my signature for the planned build.

 

 

If you are willing to mount drives internally then there are many cases to choose from;  you can go cheaper with this case.

 

The coolness of the TinyTen is that all the drives are external in the 2 x 5-in-3's.  If you mount drives in the middle 3.5 external bays then the TinyTen can actually hold 12 hdds.  

 

 

[theone]

True, the access to all drives in nice !!

 

did you cut the front bezel as well as the metal plate behind it?

 

Can you show a picture without the front bezel and bottom hdd cage?

Nice work moving the power and reset buttons instead of the USB and sound connectors 

 

Nice work.

 

I might try it on my Thermaltake case in the future. Can't get these rosewill cases where I am.

[queeg]

did you cut the front bezel as well as the metal plate behind it?

Yep, I had to cut all the layers. Cut, grind, sand, file, bend, drill, rivet.

The one you found has the power buttons and led's spread out.  It might be a little difficult to re-position them.  But the power button itself is nice.

 

Can you show a picture without the front bezel and bottom hdd cage?

Nice work moving the power and reset buttons instead of the USB and sound connectors  

 

Nice work.

 

I might try it on my Thermaltake case in the future. Can't get these rosewill cases where I am.

 

Here is a picture looking through the front bays.  

[theone]

I could probably move the power and reset buttons to the same place you did, but I might have a problem with the front bezel where the 2 vertical plastic posts are running...

 

Will see in the future if I get to it.

 

P.S.

 

love the name you gave it.

 

[queeg]

I could probably move the power and reset buttons to the same place you did, but I might have a problem with the front bezel where the 2 vertical plastic posts are running...

 

Will see in the future if I get to it.

 

P.S.

 

love the name you gave it.

 

 

The black part of the bezel on the Thermaltake case bumps out further than the silver and it looks like it goes about 1/4 inch too low for a clean cut.  It looks like it would be necessary to cut into the bottom 1/8 to 1/4 inch of the black part.  Maybe that could be made to look clean as the top edge of the 5-in-3 sets into it but it would have to be done carefully. 

[queeg]

The Rosewill case used to make the TinyTen is on sale at the moment for $22 + free shipping.

 

[WeeboTech]

It really does look cool.

[kizer]

Thats a nice little server you have there.

 

I was checking out your contents and it appears your running with the budget mobo, which is kinda cool becasue I was considering doing the same thing.

 

I did see there is a mention of the AsRock ION 330 mobo. I have that little board in my HTPC and man it runs great and is really quite. Of course mine was the black box that AsRock sells, but none the less it works very well for watching HD content via XBMC.

[WeeboTech]

I did see there is a mention of the AsRock ION 330 mobo. I have that little board in my HTPC and man it runs great and is really quite. Of course mine was the black box that AsRock sells, but none the less it works very well for watching HD content via XBMC.

 

I have the same one.

Now if I could marry that functionality along with the tiny ten or a HTPC variant.. I think we would have something new and improved!

[queeg]

Thats a nice little server you have there.

 

I was checking out your contents and it appears your running with the budget mobo, which is kinda cool becasue I was considering doing the same thing.

 

I did see there is a mention of the AsRock ION 330 mobo. I have that little board in my HTPC and man it runs great and is really quite. Of course mine was the black box that AsRock sells, but none the less it works very well for watching HD content via XBMC.

 

Thanks.

I've tried to identify a variety of mobo's that would fit but that list is mostly just microATX.  Any miniITX will fit as well (they just cost more).  There are a couple of mobo + cpu combo's listed in the Good Deals section that would work as well.  Right now the base case is on sale so if your handy then give it a go.  If you would rather buy a finished one then let me know.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6375.msg62425#msg62425

[WeeboTech]

Queeg does some nice work. I'm working with him on the tiny ten. It came out really good.

[queeg]

I happened to come across another case CoolerMaster 335 for the TinyTen collection.  Maybe this one should be the MidiTen  It's a little more stylish.  And there is one extra slot for the 11th drive or a BlueRay drive maybe.

 

 

It's a couple inches taller and about 3.5 inches longer.  It's probably the smallest FULL ATX case that can be modded to take 2 5-in-3 enclosures.  And it would have room for those long SuperMicro 5-in-3's and the AOC-SAT2-MV8 adapters.

 

It think it would be simpler to modify because the power button doesn't have to be relocated.  The front bezel in the cut out area is that wire mesh so under-cutting by say .5 inch and bending it back should be faster and easier than filing and sanding.  The internal bracket for the lower 5-in-3 would be a either a one piece u-shape (top and both sides) anchored to the bottom of the case or could be as simple as 2x 1 inch staps again anchored to the bottom of the case.  

 

I'd be inclined to want to try this 8 sata port motherboard with it.

 

 

I edited the picture below to show how 3 more half height slots would fit if modded into the bottom area of the case.

[aiden]

Hypothetically, if one were to want you to do the modding without adding the cages, how much do you think you would need to charge on top of the $50 for the case?  Hypothetically.

[WeeboTech]

Hypothetically, if one were to want you to do the modding without adding the cages, how much do you think you would need to charge on top of the $50 for the case?  Hypothetically.

 

Queeg does some really nice work ! I've seen it first hand.

I'm just waiting for it to cool down a bit so I can do some burn tests.

This month was the hottest recorded July in decades here in Rockaway Beach.

[aiden]

Well, actually, I am hoping he gets some kind of mini production going on here, because I know Raj has been looking at building unRAID servers below the 15 drive variety, and I only plan on having 12 drives including parity.  However, I'm using micro motherboards, so perhaps Tiny Ten 1.0 is the better case.  Also, Queeg, have you looked into these type of cases, since you're not scared of cutting and sanding and riveting...

[WeeboTech]

The Tiny Ten supports Micro ATX. It's a nicer case then those external SCSI cases.

Although you may be able to fit 12 drives in the Tiny Ten,  I do think that 10 is enough.

Where the other two drives may go is a great place to shove the extra power supply cables.

If that area was filled with hard drives, they might not get airflow and then you have to deal with the extraneous cables.

[queeg]

Hypothetically, if one were to want you to do the modding without adding the cages, how much do you think you would need to charge on top of the $50 for the case?  Hypothetically.

 

I base it on how many hours it takes.  So in effect it depends on the case.  The TinyTen takes a solid 5 hours believe it or not.  However, it goes on sale for $19.99 which helps make up for that.  I haven't modded the Antec case yet but I believe it will take less time because of not having to relocate any of the buttons.   It takes a little more sheet metal to make the bracket.  The big question is how long will it take to cut and bend the screen material on the bezel.  Probably top out at $100 for the mod - 4 hours.  

 

Here is a mini8 that I think would be kind of cool.  What's interesting is that the drive racks in question are smaller than 4-in-3 enclosures.  

 

I've been exploring ways to build the racks.  Right now it's about $20 per hdd for a hotswap rack.  On the Norco 4220 it's about $15 per bay and that's the cheapest I've seen.  I've even considered buying the Norco and ripping the racks out to be used in other cases.

[aiden]

The TinyTen takes a solid 5 hours believe it or not...

However, it goes on sale for $19.99 which helps make up for that...

 

I haven't modded the Antec case yet but I believe it will take less time because of not having to relocate any of the buttons.  Probably top out at $100 for the mod - 4 hours.

So, if I back your math out, we would be looking at $125 in labor, and $20 for the case, so about $150?  Are you close to wanting to build some of these for forum members?  Is that even something you want to do?

 

I've been exploring ways to build the racks.  Right now it's about $20 per hdd for a hotswap rack.

I'm guessing that's for designs that use trays, right?  Can you mod the box without the racks, and then let us buy whatever style we want (trayless vs tray, supermicro vs icydock, etc)?  The reason I ask is that everyone has their own aesthetic, what they consider attractive, and also the different models have different cooling profiles (some barely cool at all).

[queeg]

The TinyTen takes a solid 5 hours believe it or not...

However, it goes on sale for $19.99 which helps make up for that...

 

I haven't modded the Antec case yet but I believe it will take less time because of not having to relocate any of the buttons.  Probably top out at $100 for the mod - 4 hours.

So, if I back your math out, we would be looking at $125 in labor, and $20 for the case, so about $150?  Are you close to wanting to build some of these for forum members?  Is that even something you want to do?

 

I've been exploring ways to build the racks.  Right now it's about $20 per hdd for a hotswap rack.

I'm guessing that's for designs that use trays, right?  Can you mod the box without the racks, and then let us buy whatever style we want (trayless vs tray, supermicro vs icydock, etc)?  The reason I ask is that everyone has their own aesthetic, what they consider attractive, and also the different models have different cooling profiles (some barely cool at all).

 

I would build them if someone is interested.  The TinyTen is unique because it's so small for a case that holds 10 hard drives.  The buyer would have to add shipping to the cost.  In the end it might not appeal to members because of the cost.  

 

FWIW, I'm also using a TinyTen case for my family machine.  I put in 4 DVD drives, one hotswap bay for the OS drive and a multiport card reader in the 6th bay.  With DVD drives at $20 each I thought it's cheap to have lots of them.  One DVD drive is for my daughter's games which she leaves in all the time.  Two other drives are set up so just inserting a DVD starts up automatic ripping so that "even family members can do it"!  That leaves one other drive for various purposes.  

 

When I started out modding the box I wanted a small 6 bay case for unRAID beginners.  It was going to have 2 DVD drives for automatic ripping and the rest of the bays would be for hard drives.  My idea was to install VMware on unRAID so ripping software could automaticly rip the DVD's to the unRAID array.  Simple and elegant except that VMware can't currently be installed on stock unRAID.  I also wrote the SNAP software add-on so that anything from hard drives to digital cameras could be plugged into unRAID machine and get automatically mounted.  By exposing Linux's device events each device can have specific automatic scripts that copy, move, sync files or whatever the user wanted.  

 

I've written software and modified hardware but the big roadblock at this time seems to be NO OFFICIAL DESIRE (or maybe a desire NOT to) to create an unRAID build that can have VMware server installed without being a linux guru.  

[aiden]

I think considering the custom aspect of this design, it is not outrageous to pay $150 (+ship) for a modded micro case with 6 bays.  Btw, you said the PSU is a standard ATX size, but some PSU's are not standard in length.  Given the depth of your Icy Docks, how many inches would you say we have for depth?

[poofyhairguy]

 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...

[queeg]

I think considering the custom aspect of this design, it is not outrageous to pay $150 (+ship) for a modded micro case with 6 bays.  Btw, you said the PSU is a standard ATX size, but some PSU's are not standard in length.  Given the depth of your Icy Docks, how many inches would you say we have for depth?

 

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.