antidigerati Posted June 18, 2010 Share Posted June 18, 2010 Hey all. I've recently switched to unRAID after having problems with my DROBO and getting frustrated with how difficult it was to debug. I found a $10 metal bread box at a second hand store and thought it would be fun to get a PSU, MB and 6 HDDs in there. Build hardware: PSU: Corsair 400W Motherboard: SuperMicro X7SPA-H-O RAM: 4GB Kingston Fan: 120mm NOCTUA NF-S12B HDD: 6 drives ranging from 500GB to 1.5TB USB Drive: SanDisk Cruzer 4GB I've attached the before/after photos of my build below but you can also see more photos on my unRaid Breadbox flickr set: Enjoy. Dylan Quote Link to comment
antidigerati Posted June 19, 2010 Author Share Posted June 19, 2010 There is a Flickr link but I can embed some here as well. Check out the Flickr set for more photos and higher resolution versions. http://www.flickr.com/photos/antidigerati/sets/72157624261884036/detail/ Quote Link to comment
storagehound Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 Hilarious. I love it. The idea of NAS equipment looking like other things appeals to me. I see no requirement for an unRaid server to look like a... well...server. Quote Link to comment
antidigerati Posted June 19, 2010 Author Share Posted June 19, 2010 Thanks for your comment storagehound. The non-standard re-used enclosure also appealed to me. I paid special care to leave the front/top/sides relatively untouched so the illusion of just a simple bread box remained. The box is fairly quiet as well so that helps too. Some other non-obvious points: - The hard drives are mounted with 3 screws each from the underside of the bread box. For the minimal disruption this thing will see I'm hoping just bottom mounting is sufficient. - The screw visible on the top of the bread box is to hold a mounting bracket down the front side of the PSU. Although the 4 mounting screws through the back of the bread box seemed enough I decided to add this to prevent the PSU from slumping onto the motherboard. - The PSU is mounted 0.5" above the motherboard with the PSU air intake fan pulling directly from the main motherboard heatsink. Nice and cool (though surely not required). - The flash drive plugs into the single female USB plug directly behind the 6 sata data ports. It sticks up and rests snug right against the PSU. You can see it sticking up behind the swirl of red sata cables. - The only air intake for the case so far are the grid of holes I drilled through the case bottom along the front. Although the HDDs seem to peak around 43C with this setup if I just crack the door an inch the airflow increases dramatically and the HDD temps drops to the mid to low 30s. I have some honeycomb mesh on order that I'll incorporate where the grid of holes now reside and I'll see how that works. - Rather than actually mod the sata power cables (to get the spacing and length exactly right) I twisted the two lengths of cable with 3 power plugs on each and offset the plugs so there were 6 spaced evenly and facing the same direction. I held the entire thing in place with a good many zip-ties and the end result is pretty neat and tidy. - Parity check ran at about 56MB/s. The motherboard has a secondary gigabit NIC. Any suggestions as to what I could use it for? Dylan Quote Link to comment
guiri Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 Man, that is like...super bitc*in' I LOVE IT! For your next project, how about putting it in a toaster and putting it next to the bread box? This is f'in' cool Helluva job George Quote Link to comment
antidigerati Posted June 19, 2010 Author Share Posted June 19, 2010 Thanks guiri. I think a toaster is an AWESOME idea for an enclosure. Check out this photo and imagine each toast slot was a hot-swappable drive bay... Perhaps the motherboard could go in the bottom? Separate power brick like the mac mini? Dylan Quote Link to comment
kizer Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 Wow, thanks for the internal pics. That thing is super classy. Man now you got me thinking. I was going to build something in my Utility Room near my washer and dryer to keep it in the house and away from any of my rooms, but now I'm thinking why build something when I could recycle something. Maybe put something in my Utility room that looks well like it belongs there. Quote Link to comment
WeeboTech Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 I saw a pic recently of someone building a case out of Legos. it was pretty neat too. We need a gallery for people to pimp their wares. Great job on the bread box. Would love to see the toaster idea come to life. What a hoot! Quote Link to comment
kizer Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 Toaster for drives and put the PSU in a coffee maker. Heck with a coffee maker you could even water cool it. LOL Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 Awesome mods indeed. Simple thought: Breadbox + Toaster(s). Use a smaller breadbox for the PSU+MB+Boot/Cache drives and use the Toasters for the sets of drives. Something like the Supermicro SAS/SATA controller with external lanes run to each Toaster along with a molex connector or two in order to power an External-to-Internal SATA backplane. Quote Link to comment
guiri Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 Dylan, since the Dualit toaster which is what it looks like is bigger I think than the bread box, I would do something different instead. I would kinda close of part of the toast slots and build the server inside and underneath AND stick either the top part of slices of toasted bread OR, find some fake bread they use in stores to show off appliances 'n stuff. I can help you find that. I'm good at finding shit online. Now THAT would be cool as hell and if somehow you manage to put all the cords in something that LOOKS like a regular power cord and you plug it in to the wall, it would be even cooler Quote Link to comment
guiri Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 By the way, they come in all kinds of sizes and colors. I THINK the biggest one is an 8 slot but not sure and NO, you don't have to pay full price for one, I just wanted to show everyone the options available.. http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&num=100&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=dualit%20%20%22toaster%22&sa=N&tab=wf Quote Link to comment
antidigerati Posted June 20, 2010 Author Share Posted June 20, 2010 Thanks for the info guiri. I think the toaster-server will have to be for some unknown time in the future. The breadbox was fun but unless I need an additional server (or a friend commissions me to build one) then I think I have all the storage I need for the foreseeable future Thanks for the links though -- and feel free to build your own toaster server if you want! Dylan Quote Link to comment
neilt0 Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 I have a Dualit toaster and it would be a travesty to cut one up for this! Also, they last forever and cost a ton of money, so it's unlikely you'll find a used or broken one for a low price. I do like the idea of repurposing old stuff and camouflaging servers though! Quote Link to comment
guiri Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 Neil, I agree on the bustin' it up but it would be cool. Dylan, maybe we can sell your work. PM me and give me an idea of the labor cost, AND the material cost for building a toaster server and maybe we can do something. I've got a bit of money left and I've always liked doing this kind of stuff. Also, if the breadbox is for sale, give me an idea of price and specs and I'll see if I can do something to sell it Don't hold your breath but hey, it's a thought. George Quote Link to comment
antidigerati Posted June 20, 2010 Author Share Posted June 20, 2010 Hey guiri. I admire your passion and enthusiasm but I'm not interested in making a business of this. The bread box is not for sale. It replaces a 4-bay DROBO (circa 2007) to become my home storage server. Good luck with your future builds and I look forward to seeing your build pics. Dylan Quote Link to comment
guiri Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 Bro, I couldn't build myself out of a paper bag so don't hold your breath. By the way guys, found this by accident today. Go through the different pages. IF I were this handy, I'd be doing nothing but building $hit all day long but alas, I am NOT! http://www.bennettrobotworks.com/robots.php?page=0 I just love some of the old (RETRO for you younguns) looking stuff. Steampunk stuff is sooo cool George Quote Link to comment
boof Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 Very nice Only question is...now where do you keep your bread?! Quote Link to comment
guiri Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 What if he's on a diet and doesn't eat bread...or there's a reason for him not to eat bread? Why you gotta go and poke into the mans privacy bits so to speak..? Quote Link to comment
WeeboTech Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 By the way guys, found this by accident today. Go through the different pages. IF I were this handy, I'd be doing nothing but building $hit all day long but alas, I am NOT! http://www.bennettrobotworks.com/robots.php?page=0 I just love some of the old (RETRO for you younguns) looking stuff. Steampunk stuff is sooo cool George What a hoot.. Only thing is, I can't find the unRAID Format bug bot. Quote Link to comment
guiri Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 I just love creative people that are handy. I'm creative enough, I just suck at making stuff... Quote Link to comment
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