To build or buy

[drop]

Hello all,

 

After much procrastinating and research, I have decided that unRaid is the way to go for me and my NAS needs. However I see that the 12 bay unit is completely out of stock and there is no information pertaining to when it will be available again. Now the decision is should I wait a while longer or proceed and build my own unit and just buy the software?  The reason I ask is that from a quick browse of retailers in Aus I can't see myself being able to build it for less than just buying the whole product from Limetech. Obviously more research is required but what would the general consensus be and has anyone had major problems building their own?

 

thx for reading

 

Drop

 

[queeg]

Hello all,

 

After much procrastinating and research, I have decided that unRaid is the way to go for me and my NAS needs. However I see that the 12 bay unit is completely out of stock and there is no information pertaining to when it will be available again. Now the decision is should I wait a while longer or proceed and build my own unit and just buy the software?  The reason I ask is that from a quick browse of retailers in Aus I can't see myself being able to build it for less than just buying the whole product from Limetech. Obviously more research is required but what would the general consensus be and has anyone had major problems building their own?

 

thx for reading

 

Drop

 

 

Yeah, that price at Limetech was probably a marketing giveaway.  It's not possible he made money on it.  I really doubt that particular product will ever be "in stock" again.  He probably broke even on the hardware and gave away the license. 

 

So, building your own isn't a bad way to go.  Whether anyone had major problems depends on two things, 1) have they ever assembled a computer before and 2) did they choose parts that were compatible.  Well, the compatibility issue has some decent support with the unRAID hardware compability list.  Only you know if you feel comfortable assembling the box.  So, the best bet would to be to figure out how many drives you want and post the list of parts you are thinking about using.  You will get feedback on your choices and can be pretty sure it will go smoothly before you even order the parts.

[wreck]

The suggested builds in the wiki are a great place to start too. I threw together the budget box without any issues (other than 2 DOA hdd's). Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.

 

bux

[WeeboTech]

I would suggest building one yourself. Readybuilt systems have been out of stock for quite a while now.

However, the best course of action is to contact limetech directly via email and see.

[kizer]

Yeah I'm building the suggested budget box. Everything, but the Motherboard and case has arrived, but that hasn't stoped me from preclearing my cache drive. I'm a bit excited to get going.

[guiri]

Personally, I couldn't build myself out of a paper bag so I opted to have someone else build mine and went with Rajahal here in the forum and I got a great unit, great price and great instructions.

 

He's away in Europe on a trip but should be home in a couple of weeks if you're interested and yes, he'll build it the way you want.

 

I went with the 15 drive configuration and started off with 6 drives installed. One as a spare, one as a cache and the other 6 drives available for storage. Two of them 1.5's and the rest 2tb's.

 

Also, the drive trays or whatever they're called had red locking thingies and it looks cool as shit!

 

Let me know if you want pics

 

George

[WeeboTech]

Also, the drive trays or whatever they're called had red locking thingies and it looks cool as shit!

Let me know if you want pics

 

Those are probably the Trayless SATA units!

post some pics in pimp your rig thread.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.0

 

[drop]

Thx guys sorry if you all thought I just asked a random question and buggered off.

 

Im am going to start off by doing some MB research. I think max onboard sata with one or two controller cards might be better than opting to buy several controller cards. Will most likely be an AMD system as its much cheaper and really I dont need a monster CPU.

 

[guiri]

Alright Weebo, here are some pics of my build in the pimp thread...

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.225

 

Also, did you guys start another thread on the power consumption of the drives that you were talking about in the pimp thread? The one that Joe L. replied to. I'd like to read more if it's up.

 

Thanks

 

George

[WeeboTech]

Alright Weebo, here are some pics of my build in the pimp thread...

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.225

 

Also, did you guys start another thread on the power consumption of the drives that you were talking about in the pimp thread? The one that Joe L. replied to. I'd like to read more if it's up.

 

Thanks

 

George

 

We did continue it in another thread, I took a peek and cannot seem to locate it, I think it was in the lounge. I'm sure there was a thread jump pointer where we forked the conversation.

[guiri]

Not that important, thanks 

 

George

[drop]

Hey guys thought i would just keep it in one thread.

 

So I am thinking of using the AOC-SASLP-MV8 as my expansion card. I believe this is the updated version of the AOC-SAT2-MV8.

 

However what I am looking for is a HDD cage that has a minisas plug on the back instead of the sata connections to avoid using a breakout cable. I can not seem to find anything. Failing that I plan to just use simple converters to cut down on the cost. I am not to overly concerned with the ability to hotswap, seems the server needs to be powered down to install new HDD anyway (correct?).

 

In terms of MB I am eyeing off an AMD based bored with at least 2 PCIE slots that can run at x8 together for two of these expansion cards. This gets to 16 drives plus every board has generally 4 sata ports. Unless unraid will perhaps support more than 20 drives in the future in which case i would look to a 3 x PCIe solution. Sticking within the Asus range atm.

 

How is my thought process going guys?

 

BTW alot of this stuff is not available in Australia would be handy if newegg posted over the pond.

 

 

[WeeboTech]

The AOC-SASLP-MV8 is a PCIe x4 card.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SASLP-MV8.cfm

http://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/AOC-SASLP-MV8.pdf

 

This should help open your choices.

[drop]

ahhh x4 how did i miss that. This certainly does open up MB options as quite alot of PCIe slots drop down to x4 or more common x1 when using multiple slots at once. Thanks for that back to MB search to find cheaper options. I am trying to get the maximum use from anygiven component to cut out any possible bottlenecks. 

[Rajahal]

I also haven't seen any hot swap drive cages that have SAS or miniSAS.  However, if you are considering 20+ drives, you may want to look at the Norco 4220 (which does have SAS backplanes) or the soon-to-be-released (hopefully) Norco 4224.

 

One downside of your strategy is that the SAS to SAS cables are about twice as expensive as the SAS breakout cables.  I bought 4 of the SAS to SAS cables for my Norco 4220 and it cost me about $70.  The clean cabling is worth it in my opinion, though.

 

Also, by the way, the latest release of unRAID, 4.5.6, supports 22 drives (1 parity + 20 data + 1 cache).

[drop]

Has anyone built a completly custom enclosure?

 

I have decided that due to the complete or what seems complete lack of products in Aus I will sketch up a model and see if a close acquaintance of mine can pull it together for me. He is a fabricator and art handler. Works with alot of plex to construct unusual mounts for objects. Anyway my other reasoning behind this is I am trying to minimise space used and have come up with two design plans. I will hopefully work on these of the next couple of days and post them here for feedback. Both of these plans can house 28 HDD and are a fair bit smaller than the Norco4220/4. One is 500x430x150 the other is 260x430x300 give or take 5mm for outer casing work. No these are not hotswapable designs. I have noticed that most of the rack mount cases have all the drives in a single "wall" as such with a row of fans behind i was planning 2 rows sitting vertical 14 wide with 3 120mm fans between will this provide sufficient cooling? looking at fans that push around the 60CFM mark. I realize i currently cannot use all these available HDD slots but this layout seems to square off nicely and i might as well include it, not to mention 3 x AOC-SASLP-MV8 is 24 with 4 on board sata takes you to 28 anyway. I Dont plan on having all of this installed from the get go it would be a work in progress and add cards/hdd as i require it.

[Joe L.]

I did not build a completely custom enclosure, but I did re-engineer an enclosure and add my own disk mounting rails and 3 120mm fans.

See here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.msg67670#msg67670

 

I now have positions for mounting 14 disks.  I plan on making a second mounting rail for behind the first for another 10 drives, but I have no need at this time since I have two unRAID servers, and the other currently has room for 14 drives.

 

Perhaps your friend can take an existing enclosure and adapt it to your needs.

 

 

[Rajahal]

This guy built/adapted a completely custom enclosure 

 

unRAID in a bread box

[drop]

Ok here is my first design. The innershelf is missing the cabling holes, this shelf flows through the whole rig to add support and also as a works as a holding system for hdd the drives slot through this shelf and are then reccesed into the base of the case. dont worry about the PSU poking through it was just the model i used. I was thinking of not having the MB backplane poking out just running cables and terminating the ones i need on the back of the case. The top of the case would slide into position making easier access to hdd. Internally mounted usb etc. So thoughts anyone?  Should i move the fans to the middle of the drives or is at the back there fine?

 

[queeg]

Heat removal.  How and where?  

Weight.  It's so heavy on one side that it would be difficult to move without it flipping. 

 

How about using the intel 6 bay racks.  They are removable drives and reasonably priced.  Design it so that 4 individual racks can be mounted (as needed) and I think you could sell it.

 

Keep trying.

[drop]

there are 3 x 120mm fans mounted behind that second row of HDD.

 

If i was going to produce it for sale then removable HDD would be the way to go but currently just for myself I dont deem this necassesry. Besides the drives basically sit in position with some vibration reducing rubber or sleave...?? so essentially they are removable.

 

[queeg]

How are you going to anchor the drives?  One reason hot swap bays are so nice is you don't have to screw the drive down which means you don't have to get into the case.  And the wiring stays out of the way.  Messing with wires for a small number of hard drives is one thing.  But having to get your hands into a case of 20+ hard drives all crowded together is just asking for connection problems.  50TB is worth the luxury of latching bays.

 

I'm guessing fully loaded with 26 drives it will weigh 50 pounds not counting the case itself.  I wouldn't have the fans vent into the case of possible.  Try putting the fans on the other side of the drives and box them in so air is dragged through them.  I would make the intake side of the drive box have lots of holes or slots so the air has to enter from the entire length so even the drives on the end are cooled.  Make enough room for two power supplies so that a single one doesn't have to power all the drives.

[drop]

Airflow currently goes from the front of the case being the HDD end. I didnt draw all the tiny holes in it to show air intake. I had thought that it might be bad to vent the air out over the MB but I didnt consider it to be a large enough problem to be of concern. A second PSU had never occured to me. All cabling would actually be completly anchored in place so removing/inserting HDD would not be a hassel in terms of cabling. Wieght is not an issue as it would be situated on the ground in a cupboard. I can see the advantages of removable disk trays but the cost adds up when you are trying to do it as cheap as possible. Which is why the norco is so popular i presume as its price really is cheap for that many trays plus case. I was trying to come up with something smaller though.

The Australian prices for this stuff is alot more than US if you can even find them.

 

HDD are recessed 3 mill into the base of the case then the mid level shelf has holes cut in it that the hdd pass through. The only way i can think of anchoring firmly with this method is some sort of rubber insert inbetween shelf and HDD to squezze it into place. If i looked at a way of screwing them down then it would need alot more space.

 

Ill see what I can come up with today.

 

 

[queeg]

Take a look at this 5 drive rack from Sansdigital.  It might be available where you are.  

 

It's kind of cool in that you attach some screws to the drives and those slide into the rack.  If you use them inside a case I don't think you need to plug the powersupply into the rack itself.  I think that's just there to turn on the psu when used in stand alone expansion boxes.  I've been pondering this rack for awhile but I've been thinking of adding sata backplanes to it so the cableing would be behind instead of in front.

 

It looks like the lock is only on one side.  If so, then you could stack 2 with locks on the left and stack another 2 with locks on the right.

[drop]

Okay I have a new design.

 

You need to rotate the whole case 90deg. The front panel would slide up and off for HDD access. They would then be screwed into place from the outside panels in countersunk holes. The 3 fans at the front are 140mm and would extract air from the rear through the case and out the front. Should be enough room for 2 psu/ MB in the back prity easily. Have not drawn that in this time. Going to check out that sans rack now.