Hi, I’m looking at upgrading my server over the next few months and had a question or two about what to replace my case with.

 

My server sits in my living room close by my tv (actually between my subwoofer and floor standing speaker) so something quiet is a necessity.  Good looks wouldn’t hurt either.  I like the idea of a case with hot swap drives as it makes life easier when upgrading but the 5 in 3 cages all seem to have fans on them that would suggest they get quite loud. 

 

I was looking at the Lian-Li PC A71.  It has room for 10 x 3.5HDD internal and 5 x 5.25HDD external.  It also has a door on the front.  Am I wrong in thinking that internal drives and a door would make for a much quieter pc?  Although it only has 10 x 3.5HDD I could always use 3 of the 5.25 drives in the future with a 5 in 3 cage if I needed more space. 

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=134&cl_index=1&sc_index=38&ss_index=95

 

Just wondering what others are doing for quiet systems. 

 

Have you thought about running the server in a different room and using a small front-end htpc like the Nvidia Ion NetTops with XBMC ? That way the sound of the server isn't an issue at all.

 

Unfortunately I live in a condo so either it goes in my living room or bedroom.  Since I'm a very light sleeper, the bedroom is out of the question.

My server sits in my living room close by my tv (actually between my subwoofer and floor standing speaker)

 

First of all, that is a terrible idea.  Subs and speakers are essentially very large magnets.  Even if they claim to be 'magnetically shielded' I wouldn't trust it.  MOVE YOUR SERVER ASAP.  Granted, modern hard drives are far less prone to magnetic interference than they used to be, but still, I see no reason to take this risk with your data.  Reminds me of this pic:

 

If you can't read the text, is says "Hello dear, I found the disk you were so frantically looking for yesterday" 

 

Now for your main question, it really depends on how many drives you want to support and what kind of budget you are working with.  I do agree that in general a door on the case will help suppress sound.  Thick case walls are also important.

 

I absolutely love Lian Li cases both for their quality and sound dampening abilities.  They are the best, in my opinion.  If money is no object, then I would consider something like tabish121's beautiful 20 drive server.  That case alone is $300, plus each of the 5-in-3's is going to be about $130 - this is an expensive but very nice option.  I would recommend replacing the fans on the 5-in-3's with Noctua fans, as he did (actually I don't know what type of fans he used, but Noctua seem to be the best for silent operation, or so I've read).

 

The quietest case I have owned is the Antec p180 (which has been discontinued by Antec in favor of the p183).  This case (and I assume the p183 as well) has VERY thick and heavy steel walls and doors, which dampen sound immensely.  The hard drives all sit on silicon anti-vibration mounts as well.  HOWEVER, I do not recommend this case for unRAID because swapping drives out of the lower 4-drive bay is a total pain in the ass.  Plus, installing 5-in-3's or other hot swap cages into the 5.25" bays is also a pain due to the case's use of drive rails.

 

If you need a more budget-friendly option, I would just go with the CM-590 and three good quality 5-in-3's, such as the SuperMicro SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B.  You can then replace all the fans in the case (including those on the backs of the 5-in-3's) with high quality, silent Noctua fans.  After that, I expect that the loudest sound you would hear from the server is that of the drives spinning up (and there's not much you can do about that sound, except for maybe using only green drives and eliminating all 7200 rpm drives).

 

You could also use something like Lian Li's Lancool PC-K58, however, I think the better drive expandability options of the CM-590 make it a better case for unRAID.

 

Another option that can help is to replace your PSU with one that is fanless or will spin down its fan under a certain load.  I know Seasonic makes a few, I don't know if any other companies do.

 

Finally, before spending any money you can make a simple adjustment that will also help the sound you hear from your server - move your server into a place that is behind the plane of the speakers (this may mean moving your speakers closer to the couch if they are already on the wall).  If your server is already fairly quiet, then simply moving it behind the plane of the speakers will make it much less noticeable whenever you are playing music, movies, etc.

 

I think that the only way to make a completely silent server would require water cooling (such as Corsair's premade system) or a passively cooled Atom or similar CPU, plus a fanless PSU, and the use of only SSDs for drives.  You would be looking at spending several thousand dollars on that kind of project, so I highly doubt it is worth it to save a few dBs.

Hi, I’m looking at upgrading my server over the next few months and had a question or two about what to replace my case with.

 

My server sits in my living room close by my tv (actually between my subwoofer and floor standing speaker) so something quiet is a necessity.  Good looks wouldn’t hurt either.  I like the idea of a case with hot swap drives as it makes life easier when upgrading but the 5 in 3 cages all seem to have fans on them that would suggest they get quite loud.  

 

I was looking at the Lian-Li PC A71.  It has room for 10 x 3.5HDD internal and 5 x 5.25HDD external.  It also has a door on the front.  Am I wrong in thinking that internal drives and a door would make for a much quieter pc?  Although it only has 10 x 3.5HDD I could always use 3 of the 5.25 drives in the future with a 5 in 3 cage if I needed more space.  

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=134&cl_index=1&sc_index=38&ss_index=95

 

Just wondering what others are doing for quiet systems.  

 

 

The fans are by far the loudest thing.  Since the drives in unRAID spin down when not in use there will only be 1 or 2 drives making noise at a time.  That leaves the fans on the cpu, psu, case and drive bays if you use any.  

 

1. Get a psu that is silent.

2. Get a cpu heatsink fan that is silent or very nearly.  A low power cpu is all unRAID needs so cooling is not difficult.

3. Buy quiet case fans and then get a fan controller (even the $3 ones are fine) and slow the fans down to below audible from 2 feet away.  Now you will be able to hear the hard drive make it's very tiny bit of noise.

 

Just about any case will work.  Monitor the temps of the drives occasionally and you will be fine.

I would highly recommend poking around in the "Pimp my Rig" thread because there are tons of builds in there. I currently have a Cooler Master 590 and all green drives running stock fans. It generates a little bit of sound in my office, but since I watch movies in my living room I don't even hear it.

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

 

Like mentioned please keep your drives away from the electromagnets.

I currenty have the Antec P180 but the door and side wall is slowly falling apart.  I agree changing/upgrading drives are a real PITA.  It definitely makes for a quiet case however.  I also installed a Zalman CPU Fan that's pretty quiet.

 

I don't mind spending the extra dollars for a really good case.  I was actually already looking at the case that Tabish is using, the P60.  I like that it has a door but I was concerned about the fans in it making too much noise.  The other issue I'm concerned about is dust.  How much dust gets into systems that have the hot swap drives?  Seems to me the internals would need a cleaning once a month.  Am I wrong?

 

I've had my server in the same spot for a number of years with no problems whatsoever.  Unfortunately I have absolutely no other place to put my server.  I may buy some thick wood and stain in black and put it between my sub and server though   .  I did have it in my bedroom for a short while but if you have to run a parity check overnight for whatever reason, it makes for a bad nights sleep.  

Anyone know if this would make a good case, http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=321&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62 ?

I haven't noticed any more or less dust in cases with hot swap bays vs cases without.  I generally clean out the insides of my cases when I think of it, maybe once every 6 months or so.  The best way to keep dust out of a case that I've found is to keep it off the floor.  The further from the floor the case is, the less dust it will accumulate.  I used to have to clean out my cases about once per month when I kept them on the floor.

 

I haven't personally used the P50, but it looks like a really good option to me.  I would prefer it to the P60 since it has the bottom mounted PSU.  Basically, I'm a fan of any case that can be packed with all hot swap bays and doesn't force you to use any internal drives.

 

By the way, have you moved your server away from those speakers yet?

I just found the P50 for $180 CDN which includes shipping.  I think I'm going to order it.  I mean with the 5 in 3 cage with 2TB drives, that comes to a whopping 30TB!  Just saying that makes me giddy lol

 

I have about 6 inches of space between the server and sub/speaker on each side.  It's going to have to do.  The sub is an HSU so I do believe it's properly shielded.

I just found the P50 for $180 CDN which includes shipping.  I think I'm going to order it.  I mean with the 5 in 3 cage with 2TB drives, that comes to a whopping 30TB!  Just saying that makes me giddy lol

 

I have about 6 inches of space between the server and sub/speaker on each side.  It's going to have to do.  The sub is an HSU so I do believe it's properly shielded.

There are VERY strong magnets in every hard disk, lots closer to the platters than your speakers, and the disks work in proximity to them. (And speaker magnet's field strength drops by inverse square law, so even a few inches and the magnets in the speaker will have no effect.)

Well I went ahead and ordered the Lian-Li P50.  I do need a little assistance on some other hardware however.   If I am just going to port over my existing hardware for the moment which consists of the following

 

ASUS P5PL2 MB - http://www.superwarehouse.com/Asus_P5PL2_Motherboard/P5PL2/ps/728156

Intel Celeron D

True Power 500W PS

1GB RAM

Promise SATA 2 Port Controller

 

Would I be able to install the Supermicro Add-on Card AOC-SASLP-MV8 - Storage controller - 8 Channel - SATA-300 / SAS - 300 MBps - PCI Express x4 onto this mb?  Would I be able to install 2 of them?  I will eventually upgrade my mb in the next 3 months but the one I have now will have to do.  I plan on buying 3 of either the Icy Doc or Supermicro 5 in 3 cages and get rid of the Promise 2 port.  Would I be better off getting two Promise SATA 4 Port Controllers instead?  

 

I'm just not sure if my mb is good enough or if I am better off upgrading it.  Not sure if I can get it to handle 15 drives.  I suspect I can't use the Supermicro 8 port and a Promise 4 Port combined with the 4 SATA ports on my mb.  But I don't know really.

 

Also at what point do I need to replace my power supply?  I currently have a total of 7 drives attached to it.

 

Finally what exactly is a breakout cable for? 

That's an old motherboard, as such it may or may not work with the SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8. It only has 1 16lane PCI-Express slot. The card requires 4lanes or more on the slot. There is no way to get more than 1 AOC-SASLP-MV8 card to work on that motherboard.

Do you know if it will definitely handle 1?  If it will handle one, that's fine.  It will hold me over until I upgrade my motherboard.

Since it's older, the BIOS may or may not properly support it. It's from the days when not too many manufacturers thought users would use anything other than a graphics card in the 16x PCI-Express slot. The PCI-Express specs indicate it should work. The reality of the situation is some users of other older motherboards have run into trouble and were unable to run non-graphic cards in their 16x PCI-Express slot(s).

Oh boi! Well maybe I'll get one and if it doesn't work I can always keep it until I upgrade my mb

That's what I would do.  It won't hurt the motherboard or the card just to try it.

 

As for your PSU, I would replace it sooner rather than later.  Get something good quality, such as Seasonic, Corsair, or Antec NEO ECO.  Look on the PSU's label, what does it say for +12V1, +12V2, etc?  (as in, how many amps per rail?)

To take away as much confusion as possible on my side, I'll probably just try to follow closely to the builds offered by Lime Tech or maybe someone elses build.  I will have a max of 15 drives.

Just in case you haven't seen this yet:

 

Wiki: Recommended Builds

 

Some of those parts have been discontinued or are hard to find, but in general most are available and well vetted in the unRAID community.