The Enclosure Thread


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1 hour ago, xtrips said:

Definitely a bad choice for Unraid. Ideally parity operations happen in parallel. Any write to the parity array will read and write both parity and the data disk to be written, or read all disks then write parity and the data disk depending on how you have it set. And rebuilds, parity checks will read all disks.

 

If each disk has a separate connection, all this can happen with all disks at the same time. If all of the disks are trying to use a single connection to the computer, then things are going to go very slowly since it has to work with each disk separately.

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14 hours ago, trurl said:

Definitely a bad choice for Unraid. Ideally parity operations happen in parallel. Any write to the parity array will read and write both parity and the data disk to be written, or read all disks then write parity and the data disk depending on how you have it set. And rebuilds, parity checks will read all disks.

 

If each disk has a separate connection, all this can happen with all disks at the same time. If all of the disks are trying to use a single connection to the computer, then things are going to go very slowly since it has to work with each disk separately.

I didn't understand most of it but your word is gold. I am definitely not going the JBOD route thanks to you.

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15 hours ago, AgentXXL said:

 

I would not recommend that enclosure for your JBOD device... it appears to only offer eSATA or USB connections. unRAID can be finicky with  port multiplier based systems like the one you linked. You mentioned your existing system is a tower PC 'stuffed full of hard drives'. I would spend some time on eBay or checking with local computer surplus shops to see if you can find a used but reasonably priced multi-bay enclosure. I picked up my 36 bay Supermicro CSE-847 locally for $600 CAD, which included the motherboard, dual Xeon CPUs and RAM. Supermicro also has a 24 bay (CSE-846), a 12 bay (CSE-836) or if you really want to go big, there are 45 and 60 drive bay options. Alas these storage chassis produce a lot of heat and can be noisy.

 

Or, because your use case is pretty similar to my backup unRAID system, you could go with a Fractal Design Define 7XL case. The Define 7XL supports up to 18 3.5" drives and can accept motherboards from ITX all the way to e-ATX form factor. I picked up one myself with all the extra drive trays and mounting brackets for about $450 CAD from a local retailer. I'm currently using another 10 year old motherboard with 12GB of RAM with 2 LSI HBAs - one 9201-16i and one 9207-8i. Going this route would provide for up to 24 SATA devices between the 2 LSI HBAs (host bus adapters). If going this route you will require some miniSAS to 4 SATA forward breakout cables like these: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-SFF-8087-Breakout/dp/B018YHS8BS

 

The only big concern with using the Define 7XL fully loaded with drives is ensuring you get a power supply that has enough capacity and SATA power connections. Alas all the cabling for both power and SATA makes it difficult to do a really clean build, but it is every bit as functional as my Supermicro CSE-847. As you're not familiar with these systems, feel free to ask any specific questions and I'll try to answer.

 

 

You probably saved me from an unfortunate internet overseas purchase that would have cost me money, time and nerves.
I will try to make sense of all that you wrote. I am not exactly proficient in that field.
What you are telling me is basically to keep the architecture I am used to, just improve on it by choosing a better case that can hold all the HDDs I got and add more, ventilate them better than I do (very easy task unfortunately), and serve the HDDs well when it comes to power and management, right?

Let's delve into that. At the moment I have a 9 HDDs + 1 SSD Unraid that uses 6 SATA ports on my old motherboard + 4 SATA extensions from a PCI adapter. My motherboard is a Gygabyte H55M-D2H with an i5 CPU and 4Gb RAM. I guess I used one of the 2 PCI slots available.
I have another NAS with 6 HDDs and my main goal is to get rid of it and consolidate everything under Unraid so 15 HDDs + 1 SSD in the end.

The way I see it finding a new case that can hold everything will be a challenge I can deal with.
The problem for me is to understand how to connect all these HDDs and be able to scale up a bit maybe in the future even though I think that will be enough for me.
Will my motherboard suffice? I don't understand how this miniSAS technology works. Is that what will allow me to multiply the number of HDD connections available and accommodate the future needs? Can you please elaborate exactly on that point?

And one last thing. How is the RAM used for my regular uses? As I said no processing is done on Unraid. Only downloads and file reads from computers or media streamers. So, will I need more RAM as I multiply the number of HDDs ?

Thank you very much 

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6 hours ago, xtrips said:

You probably saved me from an unfortunate internet overseas purchase that would have cost me money, time and nerves.
I will try to make sense of all that you wrote. I am not exactly proficient in that field.
What you are telling me is basically to keep the architecture I am used to, just improve on it by choosing a better case that can hold all the HDDs I got and add more, ventilate them better than I do (very easy task unfortunately), and serve the HDDs well when it comes to power and management, right?

Let's delve into that. At the moment I have a 9 HDDs + 1 SSD Unraid that uses 6 SATA ports on my old motherboard + 4 SATA extensions from a PCI adapter. My motherboard is a Gygabyte H55M-D2H with an i5 CPU and 4Gb RAM. I guess I used one of the 2 PCI slots available.
I have another NAS with 6 HDDs and my main goal is to get rid of it and consolidate everything under Unraid so 15 HDDs + 1 SSD in the end.

The way I see it finding a new case that can hold everything will be a challenge I can deal with.
The problem for me is to understand how to connect all these HDDs and be able to scale up a bit maybe in the future even though I think that will be enough for me.
Will my motherboard suffice? I don't understand how this miniSAS technology works. Is that what will allow me to multiply the number of HDD connections available and accommodate the future needs? Can you please elaborate exactly on that point?

And one last thing. How is the RAM used for my regular uses? As I said no processing is done on Unraid. Only downloads and file reads from computers or media streamers. So, will I need more RAM as I multiply the number of HDDs ?

Thank you very much 

 

Ok, this post will be a little long, but take your time and read through it. Planning a migration like this is often a time and money consuming task. Based on the info you provided, you would easily be able to transfer all of your current unRAID drives and the SSD into a case like the Fractal Design Define 7XL. There are other cases that are a lot cheaper like the $150US Rosewill RSV-L4500, as long as you can live with a rackmount style case.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Rackmount-Computer-Pre-Installed-RSV-L4500/dp/B0091IZ1ZG

 

As for how miniSAS works, each miniSAS port on a LSI HBA is able to provide 4 SATA ports. That's what you use the SFF-8087 to 4 SATA forward breakout cables for. For a HBA like the LSI 9201-16i, there are 4 x SFF-8087 miniSAS ports. Using 4 of the breakout cables will give you 16 SATA connections. unRAID doesn't care about drives being connected to a different SATA port so you'll likely have no issues with migrating your existing unRAID build to a new case. Drives can be connected to your motherboard SATA ports or via the LSI HBA ports, or a combination of both. Personally I like to keep all my unRAID array and cache drives on the LSI cards and only use the motherboard SATA if I need more SATA connections.

 

Unfortunately your motherboard is only capable of PCIe 2.0 speeds so you'll not get the full speed that a PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 motherboard can achieve. Your current CPU and RAM may be usable if you were to upgrade your motherboard, but I suspect you'll be happier going with a new motherboard, CPU and RAM. As for your RAM question, it depends on how many Docker containers and/or VMs you intend to use. If your current unRAID is working well, you probably don't need to add any RAM. Personally though, I would go with a minimum of 16GB just to give yourself a little breathing room for adding future Docker containers or VMs.

 

One issue that you might have is when adding the drives from your existing NAS to your unRAID system. unRAID will require them to be cleared and re-formatted if you want them protected by the unRAID array. Whether the drives on your other NAS are full or not, you'll have to figure out a way to move any required data off the NAS so you can relocate the drives to your unRAID system.  If your old NAS used say 4 x 4TB drives, you could buy one 16TB drive and use it to temporarily store your old NAS data.

 

Once you have your required NAS data backed up, you can then move the old NAS drives to unRAID and then let it zero and add them to the array. You can then add the backed up data that was stored on your old NAS to your unRAID array. You could then use the temporary storage location (in the example above, the 16TB drive) for offline backups of your important data. If you have enough free space on your current unRAID build, you could pre-transfer the data from your NAS to unRAID over a network. Definitely something you want to take your time with and plan a way to migrate your existing data and drives from the NAS to unRAID.

 

This isn't as difficult as it sounds, but it is time consuming. I had to do a similar shuffle when moving my data from my old FreeNAS build to my current unRAID build. To simplify it, you might want to add one or more new drives to your unRAID build to give you space to transfer the old NAS data to. That's what I did - I bought 2 new 10TB drives and added them to my unRAID. This gave me enough free space to relocate the files from my old FreeNAS setup. Once the data had been relocated to the unRAID system, I then took the drives out of my FreeNAS and added them to unRAID. UnRAID then cleared/zeroed and formatted them as XFS volumes that were now part of the unRAID protected array, giving me a decent amount of free space for future growth.

 

One other thing to be aware of: if your parity drive(s) on your current unRAID are smaller in capacity than the drives from the NAS, you'll want to do the parity drive upgrade/swap procedure first. I'm sure this is all pretty confusing to you so take your time and plan your new unRAID build and data migration. Here's a basic plan to start you off:

 

1. Decide on a new enclosure and purchase it.

2. Purchase a power supply that can supply the required SATA power connections, as well as the standard motherboard/GPU power.

3. Procure your new motherboard, CPU and RAM if desired.

4. Purchase your LSI HBA(s) and forward breakout cables. As mentioned above, a single LSI 9201-16i will provide you with 16 SATA connections.

5. Build the new unRAID system and move your unRAID USB drive and array/cache drives to the new system.

6. Purchase or find some storage space to migrate any required data off your old NAS.

7. Once your old NAS data is backed up, move the drives from the old NAS to your unRAID build and let it zero/clear and format them as part of the protected array.

8. If your old NAS data is on an external USB drive or other system, transfer it to your unRAID.

 

Let us know if you have other questions... it's a big undertaking but it's been done by myself and many others successfully.

 

Edited by AgentXXL
formatting text so it's more readable
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  • 4 weeks later...

So I just heard this case should be ready by summer, they said they would know more in March.  What do you guys think, I have been looking at this case since it was announced.  12Gb/s backplane, 16 Trayless bays and takes standard ATX power supply.  I'm looking to upgrade my old Norrco case that is about 10 years old.  My only concern is if it will fit a P2000 video card.

 

Case M-4160HD-ATX

Edited by squirrellydw
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Hi All,

 

I'm hoping this is a good place to post my question.  I'm relatively new to unraid and am somewhat technical.  I've been running an unraid/plex server for about 1.5yrs now and would like to upgrade from my current server and add a couple drives for a total of 6 drives.

 

Basically I want to add HDDs and utilize a much newer processor/motherboard I already own for my unraid/plex server.  The current server has a 10+ year old processor and motherboard and the internal HDD controller is maxed out at 4 drives.  The current enclosure isn't made to host 4x3.5" drives, but it is doing OK.  Heat levels on my drives are hanging around 100 degrees give or take 5 degrees.

 

My question is which option should I pursue?

 

Current Config:

Unraid 6.9.1

Dell Studio D340

Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz

4x4TB WD SATA HDDs

Built-in HDD Controller that can host 4 drives

 

New Option 1: (new enclosure)

Re-purpose my Alien X51 R3 Mini-ITX Motherbooard

Purchase Fractal Design Node 804

Purchase 2 additional 4TB WD SATA HDDs

Purchase LSI 8-port capable controller

 

New Option 2: (utilize Alien Enclosure)

Re-purpose my Alien X51 R3 machine as-is

Purchase 2 Additional 4TB WD SATA HDDs

Purchase LSI 8-port capable controller for use with external enclosure

Purchase external HDD enclosure that can hold up to 8 drives

 

Which option would you all pursue?  And if you have a preference on Option 2, which LSI controller and external HDD enclosures should I look at?  I'm not even sure if I should go with USB connection to the external enclosure or go with SAS ports.

 

Any guidance is much appreciated.

 

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On 1/1/2021 at 5:51 PM, AgentXXL said:

 

Ok, this post will be a little long, but take your time and read through it. Planning a migration like this is often a time and money consuming task. Based on the info you provided, you would easily be able to transfer all of your current unRAID drives and the SSD into a case like the Fractal Design Define 7XL. There are other cases that are a lot cheaper like the $150US Rosewill RSV-L4500, as long as you can live with a rackmount style case.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Rackmount-Computer-Pre-Installed-RSV-L4500/dp/B0091IZ1ZG

 

As for how miniSAS works, each miniSAS port on a LSI HBA is able to provide 4 SATA ports. That's what you use the SFF-8087 to 4 SATA forward breakout cables for. For a HBA like the LSI 9201-16i, there are 4 x SFF-8087 miniSAS ports. Using 4 of the breakout cables will give you 16 SATA connections. unRAID doesn't care about drives being connected to a different SATA port so you'll likely have no issues with migrating your existing unRAID build to a new case. Drives can be connected to your motherboard SATA ports or via the LSI HBA ports, or a combination of both. Personally I like to keep all my unRAID array and cache drives on the LSI cards and only use the motherboard SATA if I need more SATA connections.

 

Unfortunately your motherboard is only capable of PCIe 2.0 speeds so you'll not get the full speed that a PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 motherboard can achieve. Your current CPU and RAM may be usable if you were to upgrade your motherboard, but I suspect you'll be happier going with a new motherboard, CPU and RAM. As for your RAM question, it depends on how many Docker containers and/or VMs you intend to use. If your current unRAID is working well, you probably don't need to add any RAM. Personally though, I would go with a minimum of 16GB just to give yourself a little breathing room for adding future Docker containers or VMs.

 

One issue that you might have is when adding the drives from your existing NAS to your unRAID system. unRAID will require them to be cleared and re-formatted if you want them protected by the unRAID array. Whether the drives on your other NAS are full or not, you'll have to figure out a way to move any required data off the NAS so you can relocate the drives to your unRAID system.  If your old NAS used say 4 x 4TB drives, you could buy one 16TB drive and use it to temporarily store your old NAS data.

 

Once you have your required NAS data backed up, you can then move the old NAS drives to unRAID and then let it zero and add them to the array. You can then add the backed up data that was stored on your old NAS to your unRAID array. You could then use the temporary storage location (in the example above, the 16TB drive) for offline backups of your important data. If you have enough free space on your current unRAID build, you could pre-transfer the data from your NAS to unRAID over a network. Definitely something you want to take your time with and plan a way to migrate your existing data and drives from the NAS to unRAID.

 

This isn't as difficult as it sounds, but it is time consuming. I had to do a similar shuffle when moving my data from my old FreeNAS build to my current unRAID build. To simplify it, you might want to add one or more new drives to your unRAID build to give you space to transfer the old NAS data to. That's what I did - I bought 2 new 10TB drives and added them to my unRAID. This gave me enough free space to relocate the files from my old FreeNAS setup. Once the data had been relocated to the unRAID system, I then took the drives out of my FreeNAS and added them to unRAID. UnRAID then cleared/zeroed and formatted them as XFS volumes that were now part of the unRAID protected array, giving me a decent amount of free space for future growth.

 

One other thing to be aware of: if your parity drive(s) on your current unRAID are smaller in capacity than the drives from the NAS, you'll want to do the parity drive upgrade/swap procedure first. I'm sure this is all pretty confusing to you so take your time and plan your new unRAID build and data migration. Here's a basic plan to start you off:

 

1. Decide on a new enclosure and purchase it.

2. Purchase a power supply that can supply the required SATA power connections, as well as the standard motherboard/GPU power.

3. Procure your new motherboard, CPU and RAM if desired.

4. Purchase your LSI HBA(s) and forward breakout cables. As mentioned above, a single LSI 9201-16i will provide you with 16 SATA connections.

5. Build the new unRAID system and move your unRAID USB drive and array/cache drives to the new system.

6. Purchase or find some storage space to migrate any required data off your old NAS.

7. Once your old NAS data is backed up, move the drives from the old NAS to your unRAID build and let it zero/clear and format them as part of the protected array.

8. If your old NAS data is on an external USB drive or other system, transfer it to your unRAID.

 

Let us know if you have other questions... it's a big undertaking but it's been done by myself and many others successfully.

 

It took me some time to assemble everything but eventually I did it. Thanks to your advice I have now 15 HDDs + NVMe loaded into a Fractal Design Define 7 XL and I have plenty of room to grow. You were of great help.

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Just to help anyone else looking to do a Fractal Design Define 7XL build, here's the build info I used to fully equip it for maximum storage:

 

Solid black model with 6 HDD/SSD trays + 2 SSD brackets + 2 Multibrackets included

5 x 2-pack HDD trays (10 additional trays)

2 x 2-pack multibrackets (4 additional multibrackets)

 

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/define/define-7-xl/Black/

 

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/accessories/mounting/hdd-kit-type-b-2-pack/black/

 

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/accessories/mounting/universal-multibracket-type-a-2-pack/black/

 

I bought from a local Canadian reseller - Memory Express. Total came to $420 CAD before taxes when I purchased but prices do fluctuate.

 

Main Case (solid black model): https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX81096

 

Extra trays: https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX00113324

 

Extra multibrackets: https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX00113330

 

You can see in the attached pic that you can mount 15 x 3.5" drives in trays (1 spare tray left over). 3 x 3.5" are mounted at the top upside down with multibrackets. I added 2 more 3.5" drives on multibrackets with stick on legs at the bottom of the motherboard compartment where they show 3 x 2.5". I used my last spare multibracket to mount another SSD upside down above the column of 11 x 3.5" drives - there's just enough space, but not if you want to do a water cooling radiator setup as shown in the manual.

 

 

FD-Define7XL-Storage.jpg

Edited by AgentXXL
spelling + grammar
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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Hello,

 

I am new to Unraid, but I own three Synology NAS, and I am worried that my main old DS1812+ may sometimes have a problem, due to his age.

 

So I am very interested in Unraid and I am looking for the perfect enclosure to install in my rack. But I noticed a problem, this is a network rack, so it is less deep than a server rack...

 

It is a standard 19U width rack (so about 44,7cm width space for the enclosure to rack), no problem to place a 4U high enclosure, but if racked, I will have no more than 40cm deep in length, excluding a few centimetres for air cooling and connecting wires at the back.

 

Does that king of enclosure with a maximum of 40cm in length exists?

 

My objective is to have at least 8 HDD (if possible 10 or 12) and 2 SSD in it. No dedicated graphic card needed.

 

Thanks!

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...
On 3/22/2021 at 5:16 AM, AgentXXL said:

Just to help anyone else looking to do a Fractal Design Define 7XL build, here's the build info I used to fully equip it for maximum storage:

 

Solid black model with 6 HDD/SSD trays + 2 SSD brackets + 2 Multibrackets included

5 x 2-pack HDD trays (10 additional trays)

2 x 2-pack multibrackets (4 additional multibrackets)

 

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/define/define-7-xl/Black/

 

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/accessories/mounting/hdd-kit-type-b-2-pack/black/

 

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/accessories/mounting/universal-multibracket-type-a-2-pack/black/

 

You can see in the attached pic that you can mount 15 x 3.5" drives in trays (1 spare tray left over). 3 x 3.5" are mounted at the top upside down with multibrackets. I added 2 more 3.5" drives on multibrackets with stick on legs at the bottom of the motherboard compartment where they show 3 x 2.5". I used my last spare multibracket to mount another SSD upside down above the column of 11 x 3.5" drives - there's just enough space, but not if you want to do a water cooling radiator setup as shown in the manual.

 

Thanks for the post, i was just looking at the same case. How many drives do you have and how do you find cable management? Jeez it would be nice if they optionally supplied a SATA plug plate to slap in the back of all those HDD bays. I can't imagine the mess of running 18 SATA cables :/

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On 1/28/2022 at 2:49 AM, Derek_ said:

 

Thanks for the post, i was just looking at the same case. How many drives do you have and how do you find cable management? Jeez it would be nice if they optionally supplied a SATA plug plate to slap in the back of all those HDD bays. I can't imagine the mess of running 18 SATA cables :/

 

I have a total of 23 drives installed. 20 x 3.5" drives installed, with room for 2 more. I also have 3 x 2.5" SSDs installed. I used all the brackets I ordered and was able to add 1 SSD mounted upside down at the top, along with the 3 x 3.5" drives that are part the normal 18. I also added 1 more 3.5" drive at the bottom of the motherboard compartment, which is where I'll place the other 2 x 3.5" drives if/when needed.

 

Cabling isn't as bad as you might imagine, but it definitely is a candidate for custom cables so it can look a lot cleaner and help with airflow. I use 3 x 140mm fans at the front of the case to suck air in over the hard drives, through the motherboard compartment and then exhausted out the rear. As for cabling, most of my SATA cables are from my LSI 9201-16i which has 4 x SFF-8087 miniSAS connectors. I connect 4 of the SFF-8087 to 4 x SATA forward breakout cables giving me 16 SATA ports. The other SATA ports come from my motherboard and a m.2 to 5 port SATA controller.

 

I haven't done any serious cleanup of the cables as I eventually plan to move the entire setup into another enclosure like a Supermicro CSE-846. The Define 7XL is a great case, but it's also too nice to use purely as a storage server (mine is my 2nd unRAID system, using it for backups primarily).

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13 hours ago, AgentXXL said:

Cabling isn't as bad as you might imagine, but it definitely is a candidate for custom cables so it can look a lot cleaner and help with airflow. I use 3 x 140mm fans at the front of the case to suck air in over the hard drives, through the motherboard compartment and then exhausted out the rear. As for cabling, most of my SATA cables are from my LSI 9201-16i which has 4 x SFF-8087 miniSAS connectors. I connect 4 of the SFF-8087 to 4 x SATA forward breakout cables giving me 16 SATA ports. The other SATA ports come from my motherboard and a m.2 to 5 port SATA controller.

 

I'd love to see it! :) But i understand if that's a bit of a bother.

 

My NAS experience was Synology, and i got unRAID about 2 years ago i think? 3? Anyway, i thought "i'll only need the basic license"... i just bought the mid-tier license a couple of days ago. I did contemplate going back to Synology for size, efficiency but i just like the way the unRAID works. Like i can take a drive out, connect it to my PC and run regular Linux commands and read it. Anyway, so i am totally unprepared for discussions around this "LSI" thing and "miniSAS" which, if i'm reading you right, would make the cabling much easier/neater. Any pointers to articles or videos or your own words would be very much appreciated. But again, no worries if it's a bit of an ask.

 

Cheers. And i can't believe you might need a case with even more storage! :)

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10 hours ago, Derek_ said:

 

I'd love to see it! :) But i understand if that's a bit of a bother.

 

My NAS experience was Synology, and i got unRAID about 2 years ago i think? 3? Anyway, i thought "i'll only need the basic license"... i just bought the mid-tier license a couple of days ago. I did contemplate going back to Synology for size, efficiency but i just like the way the unRAID works. Like i can take a drive out, connect it to my PC and run regular Linux commands and read it. Anyway, so i am totally unprepared for discussions around this "LSI" thing and "miniSAS" which, if i'm reading you right, would make the cabling much easier/neater. Any pointers to articles or videos or your own words would be very much appreciated. But again, no worries if it's a bit of an ask.

 

Cheers. And i can't believe you might need a case with even more storage! :)


There's not a lot to complain about with Synology - certainly I think they still provide a decent product line for those that don't want to 'roll their own' with unRAID (or other OSes). That said, I ran FreeNAS (now TrueNAS Core) for many years before jumping ship to unRAID in 2019. I couldn't be more pleased with how it's worked out.

 

As for the LSI HBA info, they are the most reliable and proven way to add SATA ports to an unRAID system. Using them with the breakout cables for discrete drives or using miniSAS SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 for SAS/SATA expanders makes them a great choice. The most common model is the LSI 9207-8i which can use 2 breakout cables for a total of 8 SATA ports. If you were thinking you might want to maximize the storage in a Define 7XL, then a LSI 9201-16i is the better choice as it can do 16 SATA ports with 4 breakout cables. Here's an example link of one from eBay. Also check out 'The Art of Server' website and their eBay store. Note that some have had issues with the OEM models from China but for the most part they're OK. I bought a couple from China and one didn't work properly so I returned it and ordered a retail boxed version from the US.

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/133882350555

 

Also see this section of the unRAID documentation on PCI (and PCIe) controllers. The table may be out of date but the LSI products are still the recommended way to go.

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/Hardware_Compatibility#PCI_SATA_Controllers

 

As for me and needing more storage, it's all about what you intend to use the system for. I've been collecting media since I was 8 years old - almost 50 years worth of TV/movies that's all been digitized or ripped from disc. There's a lot of family pics and video, as well as music, ebooks and more. My media server is in my signature below, as well as the backup server that resides in my Define 7XL. Personally, the case is impressive in its capability, but it's too nice to use for purely storage so I'm planning to repurpose it for a new video editing/flight sim setup. I already have one of the Supermicro CSE-847 (36 x 3.5" bays) for the main media server, but am watching for a CSE-846 (24 x 3.5" bays) to transplant the backup server into.

 

 

I might get a chance to take some pics of the system cabling and will post them if/when I do. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

Edited by AgentXXL
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On 2/8/2022 at 12:46 AM, Derek_ said:

@AgentXXL Thanks for the info, it will be very useful when i upgrade my system. I really appreciate it :)

 

Here's a snapshot of the wiring for the main disk mount area. I actually upgraded my system yesterday - went from a 6th gen i7-6700K to a 12th gen i9-12900K. unRAID has some issues with the 12th gen, but I'll live with them until unRAID goes to a new kernel that better supports all of Alder Lake's features. Specifically the iGPU - for now I'm using a GTX970.

 

Define7XLWiring.thumb.jpg.39eb7beca020707ee2bee9887a879dd7.jpg

 

As you can see, using the breakout cables with the LSI HBA means you don't have a horrid mess of regular SATA cables. The gotcha is these thinner wires are more prone to breakage, but they're inexpensive so I always keep spares on hand. As I was upgrading the system, I also made a custom power cable for the top 8 drives. The PSU (eVGA 1200W 85+ Gold) has a high power rail that feeds these so no worry about killing the PSU.

 

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4 hours ago, AgentXXL said:

As I was upgrading the system, I also made a custom power cable for the top 8 drives. The PSU (eVGA 1200W 85+ Gold) has a high power rail that feeds these so no worry about killing the PSU.

 

I'd probably be capable of making a custom power cable, but I'd never know what it meant to the PSU. Man, PC building is so much more complicated than it used to be (when you want it the way you want it). I have built pretty much every PC i've owned, but i'm going to have to ask for some help from a friend who is much more into PC building than i am. I build it, then forget about it for 4-5 years until i upgrade. Then i have to learn pretty much from scratch. I might just ask my friend to choose my components, then explain why and perhaps offer some degree of option in there, like a bit more for this, a bit less for that etc.

 

Thanks heaps :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ended up buying the Rosewill RSV-R4200U rack mount case to replace my mITX Fractal Node 304. Ran out of SATA ports and HDD bays in the Fractal at the same time I moved out of a condo and into a house. House already had a small rack supporting the audio equipment for the in-ceiling speakers.

Wanted to get the Rosewill RSV-L4500U but found this R4200U for $150: https://www.beachaudio.com/rosewill-rsv-r4200u-svr-chassis-rosewill-rsv-r4200u-r-rsvr4200u/

Not a lot of info out there so I figured I'd give a rundown:
1) it says 11 3.5" drives + 3 2.5" drives but it is really 14 3.5" drives and comes with 3 adapters for 2.5" drives that can be removed.
2) I didn't know this, but rack mount cases are not all the same depth. This RSV-R4200U is significantly shorter than the L4500U, and that's a good thing as it is basically the same depth as my rack! Not sure I could have made the L4500U fit.
3) Installation of the 3.5" drives really stinks. I'm not looking forward to adding more drives in the future. you have to pull out the entire drive insert and screw them in on top and bottom.
4) only having two 120mm fans on the front intake isn't a lot. Things will likely get toasty during parity checks. First one scheduled tomorrow.

Looking forward to expanding my array with my new LSI SAS card too.

Will take more pics once I tear it open again. Forgot to get more.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk



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On 2/28/2022 at 1:00 PM, Smitty2k1 said:

Ended up buying the Rosewill RSV-R4200U rack mount case

 

I'm very interested in your experiences with this case. I too am considering it for a short depth (20") wall mount rack and I agree that the internet seems to have very little information about it. Besides your general experiences with the case (cable routing, build quality, ease of assembly, airflow, etc.) I'm particularly interested in the clearances around the PCIe cards. I would never expect to fit a full sized GPU into this case given it's total length and with the HD cage as it is, but I'm curious to know exactly how long of a GPU could fit in this case safely. Rosewill doesn't seem to give any measurements around this area and so I'm having to guess based on the size of an ATX motherboard. Additional photos of the interior of your final build would be really valuable.

 

For reference, besides the Rosewill RSV-R4200U, I'm also considering the classic Chenbro RM42300 and what seems to me to be a more expensive clone of the Chenbro RM42300 by Silverstone, the RM41-506 (or one of it's variants.) All are short depth cases that have very similar features.

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I'm very interested in your experiences with this case. I too am considering it for a short depth (20") wall mount rack and I agree that the internet seems to have very little information about it. Besides your general experiences with the case (cable routing, build quality, ease of assembly, airflow, etc.) I'm particularly interested in the clearances around the PCIe cards. I would never expect to fit a full sized GPU into this case given it's total length and with the HD cage as it is, but I'm curious to know exactly how long of a GPU could fit in this case safely. Rosewill doesn't seem to give any measurements around this area and so I'm having to guess based on the size of an ATX motherboard. Additional photos of the interior of your final build would be really valuable.
 
For reference, besides the Rosewill RSV-R4200U, I'm also considering the classic Chenbro RM42300 and what seems to me to be a more expensive clone of the Chenbro RM42300 by Silverstone, the RM41-506 (or one of it's variants.) All are short depth cases that have very similar features.
I'm planning on opening it up in a day or two and I'll remember to take photos and measure the GPU clearance.

Ive got a super small and low powered build that I just transfered from my fractal Node 304, but I wanted room to add more HDDs so right now it's pretty empty and a big mess of cables because I just wanted to get it back up and running asap.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

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4 hours ago, FirbyKirby said:

For reference, besides the Rosewill RSV-R4200U, I'm also considering the classic Chenbro RM42300 and what seems to me to be a more expensive clone of the Chenbro RM42300 by Silverstone, the RM41-506 (or one of it's variants.) All are short depth cases that have very similar features.

 

I use the Chenbro RM42300 with my main unRAID server. I have an iStar 5 bay hot-swap enclosure and slimline Blu-ray drive installed, and a front panel USB module with USB-A and USB C ports. It's connected to my Supermicro CSE-847 DAS conversion by a LSI 2308 series HBA. Here it is sitting on top of the Supermicro.

 

 

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I've been having issues with the onboard Aquantia AQC111C 5Gbps NIC for the Asus Prime x299 Deluxe II motherboard and Asus are no help at all. It likely just needs a firmware update as I found many other users with similar issues that were resolved once they updated the firmware. Alas the Marvell official fw update only works for certain USB, add-in card and onboard versions of the Aquantia AQC series NICs. Some in the community have been able to update their Asus onboard NICs. This was done by adding the specific device IDs for their motherboard into the XML config file that's used to determine which NICs are eligible for the update. Asus claims there's no problems and no firmware updater available, but I provided evidence links in their own ROG forums to show otherwise.

 

As I'm unwilling to live without my main unRAID system for the time it would take for the RMA, I decided to purchase a used x299 motherboard, the one that I actually wanted when I 1st built the system, but the board was out of stock everywhere. I found the used one on eBay - an Asus WS x299 SAGE/10 with dual onboard 10Gbps NICs from an Intel X550 controller. It is unfortunately a SSI-CEB sized board and the Chenbro RM42300 won't accept that size. So, as I've been happy with the Chenbro, I purchased one of its full-sized 4U rackmount brothers, the RM41300. The advantage of going with the 41300 is that the front panel is essentially the same as the 42300, so I'll be able to transplant the hot-swap bays, USB module and slimline Blu-ray drive into it fairly easily.

 

Both the case and motherboard have been shipped. I'll take some pics during the transfer/build and post them here.

 

Edited by AgentXXL
redundant statement
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