kaiguy Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Well, I finally got around to documenting my unRAID box. I built this in early November 2010. All in all, it was an uneventful build. I currently have 9 drives in the box, but only 7 are connected (the other two are precleared and ready to go). I had to make a few minor customizations, which I describe in greater detail below. Overall, I'm very pleased with this setup. Everything worked, and I ended up Level 1 certifying this motherboard. In fact, I can likely have this guy Level 2'd, but I haven't gotten around to posting my syslog yet. Next on my to-do. OS at time of building: unRAID 4.5.X Pro (as of this posting, 4.6) CPU: Intel Core i3 540 Motherboard: ASUS P7H55-M LE RAM: 4 GB G.Skill DDR3 1333 Case: AZZA Helios 910 Black Japanese SECC Steel ATX Case Drive Cage(s): COOLER MASTER STB-3T4-E3-GP 4-in-3 Device Module Hardisk Cage (3) Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W 80 PLUS Certified Power Supply SATA Expansion Card(s): Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 Cables: SATA Cables and Molex Splitters from MonoPrice, 3ware Searial ATA forward breakout cable CBL-SFF8087OCF-05M Fans: MASSCOOL SL-FD14025 140mm Case Fan, NZXT FN-140RB 140mm Case Fan, and an included rear case fan HSF: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Other: StarTech USBMBADAPT2 2 Port USB Motherboard Header Adapter Flash Drive: 2 GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro Parity Drive: 2 TB Green EARS w/ jumper Data Drives: 2 TB WD Green EARS w/ jumpers (4), 1.5 TB WD Greens EARS w/ jumpers (2), 2 TB Seagate Barracuda LP (1) Cache Drive: 1 TB WD Black Total Drive Capacity: 12 Drives (9 used) Primary Use: Media hoarding/streamer, usenet downloader, archiving/light backup Likes: Quiet, cool, relatively low power consumption, internal flash drive setup Dislikes: LED lights on the CoolerMaster drive cages, case not particularly attractive, lack of adequate cable management, not having external bays. Mostly case issues, but for the price it's not all that bad. Add Ons Used: unMenu, SABnzbd+, SickBeard, cache_dirs, apcupsd, unraid-status-email, openssh, screen Future Plans: Flip the power supply so the fan is facing up (pulling air out), max out capacity, maybe color-code my SATA cables and see if I can manage them better. Boot (peak): 123 W Spun down (avg): 54 W Spun up (avg): 95 W Normal use (avg): 67 W I had to make a few minor modifications to the case... there were some plastic (support) bars on the front of some of the 5.25 bays, preventing me from installing the Cooler Master cages. An X-acto knife fixed that problem. Also, the huge internal side fan on the case had to be removed, since my heatsink was just too big for it, preventing the door to close. Since I wanted to have negative pressure on the inside of the case, I covered the now exposed large grill on the side panel with (ghetto warning!) black trash bag and electrical tape. But it works and looks fine. The fans on the Cooler Master drive cages pull air in, and the 3 stronger fans are pushing air out from the top, back, and bottom of the case. Since I didn't get a small profile flash drive for unRAID, I decided I wanted to have it mounted internally. So I found one of only a handful of options for a USB motherboard header adapter and went with it. It's fine... nothing amazing, and has an extra port in the event I want some other USB device mounted internally. I think if I could do anything differently, I'd probably go with a different case. There's really no cable management. With those CM drive cages, I don't have any room to do anything fancy with the SATA cables. I'd probably try to do a Norco case with different fans, but the setup I have now is relatively small, efficient, quiet, and cool (none of my fans, even the hot-running WD Black, get above 30 degrees). Sad thing is, I have one of those Supermicro cases that a bunch of people here got on eBay still sitting in the box in my storage room. I just think that thing is way too big, loud, and power hungry to use (right now). Anyway, on to the pics... Quote Link to comment
abs0lut.zer0 Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 let me be the first to say STUNNING absolutely stunning, wish i had the patience for the cabling etc... Quote Link to comment
Carpet3 Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 That's a nice looking system Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Great build. I'm dubious about the effect of the bottom-mounted fan. Have you tried running without it? I expect that your drive temps won't change significantly, and you can save a bit of power. Quote Link to comment
Chuck Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Nice build. I was wondering how a case would cool with three of the CM cages. Is the USB header to interface adapter commercial? I like that! Quote Link to comment
kizer Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Yeah I noticed that as well. My case with just the front fans and the one rear almost feels like its not even running. I could see the need for all the fans if the drives spun all day/night, but with lower end graphics cards and low CPU use it shouldn't really generate a lot of heat. None the less its still a very nice setup and don't get me wrong I'm not judging you based on how many fans you have installed/running its your machine and you uses probably generate more heat than I do. Quote Link to comment
kizer Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Nice build. I was wondering how a case would cool with three of the CM cages. Is the USB header to interface adapter commercial? I like that! Yes you can do a search on google and find all kinds of different solutions. Link I personally use this so my USB lays flat at the bottom of the case with no worries of getting hit. I of course seperated so I'm only using one end. LINK Quote Link to comment
kaiguy Posted January 13, 2011 Author Share Posted January 13, 2011 Thanks for the nice words, everyone Great build. I'm dubious about the effect of the bottom-mounted fan. Have you tried running without it? I expect that your drive temps won't change significantly, and you can save a bit of power. Yeah I noticed that as well. My case with just the front fans and the one rear almost feels like its not even running. I could see the need for all the fans if the drives spun all day/night, but with lower end graphics cards and low CPU use it shouldn't really generate a lot of heat. None the less its still a very nice setup and don't get me wrong I'm not judging you based on how many fans you have installed/running its your machine and you uses probably generate more heat than I do. Yeah, I ran this without a top and bottom fan for a while. Then without the bottom. Perhaps it is overkill, but like I said in my post my goal was to have negative pressure in the case. Living in Southern California with no AC, it was more in preparation for summer! In the end, I do think it helps with my hottest drive, as I have my cache drive at the very bottom of the case. Is the USB header to interface adapter commercial? I like that! I have the link to it in the parts list under other... but for simplicity here it is again http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200474 Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 On my very first server (using an Antec p180 case, NOT recommended for unRAID) I had an 80mm fan that would cool the hottest drives during the summer. I would plug it in for the summer months only, then leave it unplugged for the rest of the year. I did it mainly for the noise difference, as the power usage is pretty small. Still, I guess it all adds up over time. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment
maxinc Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Really impressed with those power readings! Well done! Love the final result. Quote Link to comment
kaiguy Posted January 13, 2011 Author Share Posted January 13, 2011 On my very first server (using an Antec p180 case, NOT recommended for unRAID) I had an 80mm fan that would cool the hottest drives during the summer. I would plug it in for the summer months only, then leave it unplugged for the rest of the year. I did it mainly for the noise difference, as the power usage is pretty small. Still, I guess it all adds up over time. Just a thought. Definitely appreciate the insight, Rajahal. I'm going to unplug it and see how it goes. Believe me, I'm all about saving power. Really impressed with those power readings! Well done! Love the final result. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I just noticed the fan on the side of the CPU cooler as well. I would bet that you could get away without that one too (assuming your motherboard will allow you to run without a CPU fan, some don't). Obviously you would need to watch your CPU temps pretty closely for a few days to make sure you are in the clear. Given the size of that CPU heatsink, I just assumed that it was passive. I didn't notice the fan until I actually looked a bit closer. Quote Link to comment
rich.bingham Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Dislikes: LED lights on the CoolerMaster drive cages To kill the LED's, cut the blue wires on the spokes of the fans. Probably not worth the effort to tear it apart now, but something to think about if you have to tear into it down the road. Quote Link to comment
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