Pimp Your Rig


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I have been looking to increase my storage capacity for a while to accommodate my foray into making videos and to have somewhere to backup my DVD collection so I put those discs in storage.  And a guy at work tipped me off to unRAID.  I hate to delete anything plus I'm not a big fan of hard drive failures.  ::)  I just decided to go for the budget model that was suggested on the wiki site to get started and will build it up as needed.  Here's what my shopping list ended up being:

 

Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower ($60)

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX ($30)

Mobo: BIOSTAR A760G M2+ AM2+/AM2 AMD 760G Micro ATX ($65)

RAM: Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 ($55)

CPU: AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz Socket AM3 45W Single-Core ($33)

HDD: 2xSamsung SpinPoint 1TB ($70 each), 1xSeagate Barracuda 1.5TB ($80)

So, my total was $463, which seems pretty good compared to the box listed on the wiki page.

 

So, I decided to give this a shot and so far, so good.  I'm not computer savvy at all, well not to the degree that everyone else on the forum is.  Just looking at all the parts laid out was kinda overwhelming.  But putting everything together seemed relatively quick.  (Considering I've never put a computer together before.)

 

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It only took me 2 hours to get everything hooked up and running.  It only took me another 30 minutes to realize I forgot to plug in the power for the CPU.   :o

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Here it is chugging along doing its first parity-sync.  Only 350 minutes to go.  

 

Hopefully, I can figure this stuff out without asking a bunch of dumb questions.  I've already learned a lot just from reading this thread.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow, that sure is compact.  Nice cabling too.  No heat issues?

 

Nice lil machine!  I love them!

 

Funny, I just built a hulk of a machine this weekend as I retired my 9 drive CM-590 AB9 PRO setup to a 20 drive CM Stacker setup with X7SBE & 2  AOC-SAT2-MV8's and an arc-1200 for parity.

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No heat issues?

Not the coolest build but it doesn't get too hot. The drives peak around 38 on hot days. Before I replaced the original hotswap fan with a quieter one it was cooler than that and the cpu fan never spun as that one fan kept everything else inside cool as well. But I needed less noise with it being right next to the TV. The new fan also spins down when the hard drives are cool enough or spun down themselves.

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so here it is, my second build, or more accurately, just a "reincarnation" of my existing/previous rig.

the idea was to be able to have more drives (i was using an antec 300 and had already 6 disks in it) and especially to make maintenance easier and quicker, i.e. not to have to open the box to replace a failed drive or to add a new one.  just that is worth its weight in gold to me.

 

the entrails of the box are the same: gigabyte ga-ma770-ud3 motherboard, sempron le-1250 cpu, 2gigs of ddr2-667 ram, asus radeon 4350 passive graphics card, tp-link gigabit nic for "server to server" transfers, an ide dvd burner "just in case", that lets me boot some live cd for testing (if need be). 

 

the new build adds: 3 syba sil3132 pcie 1x sata cards (adding 6 ports to the mortherboard's 6), two supermicro CSE-M35SB drive cages (noctua 92mm fans replacing the stock ones) and two Kingwin KF-1000-BK trayless racks. 

 

it replaces the antec 300 case with a coolermaster 590 case, with [3 arctic cooling AF12Pro PWM + 1 scythe sff21d] fans for cooling, and the ocz ModXStream 500w with a 600w one.

 

i did work at closing all unnecessary vent holes to try to ensure that a max. of air would be sucked in by & around the drive assemblies. 

 

i thus went from 6 internal drives to a possible 12, all accessible from the outside.

the drives have been running fairly cool (max temp. has been 31c, maybe 32c).

 

the geek factor has obviously shot upwards with all the separate drive activity lights... and the white fans (looks geeky to me).  the only disappointment is that the drive fault lights are not functional with the sata version of the supermicro cse-m35sb.  beyond that, i have been quite happy with the new server, whilst not as quiet as the previous incarnation, is not that noisy after all.

 

 

j9x11j.jpg

 

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Very clean build!  8)

 

I love the idea of the aluminum ducting tape on the side panel. I've been wondering for a while what to do about my Centurion's vents; the best I could come up with was clear packaging tape. However, I could never fully bring myself to install it looking that cheap. :-\ I might steal your idea though, if you don't mind!  ;D

 

What did you put on the sticky side facing the outside of the case? Black construction paper? Did you paint it?

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Very Nice.

 

I'm almost wondering if we should have a separate forum for pimp'ing and system layout.

I love this thread and what we do with it. But it's long and when I want to refer back to some posts.. whooooo...

 

hahaha. Almost feel like it's a car club show off or something!  heh.. Thanks everyone! I love the participation.

 

 

+1

 

I second the idea of opening a separate forum section for unRAID builds, where each person can open a new topic for his rig and thus the comments will be related to that rig only.

 

This will make going over the rigs easier and finding all the related information easier as well.

 

It will also allow the person operning the thread to update his original post if he updates the original rig (adds or changes hardware/drives/cabling etc...)

 

Just think how this thread will look in a year... too long and much less useful.

 

I would also suggest moving this thread there as well and maybe locking it?

 

Who can do this?

 

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Very clean build!  8)

 

I love the idea of the aluminum ducting tape on the side panel. I've been wondering for a while what to do about my Centurion's vents; the best I could come up with was clear packaging tape. However, I could never fully bring myself to install it looking that cheap. :-\ I might steal your idea though, if you don't mind!  ;D

 

What did you put on the sticky side facing the outside of the case? Black construction paper? Did you paint it?

 

thank you!

it might be cleaner than some builds, but it's not to the standards set by guitarlp, icoburn, or unraided, to name a few.

i might make it more tidy "real soon now", though, as i will be replacing the 3 syba raid 2 port controllers with a supermicro 8 ports one -- see the thread about it in the "hardware" forum (*).  hopefully, i will be happier with the end result.

 

as for blocking the open/unused vents, i did use black construction paper.  the alu ducting tape was used simply because it will simply stay there and not fall over time.  using anything else was not an option, as it would not have lasted.

 

cheers.

 

(*) reader's digest conclusion: don't try to be cheap with your components, you will end up regretting it.  too often, you *do* get what you pay for...

 

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Here is mine. If you are interested in the parts, let me know.

 

Chassis: Lian-Li Armorsuit PC-P50 http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=321&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62

 

Drive enclosure 4in3 Nr.1 (top): Lian-Li EX-34N http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=321&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62

Drive enclosure 4in3 Nr.2 (middle): Scythe Hard Drive Stabiliser X4 http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/042/scyhdsx4-detail.html

Drive enclosure 4in3 Nr.3 (bottom): Lian-Li EX-H34 http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=285&cl_index=2&sc_index=5&ss_index=71

 

Motherboard: to be added

CPU: Intel® Celeron® CPU E3300 @ 2.50GHz

RAM: 3GB

 

CPU Heatsink: Thermalright HR-01 Plus http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/hr01plus/product_cpu_cooler_hr01plus.htm

Chipset Heatsink: Thermalright HR-05 http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/chipset/hr05/product_chitset_cooler_hr05.htm

 

Drives:

Parity: WD Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB

Data: 7 x WD Caviar Green WD15EADS 1.5TB

        1 x WD Caviar Green WD10EADS 1.0TB

        2 x WD Caviar Green WD10EACS 1.0TB

        1 x SAMSUNG_HD103UJ 1.0TB   

Cache: WD Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB

 

SATA Controllers:

Adaptec 1430SA (4X sata)

Generic Sil 3124-based SATAII Controller (2x sata)

 

PSU: Seasonic S12-430

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Here is my system build:

 

Case: Power Strike Ps-613 with 13 x 5.25" bays

Mobo: Foxconn A6VMX

CPU: Athlon II X2 245

Memory: 2 x 2GB Kingston DDR2

Controller: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Drives: 7 x 1TB WD Green + 1 Samsung 300GB used as cache

PSU:  XFX P1-650X-CAG9 Modular

 

Will soon change the motherboard. The first picture shows the Power Strike side by side with the Cooler Master RC-590.

 

Pictures:

 

TMglAs.jpg  QUzGEs.jpg   voz7fs.jpg   BmtISs.jpg   yncYxs.jpg

 

Edit1:

 

Just changed the PSU to a modular one: XFX P1-650X-CAG9

 

I've successfully adapted the CoolerMaster RC-590 hard drive cage on the top of the PSU, so with a new 4-in-3 adapter I'll be able to achieve 20+1 hdd limit.

 

New Pictures:

 

dYgRHs.jpg  PjGgEs.jpg  wcmSAs.jpg  BDFZns.jpg  J96gZs.jpg  FkPP0s.jpg  1dPI5s.jpg    J9xD3s.jpg   ZvrTks.jpg    

 

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Nice!  That is one monstrous case...looks like you could get close to 20 drives if you went for all 5-in-3's.  You would probably need a bigger PSU at that point, though.

 

It has thirteen 5.25" external bays, so I can put four 5-in-3 modules for a total of 20 drives and still have one bay to other drive, but I'm tired of having trouble with these hot-swap modules, since my two Norco SS-500 have faulty SATA connectors on the backplane that oddly results in error messages at the syslog.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Nice!  That is one monstrous case...looks like you could get close to 20 drives if you went for all 5-in-3's.  You would probably need a bigger PSU at that point, though.

 

Rajahal, I'll be able to reach this limit without the use of any 5-in-3 modules.

 

I've just updated the [iurl=http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.msg64832#msg64832]topic above[/iurl].

 

;)

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Alright, here's a plug for Rajahal and his services.

 

A year or so ago, I was looking into unRaid. Someone in a different forum pointed me this way as I was tired of my Infrant ReadyNAS NV+

 

Actually, it worked fine but the bull with them having to have drives that are on the compatibility list and at the time, none of the 2TB drives were pissed me off and of course, there is a limitation when you only have four drive slots. ANYWAY, all that aside, I loved the idea of unRaid and mix and match drives and although the price of the limetech servers didn't scare me, I always like custom stuff.

 

Well, don't remember how but I talked to Rajahal about it and at the time, I didn't have the money so I was just kinda asking around.

 

So, a few months ago I DID get the money and I again started looking here and happened to run across one of his threads about buying custom servers and I expressed interest.

Well, as it turns out, I realized I had already spoken to him so that was pretty cool. Anyway, long story short, I ordered a 15 drive server from him which I've had for a couple of weeks and I must say, I'm super happy.

 

First, the guy keeps you informed EVERY step of the way with frequent e mails or calls if something is happening, being delayed, going forward or whatever.

Personally, I like that a lot and especially when you're dealing with people you don't know. WHEN you do, there's nothing worse than some *ucker that has your money but you don't hear from him and now you don't know if he's out at the local tittie bar getting lap dances with your money. I've always bought a lot of stuff long distance and this has always worried me when you don't have good communication.

Not so with Rajahal, FREQUENT communication! LOVE IT!

 

Server was VERY well packed and I think I asked him to let the UPS store pack it in case they screw it up, they can't blame it on us. Yes, I'm doing this from experience!

 

He sent me emails detailing what was going on, what he was shipping, what to expect and so on. He sent instructions on which order to do things in, how to, manual, a table/list for all the drive slots and how and where to list them for future reference, pictures, animations and so on.

All in all, very detailed and very helpful and for a moron like me, this is a must!

 

Of course, when I unpacked the server I dropped the bag with the flash drive in it and of course, when I realized I had to have it in order for this to work and I couldn't find it, I went ape $hit but that's another story. NOT his fault  :)

 

So, without further ado, here are pics of my server and yes, the red looks bitc*in' and it's funny because I ordered a 100' network cable so I would be ready when the server got here and I just so happened to order it in red without thinking about it. Very cool!

 

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Oh, and if there was any doubt, let me clarify, I AM VERY HAPPY WITH MY CUSTOM SERVER!  :)

 

Highly recommended.

 

By the way, despite him being in Europe (prolly smoking weed in Amsterdam and getting it on with foreign hookers...JUST KIDDING!) he still had time to reply to a few questions when I ran into problems.

Problems that I caused mind you    ;D

 

George

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