Blofeld's lair moves to an Antec Dark Fleet - *Pix & Video*

Like many here, I got infected by the virus Rajahalis Minor. Of course, no one beats the progenitor himself, but even in its mild form, it is a disease I'd rather not cure.

So I decided to move my build from a Fractal Design R2 (see my first build here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.msg76895#msg76895) to an Antec DF-85. Don't get me wrong, the R2 is a great case, but I was in the mood for something a bit...louder, brighter, with more blinking and glowing lights. I had the opportunity to buy an Antec DF-85 for €60 in lieu of €120, so I went for it. The case is pretty spacious, and there's a window, so I can see what it's thinking while I'm transferring gigabytes of stuff.

It has a lot of fans, and I turned some of them off, because I just don't need that much airflow. The front fans have a dial that you can adjust manually. I've set it to low. Needless to say, it runs very cool (this is a case designed for gaming, I think, based on the Antec Twelve Hundred). There's space for 9 3.5" drives, as well as what seems to be barely enough space for a 5-in3 on top, it appears to be a rather tight fit. Apparently, one of the top fans gets in the way, but I could remove that, since I don't need it anyway. But the jury's out on whether I'll actually be able to fit a 5-in-3 in there at all. Fingers crossed. For now, I only have 5 drives anyway, but you know how it is - all of a sudden, you've got a stack of those things, and they're all knocking at the case's door. But by the time I really need more space, unRaid will support >2TB...right?  

Hard drives just slide in by the way, it's pretty neat. Open the front fan doors, slide the drives into their tray, attach one thumbscrew to hold it in place, done.

So here are my components. Apart from the Enermax psu which went into my recently-built Hackintosh, everything's the same. I replaced it with an OCZ Modstream Pro 500 (nothing special, I'll probably get a super-efficient 80+ Gold psu some time down the road).

Antec Dark Fleet DF-85

Mobo ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO 785G AM3 (-Evo was a dumb move, I didn't know any better at the time: one SATA port is an eSATA one....duh)

CPU AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.90GHz 65W BOX (undervolted and only one core active)

1x Samsung EcoGreen F3 2TB parity

2x Samsung EcoGreen F3 2TB data

1x Seagate 1.5TB 7200 data

1x WD EARS 2TB data

PSU Enermax EPR425AWT II 425W Pro 82+ OCZ Modstream Pro 500 modular

2x2GB Kingston Value RAM DDR3-1333

SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4GB

unRAID PRO 4.7

So, what do I do now? The move to the new case is done, and...well, I wanna do it again. Or something. Maybe I'll add some garish LEDs or something, what do I know. I know that I like the kinda macho looks of the thing now. My unRaid rig is such an important part of my whole setup, why should it sit in a corner, all modest and stuff? No. Say it loud, I'm unRaid, and I'm proud!

I've made a little movie about it as well, for those who care...although it is intended as a little advertisement for people who are youtube-searching for unRaid, so I added a few web interface things and all, but those are towards the end of the clip. It's here:

OK and these are definitely too many pictures....consider them a testament of my affection to the red, glowing machine...

EDIT:

Future plans:

• I already have a SuperMicro SAT2-MV8 SATA controller sitting here. Now all I need is more data so I can add more HDs. Working on it.

• make it more blinky

No offense meant by this ... but it looks like a hooker house on steriods

i hope it is a porn server  

anyway seems like a descent case .... except for the red lights district ...

I don't think there is place enough to put a 5 in 3 in the top section ?

as you said you will have to remove the top fan ... but it also seems the plastic on the top might be obstructing the 5in 3 cage .. hard to see with all the knobs on the plastic plates

No offense meant by this ... but it looks like a hooker house on steriods

i hope it is a porn server  

anyway seems like a descent case .... except for the red lights district ...

I don't think there is place enough to put a 5 in 3 in the top section ?

as you said you will have to remove the top fan ... but it also seems the plastic on the top might be obstructing the 5in 3 cage .. had to see with all the knobs on the plates

 

no offense taken - that's kind of the look I was going for, subconsciously, anyway. It's about as far removed from the understated Fractal Design as I could have gone. And since, um, Amia Miley is on at least some of the cylinders on those HDs, isn't it very apropos? 

I'll have to take a photo of the inside where the 5-in-3 would go and post it here. I'm hoping it'll fit despite the obstruction.

So does that case accomodate 4 x 5x3 drives including the stock fans/doors? i.e. Can you fit a 5x3 cage in and still use the stock fan/door in front of it which would blow cool air straight through it? That looks like quite a good case as it could eliminate the need for fans on the rear of cages, which tend to be 80mm, noisy and with lower CFM potential. Or do you have to remove the entire front bit when installing a 5x3?

LoL.. my first thought was Halo. I could see Master Chief pull that out and it is a bomb or ammo crate... altho green fans would be appropriate, or spray paining the case green.

I guess I am more partial to the  previous case. i like the cleaner look.

So does that case accomodate 4 x 5x3 drives including the stock fans/doors? i.e. Can you fit a 5x3 cage in and still use the stock fan/door in front of it which would blow cool air straight through it? That looks like quite a good case as it could eliminate the need for fans on the rear of cages, which tend to be 80mm, noisy and with lower CFM potential. Or do you have to remove the entire front bit when installing a 5x3?

I don't think you could put 4x 5x3's in there - the only available slot for that would be the one on top.

LoL.. my first thought was Halo. I could see Master Chief pull that out and it is a bomb or ammo crate... altho green fans would be appropriate, or spray paining the case green.

 

I guess I am more partial to the  previous case. i like the cleaner look.

Master Chief + Amia Miley ... I kinda like where this is going... 

pRon box FTW. That's all I use mine for!

pRon box FTW. That's all I use mine for!

Well, to be fair, mine's a pretty balanced box of storage - firstly, my photo archive, my movie archive (self-shot and regular studio movies), my music, and, yes, that other stuff too.

So does that case accomodate 4 x 5x3 drives including the stock fans/doors? i.e. Can you fit a 5x3 cage in and still use the stock fan/door in front of it which would blow cool air straight through it? That looks like quite a good case as it could eliminate the need for fans on the rear of cages, which tend to be 80mm, noisy and with lower CFM potential. Or do you have to remove the entire front bit when installing a 5x3?

I don't think you could put 4x 5x3's in there - the only available slot for that would be the one on top.

Are you sure? I can't see how the doors work but I assume they did not take up any internal space pretruding inwards towards the 5.12 inch bays?

well the internal width of the drive bays is 3.25"...so I don't know how a 5.25 would fit, unless I use a chainsaw...but yeah, it sure would be nice!

So you're saying the 3.5" bays are really hard-fixed to 3.5" (unlike the Antec 1200)? 

If so, that's too bad... I would consider this if I can amp it up to 4x 5-in-3s...

Looks nice.  Gotta love those red leds 

So you're saying the 3.5" bays are really hard-fixed to 3.5" (unlike the Antec 1200)? 

 

If so, that's too bad... I would consider this if I can amp it up to 4x 5-in-3s...

 

I'll look into it again...and take a picture of it, maybe there is a way, who knows...

Looks nice.  Gotta love those red leds 

Thanks! Yeah....glowing red...the fire inside...or something to the effect

First time I saw this, I was like "Whoaa its a Predator" with is shinny tri laser dot.

Really like this blinky build    compared to my build mine is like a black coffin (boring)

love thos red leds 

Blofeld I have a feeling I could ship you a Microwave Oven and you could Video it like you do and sell 1,000's of them. LOL

Blofeld I have a feeling I could ship you a Microwave Oven and you could Video it like you do and sell 1,000's of them. LOL

Kizer & Meteorite, you make me blush.... thank you!

Now, send me those microwave ovens - and I promise, I'll do the same to all those WD 2TB EARS...so keep on sending'em my way