Small Case / Enclosure for UNRAID (mini ITX or micro ATX)

This is what you want:

http://www.servercase.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=QBox4

This is what you want:

 

http://www.servercase.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=QBox4

Good find.... now to see how much for shipping to the UK.  Can't find anywhere that has it in the UK.

EDIT : $243 shipped to the UK.

This is what you want:

 

http://www.servercase.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=QBox4

I think you're right - Good Find!  It's actually the exact same case we were looking at earlier, but if you look carefully at the back of this one, it has the correct cutout for mini-ITX.  The pictures at your site give a better indiciation of the acrylic exterior.

Would prefer the exterior to be brushed aluminum instead of acrylic and would prefer a standard power supply, but this is pretty much what I was originally looking for.

I notice they have a slightly different power supply than the Addonics box.  I will have to call these guys and see what the specs are.

A quick search for their part number shows nobody else selling it (at least not under that name). 

 

linky linky or did I miss the openbox special?

Sorry - I just went to get you the link and it looks like someone must have purchased what they had right after I had posted it.  They may have only had one open box.  I was going to buy one at that price, but I don't like to take chances on this kind of mission-critical hardware that had obviously been returned by someone else... Shipping was kind of steep - $11 if I recall. 

 

linky linky or did I miss the openbox special?

 

 

Sorry - I just went to get you the link and it looks like someone must have purchased what they had right after I had posted it.  They may have only had one open box.  I was going to buy one at that price, but I don't like to take chances on this kind of mission-critical hardware that had obviously been returned by someone else... Shipping was kind of steep - $11 if I recall.  

Ah... well when you add in the shipping and the SATA cables (and shipping for those). It's not that much different.  Thanks anyway.

Gary, if you get that case be sure to post up some pics in a build thread. I think there's a bunch of people who'd want to see that.

Peter

//More of a detour than an outright Hijack//

Xcase in the UK - 5 into 3 backplane £49 + vat and shipping.

http://www.xcase.co.uk/New-computer-cases-coming-soon-s/118.htm

Gary, if you get that case be sure to post up some pics in a build thread. I think there's a bunch of people who'd want to see that.

 

Peter

I will do that - right now, I'm still searching for a vendor who has the same design at a better price.  I have a little time before I get the other components. 

I'm doing some testing in another thread to determine what hardware I will be putting inside the box and until I get through all of the testing I don't have to make an immediate purchase on the enclosure.

This case is also still a decent option:

http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?sku=79

I sacrifice one of my hot swap cages, and still have a limited power supply option, but the form factor is even smaller:

10.24" (H) x 5.51" (W) x 10.24" (D)

vs

9.53"(H)  x  8.35"(W)  x  12.06"(D)  for the one with the handle we have been looking at...

Open box for $131+ship at the egg with the 180W PS (worth it since you have no extra cost for hot swap cages):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811123128R&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Server+-+Chassis-_-Chenbro-_-11123128R

The one we've been looking at is $175 shipped for me from the one site that seems to sell it as a Mini-ITX. 

With the drive cage and shipping, the acrylic enclosure will be $270 for me (ouch!).

I'm going to get either the chenbro or a Hi-Fi style case I think,  still undecided as to whether he wants just a NAS or a media player with storage.....

I'm going to get either the chenbro or a Hi-Fi style case I think,  still undecided as to whether he wants just a NAS or a media player with storage.....

That Chenbro actually comes with a slim DVD backplane and a memory card reader.  Seems like it would make a good dual purpose box for HTPC/NAS if you like the appearance (doesn't seem like it would look at home in an A/V rack).

Someone here must be stalking these posts!  The open box Chenbro cases at Newegg are now gone too... 

I like that small Chenbro case, good size, decent price, etc.

If it were to be used as a dedicated unRAID server, I wonder if one of the camera card slots (SD, most likely) could be used to run unRAID OS instead of a USB stick?  SD cards generally don't stick out very far, so it might be a somewhat more 'secure' option (in terms protecting it from kids and pets).

Funny, I was thinking about the same thing.  Normally, the cards would load within 1/8" of the face of the card slot.  

I have never tried it, but have read of others doing this.  So long as the card reader connects through USB, the BIOS will see this as a mass storage device no different than if it were a USB flash drive.  

My bigger concern was the performance (and potentially life) of the SD card.  I have grown used to fast load times from decent USB flash drives (35MB/s).  I have read that even the best card readers max out at around 20MB/s and the performance of the SD cards is lower yet.  Here is a recent roundup from Tom's Guide:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sdhc-memory-card,2143-10.html

As you can see, these speeds are quite a bit slower than a fast USB drive.  This list is also mostly professional level flash cards, so I would consider this a best case scenario.  I doubt this would be a concern in day to day use, but the server may well take twice as long to load as it does on a good USB flash drive.

Though I can't speak for unRaid, I am using an SD card to boot my XBMC HTPC and it works very well. I bought one of the new Class 10 ones (Benchmarks at around 17 - 20 MB/s read+write). I think I paid around $40 cdn... It might do the trick for unRaid... Not too mention if kids/pets are a concern, personally I would rather boot a few seconds slower and have the security of my array not being at risk of a critter's curiosity...

Also, though it's been mentioned before in this forum (It's where I got the idea), you can buy a little mini usb header to usb port adapter and have the usb stick on the inside (which is what I've done). In a small case, you may need to search for a tiny usb stick, but they certainly exist...)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220450&cm_re=patriot_class_10-_-20-220-450-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815201028&cm_re=usb_header_adapter-_-15-201-028-_-Product

I'm going to get either the chenbro or a Hi-Fi style case I think,  still undecided as to whether he wants just a NAS or a media player with storage.....

I like that small Chenbro case, good size, decent price, etc.

 

If it were to be used as a dedicated unRAID server, I wonder if one of the camera card slots (SD, most likely) could be used to run unRAID OS instead of a USB stick?  SD cards generally don't stick out very far, so it might be a somewhat more 'secure' option (in terms protecting it from kids and pets).

I have the chenbro case. It's very nice

http://www.cotrone.com/rob/archives/2008/05/chenbro_es34069.html

If you use an SD card, you cannot close the door. (I took my door off).

I also modified the back of it to have an eSATA jack.

I nibbled one of the vents, unscrewed an eSATA jack from a PCI eSATA unit and screwed it into the vent.

Note that if the itx mobo does not have enough SATA ports, you can purchase a PCI riser card and use a promise TX4. The only thing is that it does not bolt to the chassis. I had to rig it.

Other then that it's a nice case. Keeps the drives cool too.

Funny, I was thinking about the same thing.  Normally, the cards would load within 1/8" of the face of the card slot.  

 

I have never tried it, but have read of others doing this.  So long as the card reader connects through USB, the BIOS will see this as a mass storage device no different than if it were a USB flash drive.  

 

My bigger concern was the performance (and potentially life) of the SD card.  I have grown used to fast load times from decent USB flash drives (35MB/s).  I have read that even the best card readers max out at around 20MB/s and the performance of the SD cards is lower yet.  Here is a recent roundup from Tom's Guide:

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sdhc-memory-card,2143-10.html

 

As you can see, these speeds are quite a bit slower than a fast USB drive.  This list is also mostly professional level flash cards, so I would consider this a best case scenario.  I doubt this would be a concern in day to day use, but the server may well take twice as long to load as it does on a good USB flash drive.

For unRAID you probably don't need to worry about the speed. Syslinux loads the kernel and initial ramdisk image. After that the card is mounted on /boot but hardly ever written to.

So if you reboot unraid allot then a faster USB device would help, but if you are always on, then the only time the speed matters is when you reboot or do massive writes tot he card (Which should not be that often).

I've had my 2GB SD cards in a card reader since I purchased unraid a couple years ago. I do allot of writes and have not had any issues.

If I need speed, I.E for multiple development reboots, then I boot from the hard drive using grub4dos

Thanks for the detailed breakdown, WeeboTech.  That's too bad that using the SD card slot means sacrificing the door, since I rather like the look of the door.  Oh well...

Also, is there a good mini-ITX board that comes with 4 onboard SATA slots?  I would rather not deal with a PCI card in a build that small.  I figure a 2.5" IDE laptop drive could be used for a cache drive, since even IDE is fast enough to saturate Gigabit LAN (right?).

Other than those minor issues, it seems like the perfect 4 drive build!

The new supermicro board we've been talking about is a perfect solution.

6 SATA ports.

4 removable, 1 internal 2.5" drive (I'm choosing to use an SSD internally).

1 eSATA with a mod. heh unless you choose to put in a slim CD via the SATA port.

I would go with the supermicro route but I have already have an MSI board with a Promise TX4 (66mhz bus), 4GB and a mobile core 2 duo 2.4ghz, so it's a powerful speedy lil machine.

That Supermicro would definately be the premium solution.  Best pinetrail board I have seen for features, but the price is fairly steep for an Atom system at over $200.

Here is another reasonable dual core pinetrail on the cheap that may be worth considering:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153166&cm_re=atom_d510-_-13-153-166-_-Product

I like the (even less expensive) intel boards, because they are fanless.  However, they lack 4 onboard SATA ports.

I'm also wondering why people wouldn't consider a board like this:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3706

The latest build of UNRAID supports the P55 chipset.  

BubbaQ:  

You seemed to indicate in another thread that there were major issues with the P55 chipset and UNRAID.  What were you referring to?  There seem to be many good, power efficient options with very capable I/O onboard (the above is just an example of ITX form factor P55 - it only has 3 onboard SATA ports which isn't ideal.).

Though not all the way down to ATOM levels, the Core i3 530 CPU on P55 boards with integrated graphics on package have decent efficiency consuming only 67W at idle:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3724&p=2

Although the Atom D510 still dominates at only 21W:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3692&p=11

I wonder what the idle power is on that Supermicro X7SPA-HF that everyone has been talking about?  They do not specify on their technical data sheet.  Definately a little higher than the intel reference boards with all of the extra bells and whistles, but I wonder how much more?  Probably minimal, but I would like to know.

Several people reported that some versions has SATA issues -- that's all I recall.

Thanks - The reason I am inquiring about the P55/H55 boards is the efficiency, modern architecture and the fact that there are many good options available with as many as 10 onboard SATA ports (some even have SATA 3 and USB 3 included at a decent price).  

Note that these are not mini-ITX anymore!

That Supermicro would definately be the premium solution.  Best pinetrail board I have seen for features, but the price is fairly steep for an Atom system at over $200.

You're paying for a server class m-ITX board with IPMI and 6 SATA ports. It does not seem that unreasonable.

I've paid the same price for ITX boards that accept mobile processors.

That Supermicro would definately be the premium solution.  Best pinetrail board I have seen for features, but the price is fairly steep for an Atom system at over $200.

 

You're paying for a server class m-ITX board with IPMI and 6 SATA ports. It does not seem that unreasonable.

 

I've paid the same price for ITX boards that accept mobile processors.

I don't disagree.  I like the 6 SATA ports, DUAL LAN and IPMI (never used a board with this feature, but I would like to give it a try).  It also appears to be fanless - which I very much like. 

Do you need special software or hardware on the client side to use IPMI functionality?

I would like to get IDLE/LOAD power statistics from this board when running it headless. 

If anyone has this and a kill-a-watt unit, it would be good to know (just the board running, without hard drives powered up).  Please post the make and model of your power supply if you do this since the efficiency of the power supply will come into play.