T800's unRAID Server
#1
After filling 13.5TB (3 x 2TB + 5 x 1.5TB) worth of drives with movies, using 2 x 4 bay eSATA DAS enclosures it was time to make a change. Plus double that for my back up (another laptop with 2 more DAS's etc).

I had heard of unRAID but all I knew was it used Linux and therefore it would be more complicated than it needed to be. I have set up and AppleTV gen 1 and even though I managed fine I absolutely despise command line.
Poofy advised me to go with unRAID and though I was skeptical, the more I read, the better it sounded. The use of one drive that could rebuild a lost drive is what sold it to me.

The hardware is based on Eskro's budget unRAID build. The only things I changed were the motherboard because I couldn't source the one he advised in the UK. I got a ASRock 880GMLE motherboard micro ATX AMD 880G. It has two less possible SATA ports than the motherboard in Eskros build. If I need them in the future that is when I will change the motherboard.
Even though once it's completely set up it will hardly be seen I had to get a good looking case. The case is a Fractal Design Case Define XL Titanium. I wanted black but it seemed to be £20-£30 more and not in stock. I was glad to see it was just the front face which has grown on me.

Empty case with side off and motherboard:

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After installing an Intel/Scythe on my last PC this AMD chip and fan was a breeze.

Everything installed, 1 x 2TB parity and 4 x 2TB storage:

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Even with 10TB in the case looks empty. Big Grin
The room at the top right is 4 x 5.25" bays that will have a 5.25" - 3.5" caddy fitted at some point. There is already one 5.25" - 3.5" adapter in there so I can have 11 HDD in there before I need to change.

Other side, connections:

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These need to tucked in quite neatly to get the side of the case back on. The one red cable is for the parity drive so I can distinguish which one it is very quickly.

Rear of case including fan controller and OS USB:

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The fan controller came with the case. I used a Black Lexar Firefly USB drive for the OS.

Finished case:

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Not in it's final resting place yet. When I have 10-11 drives in and precleared it will be semi hidden under the stairs. At the moment there is 6TB in there (one drive gave up!) with 2 x 2TB drives going through the preclear stage right now.
After having issues with one of my first drives I'm preclearing 3 times as advised on the unRAID forum.
In the next few weeks I will add an 8 port SATA card giving me drive a possible 14 hard drive options.

All in all I'm very pleased with how it turned out so thanks to Poofy, Eskro and all the others who chipped in with advice.

I can finally get back to my bedroom HTPC build that I put on hold to do this.


Some more pics:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=915...stcount=39
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#2
The case rocks ! I am also building my new server at the moment, and bought the same case and am absolutely satisfied.

The server itself will take a while, I went the full-out virtualisation route - unraid, debian, centos all in their own confined VMs, pci-passthrough to get performance for the s-ata ports and guest support for pci-addon cards (vdr tuners). Problem is finding a mainboard that does what is needed, my first try with a Gigabyte ga-q67m-d2h-b3 was a total failure, since the bios is absolutely aweful.
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#3
Wow thats a spiffy case with 11 drive spots without even changing the 5.25 slots on top. Is it as quiet as it claims?

Like the minimalist facing with side vents and fans a lot.

At $149 on newegg thats a pretty expensive case but considering it comes with sufficient drive cages and fans for 11 drives out of the box it really isn't too bad and it certainly looks sleek, for whats that worth.

Edit: it looks like the second intake fan is not included with the case but nonetheless.
Acer Revo 3610 w/ Ubuntu 10.10, Giada Cube Win 7, 2 ATV 1's one w Crystal HD card, UnRaid server w/ SAB/SickBeard/Couch Potato/Transmission, MacBook Pro, Hackintosh Dell Mini 10v
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#4
sorry to be late T800 Tongue

Very nice unRAID Rig!!

COngratz!!

Make sure the drives all stay cooL
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#5
Love this, I might try out this case thanks for sharing.
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#6
Thanks for the comments guys.

I had to get a case that didn't look like neon disco and plastic steroids! Nod

It's hard to say how quiet it is as I don't know what sort of noise something like this should make.
The fan controller is set just over halfway but not totally sure where it should be.

The HDD's tend to get up to about 40-44°C with a maximum highest I've seen of 49°C if I'm adding content for hours.
I will play with the fan controller once its under the stairs with more drives in.

Am I better off adding the extra side fan so I can run them all slower and quieter?
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#7
I installed a PWM case fan in my server and I use a script to control the speed of the fan based upon the temperature of my HDDs. It works perfectly. Here are the two posts that I found helpful in getting my setup running ...

Temperature based fan speed control?

X7SPA-HF based small (perfect) server build
HTPC: Win 7 Home 64-bit | MB | CPU | GPU | RAM | Case | PSU | Tuner | HDDs: OS, Media | DVD Burner | Remote
Media server: unraid 4.7 | CPU | MB | RAM | Case | PSU | HDDs: Parity-2TB, Data-2x2TB
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#8
I like it!
I might be putting the server in a more remote cooler place than under the stairs now so the noise might not matter but if I don't I will have a go at the temperature based fan control.

Thanks for the idea.
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#9
i would add more fans to your rig,,,

i think it can handle 2 more front fans right?
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#10
That case is much more awesome than my Antec 300 Sad

Looking good, unraid rocks Smile
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#11
I may have misread the newegg description but it looked to me like that case ships with the bottom intake fan for the bottom two drive racks included but that the second intake fan for the middle drive rack is not included.

Perhaps T800 can clarify.

The one thing I was surprised about the case is that it did not appear to have any top back ventilation or fan, even though that back exhaust fan looks impressive.

Sure looks slick and a lot of the comments seem to talk about how compartmentalization helps control sound. I'de be curious to hear an evaluation of heat dissapation when its fully crammed with drives.
Acer Revo 3610 w/ Ubuntu 10.10, Giada Cube Win 7, 2 ATV 1's one w Crystal HD card, UnRaid server w/ SAB/SickBeard/Couch Potato/Transmission, MacBook Pro, Hackintosh Dell Mini 10v
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#12
I'd like to hear some user reviews of this case as well. Just looking at the pics of the case on this post and online at Newegg I was concerned about the number of exhaust ports on the case. Especially the bottom section. There is an inlet fan at the front and an opening just below the PSU. Most likely the PSU would be pulling air in thru that port so I'm wondering where the air that is being pushed across the HDDs exhausts? The case looks really nice and appears to be very well made so I'm sure that the cooling is probably very good, but I'm just not sure how.
HTPC: Win 7 Home 64-bit | MB | CPU | GPU | RAM | Case | PSU | Tuner | HDDs: OS, Media | DVD Burner | Remote
Media server: unraid 4.7 | CPU | MB | RAM | Case | PSU | HDDs: Parity-2TB, Data-2x2TB
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#13
When I take it apart next week I can take some more pictures if you like. Just let me know what you want to see.
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#14
Check the second picture T800 posted: the psu sits in the bottom "container" of the case, together with up to 6 hdd bays that have an (optional I think) fan in the front. The psu can then be either mounted in a way, where the fan sucks in air from the bottom of the case through a filtered entry hole or it can be turned around, like T800 did and you can then open up a hole that leads to the upper compartment, improving the air flow there in case the cpu/gpu cause alot of heat.
You can also open another exhaust port on the side of the case, in case things are still too hot and there is another big fan at the top of the case blowing downwards.

Thinking about it, if you close the hole between psu and mainboard and mount the lower front fan to blow outwards there should be enough air flow in the lower compartment, but I am not sure that setup is ideal.
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#15
Very nice T800! What type of HD did you use? I guess when this new 2TB Caviar Green I bought starts to fill up I will build one. My concern is now since my HD are hooked up to a Gigabyte mobo will I be able to use them in the UnRaid sytem? I heard that Gigabyte does something to the HD's right?

It's called HPA.... or is that only if you use a Gigabyte mobo for the Unraid?

So basically if you have a Gigabyte Mobo and your moving your HD's to an Unraid System that does NOT have a Gigabyte mobo do the hard drives have HPA on them?
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