Thought I would ask advice from my fellow Shark's on my new project.
I had a choice between upgrading my system, or building a project I've been wanting to complete for awhile with my tax refund.
I'm choosing the high-performance NAS server.
My goals with the project are:
1. Extremely small footprint.
2. Extremely powerful server.
3. Limited to no bottlenecks in data path.
4. PCIe based for communications and storage.
One of the things I've found disappointing about the current crop of NAS servers is many of them use USB for the ethernet port, or worse, for the RAID controller itself. Another complaint is that often times, the drives are not hotswappable, which means taking down the storage unit to add/remove drives.
As such, I've been noodling with the idea for a homegrown NAS server that has a similar footprint to a commercial one, but is much more powerful under the hood.
Component List:
$120 Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B 5 drive hotswap cage
$280 A-Value Industrial 5.25" motherboard EBM-945GM (http://www.avalue-tech.com.tw/products/EBM-945GM.cfm)
$0 Areca 4 port SATA RAID Controller PCIe x8 (Already owned)
$35 PCIe x16 flexible port extender
$80 T5600 Merom 1.83GHz Dual Core Socket M CPU
$50 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 667 SO-DIMM 200-pin
$30 Sandisk Ultra III 2GB CF card
$60 PicoPSU 120w PSU w/ adapter
----------------------
$645 total before drives
Drives are an option of cost and availability, but more than likely I will go with 750GB drives. (currently around $150 each.)
The OS will run from a RAM drive, similar to many consumer level products (boot from flash into RAM), and will be a Slackware 12 base.
It has taken me awhile to track down a motherboard that suits my needs. Namely, one that is the same width as a 5.25" drive, but has the I/O ports on the "short" edge. (Most 5.25" Industrial boards have the I/O ports on the long edge.)
The enclosure will have to be custom fabricated, but I have time. Lead time on the motherboard is 4 weeks, so this won't be up and running anytime soon, but I thought I would show you guys at least the plan, and see if you find any glaring flaws in it. :)
Can anyone suggest a good place for custom machined aluminum in the Atlanta, GA area? Or barring that, a good set of tools for working on aluminum myself?
MrDigital
02-26-2008, 01:05 PM
You're going to spend nearly $300 on that motherboard and get a custom enclosure? Space is that *that* much of a concern? 5 hard drives will take a bunch of space anyways.
James
02-26-2008, 02:25 PM
lol, yessir. :D
I truly appreciate the small footprint of the consumer grade NAS boxes. The problem is that I don't appreciate the performance or features they offer.
The 5hdd enclosure is 3x 5.25" in height, standard width, and approx 9" long, including fan on the back. I am shooting for an enclosure the same width (slightly wider due to panel thickness), same length, and approx 4x 5.25" bays in height.
MrDigital
02-26-2008, 02:33 PM
So what's the downside of something like:
http://www.8anet.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=5486&step=4
The only thing I see is that's limited to being a NAS, but I'm not sure where the downside is in that if that's all you want. How powerful does a fileserver have to be?
James
02-26-2008, 03:39 PM
So that's $900 though. That is more expensive than what I'm building, and again, uses an all-in-one arm/usb interface for the control.
Somehow I don't see the worth in that. Not to mention, where's the fun? :)
I'm not sure how that's more expensive by the time you factor in a custom case. Maybe getting a quality custom case is cheaper than I think.
James
02-26-2008, 04:40 PM
We'll see. :D
***GRRRRRR!!!***
Update: My supplier for the motherboard has fallen through. I will update the thread when I can locate a new one. :( :mad:
James
12-18-2008, 12:24 PM
Well, this is a thread resurrection.
After finding a new, better paying job, and having several of the component providers fall through, I finally, finally, have ordered all the parts for this NAS system. Save for the CPU. (I will probably grab that from eBay)
Nexcom EBC500 5.25" embedded motherboard (http://www.nexcom.com/ProductModel.aspx?id=11894cbb-b738-479d-a64b-9aa431a8af38) (now with two PCIe gigabit nics, and supports teaming!)
SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B 5-in-3 SATA hotswap enclosure (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405)
4GB Sandisk Extreme III CF card for the OS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171340)
4GB (2x2GB) Kingston Low profile DDR2-800 RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134730)
Supermicro PCIe riser (left hand) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101226)
PicoPSU and power brick (http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.417/.f)
4x 1.5TB Seagate hdd's (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337)
T7200 2.0GHz 4MB L2 cache Socket M CPU (34w) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819111302)
All of the parts should arrive in the next few weeks.
I'll post pics as I get it. I've also found a small shop (http://wallacesheetmetal.com/Home_Page.php) that does custom metalwork as well as waterjet metal cuts to help me fab the case/enclosure.
So far, the only thing that has actually arrived is the PSU. :) Man that thing is small! (Pics tomorrow when I bring my camera to work.)
Colossus
12-18-2008, 08:49 PM
Great looking forward to this :)
I have had to return quite a few Seagate 1.5TB so hopefully you wont run into the problems I did :(
Maybe you had received a newer firmware or they fixed whatever problems I was experiencing.. A few of my 1.5TB drives would start to get bad sectors with only hours of use.
James
12-19-2008, 07:45 AM
Great looking forward to this :)
I have had to return quite a few Seagate 1.5TB so hopefully you wont run into the problems I did :(
Maybe you had received a newer firmware or they fixed whatever problems I was experiencing.. A few of my 1.5TB drives would start to get bad sectors with only hours of use.
Newegg has a link to the updated firmware on their site. The shipping firmware apparently corrupted data, caused timeouts, etc. in RAID configurations. I will be updating all of the drives firmware before I even start to connect them to the RAID controller.
vertices
12-19-2008, 01:40 PM
OpenFiler is an awesome free NAS OS. With very reliable iSCSI support. I've been running it in a VM for some time now and use it as an iSCSI target with Windows Server 2008 builtin image based backup. You should take a look at it.
James
12-19-2008, 02:03 PM
OpenFiler is an awesome free NAS OS. With very reliable iSCSI support. I've been running it in a VM for some time now and use it as an iSCSI target with Windows Server 2008 builtin image based backup. You should take a look at it.
I'm probably going to start with a stripped Ubuntu Server version, and move to my own Linuxfromscratch build once I complete it. I don't like Openfiler due to the size, and lack of features that I want. (Areca Hardware RAID drivers, XFS filesystem support, x64 source code) The ultimate long term goal is to roll my own linux build that uses busybox dropbear for ssh, samba, iptables, and xfs kernel drivers.
*Edit: At the beginning of this flight of fancy I went through all the currently available NAS OS's, Openfiler, FreeNAS, and a few others. None of them is what I'm looking for specifically. You know what they say, necessity (or stupidity) is the mother of invention. :D
vertices
12-19-2008, 02:20 PM
I wish you luck! I thought OpenFiler was sweet. Although I really like running stuff like that in VMs as I don't have to worry about HW support or monitoring.
James
12-19-2008, 02:30 PM
I wish you luck! I thought OpenFiler was sweet. Although I really like running stuff like that in VMs as I don't have to worry about HW support or monitoring.
*Edit: I've actually just started re-perusing the Openfiler site. Seems like they've made a lot of progress since February. Maybe I'll give it a go. The only thing I want to find out is if it can run without a swap space. (running the OS from a CF card.)
**Edit again: I think I will try Openfiler 2.3. It's x64, supports xfs, supports Areca hardware, and offers NIC bonding. Those are the major features I'm interested in.
Oh, and no pics today. I forgot my camera at home. :mad:
Colossus
12-19-2008, 07:17 PM
I have wanted to try openfiler but my NAS box has a custom commercial stripped down linux version.
So the firmware is on the egg's site? Have a link? Probably find it before you post the link =) I have 8 drives to update then =/
James
12-20-2008, 11:44 AM
I have wanted to try openfiler but my NAS box has a custom commercial stripped down linux version.
So the firmware is on the egg's site? Have a link? Probably find it before you post the link =) I have 8 drives to update then =/
http://promotions.newegg.com/files/8h_SD1A.zip
James
12-22-2008, 01:07 PM
First pictures.
PicoPSU power supply. It's 120w of pure DC goodness. You can see the input port (white and black wires) that takes the DC input from the external power brick. It's much like a laptop's power supply in how it works. (Takes 12v DC input, and steps it down for the 5v and 3.3v rails.)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psusm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psu.jpg)
The Low profile RAM and PCIe riser arrived today.
First off the RAM.
It's gonna be sweet. It's low enough that it might not even clear the DIMM slots when the tabs are up! :D
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/memorysm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/memory.jpg)
Next the PCIe riser. Not much to say. If this guy is too low I'll end up switching to one of the flexible ribbon PCIe risers.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/pciesm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/pcie.jpg)
A shot of it all together.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/allsm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/all.jpg)
James
12-23-2008, 09:28 AM
The hard drives arrived last night. Unfortunately, they are the SD17 firmware, which means I will be flashing them. But that is a small price to pay. :)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/firmware.jpg
Here's the heart of my 4TB RAID5 array. :D
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivessm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drives.jpg)
I downloaded the firmware, just havent flashed it yet. Its a bit of work...
James
12-23-2008, 11:38 AM
I downloaded the firmware, just havent flashed it yet. Its a bit of work...
It's actually not so bad. I downloaded the SeatoolsFloppy creator .exe. I ran it, then deleted the actual seatools from it, leaving me with a FreeDOS boot floppy. There are easier ways, but I'm at work and options are limited.
I then copied the files over to the floppy and booted from it with only the drive I was flashing attached to the SATA controller on the motherboard.
One command and 2 minutes later the drive was updated. Rinse and repeat 4 times for 4 ready to use SD1A firmware based hdd's. :D
Here's a quick shot of the important part of the procedure for those who don't want to check out the blown up and blurry versions of those screens. (Sorry, flash didn't work, and I don't have a steady hand.)
And the details of each drive flash, for any who are interested.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drive2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drive2.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drive3sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drive3.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drive4sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drive4.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drive5sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drive5.jpg)
James
12-23-2008, 12:51 PM
Christmas is somewhat early for me! :D
Got the hotswap cage and CF card in today. So right after I flash the firmware on the drives, I was able to install them. I have to say that I'm a Supermicro fanboy. Their build quality is always top notch, and their thermal design is excellent.
CF card. Nothing fancy, other than the 30MBps Extreme III rating. While it should matter once the OS is loaded, during the load I do want at least slow laptop drive speeds.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cfcard1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cfcard1.jpg)
And out of the packaging.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cfcard2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cfcard2.jpg)
Obligatory box pics. This box is huge. It made me worry about the size of the enclosure.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage2.jpg)
Out of the box the cage is much more reasonable in size. It's actually smaller than I expected. Supermicro's manual is thin, but accurate and complete enough that they didn't need anything more.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage3sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage3.jpg)
A closer look at the accessories. It comes with SATA cables, screws, labels for the drive trays, and a lead to connect the backplane LED's to the activity leads on the RAID controller.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecageacc1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecageacc1.jpg)
*note the loose drive caddy labels in the screw bag. It took me a bit to find that 2 label again.
James
12-23-2008, 12:59 PM
Here's all of the drive caddies pulled out in the "fan out" style that is popular to show off your hot swap goodness on websites. :p
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage1.jpg)
Inside the cage you can see Supermicro has made quite a few large holes in the PCB to allow for airflow. I've seen and used lesser cages where a hotswap enclosure like this has a solid backplane.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage4sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage4.jpg)
Here are two quick shots of the back, one with the fan attached, and one with it removed. It's a quick attach enclosure, making it easy to swap out or remove in my case.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage7sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage7.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage8sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage8.jpg)
Reading the manual I discovered that it is possible to remove not only the fan, but the backplate as well. This is done so you can access the backplane for replacement, etc. I'm going to be removing it because it is one less obstruction between fresh air and the fan I'm planning on putting in the back. Which reminds me.... I need to order that fan. lol
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage9sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage9.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage10sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage10.jpg)
James
12-23-2008, 01:08 PM
I really like Supermicro drive caddies. They are simple, effective, and promote good ventilation in the enclosure.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage6sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage6.jpg)
Finally, the shots of the actualy drives being inserted into the cage, again in the fanout pattern.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage5sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/drivecage5.jpg)
Colossus
12-23-2008, 01:44 PM
Very nice.. That dock looks a lot like my IcyDock 5-port SATA that I have. How much did that set you back? I like the mounts and latch better on your version =/
James
12-23-2008, 05:23 PM
It cost $109 with ~$14 shipping.
It's heavy, which explains why it costs so much to ship. I'd estimate the weight at around 6 lb's or so, unloaded.
*Edit: I don't know if I paid that much in shipping, since I bought it with other items, but if you place it in your cart on it's own, that's what it comes out to on Newegg.
**Edit Again: Yate Loon 140mm fan and a chrome grill ordered from FrozenCPU. Should be here around the turn of the year. (Next week.) Still not sure if I'm going to go with the T7200, or the T5600. The difference is the extra 2MB of cache for the cores to share, and 166MHz of speed, which is negligible.
TAZTG
12-23-2008, 06:50 PM
Gotta love all the HD Space..
James
12-24-2008, 10:09 AM
Gotta love all the HD Space..
TAZTG, knowing that I live in an apartment and have limited access to tools, what would you suggest for thin metal bending and shaping? I'm thinking about trying to make the main shell of the case myself, as it will be a simple 2-bend process, but I still want it to be professional in appearance when I'm done.
Also, I'm thinking about simply cutting a hole in the bottom section of the front plate and putting in a mesh or screen material. I want the airflow to be drawn front to back over the motherboard that will reside below the drive enclosure.
Will that look tacky? Should I try and have the metal shop do everything for me?
TAZTG
12-24-2008, 11:24 AM
I am not much of a Metal Shop expert. It would depend on what kind of bending and shaping your talking about. I would suppose you need a good work bench with Vises and Clamps. Just Googled Metal Shop Tool, whoa pretty expensive stuff. Looks like you professional could be cheaper in the long run..
James
12-24-2008, 11:38 AM
I'm willing to give the outer shell a shot.
For the front panel though, I think I'm going to go with something like this (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=23450).
Thanks for the heads up. Merry Christmas!
AstroCreep
12-26-2008, 06:54 PM
...I have to say that I'm a Supermicro fanboy. Their build quality is always top notch, and their thermal design is excellent...
Same here; they make really good stuff. I was working for a home improvement/manufacturing company a few years ago, and due to the low amount of available funds (but the necessity for new hardware) we bought a number of the "SuperServers". The best thing, IMO, is that you aren't locked-in to proprietary HDDs because of the HDD chassis; just stick your favorite brand in adn take it from there!
Their support people can be tough to get a hold of, but they take good care of you.
I like your idea here. Keep up the good work!
vertices
12-27-2008, 10:31 AM
I have the same cage in my main rig. I love it. :)
James
12-27-2008, 06:10 PM
So right before closing on Wednesday, I went ahead and ordered this stuff:
A 16mm switch for a power switch (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=23259)
1mm thick Black anodized aluminum sheet for the outer shell (500mm x 500mm, it should be more than large enough). (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=22048)
And the afore-mentioned Lian-Li bay cover with built in filter. (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=23450)
James
01-02-2009, 11:21 AM
Well, still waiting on the motherboard.
In the meantime, the Fan has arrived, and I've brought my PCIe card in just to check that it will work. As of right now, everything seems like it will be working perfectly. The PCIe card should fit exactly where I imagined it to without any clearance issues using the solid PCIe riser I've got now.
Here's the 140mm fan. It's a Yate Loon from FrozenCPU. It's exactly the size I imagined it to be. It will work perfectly to move a lot of air, without a lot of noise.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/fan1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/fan1.jpg)
Here's a quick shot of the grill as well. What's going to end up happening is that the back of the NAS will mostly be this fan grill. Below it will be the ports from the motherboard.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/fan2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/fan2.jpg)
A couple of shots of the RAID card's box, and the card itself.
The ARC-1210 is outdated, but it will still work to provide high-performance throughput from 4 drives. The card won't be the bottleneck, which is the goal.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/raid1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/raid1.jpg)
Here's the overall view of the PCIe riser and the card as it will mount. You can see that there will only be about 5-10mm of clearance between the motherboard components and the card, which is fine because the case will act as a shroud to force air through this area.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/raid2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/raid2.jpg)
This is the connection for the activity LED's on the enclosure. I'm debating whether or not it's worth bending those pins 90º to get them out of the way when the card is mounted. Suggestions are always welcome. :)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/raid3sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/raid3.jpg)
James
01-05-2009, 12:27 PM
A few more parts arrived. Sadly, the 1.0mm thick Black anodized aluminum panel for the shell of the enclosure ended up being mis-shipped. I received a 2.0mm Silver panel. Not exactly the look I was going for. So it's being RMA'd and the correct panel will arrive next week.
The good news is that I received the filter section and power button that I ordered, and they were correct! :D
The filter grill will be directly below the drive bays, and allow fresh to be pulled into the enclosure, over the motherboard and RAID card, and finally exhausted out the back via the 140mm fan.
Got some schematics finally. Looks like I'll be able to make the enclosure slightly shorter than I originally planned. The single height ports on the back will make this a truly clean design. I'm thinking I'll need some kind of vanity plate to cover them when not in use though. Thoughts?
can't wait to see it all come together. That fan is huge and should move alot of air. Bending the pins, if they are in the way do you have a choice? Hopefully they don't break, is there a pin bending tool you can use??
James
01-06-2009, 02:48 PM
can't wait to see it all come together. That fan is huge and should move alot of air. Bending the pins, if they are in the way do you have a choice? Hopefully they don't break, is there a pin bending tool you can use??
Fire and some gentle persuasion? lol, no at the moment I don't have a pin bending tool of any kind.
I've done a quick sketch of the unibody piece. Well, sketch is stretching it. I created a quick rough draft in Excel. I should be able to get away with the ACRyan Alupanel for the body as well. I've got a calculation of 434mmx449mm overall size required, and the panels are 500mmx500mm.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/sketch1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/sketch1.jpg)
You are looking at it from a top down, front is "up" perspective. There will be a fold up flap in front, the backplate will fold up in the back, and the sides will fold up so there is a lip for the shell to connect to, as well as support arms to screw the drive cage into. Basic, but it should work, and hopefully if done right, it should look clean.
James
01-08-2009, 11:22 AM
The motherboard has arrived. With it, a few wrinkle's that it introduces to the plan. An additional choice I've made is that I am going to keep the misshipped 2mm thick Aluminum panel from Performance PC's. I will use it for the body, instead of ordering a 1mm thick panel and waiting for it to arrive.
1. It has a 10-pin ATX power connector. This is a functional subset of a normal 20-pin. My assumption about an adapter being included was apparently incorrect, meaning I will have to hunt one down, or create one of my own.
2. I will need to get a flexible PCIe riser instead of the fixed one. It is approx 10mm to short. On top of that, to keep the height down I want to offset the PCIe card back by about an inch. (I want the bottom of the fan and the top of the I/O ports to be almost touching.)
*Edit: Pics will have to wait until tomorrow, forgot the camera at home. (Knew I should have never taken it home.)
*Update: researching it, I think that as long as I can get my hands on a 10-pin molex that is keyed properly, I can make my own adapter.
**Update Again: Just got off the phone with Nexcom. Seems the board was meant to be shipped with a power adapter, but they forgot to include it somehow. It is being sent to me now. It will arrive tomorrow. Yay for good customer service.
James
01-08-2009, 10:59 PM
New, more detailed and accurate image of the case body is up. You'll notice that the arms that will be the supports for the drive cage are shorter. I needed to adjust the length to ensure that they would fit on one of the A.C.Ryan 500mm x 500mm panels. I will still be able to bolt 2 sets of the drive cage holes to the supports on each side, but it will be the bottom two, instead of the top and bottom ones. Not quite as stable, but it should still be rock solid. I'm over-engineering this for a reason.
I'm also working on a detailed back panel image. Combined I will send them to the metal shop to see what the damage will be.
*Update: New image with the backplate integrated into the whole.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casediagram2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casediagram2.jpg)
James
01-09-2009, 09:10 AM
Pics of the motherboard. The great thing is it's literally the same dimensions as the hot swap enclosure. I couldn't have created a board better suited for this. (Well maybe I could have.... nope. Not a chance. :p)
Shots of the motherboard from a few angles
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard1.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard2.jpg)
With the CF card installed. (I was worried about the lack of labels, but the rails on the sides ensure you can only insert it one way.)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard3sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard3.jpg)
And the memory. Got to love the low profile DIMM's. They are lower than the white tabs that are holding them in place! :D
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard4sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard4.jpg)
And finally the little heatsink. It's all copper, and a decent quality build. Sadly the finish on the bottom isn't all that great, but for the amount of heat it has to deal with, it really doesn't need to be. As soon as it becomes installation time, that TIM that came with it will be removed and replaced with Ceramique.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard5sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard5.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard6sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/motherboard6.jpg)
James
01-09-2009, 10:35 AM
And the PSU adapter arrived today. After which I couldn't find my PicoPSU! :eek:
Turns out the guys at work were hiding it to see how I would react. (Hint: Not well.)
Quick shots of the adapter.
First up, this is (mostly) how it arrived. You'll notice I've already started trimming the unwanted connections.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psuadapter1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psuadapter1.jpg)
Here are the leftovers. 2 supplemental 12v inputs. Since I'm running a PicoPSU, I don't even have these to plug in. Thinking about it, why would you need supplemental 12v inputs on a device that draws less than 50w of power at full load?
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psuadapter2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psuadapter2.jpg)
Just a quick "down the barrel" shot. The darker colored "pins" are the ones missing a pin, I.e. not used. The bright ones are the ones with a silver pin in them.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psuadapter3sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psuadapter3.jpg)
And finally a quick shot to show that yes, this plud does indeed go with the motherboard. I'm glad they sent it (and normally include it.) Without this, the whole project would have been rethought and/or scrapped.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psuadapter4sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/psuadapter4.jpg)
James
01-13-2009, 09:18 AM
CPU has arrived. Will upload pics of it (and hopefully initial boot screens) shortly.
Some quick unwrap shots:
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu1.jpg)
Here it is in the board. As a side note, those mobile CPU sockets with the little screw are a bit ... different when it comes to inserting the CPU. It's a bit more worrisome when you are cranking on a screw instead of just dropping a little lever. Definitely changes the definition of "ZIF" socket.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu3sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu3.jpg)
With some AS5.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu4sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu4.jpg)
Close up shot.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu5.jpg
*Edit: First boot up is 100% successful.
And here's the frankenstein job that I used to do it. Forgive the mess, I was simply in a rush to make sure that the CPU wasn't a dud.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu8sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu8.jpg)
*Edit Again: Turns out the 945GM chipset has a hardware limitation at the 4GB limit. Thus this system will end up with around 3GB usable for RAM. Which isn't bad, but I want my 4GB! :p
James
01-13-2009, 11:10 AM
Pic showing the 3GB limitation.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu10sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/cpu10.jpg)
So that's it for now! I will probably take the time to install the OS onto the flash card, and maybe plug in and initialize the array on the RAID card. Other than that, there really isn't anything I can do until I hear back from the metal shop on the quote for the bottom plate.
While they are working on that, I'm working on the design for the shell that will cover all the ugliness inside the case. :)
*Edit: I need suggestions on the CPU HSF unit. It's LOUD. Much louder than I anticipated. Do you think a modded Zalman ZM-NB47J (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118214) would work well enough with the airflow from the casefan to cool the CPU?
Colossus
01-13-2009, 01:32 PM
Very nice!
I am quite impressed my friend.
James
01-14-2009, 07:47 AM
Finally finished the backplate diagram, here is a cleaned up version in jpg format.
Got the PCIe flexible riser today. I'll put up pics tomorrow. I'm also getting a quote from the metal place to fabricate the body of the device. :)
James
01-20-2009, 09:35 PM
Here's the case drawing I sent the metal shop. I hope it's detailed enough.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/detail_case_finalsm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/detail_case_final.jpg)
warning, full size image is 5000x5000
James
01-21-2009, 09:50 AM
Here's a tip for the other modders out there:
If your PSU is 120w rated, don't get a 60w rated power brick for it. :mad:
Seems that the power brick bundled with the PicoPSU is only rated at 60w. So while I have a power envelope of around 80w, which is well less than 120w that the PicoPSU can put out, it's far more than the stupid bundled power brick can handle. Alas, it's another day, and another little hiccup in the plan. I'm definitely coming in way over budget on this one.
Pics to follow. :)
Flexible PCIe riser arrived. It's shielded and very stiff. It's reminiscent of folding the old SCSI cables. But it can be folded, and it is absolutely ideal for this project.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/flexpciesm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/flexpcie.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/flexpcie2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/flexpcie2.jpg)
I got in the screws, rubber feet, and power sw/ power LED connectors to finish up the connections I will need.
The pack was 4.99, but all I really needed was the stubby motherboard standoffs.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/screws1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/screws1.jpg)
The shorter ones are 6.5mm which is the height I need for the motherboard to fit properly inside the enclosure.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/screws2.jpg
A quick shot of the feet and the wire connectors for the powersw/led.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/feet1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/feet1.jpg)
Finally, a shot of the rig in "testing" mode. This is shortly before I powered it up to discover that the power adapter brick doesn't provide enough juice to the system. The wiring is horrendous, but I wasn't going for clean, I was going for "does it power on?". ;)
Notice a fatal flaw in that picture? I booted the system to find no drives were detected. Freaked out, I rechecked everything to discover that I hadn't plugged the molex power connector into the hdd cage. :rolleyes:
TAZTG
01-21-2009, 07:26 PM
Hiccups always happen and going over budget isn't uncommon. All in all you do have a grasp on what your planning. The image you sent the folks for the case looked very detailed (Nice Job) lets hope they don't have a hiccup.. ;)
James
01-22-2009, 07:12 AM
Hiccups always happen and going over budget isn't uncommon. All in all you do have a grasp on what your planning. The image you sent the folks for the case looked very detailed (Nice Job) lets hope they don't have a hiccup.. ;)
Let's hope. :D
I've already ordered the 8.5A (102w) 12v Adapter brick from mini-box.com Once it arrives I'll power everything back up.
James
01-29-2009, 03:37 PM
Just got the 8.5A power brick. Everything boots and runs fine. I've got it scaled back to a 2.0 second delay in the staggered spin up sequence and no issues. I'm pretty happy. Wish I had thought about it the first time I was ordering.
Now I'm just waiting to hear back from the metal shop. :(
*Update: Got word from the metal shop. The case will be ~$135 to cut and bend to the specifications that I sent them. That includes materials. I've also followed up asking what would happen if I provided my own material.
rabidmoose171
02-07-2009, 04:47 PM
Looks like a pretty sweet project. Wish I would've seen it sooner. I'm keeping my eye on this thread now.
James
02-11-2009, 12:56 PM
Got the case today.
Looks like it wasn't quite bent exactly to spec. the motherboard tray area is too small. :mad:
I'm working on if I can simply grind it out and be OK. I'll try and post pics later tonight.
AstroCreep
02-11-2009, 09:48 PM
Good luck, dude!
TAZTG
02-12-2009, 06:12 AM
Dang another HICCUP!!:mad:
James
02-19-2009, 09:17 AM
So, I've now got the case, and the motherboard fits inside of it. I'm not real thrilled with the final product, but I don't know how much of that was my measurements (and my apparent inability to take into account the thickness of the material used) or their inept folding.
I'll have pics tonight, and I;ll try and get everything mounted in it.
I am very tempted to have them make one more iteration of the case, with some modified measurements, but I'm not sure.
Overall it's nice. I want to get everything installed and up and running.
James
02-20-2009, 07:25 AM
Got everything installed and up and running last night. Can't seem to find my good sata (read: short) cables, so I'm using the ones that came with the controller card, draped out the side of the box.
Two quick things: Everything fits in the case like I (mostly) thought it should, and it runs fine and stays cool. Pics are taken, and will be up once I get to work and get some coffee. :)
A final note would be that now I can realize how badly Vista's network file transfer sucks rocks. I'm now looking into Openfiler's ability to offer up an iSCSI target, and see how well Vista's iSCSI initiator works for some true network storage action. :)
TAZTG
02-20-2009, 11:59 AM
Glad it came together and everything fit.. Can't wait to see your PICS..
James
02-20-2009, 01:24 PM
Glad it came together and everything fit.. Can't wait to see your PICS..
Here you can see why I say that it fits "mostly" the way I want it to. The backplate and ports don't sit flush. :(
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing12sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing12.jpg)
Next I marked the spots for the standoffs, and drilled the holes and inserted them. This worked out quite well, and the stand-offs (6.5mm ones) were perfect.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing4sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing4.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing11sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing11.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing13sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing13.jpg)
Mr. Blurry cam pic close up of (most) of the screws mounting the mobo to the case.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing16sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing16.jpg)
James
02-20-2009, 02:04 PM
After the motherboard was in, it was time to drill the holes for the fan to mount, and make sure everything still fit together.
Next came measuring the case and prepping and drilling the holes for the drive enclosure. I used the filter plate at the front edge and the backplate at the back edge to try and line everything up. Once done it was pretty darn close, but ultimately 0.5-1.0mm off from left to right. I can tweak it later. :)
And finally all together! :D
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing9sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing9.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing17sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing17.jpg)
Some shots showing the air channel between the motherboard and bottom of the drive enclosure/RAID controller card.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing8sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing8.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing7sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing7.jpg)
(This one is upside down)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing19sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing19.jpg)
James
02-20-2009, 02:15 PM
You'll notice in quite a few of those pics that there is some pink-anti-static bubble wrap. I'm using that as a spacer for testing purposes to keep everything from shorting out on each other.
Finally, here are some shots once I plugged it in and was testing it. Obviously the SATA cables are being replaced. Also the power cord is actually going to be mounted properly in a bit. (Maybe tonight.)
Mounting the power plug and power button/power LED. (I'm actually thinking high backplate for the power button. It's a nice open area to put it, and it's less likely to be annoying in the middle of the night. :) I also need to get the correct SATA cables and route them out of the airflow path. Finally will be the outer casing. Another week, maybe two and I'm hoping to call this project done! :D
These are the areas I'm planning on mounting them.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing21sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/casing21.jpg)
TAZTG
02-21-2009, 01:52 PM
WoW, it really did come together pretty good. Its amazing how small that Mobo is compared to the everything else. Talk about squeezing alot of stuff into a small space and with that huge fan there should be no heat issues. Good Job!!
James
03-02-2009, 06:30 AM
Another small update.
This weekend I took the time to drill and mount the power plug, and to switch out the noisy HSF with a Zalman ZM-NB47J heatsink that is passive. My world is a much quieter place now. :)
Just a quick shot after drilling the hole in the backplate. Sadly I forgot to take pictures before I started drilling.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug5sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug5.jpg)
And a test fitting of the actual power plug. It fit beautifully.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug4sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug4.jpg)
Another small modification was to notch the bottom flange of the drive enclosure, This notch is wide enough and deep enough to feed two sata cables thick, and two wide (for the total of 4 that I need) through without disturbing the fan. I decided on this route in order to make sure the cables wouldn't be pinched or crushed when I put on the outer shell. My original plan was to run them along side the edge of the fan, but the more I looked at it, the more I didn't trust doing it that way.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug3sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug3.jpg)
And two more quick shots of the completely assembled unit. I have taken the time to make sure most everything fits. and allows for good airflow.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug2sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug2.jpg)
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/powerplug1.jpg)
This shot is an attempt to show the inside of the case. You can see the bright blue passive Zalman heatsink, as well as the passive heatsink on the Areca card. I have attached some of the anti-static bubblewrap to the back of the card with double sided tape, just to ensure that it doesn't short out against the drive enclosure. I've also done the same along with a quick wrap of electrical tape to insulate the PicoPSU. It may be low tech, but it's what's needed when I don't fabricate a mount point for the PSU (it's suspended in the casing by the wires, since it weighs almost nothing.
http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/passivehsf1sm.jpg (http://www.darksavior.net/~james/nas/passivehsf1.jpg)
Now that I have the passive heatsink on the CPU, I could not leave the sides open while testing. So I have done a quick ghetto shroud out of paper, to simulate the effects of the actual shroud. It looks stupid, but it proves my concept. The CPU HSF stays cool to the touch, getting warm during load testing, but not hot. The areca card also stays cool to the touch, which is good. This is where it stands right now, and I'm doing measurements for the final shrouding. Once I get it done, I'll update with more pics! :D
P.S. New cables are on their way as well. I still can't find the ones I already ordered. But they are inexpensive, and I am not going to drill holes in the metal shroud for those huge SATA cables. ;)
AstroCreep
03-02-2009, 06:46 AM
It may not be completely flush, but it looks damn good.
Kudos, and keep up the good work!
TAZTG
03-02-2009, 11:03 AM
I think the Ghetto Shroud looks good.. Throw some Crayola on it and you have a Custom Ghetto Shroud.. LOL
Nice attention to Detail..:)
James
03-10-2009, 09:28 AM
Ordered the metal shroud for the outside of the case today. We'll see how long it takes to arrive.
Colossus
06-21-2009, 07:11 PM
You left us high and dry. Where is the final product? Reviews? Performance? heat and quietness?
AstroCreep
06-21-2009, 10:25 PM
You left us high and dry. Where is the final product? Reviews? Performance? heat and quietness?
Bump. I too am still interested in this project!
James
06-22-2009, 03:51 PM
Sorry guys. I meant to finish up this thread and never seemed to get around to it.
I'll see if I can take some pics and get some performance numbers up. I still have not properly "mounted" the shroud by drilling screw holes into it, but it fits snuggly, and does what I need it to do.
In the meantime, I can tell you it runs very quietly (not as quietly as I like, but there is a decent amount of air flowing through the casing), and I can run 3 concurrent connections reading from the device at about 60-80MBps each, writes are usually limited by my source system, but average around 50-60MBps. Finally, I can do a mix of a Read and a Write and they average about 25-35MBps each. (Throwing writes into the mix along with reads tends to tank performance.)
I currently run my HTPC with nothing stored locally except for the movie database and OS, and all media being served by the NAS. I've got a bit over half of my DVD collection archived to the NAS , all of my local systems backed up to it, and I've only just passed the 2TB mark, leaving me another 2TB before I have to worry about getting more space.
I'm extremely happy with the product, but now that there are more powerful all-in-one solutions hitting the market, I'm not as much of an advocate of the DIY solution as I was at the beginning of this project. Thanks to all of you guys who have kept up with the thread, despite my dearth of updates.
A quick couple of screen caps. This is during the transfer of my latest batch of encodes from DVD to media server. My girlfriend was streaming music to the HTPC while this transfer was going on.