Custom Built NAS Server

**James** · 01-20-2009, 01:53 PM

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, 10:35 PM

Here's the case drawing I sent the metal shop. I hope it's detailed enough.

warning, full size image is 5000x5000

**James** · 01-21-2009, 10:50 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.

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.

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.

The shorter ones are 6.5mm which is the height I need for the motherboard to fit properly inside the enclosure.

A quick shot of the feet and the wire connectors for the powersw/led.

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, 08:26 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, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by TAZTG

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.

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, 04:37 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, 05:47 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, 01:56 PM

Got the case today.

Looks like it wasn't quite bent exactly to spec. the motherboard tray area is too small.

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, 10:48 PM

Good luck, dude!

**TAZTG** · 02-12-2009, 07:12 AM

Dang another HICCUP!!

**James** · 02-19-2009, 10:17 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, 08:25 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, 12:59 PM

Glad it came together and everything fit.. Can't wait to see your PICS..

**James** · 02-20-2009, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by TAZTG

Glad it came together and everything fit.. Can't wait to see your PICS..

*Edit: Pic time!

A few quick shots of the casing and motherboard.

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.

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.

Mr. Blurry cam pic close up of (most) of the screws mounting the mobo to the case.

**James** · 02-20-2009, 03:04 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!

Some shots showing the air channel between the motherboard and bottom of the drive enclosure/RAID controller card.

(This one is upside down)

Thread: Custom Built NAS Server

Thread Tools

Display

Posting Permissions