Custom Built NAS Server

[James]

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.)

[James]

Next steps:

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!

These are the areas I'm planning on mounting them.

[TAZTG]

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]

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.


And a test fitting of the actual power plug. It fit beautifully.



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.


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.



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.


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!



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]

It may not be completely flush, but it looks damn good.
Kudos, and keep up the good work!

[TAZTG]

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]

Ordered the metal shroud for the outside of the case today. We'll see how long it takes to arrive.

[Colossus]

You left us high and dry. Where is the final product? Reviews? Performance? heat and quietness?

[AstroCreep]

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]

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.