Hi Matt,
I want to go in the opposite direction to your future setup as in that I want something like you have got now. But may I suggest that you sell the casing only and keep the rest as you know that it works and it's 100% stable. As for a rack mountable case the xcase 420 is very good!!!
After reading through the whole of this amazing thread I decided to take the plunge and build my very own unRAID server re-using existing components:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz
Mainboard: ASUS P5N32-E SLI PLUS
RAM: 2x 2GB OCZ DDR2 PC6400 800MHz, 2x 1GB Corsair DDR2 PC8500 1066MHz
Graphics card: XFX HD5450 DDR3 1GB passive
Power supply: Antec 650W
SATA cards: 2x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8
USB header: Lycom UB-109 Internal Motherboard header
USB drive: SanDisk Cruzer Micro Skin 4GB
Case: Chieftec Full Tower (6x 5.25" with 2x X-Case 5 Drive Storage Kit, 11x 3.5" internal)
Fans: 5x Noctua 80mm to cool the drives, 2x Noctua 80mm at rear of case
Software: unRAID Pro v4.7
As far as hard drives are concerned, I will be re-using all of my existing 10 external USB drives (mostly 1TB or 2TB drives), copying them onto the server one by one, then dismantling the enclosure and adding the drive into the array.
In total, there are 22 SATA ports available as well as 21 drive bays so I'm sure I'll come close to Smurf's 40TB one day...
Currently, the brand new server is pre-clearing the first 1.5TB drive, I'm waiting for the pro license to come through and can't wait to start copying my movies over.
Will let you know how I get on, please feedback any concerns about my re-used spare components if you have any.
PS 1: I know that the CPU and RAM are most certainly overkill for a file server, but since I have them left over I might as well use them...
PS 2: The pre-clearing seems to go rather well: after 38 minutes it says '12% complete' which would give a total of 5 hours - fingers crossed...
Excellent data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
This is my current project, I've stuck 16 x hitachi Desktar IDK 4Tb disks in it, I know 64 Terabytes is overkill but this is going to be used for a few years of service so god knows what will change in the future! The current internals have been pulled from a Lenovo SFF desktop that I have as new old stock, plenty of PCIE slots which is a godsend, I've yet to find a decent controller card for the drives due to most cards having a specific volume maximum of 2TB per port, I've got several spare controllers about that I might try but we'll see!!! The case is one of these: RMC3E-XP|3U Rackmount Chassis, 21 bays w/16 SATA hot-swap (MiniSAS, SCSI backplane optional), 27 depth, 650W redundant power supply, include rail (RSC-3ED2-65R-SS2-2-R)
Though to admit, I stuck the drives in their caddies last night and almost broke my back trying to lift the unit! The unit alone is 3mm steel construction with 16 disks and a motherboard, It's bloody heavy!
And no, the drives didn't cost me stupid money, luckily they were bought last year before the stupid flood increase! I think they cost £65 if I remember! (Trade Bulk)
A 2TB drive takes 24 hours to clear, so you've some way to go yet data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
This is my current project, I've stuck 16 x hitachi Desktar IDK 4Tb disks in it
data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 Are you sure you want up to 60TB of data, on 15 x 4TB spindles, being protected by a single parity drive?
£65 for a 4TB drive? data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Yeah, found this out the hard way: after staying up 'til 2am I realised that 100% completed was only for phase 1 ... of 10! When I got up this morning it was still running.
Guess I have to be patient, although the prospect of doing this for 10-15 discs one by one sounds rather time-consuming...
Shame I can only do it one by one since the data of the drive to be cleared needs to be moved to the last drive put in the new server beforehand. I can only blame current hard drive prices for this data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Yep, 64TB's! My current collection of DVD's and blu rays, music etc has an overall file size of 36TB and counting, Not only this though, We've got the whole families data backed up here so it's literally a 'Mackenzie' archive.....
I've got a cheap OCZ 30gb ssd for the OS to run on, I'll be trying out FreeNas, UnRaid, WHS and possibly win7 depending on how stable everything is in the long run. Don't even mention the amount of time setting up, the worst thing is I work from home so i'll be twitching my thumbs even more!!!
I'm going to mod the case a little, I spun it all up this morning and found that 16 drives reminds me of the Storage setups I've built in the past, that classic whining server room sound, the Mrs is going to do her nut!!!!
Also a heads up: eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace
If anyone's looking to build a large array etc then this box will do the job!
that sounds seriously insane!!!
I love it (but admittedly glad I dont have to put up with that noise lol)