RE-Building The House of RagE - AGAIN

[PS-RagE]

Finally, I'm getting a little time to get some work done on my projects (there are three of them).

While this will be far from a full blown custom mod job, there will be some simple techniques that should be helpful to new modders.

Anyhow, what we are building today is the server for my house (thus the "House of" part)

So, the start to any good server is of course 1.2T of WD goodness :D

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/1twd.jpg

Each of these will be housed in a Vantec EZ Swap enclosure

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/ezswap.jpg

Driving the array is the big Promise Supertrac:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/strac.jpg

and it is all going in an Aopen HX800 server enclosure:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/hxleft.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/hxright.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/hxguts.jpg

This is a hell of a nice enclosure. Solid steel and weighs a ton. Unlike my other server-sized cases, this one is long instead of tall. I had originally bought it to put my workstation in but that project never came to pass and until now I'd been using it as a temporary enclosure for test builds (very roomy - easy to work on).

Updates soon. I'm hoping to have this finished tomorrow night at the latest. This will almost be a live worklog.

[neosen]

NICE

[Grizzy]

W0W thats a lot of hard drive space... What are you going to use it for? :D ;) :p

[eL c0L0mb1aNo]

1.2 Terabytes of space?!?! Do you frequent any particular DC hubs? ;) ;) What you got so far is great.

[Psyker]

dude i just blew my load when i saw those hdds :eek:

[PS-RagE]

All the drives are in the enclosures and the enclosures installed in the case:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/drivesin.jpg

The mobo is an Intel D850EMD2. The CPU is a 2.53GHz P4 and there is 512M of Kingston PC1066 RDRAM installed:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/mobo.jpg

To give you an idea of the large size of this case, here is the mobo and the drive bays installed. Plenty of room.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/mobocase.jpg

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by eL c0L0mb1aNo
1.2 Terabytes of space?!?! Do you frequent any particular DC hubs? ;) ;) What you got so far is great.

In the end there will be 1 Terabyte (RAID 5). This machine is going to complement the HTPC (another project that I will be showing shortly) acting as the Media Server for my house storing all the CDs and all the DVDs (plus photo albums, etc).

[Alex A.]

You know you got a good Controller Card when it uses its own stick of ram *Drools* :eek:

[nystagmus]

I love that case! Very roomy. I need something like that. What is the thing above the hdd enclosures? A place for fans or wires or something?

[eL c0L0mb1aNo]

Looks like a 4x20 LCD Display to me. CrystalFontz 634 with a mounting bracket maybe?

[Veeb0rg]

very sweet, i chose also to use the vantec racks for my file server, thou i went with the black ones..

how much did u get them for a peice?

[PS-RagE]

Time to start putting parts in.

Here is a "blast-from-the-past" - a PCI VooDoo3

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/voodoo.jpg

Oops - looks like I underestimated the huge size of that RAID card - wouldn't fit (doh). Had to re-arrange the drive bays to this:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/drvsin2.jpg

And here it is in the case:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/gutsin.jpg

Big friggin' card!

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by eL c0L0mb1aNo
Looks like a 4x20 LCD Display to me. CrystalFontz 634 with a mounting bracket maybe?

Bingo!

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by Veeb0rg
very sweet, i chose also to use the vantec racks for my file server, thou i went with the black ones..

how much did u get them for a peice?

This case is staying (gasp) beige. I got the bays for $50CDN/ea.

[DRxAndy]

what, no paint job rage? :(
i'm interested in what kind of mods this will have, besides the tasty hardware hehe
looking good so far :cool:

EDIT
a little late on the paint job comment, haha, oh well

[eL c0L0mb1aNo]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
Bingo!

Yay, I win. I should be receiving mine in the mail in a day or two. Really nice looking setup PS-RagE. Get on a DC hub and let me ehm...borrow some of those DVDs. ;)

[FLECOM]

woah an mATX mobo? hope your not planning on upgrading it too much...

especially since your wasting a PCI slot for a video card :p

your HD's make me jealous tho :cool:

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by FLECOM
woah an mATX mobo? hope your not planning on upgrading it too much...

especially since your wasting a PCI slot for a video card :p

your HD's make me jealous tho :cool:

Once its done - its done. Should I need the last PCI slot, I could put in a POS vid card, I guess. The RAID card doesn't play well with AGP cards though (ATI's in particular).

Ya know though, sitting here looking at it I'm almost tempted to paint the chassis beige :cool:

[PS-RagE]

Bah - wife has an exercise class tonight and I gotta boogie home. Work begins again tomorrow - 8am

[Niku]

is this why you've been missing for so long?

did you test it out by downloading your genetic data into the hard drives and seeing if you aged any?

[dbwillis]

Nice setup!

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by Niku
is this why you've been missing for so long?

did you test it out by downloading your genetic data into the hard drives and seeing if you aged any?

Nah, I'm always here (watching you), just don't have a whole lot of time for my projects or posting comments (its a big forum)

[Niku]

your watching me specificly?

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by Niku
your watching me specificly?

Hmmm, well no. Should I?

[codeflux]

if... you... don't... at least... PAINT IT... I... WILL... DISOWN YOU! and take away your hard drives!

what are you THINKING?! you will be clubbed in the face by the mob of crazed modders! for real, dude! you call this... a mod?! why i ought'a... !!!

:) nice work.

[osxrulez]

damn thats a nice server how much was it with everything?

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by codeflux
if... you... don't... at least... PAINT IT... I... WILL... DISOWN YOU! and take away your hard drives!

what are you THINKING?! you will be clubbed in the face by the mob of crazed modders! for real, dude! you call this... a mod?! why i ought'a... !!!

:) nice work.

LOL! The guys at Pheaton were saying the same thing. But as I said there I had considered doing "something" with this machine but decided in the end it is a server and not a showpiece. No window, no lights, no paint required.

Stay tuned though, mods coming tomorrow. This is gonna be a hell of a nice machine

[neosen]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
LOL! The guys at Pheaton were saying the same thing. But as I said there I had considered doing "something" with this machine but decided in the end it is a server and not a showpiece. No window, no lights, no paint required.

Stay tuned though, mods coming tomorrow. This is gonna be a hell of a nice machine
you make my new media server look so sad :(

[Misfitted_Mecha]

:eek: ....so...much...space.....Nice work man, hope it all goes well, what a beast of a server :D

[PS-RagE]

LOL - I was just rereading my own thread and thinking isn't that the coolest thing to say - 1.2T? Damn, I remember having drives that were M

:o

[eL c0L0mb1aNo]

My dad still remembers how him and his friends got all giddy back when they upgraded the computers from 2K to 4K memory.

[ness1469]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
LOL! The guys at Pheaton were saying the same thing. But as I said there I had considered doing "something" with this machine but decided in the end it is a server and not a showpiece. No window, no lights, no paint required.

Stay tuned though, mods coming tomorrow. This is gonna be a hell of a nice machine


I wouldn't worry. We all know you'll cave in when you get bored sooner or later. hahah.

[Niku]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
Hmmm, well no. Should I?

i dont know...you might to get to see my sexy ass

but probally not and if you did you'd be a pervert...any one who looks at my ass is a pervert

any way whered you get the case?

[Zallek]

Originally posted by eL c0L0mb1aNo
My dad still remembers how him and his friends got all giddy back when they upgraded the computers from 2K to 4K memory.
I've never had the chance to do a 2k to 4k memory change.. But I do remember being happy as hell when I went from 2mb ram to 8mb.. I think it was roughly $500.. Unless it was $400.. I cant remember.. But it was costly, and fun.

[0ptional]

that thing is awesome!

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by Niku
your watching me specificly?

actually im watching you :p

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by eL c0L0mb1aNo
My dad still remembers how him and his friends got all giddy back when they upgraded the computers from 2K to 4K memory.

when i was 3 i upgraded my apple IIe from 1Kb to 2Kb of ram does that count :p

[FLECOM]

anyway to get back on topic and make this a triple post

i dont think you should do too much to it as far as "modding"... its a server... servers arnt suppost to be pretty... they are to be scary... big, loug.. black/beige... like the old proliants, mmm... scary++ <3

[Niku]

Originally posted by FLECOM
actually im watching you :p

have you seen my ass?

i broke you posting streak so you wouldnt look it wouldnt look so bad

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by Niku
have you seen my ass?

i broke you posting streak so you wouldnt look it wouldnt look so bad

no, but you were an ass in a thread i had to move out of here so :p

posting streak? what is this posting streak you speak of? :D

[Niku]

i still want to know where the case came from

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by Niku
...

have you taken your medication today?

[Niku]

what i cant say OMGWTFBBQ where did my arse go?

[codeflux]

people! maybe i should be a moderator... this whole page is pretty much completely SPAM!...

let's all calm down, take our medications, and chant:

ONE TERABYTE...
ONE TERABYTE...
ONE TERABYTE...

:)

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by codeflux
people! maybe i should be a moderator... this whole page is pretty much completely SPAM!...

let's all calm down, take our medications, and chant:

ONE TERABYTE...
ONE TERABYTE...
ONE TERABYTE...

:)

actually after the amount of space he is going to loose to redundancy and the file system etc it will probably be just under 1Tb...but im not going to take the crown of 1Tb+ away from you RagE :D

[Niku]

filesustem and redun..(big word) is going to take up...

wait a minute, wouldnt 1.2 terabytes be ~1200 gigabytes?

[SB22]

Yes, it would...6x200gig drives = 1200 gigs or 1.2T

Aren't i just the little genious;) lol

...BUT with a RAID 5, one of those drives will be for parity, giving him only 1T of ACTUAL useable space, then you have to take out the space he loses from partitions and formatting...so he'll be just barely under 1T, none the less, i'm sure we're all jealous. I've only got about .5T myself...

[Niku]

oh shut up...

i'm wondering whats the benifit of raid 5 when your losing 200 gigs of space?

[nicks0r]

sweet setup... got me about .5tb in my workstation right now, i'd like to set me up something like that for my mass storage needs

[corrosive23]

why a promise instead of a 3ware raid card?

[Veeb0rg]

Originally posted by Niku
oh shut up...

i'm wondering whats the benifit of raid 5 when your losing 200 gigs of space?

because if u run just raid0 and you loose a drive.. you loose the array.. which would be bad..

raid5 provides some protection against that.. i think 200gb is a small price to pay to protect that much data..

[brycejones]

I'll have to post pics after I get my server moved into its new case. 8x200GB WD in RAID 5 goodness attached to a 3ware 7500-12 controller. I'll actually end up with right at a real 1.1 TB usable after losing one drive for parity and one drive is going to be a hot spare.

I do like the case that you are starting with it looks pretty good for this kind of application.

[Hack_light]

Looks great.

[grjr]

wow I can't wait to see more of this beast :eek:

[PS-RagE]

The case had originally come with a dual redundant 337W power supply. However, that one does not have the "jam" to power this system so I'm using an Enermax 465P. However, the original PSU was much larger and therefore so also is the hole in the case.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/psu1.jpg

So in order to get the Enermax to fit, I had to build some "wings" for it.

I had to tear the supply apart in order to use it as a template. I figured while I had it apart I may as well get rid of the "AUX" connecter.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/psu2.jpg

And here are the wings:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/psu3.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/psu4.jpg

Next to get this thing installed and start hooking it up

[smatts]

That's only a 350w power supply right?

Only makes me lol more when people buy 500+ watts power supplies for thier dinky home computers.

[FLECOM]

ooo - dibs on the redundant psu :p

[kronchev]

i'd go with more RAM but that's just me. as it is I'm setting up a 733 PIII with about 40 gigs for random file stuff, connected wirelessly to my miniITX HTPC downstairs. I just need to make a ncie case for the HTPC, configure it all correctly, and burgle out the wireless controller from a computer, and its all good.

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by smatts
That's only a 350w power supply right?

Only makes me lol more when people buy 500+ watts power supplies for thier dinky home computers.

It is 431W

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by kronchev
i'd go with more RAM but that's just me. as it is I'm setting up a 733 PIII with about 40 gigs for random file stuff, connected wirelessly to my miniITX HTPC downstairs. I just need to make a ncie case for the HTPC, configure it all correctly, and burgle out the wireless controller from a computer, and its all good.

I think 512M is plenty for a server. The HTPC has 2G :D

[kronchev]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
I think 512M is plenty for a server. The HTPC has 2G :D

crimany! what are you playing back, real time rendered video??

[ukiN]

Originally posted by FLECOM
have you taken your medication today?

i dont take medication

OMGWTFBBQ how did he do that you say?

i still want to know where the case came from you know

[GESoftWhiteLightBulb]

ok this is getting old....

any way if yourgoing to have it as a media server why dont you ghost the stuff you absoultly cant replace and put them on DVDr's or rw's?

i mean most of this stuff is going to be movies music blah blah which you should have a copy of already

[PS-RagE]

Getting old? Its not even done yet. :confused:

The concept is to have all this stuff stored so I don't have to pick my lazy ass up off the couch ("hmmm, which movie do I want to watch?" <surf it out>). Not to mention that now every machine on the house network will have access to the music, movies, etc

[Dongle]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
Getting old? Its not even done yet. :confused:

The concept is to have all this stuff stored so I don't have to pick my lazy ass up off the couch ("hmmm, which movie do I want to watch?" <surf it out>). Not to mention that now every machine on the house network will have access to the music, movies, etc ]

uhh thats not what he meant....

Edit:
Rember me from years ago?

[MechWarrior]

Lets see... Do you have a 1TB permit? No? Well ill just have to... confiscate these then...

What a drool job, all them drives :)

Anyway, with them being hot swapable, how does that work in the raid? Couldnt 3 drives hold say one file spanned across, so if you swap out a drive you loose that file? Im Confoozled. :confused:

[Screwz Luse]

That is one kickass lookin setup you got goin on.... One terrabyte is a dream of mine.. It's not lookin like I'm going to hit there anytime soon but ya just never know. Maybe if I save up $1200, I can get a 5.25" form fitting Terrabyte drive (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10118). ;) Yeah, because I have that kind of restraint. :D

[ItsTooHot]

Ya know Rage. I think you should just call this your untimat stealth mod. When people ask why you didn't paint it, just tell them you paint it beige.

I always wanted to paint a case beige, just to mess with people...

[PS-RagE]

Looking at the old PSU I find it had right angle Molex connecters!

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/molex.jpg

So this morning's job will be to pull them off and rebuild the cables on the Enermax

[PS-RagE]

OK, got all the power wiring done. The original Molexes were snipped off at the first plug. The right angle ones were connected to the devices and the wiring punched on at the exact length. There are three seperate runs here. Two groups of three for the HDs and the DVD burner and floppy are on their own.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/pwr1.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/pwr2.jpg

Next up - IDE cabling

[nintari]

the IDE Cableing should prove to be a ton of fun lol

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by nintari
the IDE Cableing should prove to be a ton of fun lol

hehe yep

i would have gone with PATA>SATA converters on such a large array... and then used like the highpoint 8 channel SATA 64bit PCI-X card... but thats just me :p

[Foolio882]

Wow, lookin nice! I love the PSU wiring job you did, gotta love those 90 degree molexes :)

[PS-RagE]

Well, that is as neat as that is going to get. I folded and tucked and so on but it will not sit flat underneath. At least it isn't blocking airflow.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/ribbon.jpg

The array is initializing now. Been over an hour and it is only at 21%. Then I gotta format it. I can imagine how long that is going to take.

[ItsTooHot]

SA-WEET wiring job!

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
The array is initializing now. Been over an hour and it is only at 21%. Then I gotta format it. I can imagine how long that is going to take.

aww

you poor thing ;) :p

bastard... and i have like 5Mb free on my arrays =\

400Gb just isnt big enuf anymore :(

man if i had money the things i could do... sigh :( :rolleyes:

[MechWarrior]

Originally posted by MechWarrior
Anyway, with them being hot swapable, how does that work in the raid? Couldnt 3 drives hold say one file spanned across, so if you swap out a drive you loose that file? Im Confoozled. :confused:

^^

[PS-RagE]

They are not hot-swappable - just removeable. The system can tolerate the loss of one drive without losing data. The drive is replaced and the controller rebuilds the array.

[Dome]

i can remember my first computer that was my own in like the 5th grade or so...i was so stoked cuz it had a whopping 400 megs of space...now i'm at 120 gigs on my pc, plenty for me so far tho, not like you you storage freak ;)

[rogue_jedi]

i could use one of those. my fileserver is only 120gb:( (i need to get some money so i can buy some 120's to put in raid)

nice wiring job.

[Veeb0rg]

I can't wait till taxes come back so i can enlarge my 300gb array..

thou i'll have to get a new card and case.. but thats the price one pays.. hehe :)

[pHatalbOom]

Holy storage Batman!

[CyberCRAP]

Originally posted by Dome
i can remember my first computer that was my own in like the 5th grade or so...i was so stoked cuz it had a whopping 400 megs of space...now i'm at 120 gigs on my pc, plenty for me so far tho, not like you you storage freak ;)

Yep, my first pc I got in sixth grade had a whopping 170mb of hd space. Now i have 280gb in my windows machine, 60gb in my linux machine, and over 1.5 TB burnt on dvd.

[DJDishwateR]

Whats the main benefit of RAID 5 over RAID 1, cant you still rebuild the array if you swap out the bad/lost HD?

[brycejones]

Raid 1 is designed for 2 drives only, so if you have 2 200 gb drives you really only have 200 gb of usable space because the drives are a mirror of each other.
Raid 5 requires at least 3 drives but you lose only drive's worth of capacity to the data required for redundancy. So the capacity of the array is N-1 (N being the number of drives) so in an 8 drive array you have usable capacity of 7 drives.

[mashie]

Originally posted by brycejones
Raid 1 is designed for 2 drives only, so if you have 2 200 gb drives you really only have 200 gb of usable space because the drives are a mirror of each other.
There are no limit in the amount of drives as long as the number is even.

The difference with 4 drive RAID 1 is that you will only be able to use 2 drives for storage.

With 4 drive RAID 5 you will be able to use 3 drives for storage.


Btw RagE, nice beast.

[Foolio882]

Originally posted by mashie


Btw RagE, nice beast.

I read breast, does that make me a bad person?

Have fun formatting that beast rage!

[DJDishwateR]

With RAID 5 I wouldn't lose any data at all?!?!?!?

[Acceptable_Risk]

Now you'll just have to spend the next couple of months ripping and encoding every piece of media you own.

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by DJDishwateR
With RAID 5 I wouldn't lose any data at all?!?!?!?

in a RAID5 if you loose one disk, you can replace it, and then rebuild the array using the parity on all the other disks...

so as long as you dont loose more than one hd you dont loose your data

you need at least 3 hd's

and the array will always use the amount of one disk as parity...

so if you have 3x 200gb disks in a raid 5 you have 400gb usable...

if you have 8x 200gb disks in a raid5 you have 1400gb usable :D

[DJDishwateR]

DAmn, I need to start saving for the HD's + controller. Anyone know where I can get a RAID 5 controller cheaper than say 70$, newegg and them didnt have much...

[FLECOM]

for that price you would be better off doing it in software... the cheaper raid 5 controllers do it mostly in software anyway

windows 2000/2003 server and *nix can do raid 5 in software

[ohcyt]

the power cables for the HDD's look great *drool* ;)
unfortunately you can't buy these 90 degrees molexes anywhere in The Netherlands... sucks living in such a developed country while ya can't even get proper casemodding supplies... *sigh*

[Choder]

Very nice Rage. Does that raid card have a backup battery on it?

[Synth3t1c]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: HOLY carp!!!!! nice work!!!! 1.2tb of awesomeness

[mwarps]

A double take and a holy shit from me.

*bows to the 1.2T*

[neosen]

where did you get the 90 degree molex connectors?

[DJDishwateR]

Flecom, wanna hook me up with some links? I'm just getting into the wonderful world of freebsd. I have a mobo with RAID 1/0/0+1 on it, damn it.

[B1zz]

/me bows at the greatness that is 1.2TB in RAID 5...

but i wanna see some more pics maybe...i doubt or would hope that RagE isnt done with this thing quite yet...if it is at least get us some 'action' shots of it =b

EDIT: cos im a dumass when i first wrote this post =/ =b

[mashie]

Originally posted by B1zz
i doubt or would hope that FLECOM isnt done with this thing quite yet...
Ehm, it is built by PS-RagE, not FLECOM.

If you actually read it is less likely someone will point and laugh at you :D

[Foolio882]

Originally posted by neosen
where did you get the 90 degree molex connectors?

Ripped them off an old PSU

But I'm sure I've seen them at www.molex.com sometime in the past

[codeflux]

Originally posted by mashie
If you actually read it is less likely someone will point and laugh at you :D
yet another high-quality product dished out by the master modder: bitch-slap, powered by mashie. :)

PS-RagE, as far as formatting this thing goes, you can use partition magic (yes, partition magic - it's very fast, too - mostly because it doesn't verify every sector like format does).

how were you thinking of partitioning this, by the way? don't tell me you're thinking of having one [just short of] 1TB partition!

[PS-RagE]

It is formatting right now. 2 partitions - one 20G for OS/apps etc and remainder for data. :cool:

Can't do any further mods right now as the techs are using the workbench. I'd like to see it finished today though. Maybe later this afternoon or this evening.

[Foolio882]

:eek:

1 TB-20Gig=1 partition... wow


I pray that nothing goes wrong with it :)

[brycejones]

Originally posted by Foolio882
:eek:

1 TB-20Gig=1 partition... wow


I pray that nothing goes wrong with it :)

Thats why the man went the RAID 5 route.

[killernoodle]

I can imagine the lights in the room will dim when you spool up all those drives...

Wow, I just thought of how annoying 6 7,200 rpm hdds would be running at the same time. :D

[DJDishwateR]

I had a RAID5 capable controller right under my nose and didnt even know it. Go go Abit AT7 MAX2, check this out, hehe.

Link (http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/b374.htm)

That thing just happens to be onboard and I was going to revert this board to server use anyways, go me!

[real]

wow nice

[PS-RagE]

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/c-prop.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/e-prop.jpg

[Psyker]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

[Foolio882]

Originally posted by Psyker
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

[codeflux]

NTFS?! dude... i wouldn't trust NTFS with that much data! go with FAT32 (you may have to use partition magic - yes, again - to partition it with)

[ra-odin]

I wouldn't trust windows at all with that much data ;)

But, if I were to do so, I'd probably choose NTFS too...

[PS-RagE]

Not to mention that in XP Pro FAT32 is not an option ;)

[ness1469]

Hmm... guess you didn't quite hit that 1TB mark, eh? :(

[Gargoyle_Hunter]

FAT32? Heh "My WC P4 IC7max runs Win 95b great!"
(I know FAT32 didn't come til Win98, I'm being fececious)

Seriously, you want NTFS for any large files that get lots of reads and writes (i.e. digital video). I would turn off indexing for that thing though. After a while the library for that will get f'n huge and slow.

[olaf2821]

Originally posted by codeflux
NTFS?! dude... i wouldn't trust NTFS with that much data! go with FAT32 (you may have to use partition magic - yes, again - to partition it with)

Until I get an explanation on this insanity…I'm just going to give it a WTF.

[codeflux]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
Not to mention that in XP Pro FAT32 is not an option ;)
yes, but FAT32X *is* an option - Partition Magic can create that partition for you, and WinXPPro will work with it as if it was FAT32. :)

the problem with NTFS, as i see it is this: it works *wonderfully* while it works; but when it stops working - and believe me, it will - recovering data from it is practically a futile task. FAT32 is much easier to recover from.

we have hunderds of PCs at work in my department, all with NTFS, and one or another gets a corrupted NTFS partition on a very regular basis - no matter what the manufacturer of the PC or the drive. i have had it happen to me the few times i tried using NTFS on my shit. FAT32 on the other hand will chkdsk itself and works just fine after a crash.

[Alexia]

I had one NTFS problem. I accidently deleted important files. Downloaded a nice little program, undeleted them. NTFS is a lot more stable and better than FAT32. It actually CHKDSK on my NTFS C:\ drive during startup a few days ago because I screwed up majorly when overclocking. :rolleyes: Windows XP Profressional does support FAT32. It even asks when installing it if you want to create a FAT32 or NTFS partition to install to.

[Alexia]

Oh, and RagE... :eek:

[theNoid]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
Not to mention that in XP Pro FAT32 is not an option ;)

actually it is.. you just have to reformat all your drives to FAT32, then install XP Pro again. But I wouldn't recommend it :/

[ness1469]

Great, we're turning this treasure into a big geek argument. :(

[Foolio882]

But doesn't Fat32 have a file size limit of 2 GB?

If this is true, how do you expect to rip a DVD? All my rips turn out to be 4-7 Gigs

[STRESSTEST]

FAT16 does, not FAT32

[Alexia]

Doesn't the SuperTrak SX6000 cost about $300 new? :eek:

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by Alexia
Doesn't the SuperTrak SX6000 cost about $300 new? :eek:

Plus the RAM. And I bought it last year ..... :rolleyes:

[Foolio882]

Originally posted by STRESSTEST
FAT16 does, not FAT32

Thanks for clearing that up :)

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by ness1469
Great, we're turning this treasure into a big geek argument. :(

Heh, I'd hardly call this a "treasure". Basically, I am building a huge-assed storage machine and sharing the progress as I go along instead of just showing the end result like I usually do.

On that note, anyone else notice how long this "2 day project" is taking? Between work and family I don't get as much time as I used to. This is why my truck (http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=657056) (that is still not finished, btw) took 18 months :rolleyes:

[killernoodle]

Your D drive has more storage than our 2 computer labs in our school!!!

Wowies!! Bench it now!! must compare results to my single HDD so I can feel better about myself :(

[rogue_jedi]

Originally posted by Foolio882
But doesn't Fat32 have a file size limit of 2 GB?

If this is true, how do you expect to rip a DVD? All my rips turn out to be 4-7 Gigs

my dvd rips put out separate 1gb VOB files, so fat32 would work. then i put them in a single VOB (and winDVD 3 can't handle it right:mad:)

btw rage, do you do 5.1 divX's from your dvd rips (w00t)

you just use Ogg for the audio codec. headac3 can handle it if you want it.

[Alexia]

Originally posted by killernoodle
Your D drive has more storage than our 2 computer labs in our school!!!

Wowies!! Bench it now!! must compare results to my single HDD so I can feel better about myself :(

I would really like to see what its performance is as well. :D

I just realized, looking at my own computer, I have 500gbs storage. Could use a few extra 120gbs and I'll hook up RAID 5. :cool:

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by mashie
Ehm, it is built by PS-RagE, not FLECOM.

If you actually read it is less likely someone will point and laugh at you :D

man i wish i had 1.2tb of storage!!! :eek:

but alas, im poor and lack of jobs down here leaves me with lots of seperate HD's all filled...

18gb hd (2Gb free, 15k cheetah hehe)
200Gb hd (5Mb free)
120Gb hd (12Mb free)
160Gb hd (1Gb free)

[Mark Larson]

Originally posted by Alex A.
You know you got a good Controller Card when it uses its own stick of ram *Drools* :eek: hahah no shit. nice work rage.

[Wanamingo]

I can't believe you didn't even punch out those stock stamped fan grills at the rear :p . And I have to say that perhaps it's long past time for Windows to report HD size in KB.

[PS-RagE]

Hmmm, perhaps some more RAM may be required after all.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/memuse.jpg

This is with a single video stream

[eL c0L0mb1aNo]

OUCH! That's gotta put a strain on the system. I'm sure you have a gig or two lying around :D

[PS-RagE]

It is 1066 RDRAM - not exactly parts "lying around"

[eL c0L0mb1aNo]

D'OH!! That's gonna be rough getting some of that stuff. Must be pretty expensive.

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
It is 1066 RDRAM - not exactly parts "lying around"

haha, thats why i never did intel, never got screwed over with RDRam :p

[codeflux]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
It is 1066 RDRAM - not exactly parts "lying around"
i concur - i bought P4T533 when i first came out way back when. it used a 232-pin 32-bit RIMM4200 Samsung RDRAM, btw - even more rare and expensive... state of the art back then - piece of shit now. :D

[PS-RagE]

Its done.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/svr1.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/svr2.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/svr3.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/svr4.jpg

[phiber]

WOW that thing is a beast

mad props! :cool:

[tuyhon]

Nice Rage. That thing is one hell of a beast. and RDRAM owns!

[wolfknight]

lol when i saw those pics i even said it out loud "that thing is a beast!" than i saw 2 other people agreed with me. congrats!

[PS-RagE]

Here are the infamous size comparison shots:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/svr5.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/svr6.jpg

[rogue_jedi]

only 5 days uptime? my server has currently been up:
5:12pm up 25 days, 21:06
(redhat 9)

and o yeah, can't you not go over 58(52 maybe) days uptime on any given windows box? (counter overflow on the uptime clock... microsoft is funny)

of course, my server only has 120gb of storage space, and it's also a pIII 450 i got for free (gateway...) so yours is still cooler than mine.

[Krewten®]

Nice setup ;)

Hope you enjoy it !

[Hack_light]

looks great.

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by rogue_jedi
only 5 days uptime? my server has currently been up:
5:12pm up 25 days, 21:06
(redhat 9)

and o yeah, can't you not go over 58(52 maybe) days uptime on any given windows box? (counter overflow on the uptime clock... microsoft is funny)

of course, my server only has 120gb of storage space, and it's also a pIII 450 i got for free (gateway...) so yours is still cooler than mine.

he just finished it :rolleyes:

only 25 days? my 2000 server box has been up 54 days

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=flecom.net

so ya lets leave the MS bashing for another thread... kthxbye

[jayjaya29]

Wow thats an awesome setup, props to you man. Nice job. :D

[princess0fdiabl0]

psshhhh my virgin webplayer has been up for 3 months running WINDOWS ME /cackle


:D

good stuff rage, keep it up!

[sdk]

thats candian beer folks

timmons eh, thats like 10 min away from me :o?

nice

[Ruckus]

Originally posted by sdk
thats candian beer folks


Only gets you 1/2 as drunk as US Beer with the current exchange rate :D

[Grizzy]

DAMN thats nice... how about some pics of the final wiring of all those drives?

You should set up another one of those and start a webhosting company :D

[Alexia]

Originally posted by Ruckus
Only gets you 1/2 as drunk as US Beer with the current exchange rate :D

:D

I can't drink, but that is funny! :D

[DJDishwateR]

Molson is hella cheap here in CNY, but on the other hand corona you pay out the ass for. It's all about how close to the border you live.

[grjr]

we need finished shots of the insides and rear PS-RagE :D

[PS-RagE]

Page 5 was the finished shots of the inside. I'll take one of the back later, I guess but it is nothing special

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by sdk
thats candian beer folks

timmons eh, thats like 10 min away from me :o?

nice

Timmins. Yeah, 10 minutes (plus another 8 hours). Short drive ;)

[kronchev]

Originally posted by DJDishwateR
Molson is hella cheap here in CNY, but on the other hand corona you pay out the ass for. It's all about how close to the border you live.

molson is not REAL canadian beer, too american

i did notice in rochester labatt blue was super damn cheap, while its a bit expensive back here in jersey

[PS-RagE]

Originally posted by kronchev
molson is not REAL canadian beer, too american

i did notice in rochester labatt blue was super damn cheap, while its a bit expensive back here in jersey

WHAT??? Molson (http://www.molson.com/en/co_info/history.php?sec=3&ci=1) is as Canadian as it gets bud. (damned yanks....grumble, grumble)

[kronchev]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
WHAT??? Molson (http://www.molson.com/en/co_info/history.php?sec=3&ci=1) is as Canadian as it gets bud. (damned yanks....grumble, grumble)

Yeh yeh it's from Canada I know...but all the Canadians I know (you seem to be the first exception) don't like it.

I like Labatt more anyway. Maybe thats just me being a yank, but all my Canadian friends consider me an "honourary Canadian" anyway :D

[Maximus825]

mmm Labatt Blue. I do love the Canadians for that...

[PS-RagE]

All this talk of "uptime" has me curious now. You guys reboot your servers periodically? How come? I didn't ever plan to shut this one or my HTPC off.

[Veeb0rg]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
All this talk of "uptime" has me curious now. You guys reboot your servers periodically? How come? I didn't ever plan to shut this one or my HTPC off.

win2k mail server : \\SERVER001 has been up for: 76 day(s), 9 hour(s), 57 minute(s), 38 second(s)
Linux webserver : 20:47:33 up 13 days, 12:06, 1 user, load average: 0.33, 0.29, 0.19*assembing my rack*
Linux Fileserver : 20:14:41 up 18 days, 9:09, 1 user, load average: 1.00, 1.00, 1.00 *lan party also folding*

I've had linux servers up at 200+ days before. *stupid power failure*

i find that once their setup and running, very little is needed to maintain.

[codeflux]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
All this talk of "uptime" has me curious now. You guys reboot your servers periodically? How come? I didn't ever plan to shut this one or my HTPC off.
i wouldn't worry about it - my htpc has been up for about a month (although i do reboot my desktop more frequently). if you are not "messing with it", you can get away with not rebooting it very often. you're putting it behind a ups, though, right? :D

[CrimandEvil]

That's pretty cool man.

[rogue_jedi]

Originally posted by PS-RagE
All this talk of "uptime" has me curious now. You guys reboot your servers periodically? How come? I didn't ever plan to shut this one or my HTPC off.

i heard somewhere that windows boxes have a 57 day uptime limit or something around there (counter overflow) but it either a) has been fixed in recent versions or b) never existed at all.

my server gets shut off every once in a while (6 times or so in the past year) because of thunderstorms, long vacations, or hardware upgrades/downgrades (only the video card gets downgraded, it's a s3 something or other now i believe)

[Ruckus]

Originally posted by Veeb0rg
win2k mail server : \\SERVER001 has been up for: 76 day(s), 9 hour(s), 57 minute(s), 38 second(s)
Linux webserver : 20:47:33 up 13 days, 12:06, 1 user, load average: 0.33, 0.29, 0.19*assembing my rack*
Linux Fileserver : 20:14:41 up 18 days, 9:09, 1 user, load average: 1.00, 1.00, 1.00 *lan party also folding*

I've had linux servers up at 200+ days before. *stupid power failure*

i find that once their setup and running, very little is needed to maintain.

my servers are at 15 days but thats because i just upgraded the kernels 15 days ago.

[FLECOM]

i usually go down for hardware upgrades and such

all my servers are on APC SmartUPS' :D

[kronchev]

rogue: thats a damn lie.

I only reboot or shutdown when I do something drastic to the system. And by drastic I mean plug in PCI cards. Ive hot-swapped harddrives before, its a pain, gotta remove from device manager, take out old, put new in, then "Find New Hardware", but it can be done. Just as long as it doesnt try to read from the missing drive...then theres big problems.

But yeh, I havent crashed due to non hardware problems in years. I havent shut down willingly in about as long.

[Alexia]

Originally posted by rogue_jedi
[B]i heard somewhere that windows boxes have a 57 day uptime limit or something around there (counter overflow) but it either a) has been fixed in recent versions or b) never existed at all.

BS. :o It never existed at all. I've had my old Windows 95 machine up for six months for the longest period.

[rally9x]

only 5 days uptime? my server has currently been up:


One of my friends (now 21) worked in a school since he was in about 8th grade and he had a lab with Windows 95 machines with over 3 years uptime! Now thats crazy.

[whrswoldo]

For in case you weren't certain, uptime should be no problem. I've had >7 months uptime with winxp pro on a box that I use for watching movies on my tv. It was made of old spare parts that had been laying in a box/on the floor/in the closet. Oh yeah, and they were all housed in a cardboard box that sat on the floor, with no top, and once I spilled cereal on it while it was running. Finally went down when the power went out for 12 hours. (UPS my arse:D )

[viper92086]

sweet

[FLECOM]

Originally posted by kronchev
rogue: thats a damn lie.

I only reboot or shutdown when I do something drastic to the system. And by drastic I mean plug in PCI cards. Ive hot-swapped harddrives before, its a pain, gotta remove from device manager, take out old, put new in, then "Find New Hardware", but it can be done. Just as long as it doesnt try to read from the missing drive...then theres big problems.

But yeh, I havent crashed due to non hardware problems in years. I havent shut down willingly in about as long.

ya well, i can even hotswap my PCI in one of my servers :D

[guito13]

Originally posted by DJDishwateR
Molson is hella cheap here in CNY, but on the other hand corona you pay out the ass for. It's all about how close to the border you live.

I may not know much about computers and the like however..

Me lives in detroit...canadian beer = Cheap & more bang for the buck...yum;)

[cv643d]

Youre not worried about your power bill?

[CrimandEvil]

Originally posted by cv643d
Youre not worried about your power bill?
LOL I bet the lights dim a little on startup.

[PS-RagE]

Wow - talk about having to dig backwards. Anyhow, this machine finally made its way home tonight. Until now, it had been sitting in my office humming away on my 3rd desk (don't ask - I have way too many desks).

Of course though, when I got it home it refused to boot :rolleyes: but after much cursing and some light troubleshooting it turned out to be a poor connection with the mobo BIOS jumper.

Now all I have to do is get the HTPC home and I'll be in buisness!

I'm already enjoying it though since it has my entire CD collection on it. Listening to "Master of Reality" as I type this.

[CrimandEvil]

Damn I love that album! I hope you post some pics of your HTPC too.

[PS-RagE]

Yeah, I've been in a Black Sabbath mood all night. Started with "Paranoid" and playing "Heaven and Hell" now (poorly recorded that it is).

Hopefully, I'll be showing the HTPC soon. I've had my workstation almost fully rebuilt for a consignment sale (one DeathStar missing) and just got the lease renewed for a new one. Then, I can finally bring the HTPC home.

[DRxAndy]

Originally posted by PS-RagE

I'm already enjoying it though since it has my entire CD collection on it. Listening to "Master of Reality" as I type this.
sorry to deviate further, but on a sabbath note
i got the master of reality cd, brand new/sealed for $0.25
i love meijer (http://www.meijer.com) clearances!!!

once again, nice stuff man (too bad you didnt mod your htpc ;) )

[CrimandEvil]

Originally posted by DRxAndy
sorry to deviate further, but on a sabbath note
i got the master of reality cd, brand new/sealed for $0.25
i love meijer (http://www.meijer.com) clearances!!!

:eek: SWEET!
My friend when dumpster diving behind one of the local thrift stores and got a hell of alot of Vinyles in good condition not too long ago- alittle Sabbath, some Hendrix, Doors, Led Zepplin and few others.

[DRxAndy]

:eek:
a crime to throw away!

[PS-RagE]

A bump from the long dead!

Less than two years after the completion of the original build, 1 TeraByte just isn't "doing it" anymore - the server is almost maxed-out. I had been weighing my expansion options when one night it crashed hard (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=976436) and I lost 20 or 30 gig. That was the motivation I needed to get moving and I decided: "the hell with it, just rebuild the damned thing!"

This time I'm starting big - 4.8 TeraBytes of enterprise-class storage using the Western Digital WD4000YR (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=158&Language=en)

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr1.jpg

I don't want to get caught again with a maxed-out server and no room to grow, so this time I am using the 3Ware 9550SX (http://www.3ware.com/products/serial_ata2-9000.asp) - 12 port RAID controller. According to the 3Ware documentation: "64-bit LBA support for addressing arrays greater than 2 TB and support for multiple cards (up to 4) within a system for large storage requirements.". In theory, it should be a good long time before I have to do this again :cool:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr4.jpg

Finding a motherboard with 4 PCI-X slots proved to be a bit of a challenge. I had to step up a notch to Xeons with the ASUS NCL-DS (http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=751&l1=9&l2=39&l3=105). The Xeons are now surprisingly affordable, so I figured I may as well get two. Also this time, I'll be installing 1 Gig of ECC DDR2 (Corsair CM73DD512R-400 (x2)

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr2.jpg
(18,236)
http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr3.jpg

So, here we go again. Got a few extra drives to shoehorn in there this time. I'm hoping to have this completed before the holidays. Build pics to follow......



.

[rayman2k2]

wow...just wow.

[xrdotimcr]

Yes, I love massive expensive bulids, they always make my jaw drop.

[mashie]

Very nice hardware, will you reuse the old case?

[PS-RagE]

Yep, same case with a slight rearrangement of the innards ;)

[Codegen]

Next post:

"SHIT! I FRYED MY XEONS"

I'm jealous.

[ERL857]

that looks pretty sweet

[PS-RagE]

All the data is backed up from the old array so it is time to start the build.

The first problem (and thus modification needed) is due to the unusual (to me anyhow) method of mounting the heatsinks for the Xeons.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr6.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr5.jpg

They mount straight through the motherboard and into the chasis. I guess it makes sense since they are quite heavy and there is two of them but it does present a problem as this case is not configured for such an installation.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr7.jpg



At first I thought I'd just thread some nuts onto the captive bolts using the spring clip as a washer but I couldn't find a 6/32 nut small enough and I was concerned about the weight twisting the motherboard.

Plan two had me either drilling and tapping or using nut rivits but I quickly realized that I would never get the holes in the exact location.

Finally, I had the thought to just grind off the threaded section of the stand off and use the standoffs as the nuts to hold the heatsinks in place.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr8.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr9.jpg



I put a glob of JB Weld in each of the locations where the modified standoffs will touch the board and screwed the motherboard into place.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr13.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr12.jpg



So after allowing to cure overnight, I now have the standoffs in the proper locations for the heatsinks to mount and the strength to support them.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr10.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr11.jpg

Now today's job is to tackle that pile of hard drives.

.

[PS-RagE]

So basically, I've got to pack double the drives into the previous area. Needless to say, there will be no enclosures this time. That is fine by me as I'm afraid they are adding another point of failure (i.e. more connections).

I had no luck finding a premade device to stack this many drives so I'm going to have to build it myself. I wandered about in a hardware store and found this strapping for stackable shelves.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr14.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr15.jpg

[Scroatdog]

..subscribed :D

[penguin]

*sniff* Fond memories of this worklog on the {P} forums... *sniff*

:p

Looking good Rage :D I officially hate you for the amount of money going into this though...

[DougLite]

Good luck RagE. I hope that my advice on approving the purchase of the WD4000YRs and 3Ware units does not lead you astray :eek: Hopefully you will not fall victim to the Error Recovery Bug again.

[qbackin]

WOW

:drools:

[RS3RS]

My word that's a lot of storage. Will be keeping an eye on this one. :)

[PS-RagE]

Good luck RagE. I hope that my advice on approving the purchase of the WD4000YRs and 3Ware units does not lead you astray :eek: Hopefully you will not fall victim to the Error Recovery Bug again.

Thanks again Doug. As Penguin noted a lot of money is going into this rebuild so I wanted to be sure this time.

I hope I won't fall victim to that glitch again either but I still am going to have to do something with all the left over parts.......


;)

[PS-RagE]

Anyhow, the last stack won't fit. The top of the stack was pushing into the DVD burner and the bottom of the stack was touching on a raised "rib" on the floor of the case.

Had to redo the drives again to this:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr16.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr17.jpg





I had been wondering how I was going to mount the stack when I found those old 3.5" converters. Glad I keep all this crap.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr18.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr19.jpg


Time to start on the power again.


.

[DougLite]

Well, WD4000YR will fix the error recovery bug for sure. RE Caviars are limited to 8 second error recovery procedures, meaning that your drives shouldn't drop at random anymore. Also, the 3Ware should have much more robust BIOS and management tools.

However, going past 2TB involves some file system changes, either GPT with Server 2003, Dyanmic Disks with 2000/XP, or consult some of the Linux gurus on how to get around the 2TB MBR partition size limitation.

[theyangster]

dear...god....

so a lot of "mutimedia" files will be going into that thing ;)

seriously, would someone ever fill up 4+ terabytes! :eek:

[DougLite]

On the subject of Power, you will need 2A on +12 for each drive on spin up, or staggered spin up support on your 3Ware card. Operating draws are right at 1A on +12 during a full bore seek test. The +5 draw of HDDs is pretty much negligible.

[PS-RagE]

I've already got a 680W supply. I am going to set the array for a staggered spin-up however.

[xrdotimcr]

Lovin' it.

[RS3RS]

Awesome. I do have one question though... That's a lot of drives placed really close together. Are you worried about heat at all? Seems like those things would practically catch on fire.

[Emission]

Thats simply an enormus amount of space (Largest amount ive ever seen in one case anyway). Damn, you have lots of money!! Something I wish I could have :( , not enough to even build a decent gaming rig. Looking good though! Hope it works out! /subscribed.

[Skolar]

So what's the build total so far? Just for the new stuff. And how does somebody in Timmons make that much money?;)

[DougLite]

Awesome. I do have one question though... That's a lot of drives placed really close together. Are you worried about heat at all? Seems like those things would practically catch on fire.The drives dissipate about 12 watts each when operating under full bore seek conditions. At idle, they do a much better ~8 watts. Obviously, Rage is going to need fans, as he's looking at a minimum of 96 watts, as much as 144, for those drives. However, as long as he provides them airflow, I don't foresee them wandering into dangerous thermal territory. Heck, a single 92mm Panaflo @ 7V is enough to keep my WD2500KS under 30C at all times. 3x 120mm fans, while loud, will be more than enough cooling horsepower to keep those drives under 40C and within acceptable thermal levels.

[RS3RS]

The drives dissipate about 12 watts each when operating under full bore seek conditions. At idle, they do a much better ~8 watts. Obviously, Rage is going to need fans, as he's looking at a minimum of 96 watts, as much as 144, for those drives. However, as long as he provides them airflow, I don't foresee them wandering into dangerous thermal territory. Heck, a single 92mm Panaflo @ 7V is enough to keep my WD2500KS under 30C at all times. 3x 120mm fans, while loud, will be more than enough cooling horsepower to keep those drives under 40C and within acceptable thermal levels.

I guess they wouldn't make that much heat, the thing that worried me was just that there isn't much exposed surface area for each drive. Since they're practically touching, the only air flow over most of the drives seems like it would only be on the 4 sides, and none on the top/bottom.

[zoidberg3001]

all i can say is WOW thats one nice stack of hdd's

[CmaN3]

If your computer gets stolen, it wasnt me.

But wow, that thing is insane. I want to set up a server ,but yours puts my plan to shame. 4.2tb of space.. 1 of those drives would be enough for me.

[PS-RagE]

4.8TB, actually ;)

Anyhow, I have to fit the new power supply into the case. As you may recall, this case originally came with a unusual-shaped dual redundant unit (one that was too weak for a modern machine).

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr21.jpg

The "wings" I had originally made for the Enermax will not fit on this one so I am going to have to fabricate another. As usual, my material of choice is a metal shelf.

First, I make a paper pattern and then once convinced the fit is ok, trace it out onto the metal.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr20.jpg

The pattern is jigsawed out and hammered and ground into the correct shape. Here it is with the wings from the previous mod. This time, I included some extra support underneath.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr22.jpg



As Douglite noticed, some airflow over those drives is going to be required. Indeed they are packed a little tighter than I originally anticipated with only a couple milimeters between them. However, the front of this case is completely open. Hmmm..... nothing a little shelf can't fix..... :p

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr23.jpg

The piece was carefully measured and then beat into submission.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr24.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr25.jpg

Now that I have the correct shape, I can cut my blowholes using the tried and true "X" method. This time I drove screws into the mounting holes to hold the piece in place while drilling. Shame I never thought of that before.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr26.jpg


Finally, grooves are ground into it to fit around the 3.5" drive adapters and some holes are drilled for mounting.


Both brackets are painted and left to dry overnight.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr27.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr28.jpg


.... and that is a night. Time for supper

.

[Electric Boogaloo]

I guess they wouldn't make that much heat, the thing that worried me was just that there isn't much exposed surface area for each drive. Since they're practically touching, the only air flow over most of the drives seems like it would only be on the 4 sides, and none on the top/bottom.

IIRC, most of the heat coming from a hard drive is dissipated from the sides.

[Spaceninja]

Man that is alot of Pr0n..... j/k. I like that method of mounting drives. Will be keeping an eye on this one.

[swatbat]

Yea this looks like it should turn out good. Keep us updated.

[rogue_jedi]

apparently the subscriptions run out after a long enough time... anyways, /subscribed (again)

that is a lot of disk space. i don't know how you plan to expand the array, though... regardless of whether the card supports it, i don't think the case will. :p

what PSU is that, btw?

[Emission]

Looks like a thermaltake.. I believe he mentioned it was 600W.

[PS-RagE]

Two years ago 1 terabyte seemed like more space than I'd ever need too!

The card itself will not allow for further expansion but it will allow others like it to be introduced into the system. The SuperTrac didn't like to play with anything else.

When I do have to expand the storage, it will be have to be external.

The PSU is a 680W Thermaltake

[Emission]

Two years ago 1 terabyte seemed like more space than I'd ever need too!

The card itself will not allow for further expansion but it will allow others like it to be introduced into the system. The SuperTrac didn't like to play with anything else.

When I do have to expand the storage, it will be have to be external.

The PSU is a 680W Thermaltake
:eek:

[unhappy_mage]

Subscribed :D

Nice choice on the drives, and, well, at least the 3ware is compatible with everything.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072 (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=150072&tm=33)

[PS-RagE]

Time to get started. I've assembled the parts and installed them.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr29.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr30.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr31.jpg

I'm hoping to get all the wiring done tonight.

.

[Emission]

Those fans look friggin' sweet. Although isnt that a lot of blockage at the back end 80mms? Looks pretty restricted.

[strikeout]

when do you plan on cutting out those fan grills?

edit: bah beat me too it.

[PS-RagE]

I'm not going to bother this time. The majority of the exhaust is taken care of by the top blowhole.

[Bona Fide]

Holy sh*t. /subscribed :D

[Veeb0rg]

damn.. i'd seriously hate to see the bill for this..

btw, there is a company out there that makes a 1kw psu for pc's..

http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=TC1KW

just incase.. ;)

[Emission]

Holy Kajolee! 1KW *drool*.........wait wait, who needs that much power? 40+ HDDs? Quad CPU AMD X2's? :p Im sure PS-RaGe dosnt need that much for his setup ;) . Unless of course PS, you plan to expand ;)

[mashie]

damn.. i'd seriously hate to see the bill for this..

btw, there is a company out there that makes a 1kw psu for pc's..

http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=TC1KW

just incase.. ;)
Just in case you need to run 100 HDDs yes...

[unhappy_mage]

Pfft, it's only spec'd for 66A on the 12v lines. Take out maybe 10 for the CPU(s), and that's only 28 hard drives. For 100, you need external enclosures and staggered spinup isn't a bad idea either.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072 (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=150072&tm=33)

[Muttsta]

Holy crap, that is alot of storage!
I wish I had a beast of a server like that :)
Are you still going to be using the old 200 gig drives in this server also?

[PS-RagE]

Tonight, I got all the power wiring done.

First, I eliminated the adapter and shortened the cable run for the P4 connection:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr33.jpg

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr34.jpg

Then cut off the existing connecters and all of this crap:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr32.jpg

Last week, I had bought a bag of right angle SATA power connecters from ADPmods (http://www.adpmods.com). Great service BTW. Had the parts overnight.

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr35.jpg

Here is the power buss:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr36.jpg
Hmmm, lots of detail lost there. Click here for lifesize (http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr36big.jpg)

And the internals as it stands now:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr37.jpg


Tomorrow, I will add the RAID card, complete the wiring and install the HSFs. Still hoping to have this complete before the holidays

.

[Ingonuts13]

Awesome dude! I am definitely subscribed to this!

Any chance you want to move within wireless range and give me some FTP access?

BTW...why didn't you go with a Supermicro or Tyan board?

[PS-RagE]

Holy crap, that is alot of storage!
I wish I had a beast of a server like that :)
Are you still going to be using the old 200 gig drives in this server also?

Nope, they are going to be used for other projects

[PS-RagE]

One more pic of the buss:

http://www.houseofrage.com/images/newservr38.jpg

[TheDoucheMan]

As for cooling the hard drives, your mounting scheme gave me an idea.

Since the harddrives can discipate most of the heat through the sides you could make two large aluminum heatsink/mounting adaptors made to fit inbetween 3.5in drives and a 5 1/4 drive bays with some long squirrel cage fans moving air across them from front to back of the drives.

Something like this probably already exists, but it seems like a perfect accessory for a CM Stacker style case being used for a super high capacity storage server

[Ub312g0d654]

That is one of the cleanest power cabling jobs I've ever seen. Kind of odd when you consider how many drives are in the beast to. Great job on the power bus. like wow.

[swatbat]

That is one of the cleanest power cabling jobs I've ever seen. Kind of odd when you consider how many drives are in the beast to. Great job on the power bus. like wow.

Just wait till he adds the sata data cables. That will be the hard part. Although he didn't cut out the grills on the back(which he should) it is turning out good so far. I would also say paint it just because that is the [H]ard thing to do.

[Skrying]

Very impressive, I'm really gonna have to use that cabeling technique some time.

[TehRoflcopter]

Given the amount of hard drives you are placing into this sytem, I think you've got a major headstart on wire management =D. keep up the good work!

[themark]

I hope that the exterior of this case is going to have the same level of detail that you're putting into the interior. Isn't it...?

[[D]ark[A]cid]

You've got wire management well under control !! What are your plans for modding the case?

[doh]

Do you plan to do benchmarks with the disk array? I'm planning to set up quite a large array for a project I'm planning (http://www.thedoh.com/~lisa/site/projects/cluster/) using the WD4000YRs. Five 400gb disks in raid 5 array (although I might put a sixth one in and just use a CF device to boot).

It looks good, I can't wait to see the finished product!

[KatirZan]

holy cra*p

even my server hasn't got that much hdd space :cool:

nice job here m8 ;)

[mashie]

PS-RagE, is there any particular reason you left out the 3.3v line from the SATA power connectors?

[DougLite]

Don't want to speak for him, but he asked about that awhile back in DSS, and I assured him that current drives only draw on +5 and +12 (witness that WD supports legacy Molexes on their SATA drives). Provision for +3.3 on SATA power cables is a future proofing thing, as future solid state devices may draw on +3.3.

[PS-RagE]

Just wait till he adds the sata data cables. That will be the hard part. Although he didn't cut out the grills on the back(which he should) it is turning out good so far. I would also say paint it just because that is the [H]ard thing to do.


I hope that the exterior of this case is going to have the same level of detail that you're putting into the interior. Isn't it...?


ark[A]cid']You've got wire management well under control !! What are your plans for modding the case?


You guys should read the first 10 pages of this thread ;) This is a server - not a showpiece. No paint, no windows, no lighting, certainly no overclocking - just a server.

[PS-RagE]

Do you plan to do benchmarks with the disk array? I'm planning to set up quite a large array for a project I'm planning (http://www.thedoh.com/~lisa/site/projects/cluster/) using the WD4000YRs. Five 400gb disks in raid 5 array (although I might put a sixth one in and just use a CF device to boot).

It looks good, I can't wait to see the finished product!

Sure, I'll run some benchmarks when I'm done.

[R3D3X]

how much did you paid for that awesome things ?