Looking to make my own Drobo, help?

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qtwre

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 8, 2001
Messages
259
Hi guys, I'm in love with the Drobo FS and was just about to get one but reality hit me that it's pretty expensive for what it offers and not the most reliable (according to many comments.) So I'd like to make my own appliance using unraid.

I've been reading posts here, looking through the showoff thread and searching. There are so many possibilities out there that I was hoping you would chime in on some good products that fit my build.

Goal:
-8 to 10 drive appliance with the smallest possible footprint. (I would love for it not to look like another PC case, but rather something compact with minimal buttons and ports on the bezel)
-Reasonably low price. (I don't need the best of the best. Its use will be serving media to XBMC and other devices)

So far I've stumbled across the SUPERMICRO MBD-X7SPA-HF-O which looks great for my use.
I'm currently looking for a case that fits my goal of a small footprint.
I like the Icydock 5-in-3 but I didn't realize they're so expensive. Should I bother looking for cheaper or would that sacrifice quality and cooling too much? Assuming I can find a 5-bay case, I'd probably complete it with a 3-in-2.
I could use recommendations on a PSU. Lowest power consumption is best, though I'll have to calculate how much I'll need at a minimum.
RAM I can get from an old laptop and I already have a few drives I'll be using.

Am I missing anything? Please feel free to suggest an alternative to what I already have selected if you think it's a better choice.

Thanks!

edit: If such a case doesn't exist, I may give up on my dream of front-loading drives and go for the Fractal Design Array R2 with its 6 internal bays.
 
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qtwre said:
I'm currently looking for a case that fits my goal of a small footprint.

edit: If such a case doesn't exist, I may give up on my dream of front-loading drives and go for the Fractal Design Array R2 with its 6 internal bays.
Click to expand...
What exactly are you looking for in a case? Hot-swap and small footprint doesn't exactly narrow things down.

ChrisBenn said:
What about
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219040&Tpk=norco 12 drive
+
http://wiki.eth-0.nl/index.php/LackRack

for the case?
Click to expand...
Overpriced IMO since you still have to pick up a 2U PSU. And the lack of decent 3rd party 2U PSUs on Newegg all together doesn't make that case a good choice at all.
 
The motherboard appears to have only 6 SATA ports. Hard to connect 10 hard drives with 6 ports.

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I find that 1/16" plywood is useful for making hard drive "cages". 1/4" clearance between drives is sufficient to dissipate the heat. If you have the tools, sheet metal looks nicer.

You might consider using sheet metal or plywood to make a custom case. You can get a smaller footprint.
 
Danny Bui said:
What exactly are you looking for in a case? Hot-swap and small footprint doesn't exactly narrow things down.
Click to expand...

I thought those two conditions were enough. Can you give an example of other ways I can specify? When buying a home NAS, they come in a nice little case to save as much space as possible. That is what I'd like to emulate. The Fractal Design case is the closest I've found so far but lacks hot-swap. There's also the CHENBRO ES34069, which has 4 hot-swap bays but unfortunately that isn't enough. If that Chenbro held even 6 hot-swaps I'd be all over it.

GeorgeHR said:
The motherboard appears to have only 6 SATA ports. Hard to connect 10 hard drives with 6 ports.
Click to expand...

I realize that and I'm sort of undecided right now if I want to go for only a 6 drive capacity and stay small, or sacrifice physical size for more capacity. Should I end up opting for the bigger case, I figure I can add a PCI-E card to expand the SATA ports to 10.

Unfortunately custom fabrication is not in the cards for me.
 
qtwre said:
I thought those two conditions were enough. Can you give an example of other ways I can specify?
Click to expand...
I.e how many drives do you need? How many drives you want for future expansion? Did you want the case to use SFF-8087 connectors (saves space inside the case but requires a dedicated card) or straight up SATA connectors (significantly messier and hard to cable manage)? What exactly is "low" footprint for you? I.e max dimensions of the case, etc. Did you want a good a price to performance ratio or is the small size the overall high priority? I.e for not that much more than that Supermicro case that you chose earlier, you could have gotten the larger Norco 4220 which comes with a 20 to 21 drive capability and a significantly better bang for the buck value. [/QUOTE]
 
I appreciate your replies but I don't think we're on the same page. As I've stated, I'm hoping to find a case much like a home NAS appliance. Ideally 8-10 drives, but 6 would suffice. Rack mounting form factor is out of the question. Something like this or this.
 
qtwre said:
I appreciate your replies but I don't think we're on the same page. As I've stated, I'm hoping to find a case much like a home NAS appliance. Ideally 8-10 drives, but 6 would suffice. Rack mounting form factor is out of the question. Something like this or this.
Click to expand...

So you want to build a cheap version of a NAS that you claim is unreliable. I think you should buy a Drobo.

---

It is cheap and easy to build a case. A few hours labor, some 1/6" plywood, a $25 hand saw, a $25 drill, a glue gun, and misc household items..
 
qtwre said:
I appreciate your replies but I don't think we're on the same page. As I've stated, I'm hoping to find a case much like a home NAS appliance. Ideally 8-10 drives, but 6 would suffice.
Click to expand...
No, we're on the same page. I was trying to get more specifics out of you. Read the questions I asked. Now tell me which of those questions don't apply to you at all?

In any case, those small size cases that you see on the market, like this and this or this or the ones you linked to, do not let you add your own OS or your own hardware to the device itself. The Drobo is proprietary and the first picture you linked to resemmles a regular extnenal hot-swap solution. So in other words, that Fractal design case is probably your best bet if you don't want to mod a case, need a small size, and if you need more than 4 drives.
 
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Soon I will be doing something similar. My design goals were small, power efficient, and capable of ZFS file system. Currently, I'm looking at something like this:

Case: LIAN LI PC-Q08 (Mini-ITX with 6x int 3.5in drives) $125
Power Supply: Pico ATX picoPSU-150-XT + 102W Adapter Power Kit $80
Motherboard: ASUS E35M1-I DELUXE (Zacate E350 with 5x 6Gb/s SATA ports + USB 3.0)$190
Ram: 8GB DDR3 $90
Hard Drives: 5x 2TB Drives $80x5= $400
Misc Power Splitters, SATA cables, etc. $15
Total = $900 (Probably under)

Boot off a USB device to ZFSguru, Nexenta, or Napp-it frontend on OpenIndiana/Solaris Express. Set up storage as a Raidz (8Gb+parity). Backup through eSata or USB 3.0 to a Raid. I'm waiting till July though because the rumored e450, which gains a "turbo" mode (similar to intel's turbo boost) is expected to be released. This might be helpful because the weakest link of this configuration is the processor power.

This might not exactly be what you are looking for, but might give you some additional options to consider.
 
Yeah, basically you want a mATX or mITX case with either only 3.5" hotswaps on the font or all 5.25" bays on the front. There are some ATX cases like that, but i don't know of any mATX or mITX cases like that that offer more than 4 hot swap drives

If you get rid of the hotswap requirement then the there are a few options out there that can fit the number of drives in the form factor you want, but they will be internal.
 
qtwre said:
I appreciate your replies but I don't think we're on the same page. As I've stated, I'm hoping to find a case much like a home NAS appliance. Ideally 8-10 drives, but 6 would suffice.
Click to expand...

we're all hoping to find a case like that, get in line. :D they don't really exist in a form factor that small outside of custom fabricated and proprietary. if there were generic boxes that you could lay your own O/S into with as small a footprint as a drobo/qnap/synology then there would already be big threads about them.
 
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Qnap

It can do what you want for 1000-2000 dollars. It cost that much to build your own anyways.

im running a hand build openfiler appliance with 8 2TB drives in a Raid 60 array and its FAST !!!

It cost me about 1500 to build.
 
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