Project Home Media Server.

[Carbon Copied]

*Disclaimer* - I've never done a build log before and the photos are far from professional but hopefully it gives everyone an idea of the journey on this project as I'm pretty stoked on how this may (or may not) go.

I've always wanted a central storage area for all my media and a machine that just ticks over in the background serving up and sorting out media through any connected device on the network. There's drop in solutions like the HP Microservers, Synology and QNAP NAS systems but they didn't tick the boxes my requirements had and when asking for more features on these solutions you stump up the cash.

My main priorities are:

• Storage in a closet / attic / under stair cupboard
• Reasonably low power usage whilst idle
• Low cost (against retail products)
• Ability for large future expansion when required without rebuilding the entire system.
• Reasonable low amount of noise

For costing I used a 12 bay DX1215 Synology (approx retail £800 - £850) as a benchmark where if I could exceed or match 12 bays(and specs) with overall build cost (minus disks) then I would be happy. Space wasn't an issue and neither were looks it just has to function.

Initially I was going to go with the Lian Li or Silverstone NAS offerings (PC-25B & DS380); which are both great little boxes however having a spare PC-25B the most drives I could fit in would be 11 which wouldn't leave either any room for expansion and it made the box crowded with a lack of air circulation. I started looking at full U server units at this point in order to over spec; most out the box racks didn't meet the requirements until I stumbled across an old 3u SuperMicro case that could hold a massive 16 HDD's; I snapped it up and all it's internals from the bay for the princely sum of £77 + £15 postage: bargain.

This is what I received:




The guts of which were a SuperMicro LGA771 motherboard, 2GB of RAM, a SAS/SATA controller card to the front panel, Intel NIC and an Intel Xeon E5420 all of which somehow still kept going; however upon firing it up it made a hoover sound muted by comparison. It didn't sound healthy; still the test signals were good and the front panel was clearly looking for drives. It bode well.
The initial plan has always to put my own hardware in but these components have seen better days as I began to discover upon dismantling:







The cause of which can probably be put down to the dust filled, chard, corroded mess in the redundant PSU adapter



Still after stripping it all the way back of every electrical component, vaccuming and then followed down by a thorough hose down outside it started to look like it was getting the TLC it needed. Awww.



So that's my first post on this build done so far before starting to mod the case and list what exciting hardware will be going in. Will update as soon as the chassis has dried thoroughly and work resumes.

 

[Carbon Copied]

The Tech.

So the parts that of the system that will fuel the media centre:

Motherboard: Asrock Rack E3C224D4I-14S DTX

• Nice little motherboard that is low power, yet packs a lot of punch for it's size and also the support for 4 DIMMS on an itx board is a bonus. Allows any future sidegrading and downsizing. Also it's onboard graphics are handy. Like the no frills nature of these boards.

CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1226V3

• Ability to transcode 1080p on the fly taken care of I didn't see the need to go any higher on the Xeon list at this point in time.

RAM: 16gb DDR3 ECC

• It's a server so ECC as standard just in case.

RAID Controller: Adaptec 71605 4 Port SAS/SATA PCI-E Card 1GB CACHE

• Mid range RAID card that for home use is more than adequete supporting all the major RAID types and more importantly with large drives.

HDD: WD Red 5tb

• Currently have 6 of these - another 2 will make up the first array.

Current plan is to run x2 RAID 50 arrays to allow for redundancy and spread risk alittle more than having large or separate RAID 5 (x2 2 leg RAID 50 should allow for logical 30tb per array according to the RAID calculator) - this will be more than enough to last a lifetime I think.

Group photo:


And the award for best "greeting" to an unboxing goes to...

 

[Carbon Copied]

*Reserved 2*

 

[Carbon Copied]

Minor update tonight:

Pondering the subject of PSU mounting and after dismissing letting the PSU free stand in the middle of the case (there would be room) it would negate any airflow through the case to the HDD's. With that in mind I removed the PSU cage that held 2 of the 1u redundant power supplies; pretty simple really just had to remove a single rivet so I can even put it back in later should I start a data centre.




Plan is to horizontally top mount an ATX PSU as there's no point using redundancy in a my home server use; coupled with the fact replacing it with another industrial PSU I gain nothing noise wise as "quiet" isn't in the server dictionary. Time to get something fabricated...

I lose one of the 80mm exhaust fans doing this but it's a needed sacrifice.

Other minor bits that arrived for the rack part of the build:

TP Link SG 2424 Smart Switch, CAT6 patch panel and 40+ metres of CAT6 cable. Fun times.

 

[Carbon Copied]

Interesting build, would love me some mental storage and media servings. Is a full ATX PSU required though? True they cost more, but Silverstone have 600W and 700W PSUs in SFX and SFX-L form factors which will same you some space.

Yep the pictured 550w is an SFX-L and the 600/700w flavours are the same size (120mm fan); even on it's side it extends around 30mm above the top of the case (would be ok in 4u but not 3u chassis). There are the 300-400w ones with 80mm fans and they're tight to all the edges so might be a backup plan.

 

[Carbon Copied]

Good call with the 3d printing suggestion unfortunately my cad / sketchup skills leave a lot to be desired - I used to have a milling machine otherwise would have machined it out of a piece of delrin (by far my favourite material to work with); fabrication should be a better option compared to machining not to mention cheaper, so will see how it pans out though.

 

[Carbon Copied]

As much as I loved to listen to the industrial drone of the Sanyo 6000rpm 80mm fans; they have to go. Been toying with mid shroud designs and so far have drafted up this to sit across the midsection.



Think it should fit the purpose exactly as needed whilst also bringing the noise levels down - handy cable management ports as well. Unfortunately triple 120mm radiator shrouds lack the width and would need more modification than they're worth.
Given some thought on fans and will probably look to using Noctua PPC PWM Industrial 2000rpm fans to drag air in.

 

[Carbon Copied]

Those designs look excellent I'm amazed how much time and effort has gone into creating the CAD/Sketchup designs of the system. Do you use CAD/Sketchup in your job as you seem to be very skilled in creating the models

I also can't wait to see the Noctua Industrial fans fitted in the system as they should make a world of difference to the noise levels

No, no not a proficient CAD designer by any stretch of the imagination. I tend to learn what I need to know for when I need it; tried Autocad once and got completely out my depth, I just find sketchup more entry level friendly (although exporting to autocad files can be a pain).

Having available things like a digital micrometre and caliper to just translate things to paper/sketchup takes a lot of the guess work out. May need a couple of revisions from the first iteration but after 2-3 it's about there for a simple piece like a bracketed fan shroud.

 

[Carbon Copied]

Final shroud render after I cocked up the one of the faces. Now with fan cutouts which generally assist with air passing through solid objects...



Time to get this machined up.

 

[Carbon Copied]

Looking good, just wondering that since you have designed the shroud with cable holes if you were going to make them large enough to fit cable gromets. It was just an idea as it might aid with airflow and cable management even though it's a server.

Also how will you be machining it as will you go by eye or do you have a CAD tool that will cut the metal based to the spec and if so how much does it roughly cost?

1: That's actually a good shout I didn't think of to be honest with the rubber grommets (or cats arses); will make it easier with any tool changes as well for finishing. Changed the ovals to x4 25mm holes for some rubber management grommets (19mm usable hole space with the grommet fitted) - they'll just about go in against the fan frames... just. Not really sure they'll have a difference on the airflow as the fans are sucking the air around before it can be "lost"; however will certainly make a difference with keeping the SAS HD and molex cables together for each point of the array on the RAID backplane.

2: I managed to get it converted to an autocad file so I'm just going to send it off to be fabricated; got a rough idea of how much it'll cost but because the case didn't cost me anything (sold the raid card that it came with for the price of the case) then I'm still well under budget.

 

[Carbon Copied]

And from sketchup to reality...



Really please how the fan shroud turned out, although have a feeling that I may have been abit too generous on the height measurement by a couple of mm so a small trim might be needed on the height.

With the back panel: an enquiry to the guys at Server Case (and gamble) paid off, picked up a spare back panel for Logic Case's 3u server (one of their 3u models uses an atx power supply) - for £30 I'll live with having to fashion some shims for where the edges don't quite meet; a custom piece would probably have put it beyond that of a new case.



Not directly server related but definitely media centre related: cobbled together the HTPC that will hold all the "couch games" on HyperSpin and Kodi for playback. Recently did a main rig "downshift" so the HTPC got all the leftovers. Only the 1tb SSD and case were bought specifically for this aspect of the build.



Specs for those that are interested:

Intel i7 4770k
Reference 980ti
16gb Hyper x Beast
1tb Samsung SSD
128gb Crucial SSD
2tb Seagate overfill

All housed in a Silverstone Fortress FT03 Titanium - possibly one of the most finickey cabling jobs I've ever had to do, but it comes out looking very un-PC for stashing away in a living room or cabinet.

So time to start shifting the motherboard tray and drilling out some rivets.

 

[Carbon Copied]

Small update this evening as ran out of time to get any further; turns out I got one measurement wrong on the shroud (didn't allow for the original fixture point and it's height) but after abit of work with the dremel it fit pretty snug;





Test fit with the motherboard tray moved to the top and it's starting to look there.

 

[Carbon Copied]

Managed to get a fair amount done the past couple of days; here's a run down.

Tray trimmed with the angle grinder, came up pretty well and pretty pleased with the result.



Had to come up with a method of mounting the tray and rear panel in the right place seeing as it is now far from a factory finish - the tray was easy as I just put in new pilot holes to the case and reattached with nyloc nuts in the original tray holes (countersinks gave a good flush fit).

The rear panel was abit more involved as it's from an entirely different case so I had an idea; I pulled the rear panel into position using an old sound card to guide it in to the tray properly with the motherboard screwed down; rather than screwing the rear panel in I applied some JB Weld on the seams and clamped it down over night; resulted in a rock solid bond that's spot on for the current and future expansion cards and will still allow the use of up to E-ATX on the tray.





Some neoprene cut down ensures a seamless fit and will help keep any dust out - far from a clean finish and not a conventional method to mount it up but it definitely works solidly.

SAS backplane is configured to look after the 3 Noctua PPC fans so cables are at a minimum and all work spot on - noise wise they're alittle loud spinning at 2000rpm but no way near as much as the 80mm and redundant PSU fans it came with. Airflow is substantial. Mounted 6 WD Red 5tb drives.



Remaining pieces:

- PSU side bracket to take weight off of the rear panel.
- need x2 more 5tb WD red drives for second array.
- mount CPU cooler.
- design small front panel cover where the disc drive and USB header used to sit.
- install OS and configure RAID arrays.

 

[Carbon Copied]

Looking very nice, it's great to see the Noctua fans fitted as although most fans that come with servers are okay they can be a bit noisy.
Also what is the white cable that runs across the entire case?

Excellent work

The silver/grey cables are the SASHD breakout from the Adaptec RAID card - each port has x4 SAS/SATA points and the grey ribbon on each bundle plugs into the front backplane sideband; this lets the RAID card talk to it and also indicate HDD usage LED etc.

Not really sure why mainstream motherboard manufactures don't use SASHD / mini SAS on motherboards more often in terms of space to connector output. Probably cost orientated but considering some of the premiums motherboards come with...

Nice work. By the way, what will you use to serve media? Plex or...?

First thoughts are Windows 10 pro installed to the onboard USB for the OS and just add on plex media server to serve everything up on demand. Might have a look at Windows Server when it releases but if Windows 10 does the job I'm not too worried. I did look at Freenas but I'm using the hardware RAID so not really sure I'd see any benefit of this route.

 

[Carbon Copied]

Decided to go alittle unorthodox with the cooling:



Main reasons behind the use of watercooling:

1: I had a spare 115x Heatkiller block laying around from a previous build.
2: Make full use of the air being drawn through by the mid fans.
3: Removes a lot of internal airflow inhibitors like tall heatsinks and also keeps the number of fans low.
4: RAID controller cards are fine with passive cooling in the data centre environment room - however with potentially reduced airflow/quality air I anticipate the Adaptec running rather hot so...



...it has it's very own Watercool Heatkiller Northbridge motherboard block in the loop. With the mini loop looking like this:

DDC / Watercool mini reservoir > EK PE 120mm > CPU block > RAID Card Block

Ran Memtest a few days ago and all came back with no issues:



More soon..

 

[Carbon Copied]

To be fair I'm just trying to make as much use of bits and pieces I already have - sure I could rush out and get an AIO unit, but cooling that RAID card as an add-in could be more hassle than just custom looping it from the start. I wouldn't say it's so much the tightly packed component side (after all it's a dtx board in a 3u case!) - it's that the air being drawn may not be sufficient for passively cooling the onboard CPU with it's stock heatsink (compared to like mentioned a server room), the PCB itself will fair just fine; maybe it's overkill but whatever, it's something alittle different that may help that noise and temperature balance in a home server rack and where it's stored.

Bit of a pain getting the block on the card though... had to shim it nice and evenly around the transistors but the result I'm pretty pleased with to say that it isn't designed for it; doesn't look half bad with the CPU block either.

Not going for anything too out there like hard line piping - keeping it nice and simple with compression fittings so they can be reused in any future server shifts. The green PCB isn't too bad - remember function over form

 

[Carbon Copied]

....Not going for anything too out there like hard line piping - keeping it nice and simple with compression fittings so they can be reused in any future server shifts....

Ok so I lied, however there is a point; the tighter turns needed to get the tubing just were proving too cumbersome for regular tubing whilst sizing up. Acrylic seemed worth investigating to get the things more space efficient; let the overkill commence.



Racks are cooled in serial (more on the cooling later) - stopping off at the gaming rack first before mopping up any heat from the media rack. Rack's loop is powered by x2 D5 Laing pumps I had knocking around - the dual D5 Koolance reservoir allows for serial operation and more importantly: redundancy.






Koolance QD3's on each system allow a "plug and play" so there's minimal off time between working on one or the other.



First bend after a few practices on a length - getting the hang of it.



Easiest one in... fair number to go...

 

[Carbon Copied]

To be fair it won't require any more maintenance / dismantle steps than a normal system once drained should hardware need replacing - each box can be drained and filled independently; the QDC's on the rear allow for rapid draining whilst the hoses can be replumbed to the system left running. On initial filling it'll also allow both boxes to be filled independently then added into the loop via the QDC points (rather than relying on the whole thing routed up).

The reservoir sits externally to both systems which allows all the above.

 

[Carbon Copied]

So Project Home Media Server was on hold whilst I've been doing up my new house but it's now got some needed infrastructure to abuse the setup....





Have done 15 runs from upstairs: 3 to bedrooms, 8 to the gaming room, 1 to the centered Ubiquiti access point in the hallway, 3 spare ends for any later upgrades like security cameras.

6 runs downstairs to the living room.

Think the house is covered - now back to sorting the hardware..

 

[Carbon Copied]

Personal choice really; looked at freenas and similar alternatives and wanted something that was dedicated to running the array, settled for the single clean pulled high end adaptec that will support all 16 drives regardless of what raid I throw at it now or in the future - having back up battery support should the inevitable happen is a nicety.

Mainly though I like playing with things that are overkill; if software raid works for another person then fantastic, but I wanted to do something different I hadn't fully dabbled in before.

@Techminer - cabled up in 5e which I felt was far more forgiving given cat 6's rigidity (difference between for the distances covered wasn't required and some angles whilst going along joists). Could you not get at some of your floor boards to do some runs to stud walls in your house (causing slightly less chaos)? Get a good cable mouse kit and you'll be getting long runs under without too much disturbance.
Albeit that relies on the stud walled rooms being the ones you actually want to go to and joist layout being kind!

I've found so far that the line "sometimes these things just happen" seems to have kept me out of trouble when things start coming off walls "accidentally"