New NAS Build

[HEADRAT]

Hi,

Haven't treated myself to new toys in a while so I've just nabbed the following for a NAS upgrade from my trusty Gen8 Microserver.

SilverStone SST-CS381 (case was probably overkill but I can see it lasting me for years in one guise or other)

Supermicro X10SDV-8C+-LN2F (Intel® Xeon® processor D-1541, Single socket FCBGA 1667, 8-Core, 45W) - Nabbed off the MM, nice lower power and enough grunt for what I'm doing.

Sedna - M2 (2280) PCIe M Key to 5 x SATA 6G Adapter Card (to give me a few more SATA ports)

600W be quiet! SFX-L PSU

2 x SanDisk SSD PLUS 480 GB (going to play with SSD cache put might just end up being "fast storage")
6 x WD 6TB Red (I have 5 drives already), room later for 2 more discs
Intel 520 10 GigE NIC (10GBASE-T copper SFP)
16GB DDR4 PC4-19200 2400MH

Not 100% sure what NAS software I'm going to use yet, I know to some peoples disgust it might be XPenology again but time will tell

Will hopefully recoup a little from selling my Microserver on the MM once I'm done!

HEADRAT

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

Looks fab, love the case.

Why the Intel NIC over the cheaper Asus one? I'm in the market for one myself

 

[HEADRAT]

I had Intel NICs and SFP already

The Sedna - M2 (2280) PCIe M Key to 5 x SATA 6G Adapter Card (to give me a few more SATA ports) didn't seem to work with the Supermicro board so I returned it. Bought some 16TB discs to replace the 6TB as well.

Had a bit of a headache with some mini SAS cable didn’t realise you need SATA (host) to SFF-8463 (target) cable, I just thought it’s was all the same, got the right cables and all was good

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

That case looks awesome! Nice job

 

[shaf]

I was looking at the same case but then read the drive cooling was inadequate/non-existent.

What are your thoughts so far?

 

[HEADRAT]

I guess it depends on your use case, mine is for a home NAS with relatively light use so at the moment I have no concerns, see below.

NAS is sat in a warm office room in my home office.

 

[shaf]

One of the drives is 40c which is quite high with light usage. I guess its because there are no fans directly blowing onto the drives. When all bays are occupied it will be even hotter.

Apologies, I don't mean to put a dampener on your purchase and was seriously considering what is otherwise a beautiful case.

 

[HEADRAT]

OK but the operating range for an EXOS drive is between 5°C – 60°C so I'm not overly concerned, the one running at 40C is in the middle so I'm not surprised it's a bit warmer as it's in a sandwich.

I thought the general consensus was

25°C to 40°C: Ideal
41°C to 50°C: Acceptable
More than 50°C: Too hot

Would the case benefit for some active cooling on the drivebays, yeah I think it probably could but I guess there also then might be an issue with noise etc. As with all chassis I guess there are compromises, if running a drive 20C less than it's max then I guess this isn't right case for you.

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

This is my QNAP TVS-872XT, with 8 x 8TB EXOS drives. Using it for work, it's working pretty hard delivering ProRes media to 4 edit suites simultaneously down a 10GbE connection.

So after a full day under constant load, drives sit around the 40 / 42 °C mark, and the system fans are not kicking up a fuss.

 

[HEADRAT]

So the QNAP TVS-872XT £3.5K (approx) professionally built NAS is running cooler than my homebuilt system I built for £1.2K, I can live with that. I have 10GigE, I have 8 Cores, I can have upto 128GB of memory, I can easily upgrade my MOBO to any M-ATX board, there are compromises

As I add more discs then I can see myself modding the case, maybe getting the dremmel and drill out and adding some extra fans, this is part of the the fun of "homebuilt", it's not a negative. The dissipation of heat from drivebays is a common issue on many chassis and unfortunately not unique to the SST-CS381. In fact I'm finding it hard to find any "off the shelf" NAS type cases with active cooling of the drivebays.

The £2.3K I've saved over buying "off shelf" leaves me plenty of scope for improvements.

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

So the QNAP TVS-872XT £3.5K (approx) professionally built NAS is running cooler than my homebuilt system I built for £1.2K, I can live with that. I have 10GigE, I have 8 Cores, I can have upto 128GB of memory, I can easily upgrade my MOBO to any M-ATX board, there are compromises

Exactly

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

All it is is 2 x 120mm fans blowing on the back of the drives though

 

[HEADRAT]

All it is is 2 x 120mm fans blowing on the back of the drives though

Just need to get a bit creative, dremmel/drill time

One of the simplest options, while not the most elegant, would to put a couple of 80mm low profile fans between the case door and the drive bays.

The drive bays are recessed back and there is quite a lots of space between the cage and the door.

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

Are there fan mounts on the side of the case? I wonder what'd happen if you put intake fans on the side, with exhaust on the back.

Our even the other way round, so blow onto the drives from behind and exhaust out the side

 

[AyeAyeAhoy!]

I've been cooking 4 WD Reds in a Dell T20 for a few years now, by the way. Now they really are toasty! Far more than 42°c, but still going strong