My new 48 bay build.

[LTCM]

I've been buying them at bestbuy and newegg and shucking them from USB enclosures, they're extremely cheap at $169.00 for 8tb and $119 for 5tb. It doesn't matter which version you buy, all 3.5" have the same drives but some come with a usb hub or a shiny case...

Also, if you're careful, you can disassemble them with no evidence and return them under the 2 year warranty. There were zero questions asked, just issued an RMA. One of them was actually just hooked up to my LG (Ubuntu Remix) NAS as a backup drive via usb and died silently. Process and results were the same for all of them. Turnaround was about a month, but of course, I'd already bought replacements and now have spares.

So, regardless, they're an excellent deal. It's basically how my pool grew from 6 to 15 drives in a year.

The WD easystores are $160 right now and aren't shingle drives so I don't see much reason to look at the seagate archives at the moment.

Also, they cannot reject your warranty because you shucked a drive. You might have to take it up the chain a little (and that might make it not worth your time) but US law is pretty clear that shucking an external case does not void the warranty.

 

[LTCM]

I will get a table saw at some point but got spoiled using a nice 12 inch delta where I was at a few years ago and where I worked at one point. Plus working a sheet of 3/4 material on a little saw does not tend to do very well unless you have a decent stand/table set up and without a shop building all of that out just does not make sense at this point.

I just used my little ryobi 5.5inch cordless saw with a nice blade on it and a 2x4 with a couple clamps as a ledger. Will post up some pics when i get them taken. Will probably take a couple before it is done so you can see the frame and all. Could cut the sides and attach them right now but my shoulder is giving fits and I had to swap my mother in laws cell phone out for her since her nexus would not stay charged.

I saw today that Newegg has some of the 8TB external's on sale and were selling bare 4TB's for pretty cheap as well. Didn't pay it much attention though but always sales when I can't afford it anyway.

Yea, breaking down plywood with a circular saw is so much safer than trying to use a cheap table saw. And easier as long as you use a straight edge.

Heck, mainly times I break down my sheet goods before taking them to my table saw and I have both a cabinet saw and the space to cut full sheets on it.

Edit: When I say circular saw, I also include track saw systems. You'd be surprised at the number of profession carpenters who prefer a good track saw over a portable table saw, especially for sheet goods.

 

[nightshade00013]

Yeah, I got pretty good at using a big table saw to do everything but with outfeed tables large enough to handle it all it was no big deal.

Anyway here is what I have so far. Tossed my old case into it to check it out and it works just fine. Will take some scrap pieces and make it so that all the air has to pull from the bottom to the front and set something up so the filter stays in place. Add the sides, top, and door then tinker with a few things and I should be good.

 

[Chris Moore]

so I don't see much reason to look at the seagate archives at the moment.

I don't think anyone suggested looking at Archive drives. Why would anyone want to do that?

I've had a bunch (okay, 12) of seagate archive 8tb drives running for 2+ years without a single failure in one of my NAS.

Oh, I see, I wouldn't suggest using Archive drives in a NAS, but if they are working for you, I hope they keep doing it. The copy on write nature of FreeNAS should actually minimize the impact of the SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) that the Archive drives use.

 

[LTCM]

I don't think anyone suggested looking at Archive drives. Why would anyone want to do that?

I've been buying them at bestbuy and newegg and shucking them from USB enclosures, they're extremely cheap at $169.00 for 8tb and $119 for 5tb. It doesn't matter which version you buy, all 3.5" have the same drives but some come with a usb hub or a shiny case...
.
.
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So, regardless, they're an excellent deal. It's basically how my pool grew from 6 to 15 drives in a year.

I'm not saying no one should use archive drives, but when the WD easystores are $10 cheaper and contain what most people agree is a white labeled WD Red....

 

[southwow]

I don't think anyone suggested looking at Archive drives. Why would anyone want to do that?

Oh, I see, I wouldn't suggest using Archive drives in a NAS, but if they are working for you, I hope they keep doing it. The copy on write nature of FreeNAS should actually minimize the impact of the SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) that the Archive drives use.

@Chris Moore The model of the seagate 5tb that I'm using corresponds to the archive version. They're 5400 RPM. Just mentioning it for informational purposes. I'm switching all of them to 8tb red at the moment.

@LTCM I agree, however I started this process years ago before good info was available. I have a lot of redundancy on my pool as well as cloud backup, so I tried out the cheapest drives I could find. The 8tb version is solid and is actually labelled archive.

Just wanted to add, for the most part, my selection was made by the backblaze data.

 

[Chris Moore]

All the Seagate drives I am using are labeled as either Seagate Desktop or Seagate Barracuda. I like Seagate because of the detail they give in the SMART data and they are usually the lowest cost option. At work, we have received all kinds of drives from the vendors preinstalled in systems and I have not seen a significantly higher failure rate from Seagate with the exception of a couple of models that they turned out that must have had a design flaw because they died with great regularity. Those being the 750GB, 1.5TB and 3TB Barracuda models from around 6 to 8 years ago. The more recent models have not had that kind of failure rate.

 

[Inxsible]

Yeah, I got pretty good at using a big table saw to do everything but with outfeed tables large enough to handle it all it was no big deal.

Anyway here is what I have so far. Tossed my old case into it to check it out and it works just fine. Will take some scrap pieces and make it so that all the air has to pull from the bottom to the front and set something up so the filter stays in place. Add the sides, top, and door then tinker with a few things and I should be good.

View attachment 23279 View attachment 23281 View attachment 23280 View attachment 23282 View attachment 23283

What are the metal bars that you put in the rack? Can you provide a link? Each time I search for rack posts, it just gives me results for complete racks. I could save some money by building out a wooden rack like you did. I am ok with basic woodworking skills that this would require.

I also love the use of a HVAC filter to reduce the dust going up the intake fans in the lowermost chassis.

 

[nightshade00013]

What are the metal bars that you put in the rack? Can you provide a link? Each time I search for rack posts, it just gives me results for complete racks. I could save some money by building out a wooden rack like you did. I am ok with basic woodworking skills that this would require.

I also love the use of a HVAC filter to reduce the dust going up the intake fans in the lowermost chassis.

Sure, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...et-20&linkId=30852f4dc276ad921c085e40c7b4c756 is the ones I bought. The hole spacing isn't perfect but it works well enough for me. I would also recommend getting a 10x32 tap to clean up the threads. I just ran it through with my drill but if you only use a couple holes doing those by hand shouldn't be an issue.

I am planning to also put some 120MM fans in the front at the bottom to help draw air into the area at the front of the cabinet from the bottom. That should help me keep positive flow even if it's only one server. I will make some blanks to go behind the rails to help seal the front section from the back so I will not be recycling hot air back in to the servers.

It's pretty big but by the time I am done I should be able to stick a 1U in if I want to and still have it be quiet enough to be in the same room and not want to pull my hair out. Especially if I get a little insulation put in and direct the air in the back a little to deaden the noise. But just making the noise less high pitched in the cabinet should help a lot.

 

[Inxsible]

I am planning to also put some 120MM fans in the front at the bottom to help draw air into the area at the front of the cabinet from the bottom. That should help me keep positive flow even if it's only one server. I will make some blanks to go behind the rails to help seal the front section from the back so I will not be recycling hot air back in to the servers.

Our office admin handed out USB table fans to us -- because the building supervisor kept the temps high (73F). I like it cooler. But anyway, those USB table fans would be perfect to blast some air onto the chassis (since many chassis have a couple of front USB ports) It will be noisy, but I don't care since my rack will be in my closet.

 

[kabutomz]

With it being such a giant box and 85 pounds of it, I had to unbox it before I could get it in the house.
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I thinking about buying one of those. Could you recommend MOBO+CPU+Memory and Drives ?

Thanks

 

[Chris Moore]

I thinking about buying one of those. Could you recommend MOBO+CPU+Memory and Drives ?

Thanks

I would suggest starting with this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chenbro-NR...s-E5-2603-XEON-32-Gb-RAM-REG-ECC/383050244413
but I would make an offer at a lower price.
You can always upgrade the CPU and memory later. That is the same system board that I put in mine. It works fantastic. I have upgraded mine to have 10Gb networking and I have recently bought fifty of these drives and they are working nicely so far:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Western-Di...-3-5-HDD-Warranty-until-Dec-2020/153501252538

 

[kabutomz]

I would suggest starting with this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chenbro-NR...s-E5-2603-XEON-32-Gb-RAM-REG-ECC/383050244413
but I would make an offer at a lower price.
You can always upgrade the CPU and memory later. That is the same system board that I put in mine. It works fantastic. I have upgraded mine to have 10Gb networking and I have recently bought fifty of these drives and they are working nicely so far:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Western-Di...-3-5-HDD-Warranty-until-Dec-2020/153501252538

Sorry, I forgot to ask about the network card. I need a 10GBASE-T card recommendation.

Thanks again.

 

[Chris Moore]

Sorry, I forgot to ask about the network card. I need a 10GBASE-T card recommendation.

Thanks again.

Are you sure it needs to be 10GBASE-T? You can get a switch and network card for the cost of a good 10GBASE-T card. Are you trying to connect to existing infrastructure?

 

[Constantin]

For power and heat reasons I agree with Chris. A card with SFP+ ports gives you the option to use twinax, optical, or copper connnections (the latter two with additional transceivers). If given a choice, I’d go twinax, followed by optical.

• Twinax because it’s cheap and usually works for short distances. If it doesn’t (vendor locks, for example), go optical.
• Optical because it’s much less expensive than copper, immune to interference, longer range, and uses less power / generates less heat.

 

[Constantin]

To be fair, the optical route can be somewhat confusing due to the various frequencies, transceiver types, and so on.

First, decide what wavelength you need to use, then select transceivers accordingly. For example,

• For short distances, "SR" 850nm modules make a lot of sense.
• Using OM3 fiber, a transceiver can receive and transmit @ 10Gbe up to 330m. Don't bother confectioning your own fiber, just buy pre-made assemblies and count your lucky stars for the amazing supply out there.
• Ideally buy modules that feature the same vendor ID as the equipment you decide to use them in (i.e. a "Myricom" transceiver in a Myricom SFP+ slot). It does not have to be genuine "Myricom", just the vendor ID should match. Used 10Gbe transceivers usually cost less than $30 on Ebay.

The main appeal to using copper is that some platforms (like the Mac) either come with it built in (iMac Pro) or because easy-to-use Thunderbolt 2 or 3 10Gbe adapters for some reason mostly shipped with copper interfaces. The workaround was buying an external PCIe enclosure and then using a PCIe network adapter with SFP+ port in that.

Thankfully, one can now buy external Thunderbolt-3 10Gbe network adapters from Sonnet, QNAP, etc. that feature SFP+ ports. The $150 price point for QNAP is significantly lower than the external PCIe enclosure approach and likely more energy efficient too. Another thing to be careful about on the Mac is that any Aquantia-based 10Gbe copper solution requires OSX high-Sierra or newer for the drivers (which are not, AFAIK, available separately from OWC and other vendors using that chipset).

 

[kabutomz]

Are you sure it needs to be 10GBASE-T? You can get a switch and network card for the cost of a good 10GBASE-T card. Are you trying to connect to existing infrastructure?

We got the Chenbro NR40700 3.5" 4u 48-Bay Chassis E5-2603 XEON 32 Gb RAM REG ECC you recommended for $750.
I got your advise about the 10G network, what switch would you recommend ? At least 8 ports.

Thanks

 

[Chris Moore]

I got your advise about the 10G network, what switch would you recommend ? At least 8 ports.

Is that eight 10Gb ports?

This one is 24 ports...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brocade-BR-VDX6720-24-F-6720-Layer-2-Ethernet-Switch-24x-10-Gb-SFP-Uplink-JMW/232231406925

Do some research on it first and make sure it will work for your purpose. I would expect it to be fine and give you plenty of expand-ability for the future.

 

[Chris Moore]

I got your advise about the 10G network, what switch would you recommend ? At least 8 ports.

If the other one isn't to your liking, take a look at this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ARISTA-DCS-7124SX-24-Port-10Gb-SFP-L2-L3-Switch-F-R-Airflow-2x-AC-PSU-HSS/264358517169

These switches might be a little on the loud side, but you never know. I bought one from Aruba Networks about a year ago and it turned out to run quiet after initial boot-up.

 

[Bhoot]

Sorry for the late entry. I guess I'm a bit late to the party. Just been busy with personal and professional life.
Congrats @Chris Moore.
I do hold some reservations to high density cases as this simply because if it's placed in an uncontrolled environment (no a/c) the thermodynamics are always going to be working against the components. I read how your CPU temps spiked (could be a bad fan or 2) but the first row of disk get the coolest air (suppose 25C). It absorbs some heat and moves to second row probably with 27-30C (non scientific calculations) and to the 3rd row even warmer and then the CPU and HBAs which run hot too are receiving air close to 40C.
what I'm about to say is my belief but anyone with a background in physics will agree I'd suggest either
1. Putting all fans to pull/pull mode. that ways you're sucking cooler air from all sides for a more even cooling.
2. Making a few mods. (Remember hot air rises). Before each row of hard disks perforate the case on the bottom side and after each row perforate the top of the case. Though I understand cases are made keeping the airflow in mind, I know a guy (yes the same one everyone knows) who used a similar case and in the second row put a thermocol (non conductive material) at a 45 degree angle to put the air out of the top and then on the bottom got an inlet which is separated by the same thermocol piece. As per him dividing the case into 3 sections (1st row HDD/2nd row HDD/ Other components) has the machine run much cooler.

Just saying. Don't punch holes in the beautiful case coz a guy on the forums said so. :p