Widescreen Gaming Forum

I'm in the process of building a file server (no, not that kind, you naughty boy you ;) ).

Since I've sworn off SATA drives from lack of solid connectors. I'm stuck using 500gb WD WD5000AAKB drives. I'm aiming for 4TB, 4 times my current capacity. That means I need 8 storage drives, plus the existing boot drive.

The existing server is in a Lian-Li PC-S80 case, that has 2 120mm intake, 1 120mm and 1 80mm exhausts. Right now with 3 drives it's fine, but not really that cool.

I'm considering adding the drives to this case, it would mean using the upper 5 1/4 bay with converters for 3 bays at 2 drives per.

Total I'd have 11 drives, 10 500gb and 1 100gb boot. I'm wondering if they'd be too hot overall. It won't be doing 100% 24/7 duty. I'm mainly building it for video files. And I'm mostly gonna be the only user too.

I've considered fetching a new case, but I've already got 2 empty cases lying around that wouldn't have much better cooling options (thermaltake tsunami and antec performance 1080B or such, old beige box). I even compared my S80 to antec's titan server case and cooling wise the S80 has more fans if less bays without converters.

So, what do you think, would it be too hot for use or would it work?

-edit- The rest of the server is based on an nforce2 mobo with an xp 3200+ cpu and 2x512mb ram, I can downclock it from 2.2ghz to 500mhz to save a bit of heat but doesn't seem to change much overall.

LOTS OF 120mm FANS. That's all I can say, and don't bother with a huge HDD for an "OS" get a 512mb CF card and USB adapter, and download FreeNAS, and install it to that CF, make it bootable, and use that as your OS. FreeNAS has all the features you need, and the latest stable build cleans up some of the CIFS issues.

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Current build: Intel i5-4670k | 32GB DDR3 | RAID0 2x250GB 850EVOs | nVidia GTX980Ti (MSI G1 Gaming Edition) | SoundBlaster Zx | Dell 2405FPW (Landscape, primary) & HP w2338h (Portrait)

Can't do that, all my tests so far indicate that if anything is something other then vista performance drops severely. I've tested with linux, xp and vista. Whenever a client or server is something other than vista, transfers cap at about 100mbit speeds.

Right now I'm thinking of replacing the stock lian-li 120mm intakes with 2 silverstone I have that push quite a bit more cfm.

I'll see first if my thermaltake is any better for hdd placement but I don't think so.

If the antec titan 650 wasn't so expensive I might fetch it just to avoid having to convert the deadspot 5 1/4 inch bays but even in the titan I'd have to do so.

I might get freenas to retest since my linux part was a synology nas that's just underperforming but I won't bring my hopes too high, I don't think the results will be much different, the same vista server I built to a vista client goes full drive speed (50-100mbytes/s) while with the same client dual-booted to xp drops to 10-20mbytes/s.

You should also look up asceraspireoneuser.com they have lots of info on making linux and XP run faster on Flash.

I run 8 * 750gig drives (Seagate 7200RPM) in an Antec P190 with only the custom three fans that came with the case running on low speed. I have very little problems with heat. No to mention I have an 8800GTX in there too... all running off 600W Tagan paower supply.

Only way is to test it out for your self. I say stick with the box, build your server and before you put anything on it, let it run for a week with little or no fans... see what temps you get... if it all looks good, add some fans and stick with your case, otherwise, but a new case. simple really! ;)

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I still visit occasionally.

Can't do that, all my tests so far indicate that if anything is something other then vista performance drops severely. I've tested with linux, xp and vista. Whenever a client or server is something other than vista, transfers cap at about 100mbit speeds.

Right now I'm thinking of replacing the stock lian-li 120mm intakes with 2 silverstone I have that push quite a bit more cfm.

I'll see first if my thermaltake is any better for hdd placement but I don't think so.

If the antec titan 650 wasn't so expensive I might fetch it just to avoid having to convert the deadspot 5 1/4 inch bays but even in the titan I'd have to do so.

I might get freenas to retest since my linux part was a synology nas that's just underperforming but I won't bring my hopes too high, I don't think the results will be much different, the same vista server I built to a vista client goes full drive speed (50-100mbytes/s) while with the same client dual-booted to xp drops to 10-20mbytes/s.

How were you planning to get more than 100mbit on ethernet unless you're using gigabit ethernet? Firewire for that many drives will not work unless you just make the thing run windows with all the drives shared, and that's a lot of work for nothing really, and a lot of hardware for a simple job. XP would work too, still overkill. Start downscaling the idea of an OS and start thinking of other solutions. I use FTP to my NAS here in my house to pull files off the drives, otherwise the thing craps out midway. The CIFS isn't really designed for large file moves in a timely fashion, it's only designed as a stop-gap to please consumers. FTP is way more reliable and quicker.

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Current build: Intel i5-4670k | 32GB DDR3 | RAID0 2x250GB 850EVOs | nVidia GTX980Ti (MSI G1 Gaming Edition) | SoundBlaster Zx | Dell 2405FPW (Landscape, primary) & HP w2338h (Portrait)

Proper NIC drivers on XP?

Quick, moderately unrelated question.

Can FreeNAS work actively as a NAS using two separate networking cards talking to two different systems?

Performance was identical by smb, ftp and even a local web server. And all pcs are gigabit not 100mbit nics.

I've tried all driver revisions I found under xp, all identical in performance.

The only thing I found is that some had fewer transmit and/or receive buffer with had a very small impact on transfers. Not on the scale of 20mbytes/s to 70mbytes/s as xp vs vista were though.

Well, after evaluating 3 of my current cases, 2 of which are empty atm. I've come to the conclusion that 8-10 IDE drives is simply not feasible. Not without 150CFM ear bleeding delta fans and major case conversion to add spots.

I've found a possible option to use those weak sata 1-1.5tb drives but protecting from harm.

Unfortunately the lian-li EX-H34B seems to be nowhere to be found. It's a bay with connectors for the drives so if the part you plug/unplug from breaks, the drives remain without harm.

I've also considered individual trays like kingwin's KF-813-BK but those have 3x40mm fans each, so for 4 trays I'd have 12 40mm screamers.

Any advice welcome.