A tip for you (and all LSI owners). If you have it in IT mode (which you SHOULD for unRAID) then flash it without BIOS and it boots faster.. who cares to see ANOTHER BIOS screen on bootup.
Hi, great video, I have the exact case and have a tip. I see you are running the SAS cables from the top of the cards underneath the fans. If your cards do not have active cooling then they may overheat as the cables are blocking the airflow. I ended up having issues with the drives.
That speedy fan in the middle is more powerful as is aligned with cpu passive cooler in servers... You have an active cooler on cpu....could be replaced with Noctua pwm industrial grade (black grey) also on cooler an identical one as being aligned rpm shoud be similar ... Orherwise static pressure will be either to much from case one and pressure blades of cpu fan ( damaging it in time ) or vice versa...
Great video ! I'm interested in this chassis but I wonder about the air flow to the HDD bays. Just three fans for 24 drives stacked this close together seems a bit light. And it looks like the air has nowhere to do. What temperature do your drives stabilize at ?
The air gets pulled through the front of the drive caddys and over the drives and the fans are delta fans, they can move a lot of air when they need to. I've had no issues with any overheating so far and drives average about 35c.
@@PrimeRedux did you test with 12g drives to see if the backplane is actually 12g as advertised. I am about to buy one of these cases and not alot of feedback on these out in the wild.
This is an older video but I am thinking of doing something similar. I already have a desktop server attached to a 24 drive disk shelf but too high energy cost. Thought of reducing it to one case with a consumer modern cpu. My main question though is why do you need the graphic card still. Doesn’t intel quick sync do the transcoding already?
I believe it does. The main reason I've heard from others regarding having a dedicated GPU card would be if you had other applications/VM's to use with this server. If it's just strictly for plex/file server, I would think quick sync would be enough to handle your transcoding needs. I don't know if this also applies to people who share their plex server with several other people though. I'm wanting to build something like this just for my home use with my family. I wanted something that had enough bays that the drives could be added as my storage needs grew higher.
Hi, do you know what length your sas cables are? Trying to figure out the best length before buying some. Thanks for the awesome video by the way! I've now purchased this case :)
Hey sorry for the delay replying! The card I am using was listed as a LSI LSI00244 9201-16i. It's a 16 port internal SAS-2 6Gbps card, hope this helps.
I've got the 3U version of this case and I am very curious about how you're controlling your 3 main fans? I couldn't work out the 6 pins next to the molex connector
@@PrimeRedux Do you know what type of cable that is? Mine did not come with a cable and I am trying to figure out what cable I need to buy to to work with the 6 pin header next to the molex connector James Hewitt mentioned above.
Yes, the array configuration in Unraid expects specific drives for each disk configured. If a disk is missing it will tell you what drive it expects underneath. As these are hot swap, when I put each drive in they get mounted and Unraid detects the drive and automatically sets that drive into the correct row in the configuration.
In a 24 bay case, I would only use the exos drives. Those iron wolf drives are only certified to handle the adjacent vibrations of up to eight drives. They are ok for up to an 8 bay enclosure. They may work in larger enclosures but are only certified for up to 8 bays. They as you said, the iron wolf drive is a proper nas drive. The exos drives are certified for up to 24 bays because they are true enterprise rated drives. The downside is those exos drives are not cheap. Its what I run my my 20 bay case. My case isn't full yet and I feel that pain when I have to add one. On a side note, how do you back up your server?
This is a home server where I don't really worry about the drives or the data that much. If I were to deploy something in a business or somewhere where things need to be more reliable then I would use all IronWolf, IronWolf Pro (which are rated up to 24 bays) or Exos depending on how many drives were needed. These ratings are for the tolerences for vibrations and heat caused by the amount of drives in a case. Seagate actually claim Exos drives are rated for "unlimited" bays. As for backups, I may make a whole video about my process but for the most part I don't have backups for the majority of the files on my server since they are just media files that can be obtained again.
Hey there. Did you manage to find the issue with the fan? i have the 3U 16 bay version of this case and all 3 of the fans are connected via a PWM splitter on the CPU header. However, all are still at 100%. Interested in the outcome you found and/or how you tested it?
For some reason that one fan was not listening to PWM commands. I ended up replacing it with another fan and its working well. I'm not really sure this helps you however.
I'm a bit late, but have to ask. That PCIE Card with the two SSDs... what is it and where can I get one? I'm running out of sata ports and this would be a huge relief.
Its not actually a PCIe card, its just a mount, does not provide any power or data, I still connect them to the SATA ports on the motherbaord. There is a card out there that you can connect two 2.5" SATA drives to by Sedna, but its only a Gen 2 x1 interface which is bareley fast enough for one SSD, and no good for two. Your best bet is to get a PCIe SATA controller to give you more ports.
My card and backplane are SAS-2, so the cable has a SFF-8087 (flat) connector on both ends. If your card and backplane is SAS-3 then it would need SFF-8643 (square) connectors.
great video... I know the 10GB NIC is loud as you mentioned but how loud is the case itself when closed and racked ... is it quiet enough for a under stairs setup regards to db noise levels?
It can actually get pretty loud with all the drives and fans running. You would want it out of the way and not anywhere near somewhere you want quiet. I have this in a rack in a small room upstairs, and you can hear it with the door closed.
Hey, I don't think I mentioned I would link anything in this video. Can you let me know what it was and I can link it here. As for the fan, I actually ended up buying a replacement from ebay since the PWM on the fan was not working at all. The replacement is in and working fine.
@@PrimeRedux maybe I confused myself with another video about an unraid server box.... but whoever it was said he'd post links where he'd got the box (Alibaba) and where he was gonna buy it in UK. I found myself suitable boxes anyway but my server is cloud based for now.... I did love unRAID when I ran a local server though
@@methanoid Oh, that was my previous video which was just an unboxing and overview. ua-cam.com/video/eslr2y-j8IU/v-deo.html The links are in the description there.
What's the difference (if any) between sas drives and sata drives? I have a chenbro 1u (NR12000) that is all sata, but not hotswapable to my knowledge, if I played around with a chassis upgrade to something similar to this would I be stuck with a "sata" setup, or would the data drives plug into the sas system? Still trying to figure put a good 10G, one i have keeps shutting off and the other wont work with my dac cables, just transceivers through cat6a.
SAS drives technically have a faster interface. SATA III being 6Gb with SAS3 being 12Gb but that doesn't matter too much for hard drives. For the connection itself, you can generally put a SATA drive into a SAS connector (SFF-8482) but not the other way around. If your SFP+ card is shutting off then it may be overheating, I've had similar issues in the past and had to switch to a different card.
@@PrimeRedux how are you liking this case now a year later? I was thinking of trying to migrate to a Norco RPC-4224 (looks like the same case though, mainly for the hot-swap feature) but apparently the manufacturer went out of business and I've read the reviews of backplanes frying drives I'm getting really hesitant for lack of parts availability if/when something acts up.
In the old case I just used a bunch of 1 to 4 way SATA power splitter cables and tried to spread out the connections to the different cables coming from the PSU.
Actually looking at purchasing the same model as the old case you've migrated from because the price difference for the SAS backplane and hotswap just isn't worth it to me. (Is it for sale by any chance?) How did you find the fan noise from the 4 80mm fans in the front of the drive cages, and all the fans in general? I'd probably be looking to replace at least the 80mm fans with Noctua Redux fans to lessen the noise a bit.
It was a great case, I just outgrew it, and I've already sold it sorry. The fans that came with the case were pretty decent, not too loud. But I did replace them with bequiet fans for most of its use.
The case is a Logic Case SC-4324, it may go under different names in different countries. I've updated the description with links to buy the case. In the US it might be sold under the brand Norco but I don't think their 4U 24-bay case is exactly the same as the one In have.
The data I really care about is backed up and the rest is not critical and can be replaced. I have considered adding a second parity but that's a whole 14TB of space I could be using!
Yes I've looked at them but I'm usually looking for hardware that work with parts I already have. Specifically for this upgrade I remember looking for server boards that supported the 7700k but got frustrated so fell back to looking for Z270 boards. I will have another upgrade coming shortly, still not a server board however.
Love the build but a 7700k is extremely limited for how you have this setup in terms of usable PCI-E lanes. Consumer desktop have 16-20lanes in this variation you have, so the 1080ti doesn’t see its full potential nor do any of the other cards. I would suggest you go for a e5 to see the full potential.
@@PrimeRedux although it’s not new I just picked up a used 2680v2(10c20t), supermicro x9srl-f, 32gb ram for my server to replace my x9scm-f and 16gb ram. It costed about $300 shipped and I had a 1070 laying around which I there in but am unsure it’ll stay. I have a dedicated rig for plex and transcoding but if I convert to h265, it will likely stay on my main server.
Nice server, same as mine. Not sure on your choice of PSU though, cheapo brand that i wouldn't trust with my hardware. I went with Superflower. Can't skimp on the PSU
I've actually never heard of Super Flower, plus I wouldn't class CRS as a "cheapo brand" just because they aren't as well recognised as the likes of Seasonic. The PSU I used retails for around £400. Plus its probably made by one of the same OEMs out there that make things for the bigger brands too.
@@PrimeRedux Super flower make pretty much the best psus on the market. They supply leadex, seaaonkc evga and the corsair ax series. The psu you are using is £40 on the server case website so not sure if you accidentally added an extra zero on that £400? Edit. I see its a dual redundant one. Price explained. I would still take a quality atx but to each their own
It was the cheapest motherboard I could get at the time with enough PCIE slots that would work with the CPU I already had. The VRM cooling works just fine without water flowing through the block, since the water block is just complimentary anyway. I have another upgrade planned soon too.
3 years late, but I thought I'd comment about your SAS cards for those new viewers of your video... You way overspent on your SAS implementation. You could have done the same job with your old motherboard and using just two $30 cards. You also mixed up your terminology of "ports" vs. "connectors". Your case is using 6 SAS Mini connectors (one per row) which each can support 4 ports (each drive using a port there) giving you support for the 24 drive bays. You saw those 6 SAS connectors on your case and felt you needed to buy SAS board(s) that give you corresponding 6 connectors (6 x 4 ports = 24 port SAS). A 24 port (6 connector) SAS card is over $300. You went for a different solution of buying a 16 port SAS for $100 and an 8 port SAS for $30. But since these boards need PCIE 8x slots, you had to buy a $300 motherboard - a total spend of over $400. You could have gotten away with just spending $60. Here's how... One SAS port can actually support 16 devices. So a single connector with 4 SAS ports can support 64 drives! That would have only used one PCIE 8x slot which you already had available on your old motherboard. Now here's the bit that I think you missed and that others should know about. It doesn't look like you could do what I described above because you can't buy a cable that goes from the SAS Mini connector on your card to the 6 SAS Mini connectors on your case. SAS is kind of like ethernet where you can't just split a cable - you need one connector per device. This is where a SAS Expander card comes in. If your SAS controller card is like a server in our ethernet comparison, then a SAS expander card is like an ethernet hub. A SAS expander card has no brains, but just makes lots of ports available - it's like a splitter for your SAS card. Here's the best part - an expander card just uses a PCIE 1x slot (you had lots of those). In fact, you can skip the slot entirely if you let the card hang loose because it can get power from a molex connector and all the data comes through the various cables. You can get an expander card that offers 36 ports for $30. You get slightly different connectors on a high density SAS expander card, but they do the same job, so you just need to get cables with different ends on them. So here's what I did... A SAS 4i card (four internal ports, one connector) is basically the same price as a SAS 8i card (8 internal ports, two connectors) - so I got one of those. Then rather than just get a SAS expander card that had exactly the 6 MINI connectors needed (24 ports), for the same price, I got something like the Adaptec AEC-82885T that has 36 ports! Now we have way more future proofed options. This card connects the 24 devices, but also leaves 8 external ports available for an external SAS drive chassis. We also have a spare connector on the original SAS card that could plug into a whole other SAS Expander card if we wanted. (There are similar cases out there that can hold 36 drives).
Thanks for the comment and information. Do you see any issues with sharing bandwidth and using all drives at the same time? Since the SAS2008 and SAS2116 cards I have are PCIe 2.0. With my SAS2008 with 8 drives connected I do see degrated performance when reading all drives at once which is why I chose to use multiple cards. I will have to do some more testing. I also didn't pay anywhere near the prices you are suggesting, and have a number of SAS expanders at hand too.
@@PrimeRedux Pricing is always a tricky thing - I just quoted quick eBay pricing :-) With the types of drives you are using, I don't see you having any performance problems. The drives will be the bottleneck. If you were using all SSD drives in that chassis, you might then have concerns about bandwidth. You have a great opportunity for doing speed comparisons if you have additional cards lying around. I'd be curious to see if there would be any difference. You mentioned degraded performance - as compared to what?
@@gordonmartin1104 My SAS2008 is PCIe 2.0 and reports its connected at x4 so that would mean 2 GB/s max bandwidth I believe. Individually the drives read at about 260 MB/s but when all 8 drives are being read at the same time they average only about 210 MB/s each so more going through the same interface would be even worse. It would work with a more modern card since PCIe 3.0 is 1 GB/s per lane but I don't think I have any 3.0 cards, I'll have to dig through what I have and test them.
Great video, looking to migrate my server to a new case this weekend and its so helpful seeing someone else do it before hand :)
Nice, hope it all goes well!
A tip for you (and all LSI owners). If you have it in IT mode (which you SHOULD for unRAID) then flash it without BIOS and it boots faster.. who cares to see ANOTHER BIOS screen on bootup.
I might look into this, but I reboot so infrequently it doesn't bother me too much.
Very clear and informative
Glad you liked it
Hi, great video, I have the exact case and have a tip. I see you are running the SAS cables from the top of the cards underneath the fans. If your cards do not have active cooling then they may overheat as the cables are blocking the airflow. I ended up having issues with the drives.
Thanks for the tip! I will keep an eye on temps, maybe look at getting some slightly shorter SAS cables too so they aren't so bunched up on the side.
That speedy fan in the middle is more powerful as is aligned with cpu passive cooler in servers... You have an active cooler on cpu....could be replaced with Noctua pwm industrial grade (black grey) also on cooler an identical one as being aligned rpm shoud be similar ... Orherwise static pressure will be either to much from case one and pressure blades of cpu fan ( damaging it in time ) or vice versa...
Great video ! I'm interested in this chassis but I wonder about the air flow to the HDD bays. Just three fans for 24 drives stacked this close together seems a bit light. And it looks like the air has nowhere to do. What temperature do your drives stabilize at ?
The air gets pulled through the front of the drive caddys and over the drives and the fans are delta fans, they can move a lot of air when they need to.
I've had no issues with any overheating so far and drives average about 35c.
@@PrimeRedux did you test with 12g drives to see if the backplane is actually 12g as advertised. I am about to buy one of these cases and not alot of feedback on these out in the wild.
I have this case as well. But found 2 rosewell hotswap cages at a yard sale. Do you know if they will fit?
Thinking on getting this case, does the backplane support power disable feature (PWDIS) on the HDDs?
This is an older video but I am thinking of doing something similar. I already have a desktop server attached to a 24 drive disk shelf but too high energy cost. Thought of reducing it to one case with a consumer modern cpu. My main question though is why do you need the graphic card still. Doesn’t intel quick sync do the transcoding already?
I believe it does. The main reason I've heard from others regarding having a dedicated GPU card would be if you had other applications/VM's to use with this server. If it's just strictly for plex/file server, I would think quick sync would be enough to handle your transcoding needs. I don't know if this also applies to people who share their plex server with several other people though. I'm wanting to build something like this just for my home use with my family. I wanted something that had enough bays that the drives could be added as my storage needs grew higher.
Hi, do you know what length your sas cables are? Trying to figure out the best length before buying some. Thanks for the awesome video by the way! I've now purchased this case :)
Im moving this into my bedroom and need a quiet fan - what one did you get and is it quiet?
Very nice and clear video! Could you provide with SAS controller are you using for this setup? Thanks!
Hey sorry for the delay replying! The card I am using was listed as a LSI LSI00244 9201-16i. It's a 16 port internal SAS-2 6Gbps card, hope this helps.
I've got the 3U version of this case and I am very curious about how you're controlling your 3 main fans? I couldn't work out the 6 pins next to the molex connector
My case came with a cable connected to that header that splits out to the three fan connectors.
@@PrimeRedux Do you know what type of cable that is? Mine did not come with a cable and I am trying to figure out what cable I need to buy to to work with the 6 pin header next to the molex connector James Hewitt mentioned above.
Actually here is a is an insanely indepth post about that 6 pin header. blog.cavelab.dev/2021/03/inter-tech-case-fan-header/
hi. what power supply are you using?
So does unraid detect each disk when you re add them to system and know what slot they go back to?
Yes, the array configuration in Unraid expects specific drives for each disk configured. If a disk is missing it will tell you what drive it expects underneath.
As these are hot swap, when I put each drive in they get mounted and Unraid detects the drive and automatically sets that drive into the correct row in the configuration.
In a 24 bay case, I would only use the exos drives. Those iron wolf drives are only certified to handle the adjacent vibrations of up to eight drives. They are ok for up to an 8 bay enclosure. They may work in larger enclosures but are only certified for up to 8 bays. They as you said, the iron wolf drive is a proper nas drive. The exos drives are certified for up to 24 bays because they are true enterprise rated drives. The downside is those exos drives are not cheap. Its what I run my my 20 bay case. My case isn't full yet and I feel that pain when I have to add one.
On a side note, how do you back up your server?
This is a home server where I don't really worry about the drives or the data that much. If I were to deploy something in a business or somewhere where things need to be more reliable then I would use all IronWolf, IronWolf Pro (which are rated up to 24 bays) or Exos depending on how many drives were needed. These ratings are for the tolerences for vibrations and heat caused by the amount of drives in a case. Seagate actually claim Exos drives are rated for "unlimited" bays.
As for backups, I may make a whole video about my process but for the most part I don't have backups for the majority of the files on my server since they are just media files that can be obtained again.
@@PrimeRedux I suppose that makes sense. Mine is a home setup to.
Hey there. Did you manage to find the issue with the fan? i have the 3U 16 bay version of this case and all 3 of the fans are connected via a PWM splitter on the CPU header. However, all are still at 100%. Interested in the outcome you found and/or how you tested it?
For some reason that one fan was not listening to PWM commands. I ended up replacing it with another fan and its working well. I'm not really sure this helps you however.
I'm a bit late, but have to ask. That PCIE Card with the two SSDs... what is it and where can I get one? I'm running out of sata ports and this would be a huge relief.
Its not actually a PCIe card, its just a mount, does not provide any power or data, I still connect them to the SATA ports on the motherbaord.
There is a card out there that you can connect two 2.5" SATA drives to by Sedna, but its only a Gen 2 x1 interface which is bareley fast enough for one SSD, and no good for two.
Your best bet is to get a PCIe SATA controller to give you more ports.
What cables are you using between backplane and controller? I'm building a similiar setup myself but getting lost in which cables to use
My card and backplane are SAS-2, so the cable has a SFF-8087 (flat) connector on both ends.
If your card and backplane is SAS-3 then it would need SFF-8643 (square) connectors.
great video... I know the 10GB NIC is loud as you mentioned but how loud is the case itself when closed and racked ... is it quiet enough for a under stairs setup regards to db noise levels?
It can actually get pretty loud with all the drives and fans running. You would want it out of the way and not anywhere near somewhere you want quiet.
I have this in a rack in a small room upstairs, and you can hear it with the door closed.
@@PrimeRedux thank you for sharing... has deffo helped me hold back on this particular case then... will keep on looking around :) cheers
did u forget the links the video promised? did U fix the middle fan issue (how?)?
Hey, I don't think I mentioned I would link anything in this video. Can you let me know what it was and I can link it here.
As for the fan, I actually ended up buying a replacement from ebay since the PWM on the fan was not working at all. The replacement is in and working fine.
@@PrimeRedux maybe I confused myself with another video about an unraid server box.... but whoever it was said he'd post links where he'd got the box (Alibaba) and where he was gonna buy it in UK. I found myself suitable boxes anyway but my server is cloud based for now.... I did love unRAID when I ran a local server though
@@methanoid Oh, that was my previous video which was just an unboxing and overview. ua-cam.com/video/eslr2y-j8IU/v-deo.html The links are in the description there.
What's that SSD PCIE card?
Can you quickly go over the necessary SAS conntroller cards and wiring to use the SATA HDD's in a SAS enviroment?
Great video BTW.
Generally you can use a mini SAS to 4x SFF-8482 or to 4x SATA cable from the SAS controller to SATA drives and it should work.
What's the difference (if any) between sas drives and sata drives? I have a chenbro 1u (NR12000) that is all sata, but not hotswapable to my knowledge, if I played around with a chassis upgrade to something similar to this would I be stuck with a "sata" setup, or would the data drives plug into the sas system? Still trying to figure put a good 10G, one i have keeps shutting off and the other wont work with my dac cables, just transceivers through cat6a.
SAS drives technically have a faster interface. SATA III being 6Gb with SAS3 being 12Gb but that doesn't matter too much for hard drives.
For the connection itself, you can generally put a SATA drive into a SAS connector (SFF-8482) but not the other way around.
If your SFP+ card is shutting off then it may be overheating, I've had similar issues in the past and had to switch to a different card.
@@PrimeRedux how are you liking this case now a year later? I was thinking of trying to migrate to a Norco RPC-4224 (looks like the same case though, mainly for the hot-swap feature) but apparently the manufacturer went out of business and I've read the reviews of backplanes frying drives I'm getting really hesitant for lack of parts availability if/when something acts up.
How did you power all the drives in the first case?
In the old case I just used a bunch of 1 to 4 way SATA power splitter cables and tried to spread out the connections to the different cables coming from the PSU.
@@PrimeRedux Thanks for the reply!
hi there. is it possible to utilize the network led indicator from the front of the case? how and where can i connect it?
I believe this may only work on server motherbaords that support it, most desktop/consumer motherbaords do not have a header for it.
Question, what power supply are you using? or What wattage would you suggest?
The power supply is a redundant one I think either 500W or 600W. But I was running 15 drives and a GPU on 450W with no problems previously.
Actually looking at purchasing the same model as the old case you've migrated from because the price difference for the SAS backplane and hotswap just isn't worth it to me. (Is it for sale by any chance?)
How did you find the fan noise from the 4 80mm fans in the front of the drive cages, and all the fans in general? I'd probably be looking to replace at least the 80mm fans with Noctua Redux fans to lessen the noise a bit.
It was a great case, I just outgrew it, and I've already sold it sorry.
The fans that came with the case were pretty decent, not too loud. But I did replace them with bequiet fans for most of its use.
@@PrimeRedux What case did you replace it with?
what's your power draw on this?
Please help how assembl jbod 60 bay 18tb hdd 3.5
Hey dude, I must of missed it when watching this video but what case is this?
The case is a Logic Case SC-4324, it may go under different names in different countries. I've updated the description with links to buy the case. In the US it might be sold under the brand Norco but I don't think their 4U 24-bay case is exactly the same as the one In have.
Only one parity disk with all those very high density disks?
The data I really care about is backed up and the rest is not critical and can be replaced. I have considered adding a second parity but that's a whole 14TB of space I could be using!
Great video, I'm just wondering if you looked into server grade mother boards. They're great and have features like IPMI. Just a thought
Yes I've looked at them but I'm usually looking for hardware that work with parts I already have. Specifically for this upgrade I remember looking for server boards that supported the 7700k but got frustrated so fell back to looking for Z270 boards. I will have another upgrade coming shortly, still not a server board however.
@@PrimeRedux got it, thanks for the response
same server like before ? New MB only 😊😊
Are you making a rack tour video?
I've been debating if and when to do one, I have some new equipment coming soon and I might do it when I install those.
Love the build but a 7700k is extremely limited for how you have this setup in terms of usable PCI-E lanes. Consumer desktop have 16-20lanes in this variation you have, so the 1080ti doesn’t see its full potential nor do any of the other cards. I would suggest you go for a e5 to see the full potential.
Performance has been pretty good so far, my only problem is threads with the amount of dockers I am running. But I have a new upgrade planned.
@@PrimeRedux although it’s not new I just picked up a used 2680v2(10c20t), supermicro x9srl-f, 32gb ram for my server to replace my x9scm-f and 16gb ram. It costed about $300 shipped and I had a 1070 laying around which I there in but am unsure it’ll stay. I have a dedicated rig for plex and transcoding but if I convert to h265, it will likely stay on my main server.
Nice server, same as mine. Not sure on your choice of PSU though, cheapo brand that i wouldn't trust with my hardware. I went with Superflower. Can't skimp on the PSU
I've actually never heard of Super Flower, plus I wouldn't class CRS as a "cheapo brand" just because they aren't as well recognised as the likes of Seasonic. The PSU I used retails for around £400. Plus its probably made by one of the same OEMs out there that make things for the bigger brands too.
@@PrimeRedux Super flower make pretty much the best psus on the market. They supply leadex, seaaonkc evga and the corsair ax series. The psu you are using is £40 on the server case website so not sure if you accidentally added an extra zero on that £400? Edit. I see its a dual redundant one. Price explained. I would still take a quality atx but to each their own
If you can find the PIST1050-EPSH-80 or any mini redundant ATX power supply like that for £40 then let me know, I'll buy them all.
What was the fan issue?
For some reason that fan was not listening to PWM commands. I ended up replacing it with another fan and its working well.
@@PrimeRedux Thanks for the info :)
Why are u using a liquid cooled board in a non liquid cooled solution
It was the cheapest motherboard I could get at the time with enough PCIE slots that would work with the CPU I already had. The VRM cooling works just fine without water flowing through the block, since the water block is just complimentary anyway. I have another upgrade planned soon too.
3 years late, but I thought I'd comment about your SAS cards for those new viewers of your video... You way overspent on your SAS implementation. You could have done the same job with your old motherboard and using just two $30 cards. You also mixed up your terminology of "ports" vs. "connectors".
Your case is using 6 SAS Mini connectors (one per row) which each can support 4 ports (each drive using a port there) giving you support for the 24 drive bays. You saw those 6 SAS connectors on your case and felt you needed to buy SAS board(s) that give you corresponding 6 connectors (6 x 4 ports = 24 port SAS). A 24 port (6 connector) SAS card is over $300. You went for a different solution of buying a 16 port SAS for $100 and an 8 port SAS for $30. But since these boards need PCIE 8x slots, you had to buy a $300 motherboard - a total spend of over $400.
You could have gotten away with just spending $60. Here's how... One SAS port can actually support 16 devices. So a single connector with 4 SAS ports can support 64 drives! That would have only used one PCIE 8x slot which you already had available on your old motherboard.
Now here's the bit that I think you missed and that others should know about. It doesn't look like you could do what I described above because you can't buy a cable that goes from the SAS Mini connector on your card to the 6 SAS Mini connectors on your case. SAS is kind of like ethernet where you can't just split a cable - you need one connector per device. This is where a SAS Expander card comes in. If your SAS controller card is like a server in our ethernet comparison, then a SAS expander card is like an ethernet hub. A SAS expander card has no brains, but just makes lots of ports available - it's like a splitter for your SAS card. Here's the best part - an expander card just uses a PCIE 1x slot (you had lots of those). In fact, you can skip the slot entirely if you let the card hang loose because it can get power from a molex connector and all the data comes through the various cables. You can get an expander card that offers 36 ports for $30.
You get slightly different connectors on a high density SAS expander card, but they do the same job, so you just need to get cables with different ends on them.
So here's what I did... A SAS 4i card (four internal ports, one connector) is basically the same price as a SAS 8i card (8 internal ports, two connectors) - so I got one of those. Then rather than just get a SAS expander card that had exactly the 6 MINI connectors needed (24 ports), for the same price, I got something like the Adaptec AEC-82885T that has 36 ports! Now we have way more future proofed options. This card connects the 24 devices, but also leaves 8 external ports available for an external SAS drive chassis. We also have a spare connector on the original SAS card that could plug into a whole other SAS Expander card if we wanted. (There are similar cases out there that can hold 36 drives).
Thanks for the comment and information. Do you see any issues with sharing bandwidth and using all drives at the same time? Since the SAS2008 and SAS2116 cards I have are PCIe 2.0. With my SAS2008 with 8 drives connected I do see degrated performance when reading all drives at once which is why I chose to use multiple cards. I will have to do some more testing.
I also didn't pay anywhere near the prices you are suggesting, and have a number of SAS expanders at hand too.
@@PrimeRedux Pricing is always a tricky thing - I just quoted quick eBay pricing :-) With the types of drives you are using, I don't see you having any performance problems. The drives will be the bottleneck. If you were using all SSD drives in that chassis, you might then have concerns about bandwidth. You have a great opportunity for doing speed comparisons if you have additional cards lying around. I'd be curious to see if there would be any difference. You mentioned degraded performance - as compared to what?
@@gordonmartin1104 My SAS2008 is PCIe 2.0 and reports its connected at x4 so that would mean 2 GB/s max bandwidth I believe. Individually the drives read at about 260 MB/s but when all 8 drives are being read at the same time they average only about 210 MB/s each so more going through the same interface would be even worse.
It would work with a more modern card since PCIe 3.0 is 1 GB/s per lane but I don't think I have any 3.0 cards, I'll have to dig through what I have and test them.
smr... the way unraid works it is not as big as a problem as for raid(z) systems
I agree, but the slow write speeds are still an issue. Since replacing all the SMR drives my sustained write speeds have more than doubled.