Case Mod - In Progress ((CASE CLOSED/ReSETTING)) mITX low-noise Home Server build log

Finefine now just get on with it

 

And then I did



I had the last piece cut out the day after the last update:





(yes I know it is not completely straight, but it should be fixed when I get my edging tape from the US. )


This is how it looked when I was about to start assembly:





Unscrewed the default fans in the case:





Unpacked the awesome looking PSU:





Mounted it:





Takes up very little space in this chassis:





Today was finally the day packages arrived:





Inside the smallest box was another box:





My 3TB Hitachi was hiding inside:





Next box was my 80mm fans, Kingston card reader and motherboard:






Was a little confused when I saw the box as that did not look like the board I have ordered:





But inside was my D525 :

 

Unpacked my new NoiseBlocker PWM fans (from 1 to 17dB ) :





Notice the edge:





Against the case the edge is covered in detachable silicone:





Even the corners on these fans are made out of rubber, so it's very wobbly (kind of like floating) but I am sure vibrations are pretty much gone


They came with some tiny black screws, not real fan screws but looked more like something that is ment to be pushed into the rubber corners and just keep it there...
Hmm I want something a little more robust so found my plastic bolts:





Because they are plastic, then even if they vibrate a little they dont say much, not like the metallic kling kling rattle sounds normal screws edges against a large steel plate can make


Fans mounted:






Put some plast strips in the PSU to hold the fan cables in place, and a cable binder below the motherboard:








Found a little "error", the fan cables are not so tight along the side of the fan if you place the fan to blow into the case, nothing to hold the wires in place. So I opted for some Loctite super glue I had laying around anyway:

 

I had just finished mounting the fans when UPS showed up with yet another package:





Inside it my Raidon HDD box and my new fan for it + a surprise (a free microfone, I do have a camera but never bothered getting a mic for it - how did they knew that?!):





The noisy standart fan had to come off:





Some stripping:





Off with the tacho wire:





Ready to solder:





Problem is though, found out I am out of solder and I lost my heatgun..... Went for the next best thing: Glue and tape!
Just temporary until I get solder, find my heat gun and receive the package from US were I ordered some tiny cable sleeve and heat shrink.


A few rubber discs to prevent vibration (the original fan was just mounted straight on the frame):





Done deal (for now), the fan is mounted so it sucks air out of the box into the chassis, just like the original fan did:





Mounted both drives in the box, an extremely tight fit, so tight it make it bulge a little:





The frame is black plastic, but the doors are painted aluminum that match the painted steel chassis very nicely:





Another detail I really like about this box is that there are no buttons to accidentally hit and eject the discs - you need a special little tool that is in the box to get your HDDs back out (so don't loose it).


Plugged them in via a small USB to Sata adapter I normally use for data recovery or general drive testing:





Yep it is alive, fan working, LED lighting and discs spinning:





A strange little thing that happened when I plugged it in is that my Mac can only see the 3TB Hitachi as 800GB?
Why is that - Mac don't support 3TB or is it the controller in my USB adapter that have a limit?





Todays finished work with fans mounted, PSU mounted, MB mounted and fans plugged into MB (I think I did a pretty good job in cable management:





I hope I get a visit from DPD tomorrow with my Lian Li drive cages and in the beginning of next week I should receive my first package from Performance PC's.
As soon the drive cages have been mounted I will order SATA cables to get the right length.
Also, I want to prepare to max it out with the total 8 drives, so I need yet another package from US with these in.
More updates will follow as the work continues when more parts arrive.

Stay tuned

 

Weekend updates:

I have received my Lian Li drive cages and on Monday I will start to figure out how to make them fit in the case.


I have been looking around for a way to neatly bring power to my six drives in the Lian Li cages (there is only one drive for now but it never hurt to think ahead).
I asked the guys over at Perfomance-PCs if they could help - and sure thing - they have sponsored me to custom make me a pair of molex -> 3x sata power plugs!
Red wires to match with SATA data cables, black sleeve and black heatshrink... Can't wait to receive their package and thank them SO SO much for the sponsoring - go check out their site, if you are into modifying and cleaning up your PC act they are the place to go!


The cables they have sponsored me are similar to these:





Another update is I have started to make a "pixel perfect" model of the whole build - so far I have made like 80% of the Norco case up to scale with mm precision.
Because of that I figured out there is actually no place I can put all my case badges - I know the server is supposed to hide under my sofa, but whenever I take it out I like to show off directly on the case what awesome equipment it is made from - so I ordered a piece of 25x600mm real woven and lacquered carbon fiber plate! (that was a little pricey but it is going to look epic!) - not any fake sticker or plastic plate printed to look like carbon, this is the real deal!


I am assuming I will cut it to fit and mount it on the front like this (but lets see when I receive it):





The square in the middle is a Performance-PCs case badge


I am now officially modder! I draw in 3D, modify and even gets sponsored!

 

Just updated post #1, a little of who I am, what I have done before and most recent update pictures

Stay tuned


EDIT: I NEED A COOL NAME FOR THIS BUILD, GIVE ME YOUR SUGGESTIONS

 

I learned a small lesson today:

The guys and girls in crime show CSI are right about Glue fumes making fingerprints visible!

That is what have happened to my NoiseBlocker fans because I glued in the PWM wires, they were a little loose from the factory and would not stick in their plastic bracket.
It now looks like this:



The white parts is finger smudges...


Tried to clean it off with some alcohol, got better but not pristine:






In other news, received my first package from Performance-PCs today:




Inside it was heatshrink, sleeve and rubber edging for my steel cut outs:










Just realized I had not put up pictures of my new drive cages, so here you go:
















Tomorrow I hope to have time to sleeve, am still waiting to receive my piece of Carbon fiber and my second package from Performance-PCs. These last few weeks I feel like I am running an import company, SO many packages and deliveries to take care of!


By the way, I need your help: This build need a cool name, what do you suggest I call it?

Primary components are Norco case, NoiseBlocker fans, Hitachi drives, Atom processor, mITX SuperMicro motherboard and a small piece of carbon to finish it off. What names can you come up with???

 

Hi guys - I'm back!


Sorry for the loss of updates, but I have had a lot of work at my primary job and I have had a lot of trouble with the last few pieces of this build.


First of all I have not yet received my carbon, should arrive one of these days.


Second, my package from Performance-PCs containing power cables for the drives got a little lost. First it arrived, then I went to pick it up, it was no longer there - and today I finally found out it was because customs had picked it up to get it tax evaluated. So today I received it and the cables looks absolute AWESOME!!




Updates in pictures:




Been sleeving cables for the buttons/LEDs in the front of my case:





Half way there:










Finished:





And the other end:





In total:





Here is the package from US based Performance-PCs who supported me by sponsoring a pair of their really really nice looking power cables:





And here is the cables them selves!!!





Click the logo to go directly to their site for inspiration or to buy the best in computer parts for builders/modders:

 

Nas-daq.

 

Actually, I have thought about building in a Class-T amp and DAC to make it more HTPC like, then NAS-DAC would make perfect sense


-------------------
UPDATE:
-------------------

Im sorry I been quiet for so long yet again, but these days I have a lot of work to do in my primary job so not so much spare time to have fun in

Anyway...

I have many many pictures I will post whenever I get time, just to mention a few things I have made so far since last time:

• Been drawing super precise 3D drawings of the build (drawings are not completed yet though as it takes immense amounts of time)
• Cutting the Lian Li case drives a little smaller so they will fit better
  Ordered a Scytche Quiet Drive 2.5 for the cache disc as it will be the only drive running most of the time I would love to make it the most noiseless (and also make it able to fit in the other 3.5" drawers)
• Changed my mind to that I will not use the Raidon frontmounted 2.5/3.5 combo drive box as it obstructs my other drive cages (the box is a few mm too wide) and also because in my testing so far the 40mm fan is super annoying (even after I changed it to a more noiseless model)
• Just ordered a XFX Radeon 5450 low profile graphics card with DVI/VGA/HDMI because I am considering running a dual boot system with either Windows 8 Server or Ubuntu 12 - to use as a low-end HTPC
• Thinking about buying a Logitech Dinovo Mini for the HTPC usage
• And lastly, the carbon fiber piece I had ordered in the UK never arrived because it was too long to send as a normal package. Didn't want to overspend on it so have asked for a refund...
  

Thats all for now, stay tuned till next time I swing by and post pictures and niceness

 

Let me share a few of my newest sketches, so you can see I am not totally abandoning this project
It is still in progress, just a little slow due to other work wich pays more than spare time projects tend to do


----------------


This is one of the reasons to why I can not use the Raidon box, the space will be a few mm too tight (the grey in front of the fan is the side of a drive cage obstructing the way the front module would be placed normally):



A birds view of the whole thing, notice the black PCB left in the Motherboard, thats the graphics card (only drawn the gfx in estimated size as no one seems to have measured a 5450 card before):





"Glass box" view (were you clearly see the drive cages and back plate both in mm precise drawings):





Same view, different angle:





Will start moving the whole build to my workplace, as I these days spend more time there than home I could easily progress faster than I can here.
Also my wife would love if I did not use the whole living room as my playground




Stay tuned!

 

I have idea for name: Previše toga.

 

As in "too much" ?

As Ayn Rand once said: "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing" A mantra that can never go bad on you

 

How about NAShhhhhhh... Or NAshhhh...

 

Something similar.

Why don't you pick a theme for build,airbrush some picture over the case and pick a name that correndsponse that picture?

Because it is NAS,I would go with Johnny Menmonic theme (hope you remember the movie).

 

Usually I'm pretty good with names but all I can come up with is "deep six" relating to the fact that it will be under your couch and will have 6 data drives.

Modding looks good so far, keep it up!

 

banaNAS? caNASta? dyNASty?

 

I was recently told I am really good at over complicating things....
So, to keep it short for once:


I received my graphics card but have today chosen to send it back for a refund - reason? There are much better media streamers out there than what I can build my self, it's not worth the effort. Let's keep this NAS simple and efficient! A real pro-nas is no nonsens, so thats the way this will be too.






Another package I received is the disc silencer from Scythe:





A pretty serious little box:





Pure tech porn:








Exposed:





Measuring the bare drive:





Measuring the drive in the box:





Pretty big difference!
It is absolutely silent, or at least it's same as the noise level for the rest of the room - a typical living room noise level.


By the way, since I started modding this project I have found small details everywhere that I can do better.
For once, in the silencer box the thick rubber pads push so much on the drive it actually refuses to start...
And if I remove the pad there are so much air in the box that I can hear something vibrate...
Solution? STP damping mat! Made for silencing doors in car-fi setups, heavy self adhesive pads that can be cut in any shape.





Works like a charm!
Closed up and silent!







Stay tuned for more updates in the near future

 

Over night I tested the 2.5" drive in it's box to see if it was still ok, simply because when I tried to close the drive the first time with the original rubber inlay it sounded like a "head crash" - but all sectors seems to be in perfect working order




Today I have been trying to figure out were to place the cache drive and the parity drive, I would like them not to be among the data drives so they are easier to find and to maximise space.

Tomorrow I will hopefully do some real world testing but for now I let the pictures talk:







What you can see in the back corner is the two drives placed in one of the original hardddrive cages from the Norco chassis, I can hopefully fit it next to the PCI slot and place my Lian Li fan assembly above it for extra cooling.






Stay tuned for more updates in the near future

 

A few days ago I had the time to mount the drive cages, and here is the proof:





Used the original drive bay holes in one of the steel plates:





The cardboard is the same size as the motherboard:





An extremely nice fit:





Distanced the drive holders with a few mm in between, for minimal vibration:





Time for some real modding:





Original drive holders in a new position, keeping parity and cache disc in place: