Project: Storage and Gaming Case

Spotswood · 14th April 2011, 2:42 PM

This is a project/build log for a custom case (commissioned by a forum member here) to house both a storage server and gaming rig.

This fairly compact case is designed to hold:

Two EATX motherboards
Two ATX PSUs
Twenty four 3.5-inch hard drives
Six SSDs
Two 120x3 water cooling radiators

The size of the case is to be kept as small as possible, which is mostly driven by the size of the motherboard trays. But until those arrive, I fabricated the PSU mounting plate from some 2.5mm aluminum sheet.

The cutouts were made via a hand held router fitted with a flush pattern bit, guided by a template.

That's it for now!

Darkness Born · 14th April 2011, 2:52 PM

looks sweet mate can't wait to see some real customisation!

candy paint?

Chif · 14th April 2011, 2:58 PM

Moar!!! Look's awesome

Can't wait to see the final product!

Sven76 · 14th April 2011, 6:29 PM

This guys workmanship is superb i cant wait and im sure the member will be very happy

Creekin · 14th April 2011, 6:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sven76

the member will be very happy

twss

+1 wot they said
subD

jordan-com · 14th April 2011, 6:58 PM

Wow. Just wow.

If this turns out to be nearly as awesome as its specs (two eatx boards and 24 hdd's

) I sense an awesome worklog.

Good luck.

tiro_uspsss · 14th April 2011, 7:04 PM

ahhhhh, spotswood! over here from XS eh?

who's the lucky member? (err..I mean..nvm!

)
sub'd as I love builds with truck-loads of HDDs!

jor8 · 14th April 2011, 7:09 PM

Very Interesting....

DeejW · 14th April 2011, 7:39 PM

looks cool, but why have 2 motherboards? that means 2 sets of ram, cpus, gfx cards, cooling, psus motherboard trays. Why not just use one decent board and some decent raid cards? My guess is this person has one the lottery and wants the biggest e-peen in the world

Creekin · 14th April 2011, 7:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeejW

My guess is this person has ~~one~~ won the lottery and wants the biggest e-peen in the world

and they will have it

hail the almighty e-peen
*jelly*

also..
why not?

rthorntn · 14th April 2011, 8:17 PM

I will put my hand up, its my e-peen and its going to be huge, the PSU cutouts look great!

Its gonna cost a bit all up but a lot less than something like the Sun Thumper and it should be quiet for what it does!

I don't want a rack mount case and 24 disks is more than enough.

The main reason for 2 motherboards is really to allow me to have a physical W7 box for gaming and a Solaris dual CPU xeon server for NAS (ZFS). The footprint won't be much larger than my current silverstone gaming PC case.

There are going to be two WC loops (this solves the problem of how to cool a single PC when the other PC is off), one for each PC, the 6970 vid card already has the WB preinstalled.

9 fans will run when the NAS is on
3 fans will run when the gaming PC is on

Most of the current components:

1 x SMC10GPCIe-XFP nic (NAS, yes this is plugging into a 10GbE switch)
3 x LSI 9211-8I sata cards (NAS)
1 x Intel Q9300/ATX motherboard/4GB RAM (gaming)
2 x Swiftech MCR320-DRIVE REV2, dual 1366 and single 775 blocks
1 x Supermicro X8DTE-F EATX, dual E5606 CPUs, 24GB ECC RAM (NAS)
1 x PowerColor LCS Radeon HD 6970 Video Card (gaming)
9 x Scythe SY1225SL12L "Slipstream" Case Fans (NAS)
3 x Nexus PWM Series D12SL-12PWM Case Fans (gaming)
2 x CORSAIR Professional Series AX750 750W Power Supply

I haven't chosen the storage disks, the frontrunner is probably 2TB samsung F4's (improved Bit Error Rate) in RAID 10, again open to suggestions: low heat, vibration and noise are more important than performance.

I am thinking of an "exterior silver vein" powder coat:

http://www.alliedpowder.com/colorcha...colorchart.htm

But I am open to suggestions on the finish, it has to have the WAF though!

Cabling will be interesting, may get custom cables made locally.

Finding a failed disk may also be a slight issue (none of the disks have LEDs), I will probably just use email based notifications and label the disks well.

Thanks to Spotswood for taking this on.

To say I am hyped is an understatement!

--Richard

Bazwalt · 14th April 2011, 11:15 PM

oh my lord...what in the world? :O Such a mammoth build! Keen to see the end haha

tiro_uspsss · 14th April 2011, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rthorntn

*snip*

are u in the USA?

rthorntn · 14th April 2011, 11:24 PM

I'm in Sydney, so shipping will be pricey, the case will be shipped as a kit for bolting together locally.

--Richard

tiro_uspsss · 14th April 2011, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rthorntn

I'm in Sydney, so shipping will be pricey, the case will be shipped as a kit for bolting together locally.

--Richard

wow! ur keen!

14th April 2011, 2:42 PM	#1
Spotswood Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: New Hampshire, USA Posts: 36	Project: Storage and Gaming Case This is a project/build log for a custom case (commissioned by a forum member here) to house both a storage server and gaming rig. This fairly compact case is designed to hold: Two EATX motherboards Two ATX PSUs Twenty four 3.5-inch hard drives Six SSDs Two 120x3 water cooling radiators The size of the case is to be kept as small as possible, which is mostly driven by the size of the motherboard trays. But until those arrive, I fabricated the PSU mounting plate from some 2.5mm aluminum sheet. The cutouts were made via a hand held router fitted with a flush pattern bit, guided by a template. That's it for now!

14th April 2011, 2:52 PM	#2
Darkness Born Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Melbourne 3004 Posts: 725	looks sweet mate can't wait to see some real customisation! candy paint? __________________ i7 2600k @ 4.5ghz GA-P67-UD7-B3 Intel WC • 16gb RipJaws 1600 DDR3 • GTX-580 OC • Corsair neutron 240gb/Vertex 2 60GB/SAM 2Tb • Custom GREEEEEEN HAF X • Tt Meka w/ custom keyset - Cyborg R.A.T7 Contagion edition • ST-1000W Gold Project: Radioactive

14th April 2011, 6:29 PM	#4
Sven76 Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Bundaberg Posts: 1,250	This guys workmanship is superb i cant wait and im sure the member will be very happy __________________ Character is the measure of what a man does when no one is looking...

14th April 2011, 6:58 PM	#6
jordan-com Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Canberra Posts: 65	Wow. Just wow. If this turns out to be nearly as awesome as its specs (two eatx boards and 24 hdd's ) I sense an awesome worklog. Good luck. __________________ WTB WTS Swiftech MCR320, EK 250 Multioption Res. SUCCESSFUL TRADES: callen_1, Prizy, and a few others now but i'm too lazy to put them up

14th April 2011, 7:04 PM	#7
tiro_uspsss Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: 6064 Posts: 2,007	ahhhhh, spotswood! over here from XS eh? who's the lucky member? (err..I mean..nvm! ) sub'd as I love builds with truck-loads of HDDs! __________________ DNA = Design Not Accident DNA = Darwin Not Accurate DNA = Darwin Not Alive.. God is. JOIN HEATWARE! ITS FREE! Brilliant way to give rep/feedback on trades! www.heatware.com WTB: X-Fi Elite Pro & BenQ G2400WD TRADE LIST random PIC

14th April 2011, 2:58 PM	#3
Chif Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Adelaide SA Posts: 597	Moar!!! Look's awesome Can't wait to see the final product!

14th April 2011, 7:09 PM	#8
jor8 Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: SYDNEY Posts: 328	Very Interesting....

14th April 2011, 7:39 PM	#9
DeejW Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Dandenong Ranges VIC Posts: 1,803	looks cool, but why have 2 motherboards? that means 2 sets of ram, cpus, gfx cards, cooling, psus motherboard trays. Why not just use one decent board and some decent raid cards? My guess is this person has one the lottery and wants the biggest e-peen in the world __________________ MiniBeast: i5 2500k @ 4.6Ghz/16GB Vengeance/Asrock Z68 Pro/HD7870 Direct CU/120GB Vertex3/12TB Total/AX850/TJ08-E/Win7Ultimatex64 Bigbeast: Version VI STI/GTPS01 @ 20PSI/Process West Tmic/PFI Fuel Rails/ID850cc Inj/Vi-Pec ECU/MRT & TCP Xorst/MAFless, IACVless 212kw ATW

14th April 2011, 8:17 PM	#11
rthorntn Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 139	I will put my hand up, its my e-peen and its going to be huge, the PSU cutouts look great! Its gonna cost a bit all up but a lot less than something like the Sun Thumper and it should be quiet for what it does! I don't want a rack mount case and 24 disks is more than enough. The main reason for 2 motherboards is really to allow me to have a physical W7 box for gaming and a Solaris dual CPU xeon server for NAS (ZFS). The footprint won't be much larger than my current silverstone gaming PC case. There are going to be two WC loops (this solves the problem of how to cool a single PC when the other PC is off), one for each PC, the 6970 vid card already has the WB preinstalled. 9 fans will run when the NAS is on 3 fans will run when the gaming PC is on Most of the current components: 1 x SMC10GPCIe-XFP nic (NAS, yes this is plugging into a 10GbE switch) 3 x LSI 9211-8I sata cards (NAS) 1 x Intel Q9300/ATX motherboard/4GB RAM (gaming) 2 x Swiftech MCR320-DRIVE REV2, dual 1366 and single 775 blocks 1 x Supermicro X8DTE-F EATX, dual E5606 CPUs, 24GB ECC RAM (NAS) 1 x PowerColor LCS Radeon HD 6970 Video Card (gaming) 9 x Scythe SY1225SL12L "Slipstream" Case Fans (NAS) 3 x Nexus PWM Series D12SL-12PWM Case Fans (gaming) 2 x CORSAIR Professional Series AX750 750W Power Supply I haven't chosen the storage disks, the frontrunner is probably 2TB samsung F4's (improved Bit Error Rate) in RAID 10, again open to suggestions: low heat, vibration and noise are more important than performance. I am thinking of an "exterior silver vein" powder coat: http://www.alliedpowder.com/colorcha...colorchart.htm But I am open to suggestions on the finish, it has to have the WAF though! Cabling will be interesting, may get custom cables made locally. Finding a failed disk may also be a slight issue (none of the disks have LEDs), I will probably just use email based notifications and label the disks well. Thanks to Spotswood for taking this on. To say I am hyped is an understatement! --Richard Last edited by rthorntn; 18th April 2011 at 12:56 PM.

14th April 2011, 11:15 PM	#12
Bazwalt Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 69	oh my lord...what in the world? :O Such a mammoth build! Keen to see the end haha __________________ i5 2500K 4.3Ghz \| SLI GTX560ti HAWK \| 8GB DDR3 \| Coolermaster 700w\| Lian-Li PC-V2000 \| Logitech G15v1 \| Razer Lachesis Mi Goreng Noodle Club member #755 ~Buy/Sell List~

14th April 2011, 11:24 PM	#14
rthorntn Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 139	I'm in Sydney, so shipping will be pricey, the case will be shipped as a kit for bolting together locally. --Richard