NAS Home Server Advice Needed

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12632
Power Supply is a CWT (Channel Well Technology). I believe they make PSUs for Corsair and Thermaltake, amongst others. The model is PSF220TP-60. It has an 8cm fan. When mobo arrives I'll be able to test noise levels. Only difference form the pic on the linITx site is the PSU only takes an input of 230V Ac as opposed to the 110v/230v switching one shown.

The PSU is made by a decent OEM but efficiency is low:

http://www.cwt.com.tw/english/2_prod...ail.php?ID=431

[kmac]

Yes I saw that as I Googled it straight away. 68% not great. I'll see how it sounds and if its a bit loud I'll swap it for an 80+ Seasonic. Problem is its harder to get highly efficient PSUs at lower loads unless you go DC to DC so Pico PSu and Ac/Dc brick are not out of the question

[Maccer101]

Ok, Via is not going to offer much HTPC wise.


Compact flash to SATA adaptor under £4

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CF-Compact-Fla...item3a565e680e

Compact flash card

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Kingston-256mb...item2304d74fd4


Another alternative is to run the OS of a USB thumb drive

[kmac]

Going to start off with a thumb drive

Still trying to decide on the best low profile cooler - must be quiet. Any tips appreciated

[kmac]

The Intel DG45FC arrived today together with hard drives,memory and E5200 CPU

There is only 53mm between the CPU and the underside of the hard drive cage thus a low profile cooler is needed. I have gone for the Zalman VF2000 Hydbrid VGA/CPU cooler reviewed here by Bit-Tech.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/coo...lers-on-test/1

They have tested it with my board although I am hoping they also tried to install some RAM with the heatsink in place. Looking at this pic http://images.bit-tech.net/content_i...on-test/11.jpg I'mnot so sure - i'm just going by the fact tha thye say it is compatible with the DG45FC and clears the components around it.

[kmac]

Okay finished build on Friday night and thought I post some pics and thoughts on the hardware:

1) Front of Case with door open. You can see the Optical drive and two hotswap HDD bays. I like these - well built and easy to install HDDs

[kmac]

Front with Door shut - flap for DVD drive gives very neat finish. Pic doesn't really do it justice as it looks nice in piano gloss black (ABS)

[kmac]

The rear - PSU fan is very very quiet. nice. The 50mm fans make a slight whooshing noise - don't know if I can get much quieter for that size fan but I'm going to try. Any recommendation for ultra quiet 50mm fans greatly appreciated.

[kmac]

Single thumb screws secure each side of the case. I really like this case - did I mention that already

[kmac]

Side view. Note a couple of things:

1) Cooler is slightly under the HDD cage so needs to be low profile. I think about 55mm max but if someone wants to know I can get an exact measurement. The Zalman VF2000 (with blue LEDs as standard, my fist ever fan with bling) is good value and comes with Zalman's fanmate controller so is super quiet

2) There is space for at least two more HDDs - one in the slot out bay provided and there is space under that for at least one more. The second will need a slight modification to secure it to the case as the case is designed for just three HDDs in total

3) There is plenty of room in this case and it was easy to fit the components because of that. It is still a nice compact case though.

[kmac]

The other side of the case - okay I'm not very neat with cables. The mobo has 4 Sata ports ( and one eSata on rear). Planning on putting another passive heatsink for the southbridge chip.

[kmac]

I'm running FreeNAS from a USB drive ( seen on the front). The mobo has RAID 0,1,5 and of course there are software RAID options. For now I'm just using regular UFS formatted drives. Need to get a gigabit switch as transfer rates are a bit slow. Will get an 8 port and uplink from my Draytek 2820Vn router.

In summary a fun project and almost complete. Outstanding items include:

1) Waiting for a CF to SATA drive form ebayer in Hong Kong
2) Need to silence the two 50mm fans on rear
3) Need to install HW monitoring tool for FreeBSD (the FreeNAS OS)