Hello,
It seems I'm not the only one who's interested in an STX build for network storage.
I'm looking at stuffing four drives in a DeskMini 110W and since I've never done a server build (or something this compact) before I'm putting feelers out to make sure this is all do-able.
SYSTEM: AsRock DeskMini 110W
I get the feeling most of you reading this are familiar, but it's a barebones case unit with STX mobo, external powerbrick, wifi card - LGA1151, H110 chipset, no PCI-e. Provisions for two 2.5" SATA and one M.2 2280 storage.
I realized I probably want more than the 4TB which I could plausibly get out of two 2.5" 9.5mm max height drive bays, so I had initially given up on the mSTX and was looking into mITX cases with four bays, but the draw of this tiny case was enough that I kept digging until the "what if..." engine kicked into overdrive.
I happened on a gallery here that demos two very interesting features of the case: there's enough space for a stock intel cooler, and if you replace that with a low-profile one then there seems to be just as much headroom above the board as there is below - you know, where they stuffed two drives in.
Additionally, I found an interesting footnote here that points out what should have been blisteringly obvious all along - there's a third SATA header on the top of the motherboard, even though this thing is listed EVERYWHERE as only being capable of 2 SATA drive connections.
SO - My devious plan comes together.
Drop in a Pentium G4400, add a stick of the cheapest RAM I can get, and replace the stock intel cooler with something in the 30-37mm range. (Probably a Silverstone NT07?) I'm shy about the Noctua LH9i for a couple reasons; it's unspeakably ugly, and the fan cage channeling air more tightly than an open fan might do more harm than good considering I'll be mounting two HDDs to the inside top of the case and there will be very little clearance between the fan and the drives, so open sides seems like a good move. There maaaaay be potential for a ~60mm fan on the sidewall using the CPUFAN2 headers, but too hard to judge before I have parts on hand.
The drives would be 4x Seagate Portable Slim 2TB units; Tear open 3 enclosures to get at the bare Samsung Spin 9.5mm 2TB 5400rpm drives underneath, remove the SATA>USB3.0 passthrough converter, and just buckle them up to the 3 SATA headers on the mobo. Two drives in the under-board tray, two attached to the top of the case. Drive 3 uses the 3rd (top-facing) SATA header, and drive 4 stays in the portable enclosure to plug into one of the USB3.0 ports + it'll be a nice bit of color in the case.
Smallest volume compatible M.2 drive I can get my hands on serves as the system/OS drive.
What do you think - totally unreasonable? Just buy a NAS enclosure? potential pitfalls?
Big question marks at the moment are -
- safely mounting HDDs to case in as low-profile a manner as possible; do they need vibration protection? Will there be enough circulation/headroom over a 37mm cooler?
- I just now saw the MXM stuff - should I be waiting for more STX developments (4-sata mobos?) before I dive in?
- More RAM needed for a server like this? Any complications for shared storage volume across SATA/USB connections? (RAID or Win10 Storage Spaces)
- the USB3.0 HDD would have to have a cable routed outside the case somewhere unless I can mod the USB headers.
- Enough power to run all this? Temp concerns?
- if needed it would be hilarious to take off a side panel and replace it with a 140mm fan, since they're basically the same size.
It seems I'm not the only one who's interested in an STX build for network storage.
I'm looking at stuffing four drives in a DeskMini 110W and since I've never done a server build (or something this compact) before I'm putting feelers out to make sure this is all do-able.
SYSTEM: AsRock DeskMini 110W
I get the feeling most of you reading this are familiar, but it's a barebones case unit with STX mobo, external powerbrick, wifi card - LGA1151, H110 chipset, no PCI-e. Provisions for two 2.5" SATA and one M.2 2280 storage.
I realized I probably want more than the 4TB which I could plausibly get out of two 2.5" 9.5mm max height drive bays, so I had initially given up on the mSTX and was looking into mITX cases with four bays, but the draw of this tiny case was enough that I kept digging until the "what if..." engine kicked into overdrive.
I happened on a gallery here that demos two very interesting features of the case: there's enough space for a stock intel cooler, and if you replace that with a low-profile one then there seems to be just as much headroom above the board as there is below - you know, where they stuffed two drives in.
Additionally, I found an interesting footnote here that points out what should have been blisteringly obvious all along - there's a third SATA header on the top of the motherboard, even though this thing is listed EVERYWHERE as only being capable of 2 SATA drive connections.
SO - My devious plan comes together.
Drop in a Pentium G4400, add a stick of the cheapest RAM I can get, and replace the stock intel cooler with something in the 30-37mm range. (Probably a Silverstone NT07?) I'm shy about the Noctua LH9i for a couple reasons; it's unspeakably ugly, and the fan cage channeling air more tightly than an open fan might do more harm than good considering I'll be mounting two HDDs to the inside top of the case and there will be very little clearance between the fan and the drives, so open sides seems like a good move. There maaaaay be potential for a ~60mm fan on the sidewall using the CPUFAN2 headers, but too hard to judge before I have parts on hand.
The drives would be 4x Seagate Portable Slim 2TB units; Tear open 3 enclosures to get at the bare Samsung Spin 9.5mm 2TB 5400rpm drives underneath, remove the SATA>USB3.0 passthrough converter, and just buckle them up to the 3 SATA headers on the mobo. Two drives in the under-board tray, two attached to the top of the case. Drive 3 uses the 3rd (top-facing) SATA header, and drive 4 stays in the portable enclosure to plug into one of the USB3.0 ports + it'll be a nice bit of color in the case.
Smallest volume compatible M.2 drive I can get my hands on serves as the system/OS drive.
What do you think - totally unreasonable? Just buy a NAS enclosure? potential pitfalls?
Big question marks at the moment are -
- safely mounting HDDs to case in as low-profile a manner as possible; do they need vibration protection? Will there be enough circulation/headroom over a 37mm cooler?
- I just now saw the MXM stuff - should I be waiting for more STX developments (4-sata mobos?) before I dive in?
- More RAM needed for a server like this? Any complications for shared storage volume across SATA/USB connections? (RAID or Win10 Storage Spaces)
- the USB3.0 HDD would have to have a cable routed outside the case somewhere unless I can mod the USB headers.
- Enough power to run all this? Temp concerns?
- if needed it would be hilarious to take off a side panel and replace it with a 140mm fan, since they're basically the same size.
