Win 10 mSTX Server

BadDecisionDino

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Jan 27, 2017
16
14
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.
 

BadDecisionDino

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Jan 27, 2017
16
14
My bad, misread. I had been planning to use an M.2 drive in the slot for OS - if there's not much benefit to that then I suppose it's worth exploring getting a SATA drive hooked up there. Is the M.2>PCIe required for power? I'm honestly a little lost in all the M.2 standards.
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,924
4,949
This in an M.2 format could solve the SATA port issue:


But I have only found it in a mini-PCIexpress version.
 

Ceros_X

King of Cable Management
Mar 8, 2016
748
660
Haha, I looked at that same prebuilt when thinking about STX NAS builds. If you haven't checked out the review/teardown threads posted around the internet, the SATA connectors on the MB are... strange. As are the power headers for the drive. I think it'd be a cool idea, even if not the most practical!

I always wanna build a mSTX server like this:

This is a thin-itx build, but I think a STX build will even be cooler

That build is flipping sweet, I don't know why but I really like it.
 

danger

Average Stuffer
Jan 7, 2017
66
47
A lot of the seagates are transitioning to having a USB PCB on the HDD similar to what WD has been doing for years, so be careful - you might not be able to use them as sata drives.

If you are going to mod a mount for an HDD in the front, you should be able to fit 15mm to get a 5TB 2.5". If they were SSDs, you wouldnt have to worry about mounting, but the mounting is important for an HDD.

m.2 sata adapter:
http://eshop.sintech.cn/sata-hdd-to-m2-ngff-socket-adapter-converter-card-p-951.html
http://eshop.sintech.cn/sata-ssd-hdd-to-m2-ngff-socket-adapter-converter-card-p-1022.html



 

BadDecisionDino

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Jan 27, 2017
16
14
A lot of the seagates are transitioning to having a USB PCB on the HDD similar to what WD has been doing for years, so be careful - you might not be able to use them as sata drives.

If you are going to mod a mount for an HDD in the front, you should be able to fit 15mm to get a 5TB 2.5". If they were SSDs, you wouldnt have to worry about mounting, but the mounting is important for an HDD.

m.2 sata adapter:
http://eshop.sintech.cn/sata-hdd-to-m2-ngff-socket-adapter-converter-card-p-951.html
http://eshop.sintech.cn/sata-ssd-hdd-to-m2-ngff-socket-adapter-converter-card-p-1022.html

Yeah, hoping to purchase drives sooner than later.

Trouble with 15mm drives is they won't fit on the underside tray and I'd want four of the same model for shared volume use. Can't write parity without wasted space since the bottom drive bay is limited to 9.5mm.

What kind of isolation will I need for mounting HDDs?

What does using the M.2>SATA conversion get me, aside from not needing to route a USB3.0 cable outside the case?
Unless there's a hiccup in shared volumes across SATA/USB3.0 I'd prefer to leave the M.2 open for an SSD.
 
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Ceros_X

King of Cable Management
Mar 8, 2016
748
660
Yeah, hoping to purchase drives sooner than later.

Trouble with 15mm drives is they won't fit on the underside tray and I'd want four of the same model for shared volume use. Can't write parity without wasted space since the bottom drive bay is limited to 9.5mm.

What kind of isolation will I need for mounting HDDs?

What does using the M.2>SATA conversion get me, aside from not needing to route a USB3.0 cable outside the case?
Unless there's a hiccup in shared volumes across SATA/USB3.0 I'd prefer to leave the M.2 open for an SSD.

You could always look at making your own enclosure --then you don't have o worry about drive height restrictions. A lot of HDDs are just screwed directly to a metal plate. If you were looking at taking the rig different places then maybe you'd look at a different setup, otherwise just something sturdy to mount to.. SSDs can bounce a round a bit so a lot of people just Velcro/foam tape them anywhere there is space.
 

EdZ

Virtual Realist
May 11, 2015
1,578
2,107
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.
You could scavenge some extra Z-height using the Thermaltake Engine 27. With a relatively low powered CPU like the G4400 there should not be too much issue with noise, and it exhausts entirely to the sides.
 

ricochet

SFF AFFLICTED
Oct 20, 2016
547
345
You could scavenge some extra Z-height using the Thermaltake Engine 27. With a relatively low powered CPU like the G4400 there should not be too much issue with noise, and it exhausts entirely to the sides.
Working perfectly and is whisper quiet with my G4400 thus far... I have decided to upgrade to another Pentium instead of i3... Kaby Lake G4620 so there shouldn't be much of a performance difference with the little engine that could.
 
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BadDecisionDino

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Jan 27, 2017
16
14
I think my z-height restriction is 37mm broadly, obviously much less in some spots. RAM and the ethernet/USB I/O stack both hit around 37 from what I can tell based on images of the NoctuaLH9i installed. Anything I can get under 37mm would probably aid case-wide circulation.

Does anyone have a source for cables that match the flat SATA connectors on this mobo?

Proving hard to google since "flat" or "low-profile" SATA just gets me flat ribbon cables.

EDIT: "laptop SATA cable" is apparently the keyword combo I'm looking for, but could still use some help narrowing down what cables are compatible.
 
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jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
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There's a wide variety of cables that look similar for various models of laptops so it's hard to say which ones will work.

I'll be selling my DeskMini 110 in the coming weeks, and if someone wants just the board + one of my STX160.0 cases + 1x SATA cable, I'll sell the other one to you for cheap.
 

BadDecisionDino

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Jan 27, 2017
16
14
There's a wide variety of cables that look similar for various models of laptops so it's hard to say which ones will work.

I'll be selling my DeskMini 110 in the coming weeks, and if someone wants just the board + one of my STX160.0 cases + 1x SATA cable, I'll sell the other one to you for cheap.

Cheers. Just had a look through your thread and good lord, that takes me back. Nearly verbatim my sheet metal design techniques unit from college.
 
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BadDecisionDino

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Jan 27, 2017
16
14
Early breadboard in sketchup.



Unsure about upper level HDD pair orientation, but either way I probably want to keep the top corner nearest to camera clear for the panel cable and potentially USB2.0 expander cable.

Three cooler heights pictured for comparison - from right/low to left/high, 27mm, 30mm, 37mm