I want to have this fun project since I realized I have all the parts and I may be able to use this as one big SAS enclosure with a combination of 2.5" and 3.5" drives. I noticed the guide here: https://www.servethehome.com/sas-expanders-diy-cheap-low-cost-jbod-enclosures-raid/ and I have the parts except than SAS Expanders and they are pretty cheap.
Right now, I have Antec1200 case with three 3.25" supermicro enclosures (each has 5 bays). The case has still 3 empty 5.25" bays but I want to keep them available for 2.5" bays and case is already very heavy and these supermicro enclosures are slightly large to fit into the last section. It looks like Antec 1200 is pretty strong with very good fans and cooling. I also have the Antec CP1000 powers supply. I have several old motherboard lying around ready for the job but I am eyeing Asus p5K -pro and Asus p5n32-sli as they both have 2 PCI-E x16 slots. I plan to install 2 sas expanders so that I can increase the throughput to 2 * 6G. I will mainly use spindles with this build.
Questions I have:
- Has anyone tried this build and any experience/gotcha points to share?
- Will all the motherboards power up with a switch without cpu?
- I really need to control this unit remotely as it will be in garage. Any ideas how to do it? I am currently considering to set the bios to power on always and use a wifi controlled switch. Is there any usb/wifi controlled motherboard switch or some better idea than this?
Right now, I have Antec1200 case with three 3.25" supermicro enclosures (each has 5 bays). The case has still 3 empty 5.25" bays but I want to keep them available for 2.5" bays and case is already very heavy and these supermicro enclosures are slightly large to fit into the last section. It looks like Antec 1200 is pretty strong with very good fans and cooling. I also have the Antec CP1000 powers supply. I have several old motherboard lying around ready for the job but I am eyeing Asus p5K -pro and Asus p5n32-sli as they both have 2 PCI-E x16 slots. I plan to install 2 sas expanders so that I can increase the throughput to 2 * 6G. I will mainly use spindles with this build.
Questions I have:
- Has anyone tried this build and any experience/gotcha points to share?
- Will all the motherboards power up with a switch without cpu?
- I really need to control this unit remotely as it will be in garage. Any ideas how to do it? I am currently considering to set the bios to power on always and use a wifi controlled switch. Is there any usb/wifi controlled motherboard switch or some better idea than this?