Did i go overboard on this micro atx "server" build

[Dythmar]

I keep seeing all over the place..everyone's rack mount servers with 3 or 5 drives in them.. then here I am looking for a pinout for a cable to a stupid backplane that I shoved in what resembles a homemade toaster, but houses my 8 900gb 10k 2.5 sas drives. And I realized that I have 20+ drives total internally in this micro atx ryzen based "server?" build. Is it a bit much, maybe too much? Or will it succeed at serving my home in being functional enough to only have this measly micro tower that.. imo packs a punch compared to anything I own. Not done yet, and have only booted a handful of times to ensure everything is functioning the way it should.. LSI controllers and all drives are all recognized, just trying to tidy up the actual build itself before fully setting up software side of things.

Anywho, i am always open to constructive feedback and look forward to end my lurking of this community.

- D


Edit:
Forgot to post the actual build..

Here it is:
Ryzen 1600
A320M micro ATX mobo
8gb RAM
2x LSI 9267-8i
8x 10k hgst 900gb sas 2.5 drives
8x 2tb seagate sas 3.5 drives
2x 2tb st2000dm008 3.5 drives
1 512gb seagate nvme drive
2x 750gb western digital 2.5 drives I had laying around
Also have a gtx 710 in there temporarily but will remove it when it's time for go-live. Will be replacing it with a hefty network card of unknown origin and denominations.

 

[Parallax]

"Too much of a good thing is wonderful." - Mae West

 

[zer0sum]

It's awesome as long as you can keep it all cool under whatever loads you're expecting

 

[Dythmar]

Well as of now it has 6 12v fans, but I do have some 120v fans I was thinking of at the very least putting one on the back, but could potentially replace them all with them. But then I'm getting into questionable energy consumption and noise.

 

[ddaenen1]

Well, everyone starts with overkill, i suppose. My first server setup was a Supermicro server with a HBA connected to a Dell MD1000 SAN with 15 x 2TB 3.5" SAS drives. This combo was extremely powerhungry, made more noise than a chopper and eventually, i didn't even use 10% of the available storage space in ZFS ZRAID 2. A couple of years down the road, i got rid of all of that except 6 of the SAS drives and built a new one with 4 of the SAS drives, a newer Supermicro mobo and Xeon E3 CPU which is silent and consumes less then a quarter of the power the old one did and i still use only 28% of the storage space consumed.

 

[Tom5051]

As long as you can keep all the drives cool. the ones in the middle of the pile tend to get the hottest surprise surprise.
Overkill, no such thing. Don't forget to make sure your PSU can handle the load.

 

[Dythmar]

As long as you can keep all the drives cool. the ones in the middle of the pile tend to get the hottest surprise surprise.
Overkill, no such thing. Don't forget to make sure your PSU can handle the load.

I actually did the math this morning, not sure if it's correct, and mostly did in my head looking at the labels of drives so there is still the need for actual data, which I will obtain before hitting this with a load. BTW it's currently 500w evga that came free with an ebay purchase, but I do have a 600w that could go in, but doesn't have the correct connectors for multiple pci riser cards, which the lsi cards are mounted in to allow them on the pcie 1x slots without hacking the mobo to bits. I am considering an upgrade for my gaming rig, which would open up a 750w cougar (most probable outcome) but that's at least 2 months out from now.

Lsi 9267-8i x2 - 25w under load
Ryzen 1600 - 65w
Mobo - ? 65w
2.5 10k 900gb drives x8 - 80w (under load 120ish)
3.5 7.2k 2tb drives x8 - 70w (under load 120ish)
6 fans - 5w per for 30w total (prolly generous)
NIC - unknown at this time but suspect this could put me over top. Let's say 65w just for giggles cuz the gtx 710 will not do more than 45w I think
4 low use drives, 40w max

Total 445w-535w

Factoring that you dont want it at full load, and its used for unknown amount of time, Way tight for my liking, but will suffice for the initial setup and drive formatting, given I don't try to format all 16 drives at once. Another option, I do have a power supply sync board that I could use to splice in a second power supply to share the load, but that ruins the astetics for the tiny build and doesn't fit inside the case.

 

[i386]

What are the temperatures of the hdds in idle/under full load?

 

[Dythmar]

What are the temperatures of the hdds in idle/under full load?

Haven't gotten that far yet, . I'll try to get it a bit more functional this weekend. Haven't even decided the os I want to use. I have windows 10 on it for initial testing, but also playing with Linux options. It currently has Ubuntu on it, but I have a few builds to play with and hope to find some time this weekend to get that finalized.

 

[Dythmar]

Ok so, the 8x 900gb 10k drives are not being seen on the backplane, starting to wonder if I wired it wrong or uts some unknown event. I think its time to take a step back and just focus on what is working while I do some more testing with that backplane and update the LSI firmware. Probably not the issue as it's only a step behind my first LSI card. And it's being recognized. Swapping the cables for the array that is working only moves it to another card and drives are visible. Therefore its something to do with the backplane or the drives. I have 4 more 4 port forward breakout cables on the way so I can skip this toasterbox mf hack job of an enclosure for this backplane, just don't have time to dig into the details of the board. What I do have is an HBA now and a functioning 15tb raid 0 array that I can start doing some temp and bench tests on, all while not overloading the PSU.. think this is best path forward given i can swap the second LSI card for the HBA that was just delivered. If anyone actually gives a poop it's:
Brand: Qlogic
PN: QLE2562
8Gb dual channel 8GB dual fiber channel HBA
I do realize i will be limited on data rates due to the nature of the mobo i am currently using, however I haven't played with it and getting an itch to dive into it. Hopefully I can get it functioning without too much hassle. Getting into uncharted waters for me so def a learning curve, last time I played with anything other than basic home networking was pre marriage 14+ years ago when i was getting my cisco certification, so my knowledge is dated af, feel like a kid again reminiscent of lan parties and the constant search for a better connection.
Hopefully I can tie right into my shifty network on the unused ports that I have desired to use for many moons. Someone stop me if I start asking dumb questions as I should know this stuff intuitively ;P

Thank you all for joining me on this wild ride of catching up on 20+ years of tech. More to come as long as nothing gets in my way.

 

[Marsh]

@Tom5051

Very nice build.

Could you tell us more about TOM-ESX2?

what is the model number of case and drive cages?

Any more pictures?
thank you

 

[Dythmar]

The drive cage is totally custom. I picked these socket storage rails up at harbor freight and strategically drilled holes in them for the hard drive mounting holes.

I then used those brackets for converting a 3.5 drive to a 5.25 drive bay, cut down a but and some junk stainless hardware i had lying around the shop. Outside of the box it looks like a 4th grader made it, but I ended up using thumb screws to mount it in place, very happy, and its secure af. Even with only being attached ay the bottom.

Here is the full parts list:
-Ryzen 5 1600 - used 20 bucks was too good to be true lol
-Gigabyte a320m micro atx - used 20 bucks, meh works for now, but looking for an upgrade with more x16 slots
-2x4gb g.skill 2400 ddr4 ram (hoping to upgrade but I am already over budget on this slightly, and using what i have) - used 20 bucks
Stock AMD cooler, still copper core so works for me - free
2x mining riser boards connected to 2 pcie 1x slots - 10 bucks
2x LSI 9261-8i (correction to my original post, I said 9267-8i) 15 each for total of 30$$ listed on ebay as a Cisco 74-7119-02 R2XX PL003 V02 SAS 6Gb/s MegaRaid Controller Card
8x ST32000645SS 7.2k 2tb sas drives 10 each
8x Hgst HUC1090CSs600 sas drives 900gb 10k 2.5 10 each
2x 8087 breakout cables 5 ea
643705-001 backplane 10$ (cant get this wokring rn, open to suggestions was more of a fun project but became a sinkhole of time. Should get more 8087 breakout cables in mail by wed. To replace this)
I will also be making another hard drive cage like the other one but for 8x 2
.5 drives. Maybe ill make a tutorial post for that.
2 junk 750gb drives - free mostly using these for different boot options to play with.
1x seagate 512 nvme baracuda Q5 - new 45$
2x open box st2000dm008 256mb 3.5 drives - 25 each total 50
Recycled old laptop dvdrw (enjoyed this mod on the case see pics for details)
And finally the case.. its a cheap pos lmao.. its a Montech Flyer Micro ATX from newegg 25$ black friday sale
500w evga psu - will br upgrading gaming rig which will open a 750w to replacw this.
Everyrhing else was on hand leftover stuff from prior builds and scraps.
Total invested in this other than time - about 400 bucks
There is a plexiglass side panel but its not on at moment.

 

[EasyRhino]

this is intense. I'm confused on where all the 2.5 drives will go, if you get the backplane to work.
Did you try plugging it into the other LSI controller? or with the breakout cables yet?
Actually, i'm pretty sure the megaraid controller doesn't support 520 byte drives. My 9260 didn't.
you can try plugging them into an HBA and using sg_format to change them to 512 byte.

 

[Frank Bello]

Ok so, the 8x 900gb 10k drives are not being seen on the backplane, starting to wonder if I wired it wrong or uts some unknown event.

If you have an older PSU and new-ish drives, it's worth checking whether your drives use the SATA Pin 3 Power Disable command. If so, there are various fixes - I just pulled pin 3 out of the PSU-end connector on the SATA loom using a pin extractor tool. Apologies if you've already been through this loop.

 

[Dythmar]

this is intense. I'm confused on where all the 2.5 drives will go, if you get the backplane to work.
Did you try plugging it into the other LSI controller? or with the breakout cables yet?
Actually, i'm pretty sure the megaraid controller doesn't support 520 byte drives. My 9260 didn't.
you can try plugging them into an HBA and using sg_format to change them to 512 byte.

The drives are in the crome toasterbox lookin hackjob, and it does fit in the void between the motherboard and side panel but makes it cramped af. I am also currently exploring a couple cases i was gifted the other day, that would open up a large amount of room for the drives( but wheres the fun in that lol).
I couldnt get the backplane functioning and will toss it in the corner for now. But could be the second lsi 9261-8i as the issue(more testing req). The first one i somehow managed to get its bios flashed to newest version couple months ago whwn i stsrted all this fun. I beleive it should handle the 520 format but if not, I do also have an adaptec card that i have successfully used to reformat to 512 in past. However these are visable on the first card through the sas cables from the first drive stack. So i am trying to see where that goes now that i am off work, but think i need some thinking vodka first . Ill update on where thst goes asap.

 

[Dythmar]

If you have an older PSU and new-ish drives, it's worth checking whether your drives use the SATA Pin 3 Power Disable command. If so, there are various fixes - I just pulled pin 3 out of the PSU-end connector on the SATA loom using a pin extractor tool. Apologies if you've already been through this loop.

Will take this into consideration, however the backplane is def the culprit in the drives not being visable at this time. Bypassing it for direct power and 8087-8482 cable, its visable. Still relearning commands f9r the CLI though so taking me some time to make forward progress.

 

[Dythmar]

The drives are in the crome toasterbox lookin hackjob, and it does fit in the void between the motherboard and side panel but makes it cramped af. I am also currently exploring a couple cases i was gifted the other day, that would open up a large amount of room for the drives( but wheres the fun in that lol).
I couldnt get the backplane functioning and will toss it in the corner for now. But could be the second lsi 9261-8i as the issue(more testing req). The first one i somehow managed to get its bios flashed to newest version couple months ago whwn i stsrted all this fun. I beleive it should handle the 520 format but if not, I do also have an adaptec card that i have successfully used to reformat to 512 in past. However these are visable on the first card through the sas cables from the first drive stack. So i am trying to see where that goes now that i am off work, but think i need some thinking vodka first . Ill update on where thst goes asap.

Well great news.. they are in fact 512! Easy peasy, now just need the stupid extra cables to arive..