Home server + custom Ikea furniture. Interesting… (build log)

[rune.hogh]

Build’s Name: shareStation 2
Operating System/ Storage Platform: FreeNAS 9.10 (FreeBSD)
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3,4GHz
Motherboard: SuperMicro MBD-X10SLH-F-O
Chassis: Ikea Custom
Drives: 6 x WD Red WD30EFRX 3 TB + SanDisk Cruzer Fit USB 16GB
RAM: 4 x 8GB Kingston KVR16LE11/8EF, ECC
Add-in Cards: -
Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum Fanless Series - 520W

Usage Profile: Home server, movies and TV-series PLEX server through plugin in FreeNAS, home videos and clips from cameras on motorcycle etc.

Other information… my old server suddenly died. So I felt it was time for an upgrade and a little customization, hence this build log.
______

Chapter 1

Hi All,

Little over 2 years ago, I posted somewhere in this forum a build I made - a home server built on an Asrock c2750d4i and FreeNAS. About a week ago, that server died and I have tried everything to resuscitate it but to no avail. I had EVERYTHING disconnected and only 1 stick of RAM in it but couldn’t even get it to show the boot screen/BIOS. So I thought I might as well update it with new hardware.

For this not to cost too much, I decided to reuse as much old hardware as possible - and since I had DDR3 RAM, I had to go with older hardware but for what I was gonna use it for I thought it’ll be fine. So I’m reusing the OS, all HDDs and USB stick, RAM and PSU. So just had to add a new CPU and MB in place of the now dead Asrock c2750d4i.

Taking the old server apart.​

So I started taking the server apart and I realized that the case was getting bad. It was a Cooler Master 590 something I bought about 8-10 years ago for my very first server build. But the plastic parts were getting brittle so every time I opened a click assembly, the little plastic things broke off instead of flexing. I started looking for other cases that would hold 9 5.25” slots or 12 3.5” HDDs - I didn’t find anything other than giant cases and I didn’t want a huge case on my floor. So I thought why do I even need a case on the floor??

My TV is sitting on an Ikea Bestå media furniture and I wondered if I could fit the server in a drawer and hide it away.

Ikea Bestå media furniture - can I fit the hardware into this?​

I realized that stuffing the computer into a single drawer was impossible; I had to make two drawers into one in order to had more space. Even with a double drawer, I would still have less space than the original case offered:

Cooler Master 590: (W) 210 x (H) 440 x (D) 510 mm
Ikea double drawer: (W) 215 x (H) 330 x (D) 510 mm

So that is the challenge (actually I’m almost finished, but I thought I’d break up the build log into chapters for you to follow along) and the next many updates are gonna be with the progress made and why I made the decisions I did. You’re welcome to comment and make suggestions.

 

[cesmith9999]

Possibly work with @Spotswood and have him custom create a set of shelves to mount your server into.

That way you can take advantage of the pullout drawers and make maintenance easier.

Probably an intake fan and exhaust fan.

Chris

 

[rune.hogh]

Chapter 2

Continuing the build…
I started by taking apart the case.

I had the HDDs sit in 4-in-3 cases, I used all the same 120mm fans in the whole system (my OCD dictates that) and taking it all out went pretty well. A lot of the plastic parts of the case broke though so it became clear I couldn’t reuse it (again my OCD).

To mount the MB etc. in the drawer, I thought it be good if I could use the tray from the old cabinet. Bring out the drill…

Casing taken completely apart.​

I drilled the s*** out of that case but made sure to save the MB tray and the backplate in one piece and also saved the 5.25” mount rails. Rest was discarded and thrown out.

I started laying out pieces in the drawer to kinda figure out of things would fit. But I realized to keep working on joining two drawers into one.

First test fit of the MB tray in the dual drawer.​

I wanted it to look like there was still 2 drawers when closed. So I took the bottom out of the top drawer and tried to fit in the MB tray - lucky for me, the height just about fits with only 20mm to spare.

The two drawers are joined and the the MB tray was used to measure the size of the cut-out in the back of the drawer.​

The drawers are now connected with 2 big metal brackets on either side and I made sure to close the gap in between the side walls with extra pieces of wood. I wanted to be able to create the same kind of flows that a computer case allows, so I had to close up these holes and openings to eliminate false air when I install the fans.

I cut out the back of the drawers as the tray/backplate were gonna offer support and accessibility to I/Os and PSU etc.

Anti-skid rubber material laid out on the bottom.
​

To prevent too much noise being transferred to the wooden drawer, I covered the bottom with some anti-skid rubber material I had lying around. Cut it to size and it looks pretty good I think.

MB tray/backplate mounted with screws and PSU and old MB fitted for testing.​

The MB tray and backplate is being mounted with screws so it wont shift in the drawer and will help being a supportive structure in the back of the drawer. I mounted the old MB and the PSU to get a feel for how much space it takes up. I was beginning to realize that I was gonna have a problem with the HDDs, especially if I wanted to keep them in the 4-in-3 case.

This is also the point where I had ordered the new MB (micro-ATX) and CPU and when I looked at the pictures of the new MB, it showed that the location of the CPU is very different from the Asrock mini-ITX board that I used as mock-up. Fitting the HDDs was gonna be a challenge...

Stay tuned...

 

[rune.hogh]

Chapter 3

Continuing the build…

I use PLEX server on my server and for those of you who don’t know it; PLEX is a media center server that I can access through clients on my TV, phone, tablet and through the internet - that way I have access to my media library wherever in the world I am.
But when serving certain videos, it will transcode the obscure files to something the TV and tablet understands. That requires power - and would you believe that an 8-core Avalon (ATOM) 2,4GHz is not always enough to keep up resulting in stuttering playback. So I decided to upgrade with some more power…

Intel Xeon server class CPU and a server class SuperMicro MB.​

I opted for a server class MB and CPU.

MB: SuperMicro MBD-X10SLH-F-O
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3,4GHz

The MB features 6 SATA ports, more PCI-E ports than I need and supports 32GB of DDR3 RAM.
The CPU is a quad-core hyperthreaded server class powerhouse clocked at 3,4GHz - definitely much more powerful compared to the Avalon I used to have.
This should bump up transcoding power tremendously - not that I need all that power all the time, but when I do need it, I like to have it.

New MB and CPU installed. Testing how much space the HDDs would take up - its gonna cover up the CPU cooler
​

I installed the CPU on the MB and the MB on the tray. I chose to stay with the standard Intel cooler as I have never had any issues with these and it was a Xeon CPU which to my knowledge wasn’t that prone to overheating. I figured it was gonna be just fine.

I was planning to put the HDDs close to the front of the drawer - by this point I had discarded the idea of keep using the 4-in-3 cases. I just wanted to put the HDDs loosely standing on the side but still put fans in front of the drives for cooling. I realized, however, that space was getting scarce and the HDDs would “overlap” the CPU cooler (see picture above).

Installed a shelf for the HDDs. Mounted maybe too close the the Intel CPU cooler.​

I kept on pushing through the build - the immediate solution for mounting the HDDs was making a shelf across the front of the drawer upon which the put the drives. I knew I was gonna “cover” up the CPU cooler but thought I’d try doing something and then maybe correct or adjust it as the build continued.
As you can see in the picture above (bottom left), there is very little room between the Intel cooler and the shelf covering it.

Stay tuned...

 

[rune.hogh]

Reserved for future use...

 

[rune.hogh]

Reserved for future use...

 

[Patrick]

Looking great!