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.
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.
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.
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.