Zeus V2 : U-NAS NSC-810A | X10SL7-F | E3-1265 V3

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K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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Build’s Name: Zeus V2
Operating System/ Storage Platform: Windows Server 2012 R2
CPU/Motherboard :
Supermicro X10SL7-F
Chassis: U-NAS NSC-810A

Drives: Crucial MX300 750GB, Intel 3500 200 GB, WD Red 8TB x 4 (
RAM: 32 GB
Add-in Cards: None


Usage Profile: Primary Home Media/AD/DNS Server


Ramblings :

My Home Lab has always been a bunch of tower servers/workstations with every machine performing every task. When I needed resources, I just used what was available. It was completely random. So when I moved into this house with an unfinished basement, I ensured that all rooms were wired (Still kicking myself in the A$$ for not going with CAT7 or at least CAT 6a) and the cable plant ended in a nook in my basement.

The initial setup had all the cables direct wired into a switch in a half rack. (Had a Control 4 Integrator set it up along with everything else he did) He left me with a nice clean cable plant neatly feeding into an open half rack and cleanly connected to a switch.

Then Over the past 3 years changes, changes, changes, and the result was a rat’s nest of cables and a bunch of rackmount and tower servers.

Over the new Year I decided to clean it up, patched everything on to a wall mount patch panel and moved all the “Home” Equipment on to the wall with it’s own UPS with just one cable connecting from the Main Switch to the rack which had everything else.

I have been looking at this case for a long time but whenever I was ready to buy, it was OOS. Then one fine day I saw the case in stock and just hit buy (Still regret the impulse a little). Figured that this case will perfectly fit my wall mount shelf and decided to make my home network self-contained and fully separate my lab.

I have always named my home servers after Greek mythological beings and had retired the old Zeus sometime back. So Zeus V2.

OK enough Ramblings

Impressions :

  • I absolutely hated building in this case. Though the end result was pleasing enough
  • I have tonnes of nicks and scrapes due to the sharp edges in this case.
  • The cables in the case are too short. The front panel connectos do not reach the end of the mobo. That may be due to my motherboard choice though.
  • Micro ATX mother board does not slide into the case easily. I had to completely dismantle the case to get the motherboard inside.
  • The area behind the backplane and between the fans is the place where you can hide some cables but since that is directly in the path of the airflow from HDDs –-> FANS, you have to be careful not to obstruct the airflow.
  • Did not connect the side USB-3, USB-2 and Audio cables.
  • Used a PCIE holder to attach a second SSD
  • The included SATA cables are nice thin ones that help in cable management.
  • Only 1 2.5 HDD can be attached to the side above the PSU.
  • This server will primarily be a file server and will maybe have to support transcoding 1 plex stream for when I’m travelling.
  • So decided to go with a low power Xeon and chose the motherboard based on it having a built in LSI controller in the event I decided to use ZFS or unraid both of which I’m testing right now.
  • Got a modular seasonic PSU so that I can crimp custom cables to have clean cable management. But didn’t realize I had run out of some terminals and had to do with some COTS cables to finish the build. Also I got my hand stuck in a door and wasn’t entirely up to building a full set of custom cables.
I got frustrated in the middle and just wanted to finish the build so the cable management could have been better.In any case It’s complete and overall I’m satisfied. Doing the burn in right now before I relocate it to it’s final location in my basement.


Finally : Here’s what all of you would be interested in. Pics :)

Here's pics over the course of the build.
IMG_0466.jpg IMG_0467.jpg IMG_0468.jpg IMG_0469.jpg IMG_0470.jpg IMG_0471.jpg IMG_0472.jpg IMG_0473.jpg IMG_0474.jpg IMG_0476.jpg IMG_0477.jpg IMG_0478.jpg IMG_0479.jpg IMG_0480.jpg IMG_0481.jpg IMG_0483.jpg IMG_0484.jpg IMG_0488.jpg IMG_0489.jpg IMG_0490.jpg IMG_0491.jpg IMG_0492.jpg IMG_0493.jpg IMG_0494.jpg IMG_0496.jpg IMG_0497.jpg

Here's the wall panel where the server will be placed.

IMG_0419.jpg IMG_0421.jpg
 

Sound2005

New Member
Feb 28, 2017
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Brilliant review @K D
That's case looks bigger than I expected!!!

How's the noise level in this thing??

Also just wondering if your motherboard nchoice was too big/awkward for the case could someone else suggest any other SM boards??

Also looking to build a similar type of serve like that of K D.

Welcome done
 

K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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Brilliant review @K D
That's case looks bigger than I expected!!!

How's the noise level in this thing??

Also just wondering if your motherboard nchoice was too big/awkward for the case could someone else suggest any other SM boards??

Also looking to build a similar type of serve like that of K D.

Welcome done
The case is much bigger than I expected. It's about the same size as a Silverstone DS380 on the side.
I have set the 70mm fan and the CPU fan in Zone 0 and the 140mm fans in Zone 1. With all the drive bays empty and running Prime 95 for 2 hrs, the CPU is at 55 degrees and the system is very quiet. I can barely hear it over the ambient noise (not too quiet central air conditioning). It's definitely a quiet system.

I don't have all the drives yet but I plan to scrounge up some old drives for testing this weekend. I'll post an update on the temperatures after that.

A mini ITX board will definitely be a better choice for this case but I would have gone for the NSC-800 if that was the case (un-intentional pun). This is a standard Micro-ATX mobo and should fit per the case specs.

Thanks.
 
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Sound2005

New Member
Feb 28, 2017
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@K D
I think a lot of us was waiting for small(ish) Matx case.

I'm glad that U-Nas have improved on their previous cases.

I'm so glad I waited for this case rather than the 800's
 

Markus

Member
Oct 25, 2015
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Sorry for off-topic, but these SONOS...

Do you use them with kind of ceiling speakers or how do you use them?

Regards
Markus
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Great build :)
Can I ask what heatsink and fan that is ? I know it's an e3 but wondering if there is any similar e5 suitable version. Very Low profile !
 

K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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Great build :)
Can I ask what heatsink and fan that is ? I know it's an e3 but wondering if there is any similar e5 suitable version. Very Low profile !
It's a Noctua NHL9-I cooler. Extremely low profile. Should fit most LGA11XX sockets upto 95W TDP.
 

Churchill

Admiral
Jan 6, 2016
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Very clean setup and install. Mine never look that good. Great cable management and zip ties. I do so hate zip ties though guess for Hard drive cables it doesn't really matter as they will never move.

Now you said there were a few parts too short. that the front panel IO parts? What did you have to get differently? I have this exact same mobo/case and if i'm already walking into a pitfall i want to buy my parts ahead of time.
 

K D

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Dec 24, 2016
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Very clean setup and install. Mine never look that good. Great cable management and zip ties. I do so hate zip ties though guess for Hard drive cables it doesn't really matter as they will never move.

Now you said there were a few parts too short. that the front panel IO parts? What did you have to get differently? I have this exact same mobo/case and if i'm already walking into a pitfall i want to buy my parts ahead of time.
24 pin and 8 pin power cables did not reach the motherboard. It could be due to my psu cable being short and the fact that I did not want to pull them over the mobo and routed the through the space between the fans and the backplane.

The chassis switch and led cables did not reach the motherboard headers. Did not have any make Dupont connectors so got a set of pre made cables for 5 bucks from Amazon and used as extensions.

The case has 2 usb 3 connections in the front panel while the motherboard has only one.

The case has headphone/microphone Jacks in the front but the motherboard does not have the header (could be that I didn't notice it. Didn't look at the manual). I dont need the audio port for my use case.

One recommendation that I have is to connect the 70mm fan to fan1,2 or 3 and not fan A that is close to it.
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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It's a Noctua NHL9-I cooler. Extremely low profile. Should fit most LGA11XX sockets upto 95W TDP.
Thanks I recognize the fan but did not make the connection it was a combined unit. Sadly not 2011 units like that in the range.
 

K D

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Dec 24, 2016
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2 Week Update :
Hardware : Added a ConnectX-2
Host : ESXi 6.5
Guests : Windows 2012R2 essentials with PCIe passthrough of the onboard HBA, Ubuntu Linux with plex
Drives : (4) HGST 4TB, (2) WD80EZFX, (1) WD80EZZX

System has been running cool and quiet for the past 2 weeks. Have been restoring data for the past 2 days. See screenshots for temps. HDDs have not gone above 35deg with sustained reads and writes.

2017-03-26 23_46_44-Zeus - VMware Remote Console.png 2017-03-26 23_47_31-https___172.16.10.109_cgi_url_redirect.cgi_url_name=mainmenu.png 2017-03-26 23_49_02-WIN-2SUFEQJ3HMU - VMware ESXi.png

The chassis does not physically fit in the shelf I had planned for it. It's about 2 inches too high. Also I think I may have overprovisioned memory and CPU. This server doesnt need much hosepower and will be one of 2 servers that are always on. I'm considering putting it up for sale and moving to the smaller NSC-800A. Need to check the dimensions before deciding. Not a priority at the moment though as there are multiple projects partially completed.
 

nitrobass24

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Dec 26, 2010
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@KD

First off great build and thanks for all of the pictures! I'm considering this case for myself, but I am wanting to mount at least 3x 2.5 SSDs in addition to the 8 slots. Do you see this being possible without sacrificing the area for the expansion slots?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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@nitrobass24 The case has space for one SSD. You ziptie one more to it easily. I dknt see a good spot for a third. There may be space adjacent to the power supply but I wouldn't keep a drive in contact with the psu.
 
D

Deleted member 11685

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@K D Great build!

Is the 2,5" OS mount tray in the package of this case? And if I want to put in a PCIe SATA card, I also need to order the riser cable (16X PCIe Extension Kit for NSC-800 Server Chassis)? This riser cable can also be used in the 810A?

I plan to move my build from a NZXT H440 into this chassis. My CPU is a i7-6700 (TDP 65W). Do you think this will work stable in term of temps?
 

Churchill

Admiral
Jan 6, 2016
838
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@K D Great build!

Is the 2,5" OS mount tray in the package of this case? And if I want to put in a PCIe SATA card, I also need to order the riser cable (16X PCIe Extension Kit for NSC-800 Server Chassis)? This riser cable can also be used in the 810A?

I plan to move my build from a NZXT H440 into this chassis. My CPU is a i7-6700 (TDP 65W). Do you think this will work stable in term of temps?

if you buy the case through UNAS they will include the riser card ,the cable, and the 2.5" tray for free. YOu have to ask them for it though.

you'll need a heavyduty CPU Fan to cool that beast, the noctua that @KD and I have work wonders.