24 hard drive bay "near-silent" server build
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:57 pm
Hi guys, thought I'd post a pic up now that I've finally shaved off another few decibels of noise. It really is pretty darn quiet for a 24 bay server build, I haven't seen many silence focused large bay builds yet. Made this back in November 2010 but only just added the fan controller.
I thought I'd post this up and perhaps it will inspire the more skilled members here to take the idea to the extremes
The setup is nearly silent when the drives spin down, and whisper quiet while they are spinning, but still has a nice volume of air running from front to back. My observations are from ~1-2m. Its a server you can have in the living room if need be.
So this pics show the front of the 4U case with 24 hard drive bays:
I know you guys have very good DIY skills. I don't So the best I've done is taped off parts of the case to cut down on air short circuits, and used 'magical' velcro to attach the SSD and fan controller to the sides of the internal case because the front of the case is covered in hot-swap 3.5" hard drive bays! I've kept it fairly neat so the air can flow front to back un-impeded.
Key specs:
CASE Norco 4224
CPU Core i3 processor (undervolted)
RAM 8 Gb G.Skill RIPJAWS DDR3 1600
STORAGE 3x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8
HD 5x 2 Tb WD Green, 1x 1 Tb Samsung Spinpoint F3, 1x OCZ Vertex 2 60 Gb (OS drive) (...so far)
OS Windows Server 2008 R2
PSU Corsair AX850
FANS 3x Noctua P12-1300 120mm, 2x Sycthe SFF80C 80mm, 1x Scythe 120mm SFF120D or something, the one on the CPU is a 140mm Noctua
HS Noctua C12P SE14
MOBO Gigabyte P55-UD7
FANCTRL Zalman 6 channel
& featuring VELCRO
About 84W idling, 115W when all drives are spinning (from the wall). I'll just add drives as I need to expand the storage.
I think the base system without the controllers is around 55-60W, the rest of the idle must be the 3x SAS controllers.
The PSU fan doesn't spin up at either of the power points mentioned above.
I've chosen fans that perform better under pressure differentials.
The Supermicro controllers generate quite a lot of heat which is why I put another fan on top of them blowing down onto them. I've made air gaps for the air to escape from that side of the case as well.
Key services it runs:
- Sab, Sickbeard, uTorrent, Teamspeak, Minecraft (sometimes ) & FlexRAID
Let me know if you are interested in any more info or pics. EDIT: There are some more pics I posted a few posts below.
EDIT: HD Temps (ambient feels like 16 deg C (kinda cold))
All the WDs are between 31-33 deg C
The Samsung is 29 deg C
This is what it looks like in the room (its just out there):
I thought I'd post this up and perhaps it will inspire the more skilled members here to take the idea to the extremes
The setup is nearly silent when the drives spin down, and whisper quiet while they are spinning, but still has a nice volume of air running from front to back. My observations are from ~1-2m. Its a server you can have in the living room if need be.
So this pics show the front of the 4U case with 24 hard drive bays:
I know you guys have very good DIY skills. I don't So the best I've done is taped off parts of the case to cut down on air short circuits, and used 'magical' velcro to attach the SSD and fan controller to the sides of the internal case because the front of the case is covered in hot-swap 3.5" hard drive bays! I've kept it fairly neat so the air can flow front to back un-impeded.
Key specs:
CASE Norco 4224
CPU Core i3 processor (undervolted)
RAM 8 Gb G.Skill RIPJAWS DDR3 1600
STORAGE 3x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8
HD 5x 2 Tb WD Green, 1x 1 Tb Samsung Spinpoint F3, 1x OCZ Vertex 2 60 Gb (OS drive) (...so far)
OS Windows Server 2008 R2
PSU Corsair AX850
FANS 3x Noctua P12-1300 120mm, 2x Sycthe SFF80C 80mm, 1x Scythe 120mm SFF120D or something, the one on the CPU is a 140mm Noctua
HS Noctua C12P SE14
MOBO Gigabyte P55-UD7
FANCTRL Zalman 6 channel
& featuring VELCRO
About 84W idling, 115W when all drives are spinning (from the wall). I'll just add drives as I need to expand the storage.
I think the base system without the controllers is around 55-60W, the rest of the idle must be the 3x SAS controllers.
The PSU fan doesn't spin up at either of the power points mentioned above.
I've chosen fans that perform better under pressure differentials.
The Supermicro controllers generate quite a lot of heat which is why I put another fan on top of them blowing down onto them. I've made air gaps for the air to escape from that side of the case as well.
Key services it runs:
- Sab, Sickbeard, uTorrent, Teamspeak, Minecraft (sometimes ) & FlexRAID
Let me know if you are interested in any more info or pics. EDIT: There are some more pics I posted a few posts below.
EDIT: HD Temps (ambient feels like 16 deg C (kinda cold))
All the WDs are between 31-33 deg C
The Samsung is 29 deg C
This is what it looks like in the room (its just out there):