Various 1U silent builds

[pm.stacker]

Having a 1U rackmount case laying around from my former high-density HTPC build (which now is ATX based):


I decided to turn it into a supersilent and low-power media server for my brother.
Case Travla TE1160 1U mini-ITX rackmount case with 4 3.5"/2.5" hot-swap SATA drive bays, something like $400 but it's worth it, built beautifully...
Power supply Seasonic SS-250SU, real silent 1U
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo T7250
Motherboard MSI FUZZY GME965 mini-ITX
System memory 2048 MB DDR2-800
LAN onboard Intel 82573L Pci-E X1 controller
Video card integrated Intel GMA X3100
ODD Optiarc AD-7590A slimline ATA DVD-RW
Emergency boot front CompactFlash ATA reader
Storage controller 1 Integrated ICH9M
Storage controller 2 Addonics Silicon Image SiI3124 SATA300 RAID PCI card, 4-port, hot-swap capable, for the 4 HDD bays
Main HDD WD Scorpio Blue WD1600BEVS
Backup HDD for the Main 2nd WD Scorpio Blue WD1600BEVS
Hotswap storage subsystem at the moment, 2x1.0TB WD10EADS (RAID1) plus one WD6400AACS spare

From HTPC to server


CPU fan is some 50mm old PIII recycled, with auto temp speed control from the MB, mounted on the original MSI heatsink, cut down to fit 1U with the fan mounted on top of it . The GME965 northbridge runs cool thus no other fans needed . Power requirements should be less than 50W, we put some Velcro dampeners on the front trays to get better 3.5" HDD silencing. To connect the cardreader and ODD I modified an old ATA133 round cable and routed it around
System runs very cool, silent and ain't powerhungry being online 24/7 since last summer
It has been suspended vertically behind a wardrobe in my brother's room

Now I'll search if I can find more pictures...

[pm.stacker]

Didn't find any more pictures of this build, but I found some pictures about the previous build, in which I tried to use this same hardware for a HTPC, mounting two flexi riser cards to fit a discrete Radeon graphics card inside!

[ntavlas]

Hello,

Very interesting build and very well done. You have many parts of interest around here like the msi motherboard with the mobile cpu or the seasonic ss 250u. I got one recently but haven`t had the chance to try it out. Is it quiet?

Another question, would you recommend a specific vendor for this kind of components?

Thanks!

[pm.stacker]

ntavlas
The SS-250SU I have is a Travla OEM modified version that came installed inside the case, but I think it is OEM only in the cabling, to accomodate the two 2.5" SATA trays and the 4 SATA hotswap trays, that require a Floppy power connector. It has a detachable AUX12V/Molex "modular" cable that can be modded. The PSU PCB and fan I think is the same as the model you buy separately, it has a 40x40x20 thermally controlled 2-wire fan which is almost inaudible even at 50cm distance and it doesn't spin up with medium load (E5200+HD4350+6HDDs), remember it's "only" 250W

I know the Fuzzy board is something very interesting, having the dual PCIEx16/PCI slots, but be careful with risercards: mine didn't work in either X16 or X1 mode, installing the cards directly to the slot made them work so I think the PCIE drive capacity of the GME965 northbridge is somewhat low, or it was my riser defective . With Core2duo power it consumes next to nothing (GME965 is more optimized even than GM965) and is excellent for server/embedded works, with external graphics even HD playback and it has onboard SPDIF (ALC888). And a Minicard slot (X1/USB2.0) for a Wifi card

For ITX products I usually look for in Germany (techcase.de) where I found the Travla case, they don't stock a huge selection but they have almost all MSI ITX board series, otherwise in UK (linitx.com) with huge selection of riser cards and other "particular" hardware accessories . If you want a fanless 1U all-copper SocketM/P Core2Duo cooler, last year I found one on ebay Germany for a bargain (15€)

[ntavlas]

Hey, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

Good to know that the seasonic psu is quiet. Indeed LinITX have a nice selection of "particular" as you say hardware, I got the ss250u from there. I didn`t know about Techcase.de though.

About the pci-e risercard, have you managed to get it to work with a discreet 16x video card? Perhaps on a different motherboard?

[pm.stacker]

Perhaps was it the modding: to fit it in that case I had to cut off the borders, I checked that there were no wires cut but who knows... maybe with a rigid riser it'd have worked, but for the position the X16 slot has, you have to use a 1U X16 left riser and two X16 extenders to get to the slot position. The PCI slot would require one 1U left riser and one extender but then you won't be able to use the X16 slot (so you've got to use a flexi for the PCI, it always works since it's only 32 bit/33 MHz). Or maybe as said, the GME965 northbridge has just enough power to drive directly a X16 card and not through extenders (wire length at PCIE clock, 100 MHz is more critical than PCI).

[dsl]

Hello pm.stacker!

I have a question about your case. When you bought the case, was the cardreader with the case? Can it read SD-cards? Can you use it to read&backup cards?
I want this case to use it as a nas with the ability to plug in a sd card and backup the card automatically on the hard drives.

Thanks in advance, I hope to hear from you soon!

[bonestonne]

What USB wifi adapter is that? Looks like a pretty good one to me, just the way it's put together. Easy to mod (and that's all I care for) and small.

Nice build though, very compact. For a while I had thought about using a rackmount system, but I've lost the patience to get the case, and I still don't have a rack to put it in.

[pm.stacker]

That ain't a Wifi adapter but an old Terratec DVB-T TV key, with external antenna F socket DIY . It still is used on the last server build with this case.

DSL: the cardreader is the Travla original one which fits this case model (TE1160), sold separately. It natively accepts CF cards only, it connects via IDE bus so it is bootable. Maybe with a SD-CF adapter you could use it with SD cards too (it accepts CF type2 cards)

[pm.stacker]

Updates
Memory now is 4096 MB DDR2-800 (Kingston VLP low-profile).
Storage, now we have a single WD3200BEVT boot drive and 4x WD20EARS drives, configured 2x RAID1 but plan on upgrading to RAID10, plus various external recycled HDDs in a Raidsonic USB removable enclosure.
OS is now Windows 7 HomePremium x64