How do you silence 25TB?

Show off your quiet rig.

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Nick Geraedts
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 561
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 8:22 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC

How do you silence 25TB?

Post by Nick Geraedts » Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:22 pm

It's been a while since I started a thread here, and even longer since I made the thread describing my file server as it was in 2008.

A few upgrades have happened in the past 4 years, most notably the change from 8x1TB WD Greens to 4x2TB Greens about two years ago. Back in April, I upgrade both my desktop system and my server as a birthday present to myself. In November, Black Friday came and went, and along with it a sale on the new WD 3TB Red drives.

And now, the updated parts list:

CM Stacker 810
Corsair HX620
ASUS P8Z77-M Pro
Intel i3-2100 w/ TRU120E
16GB G.Skill Sniper 1.25V DDR3-1600
3ware 9650SE-8LPML /w BBU
1x Intel 320 80GB (boot drive)
2x Intel 520 120GB (RAID1 - critical VHD drive)
1x WD10EADS internal (other VHD drive)
1x WD10EADS external (backups of important files)
8x WD30EFRX (RAID6 - storage array) - SPCR Review
Pioneer DVR-212D
3x Scythe Slipstream 800RPM (case and CPU fans)
1x Scythe Slipstream 500RPM (3ware card fan)

And, as usual.... pictures:

Side view:
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Front view:
Image

Close up:
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The 500RPM Slipstream was added recently to help keep the 3ware card and BBU a little bit cooler (BBU temperatures were in the high 40's without the fan - now they're down to ~35C). The CPU fan is controlled by the BIOS, and the two case fans are both controlled by the same Zalman FanMate2 using a simple Y-splitter cable.

I'm still using the same hard drive suspension mentioned in my previous thread. The elastics have lost a little bit of their spring, but are still plenty strong to hold up the drives. I ran out of room for the SSDs, so they're simply sitting on the floor of the server.

I have a 1TB drive in a passive Vantec eSATA enclosure that rests on top of the server case on a bed of foam (you can see this in the first picture). My important files (documents, pictures, music) are backed up using Crashplan to the external drive and to the cloud. A few dollars a month for unlimited cloud storage is well worth the peace of mind in my opinion.

The Red drives really are quite unremarkable - in a good way! My server is located under my desk so it's always within earshot. Unless I stop what I'm doing and really try to hear the system, it's almost never noticeable. Even when putting the storage array under heavy load, I usually need to be within 2 ft to actually hear anything.

As it looks at my desk:
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Hope you all enjoyed this update! Let me know if you have any questions. :)

mkk
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Location: Gefle, Sweden
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Re: How do you silence 25TB?

Post by mkk » Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:31 am

Nice result. My old Stacker 810 taught me all I needed to learn about vibrations, with its aluminium frame. Since then I call any Al cases "Nemesis". :mrgreen:

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