[Scratch] Project: Crimson Server Desk Module

[Luciel]

Hi Everyone,

Today´s update is a bit late, this is because today´s update is all about hard drives. I (finally) took the server apart (finally finished copying all its files from its hard drives in to 2x 3Tb drives). I knew a couple of its drives where on their way out and I knew for a fact one was dead (just never got round to taking them out as it wasn´t straight forward, I made the mistake when I first put it togueter to not label which drive was what and tagging the cables for easy id. I also went through my workshop and put togueter all the drives I could find (if they where still there it was because when I left them there they where working, but at least a couple of them had been sitting in storage for years. So all in all it was a VERY good idea to just sit down and test every single HDD. In total it was 21 of them. There´s another 3tb and another (not including one of the 2 3tb drives I used for backing up the server) 750Gb drive, these 2 I use in my day to day PC, the 750 for documents, photos, music, etc and the 3tb for essentially steam, origin, desura and non-platform dependant games. So, in total 21 drives which are avaliable for the server. Out of these 21 I had to choose 11+1 Optical media (6 through mobo ports, 2 through PCI-E card, and 4 [2sata+2ide through another PCI card]) and then another extra drive for the secondary ITX board.

First I used Speedfan (SMART tab) for basic SMART status, straight up, 2 failed (badly). One was actually "OK" according to SMART but, part of the test I was doing to all drives was deleting their partitions (if any) and giving them one sole partition per drive (taking all space avaliable on each drive). 1 of these 2 drives simply would not format. To make sure I tried through diskpart and then again through Ubuntu (as opposed to Windows 7), nothing. The second of those two had the dreaded nasty clicking sound and mobo simply would not even recognise it. So that´s 19 drives left that, according to SMART are "OK" after giving each and everyone of them an "extended test" through Speedfan. I also removed the OCZ 120Gb SSD from the list, because I´m still not sure I want to use that for the ITX OS, though while I write this, I´ve decided I will, no point buying another 60Gb SSD simply so I don´t need to use that 120Gb which I´m not using for anything else aniway.

Secondly, and after stressing all those drives, I tested them through Crystal Mark (Crystaldisk). Out of 19, 4 displayed in yellow (RISK), all 4 had the same reason, max allowed number of unallocated sectors (100+), but in terms of fitness they where OK, but for the sake of elimination, I´m putting them aside (the 4 on the right).

The remaining 15 passed with flying colors (if you´re curious about the green and blue drives, They where used in previous projects, which is the why of their color . Out of those 15 I chose 10 HDDs, 1 SSD and 1 CD/DVD RW drive, making a total of 10 sata devices and 2 IDE devices. Why they IDE you may ask? Simple, I have 2 500Gb IDE drives that seemed like a waste not to use and found a cheap PCI card that included one IDE port (so, 2 devices with a dual-connector IDE cable) and 2 SATA1 connectors (which while very speed limited, it´s not a big deal, I´ll be using those drives for cold storage). for 13€ (18USD give or take), so here is the final selection.

Have in mind all these will be going on the M-ATX mobo, the extra SSD for the ITX mobo is missing from these pictures. As to why only one drive for the ITX? Simple, the ITX mobo is low power consumption (quite low actually) and is the one I´ll be using for overnight downloading, so all it needs is the one drive, files can then be moved through network to the M-ATX storage.

The next step is to prep them for customizing, so, stickers off! (Notice the note on the right letting me know which drive is which by mantaining the order).

These drives need some serious cleaning before anything can be done but at this point is was very late (or early depends on how you see AM hours) and did not feel like doing that then. I could however not resist mounting them to see how it will look in place so I added a little note to each drive so I don´t loose the order (to knoe which drive is what) and mounted them. So here goes (note that the extra SSD for the ITX will be located in that empty slot in the rack on the left).

As planned, they are located just underneath the extraction 200mm fans.

As a last note, I was planning on shaving the mounts off so they´d sit straight on the base, but I kind of really like that little inclination, what do you think?

Also, remember I was worried about only attaching the drives on one side (2 screws per drive) due to vibration? Well as it turns out, when the screws are fully on, the drives don´t move/jiggle at all so I´m thinking it´ll be ok. Worst comes to worse, I think instead of adding another mount on top I could simple add 2 metal stripes per mount on top to add further rigidness to the drives without sacrificing aesthetics (I may do that regardless, I´m liking the concept in my head).

Well, that´s it for today. I know today´s update was just about hard drives and not much visually done (at all) to the actual inside (did you notice the M-ATX mobo is in!? And no, that´s not the heatsink that will be used, it was simply what was on it) but it´s just one of those things that takes a long time if you want to make sure you put in the right drives out of what you have. Anyhow, as always...

...thanks for reading!

[Luciel]

Hi Everyone,

Continuing on yesterdays update, today I removed all the grit and dirt from the hard drives and got them ready for paint. Most of them are seagate which do not normally have a breating hole up top and this makes it easier, for WD and other drives that do normally have them, really the safest way is to cover that whole with masking tape, once the rest is painted, paint carefully around it by hand, not as great of a finish but it´ll do the trick. It goes without saying that if you want to do this, you really have to be carefull and cover up all the sensitive bits in a hard drive, including plausible openings.

I started with the paint and while I wait for the first coat to dry I received a package! And here it is, the ITX, secondary board.

After the second coat, the color coat, detailing the WD drives, and lacquer, here is the final result of the hard drives (excluding the 2.5" drives which I haven´t done yet).

And that´s it for today folks, my feet ache and as always...

...thanks for reading!

[Luciel]

Hi Everyone,

So it´s been a couple of work hectic days so I haven´t been able to do anything but today, I had a couple of hours free so I thought I´d do something I thought about. If you remember, in previous posts I was concerned about the vibration the HDDs would have considering they are not attached through one side, and while they do seem pretty solid/stable, I couldn´t help think it just isn´t enough. So I played around with a couple of ideas but none of them quite did it for me until I thought, plexy! So here goes.

Cut out two pieces after measuring it all up and did the mounting holes.

I think I will need to do 2 more smaller pieces for the 2 2.5 hdds on each side, but that´s for another day. Anyhow, screws in.

I like it but.. there´s something missing... I know! A small led would really add to it, have in mind in the following picks, the led is held in by a bit of tape, Obviously this isn´t how it´s going to remain, it´s just for testing

Love it. The downside of course is that the disipation of heat provided by the fans on top is dimished a bit as now all the hdd heat will leave by the sides since the top is blocked, but I think it´s a decent trade-in. And well that´s all for today, should be able to do a fair bit this weekend (fingers-crossed), and as always...

...thanks for reading! (Oh and, happy weekend-ing everyone!)

[Luciel]

Hi Everyone,

First of all, White Rabbits and happy April Fools day to all

I was really looking forward to getting some work done on this over the weekend, unfortunately on Saturday afternoon I burned my left hand, nothing hospital serious but definately meant that I wasn´t going to be doing much if not at all over the weekend in terms of this project. Today however I was tired of "taking it easy" so I did a bit of "easy" work, don´t get to excited however, nothing flashy about this update but things that needed doing

Firstly I recicled another old case for a base and I/O plate mount for the ITX board, this case was from the P4 era, so as you can imagine, it was awfully dirty as well, but did the same as with the previous one and got the parts cleaned up. Unfortunately this case did not have both sections put togueter as the previous one, but nothing I can´t work around.

More leftovers for the scrap metal pile.

Next step was to fix the other mounting to both the surface and back panel of the module.

Next step was to mark its surroundings so I can start measuring where to cut (I need to, obviously, take the back panel of the module off in order to cut it).

But I can´t start with that until I get the other mount ready (and a couple of other components that will be featured hopefully in the next update), which meant painting. I also took the opportunity to do the 2.5 drives and the I/O plate for the ITX board. So I took out the mix ratios I wrote down for that special matte/glossy black mixture and got it done.

And that´s all for today folks, as always...

...thanks for reading!

[Luciel]

Very small update today, not so much that I had little time but rather than in order to show these picks, the process takes considerable time. So, first thing´s first, finished the 2.5 drives (2x hdds & 2x SSDs)

Took the back panel off and did the cutouts for both mobos, after that I painted the wood-color bits so they don´t stick out as much, I didn´t have any wood paint at hand so used the paint I normally use, because it is water based the wood sucks it in and doesn´t leave as deep of a colour, but I think the tone difference looks good so going to leave it like that. Didn´t attach it back with screws yet as I still have to do the PSU and a couple of other cutouts so made no sense to screw it back in but, I did put it in possition for a couple of pickies.

It goes without saying that I will be painting the metal parts of those cards so as to match the I/O plate. I didn´t do the X-Fi card in red today, it was like that from another project (it´s also a different tone of red than the one I´m using on this project) and while I like it, I will be doing something else paint wise with it, just thought I´d mount the hardware to see how it looked

And that´s it! More tomorrow and as always...

...thanks for reading!

[TheMainMan]

Looking good! Glad to hear you're changing the colour of the X-Fi, that smack of red in all that blue and black stood out like a sore thumb.

[Luciel]

Hi Everyone,

Today I started painting bits and pieces.

While those dried out I figured I´d get started on the front, while not pictured I had already taken care of paiting the exposed wood colour bits (except where the switches go as those would be completely covered aniway. So, the first and only thing I had ready to be installed is the controller. Being this a server, it only seemed right to use the Lamptron CM615 for remote access (through my main PC) on the same LAN.

Originally I was going to make some mounts for the frontal devices but figured It would just mean more visible screws so instead I opted to use hot glue instead. So went ahead and mounted the lamptron.

Nice fit

Now that the painted bits where dry I figured I´d mount them (note the little detail on the X-Fi, same as the HDDs).

.

Figured I´d put the back in place to see how it looks (note that the screws of the M-ATX mount are not in place on the back, this is because I´m not finished with the back, they are on the ITX mount because if you remember it´s two pieces rather than just one.

Following the theme, I did something special with the PSU (Also, photo number 100!)

I decided this is where an 80mm intake fan will be located (may add 2 as it means it will also be ready for a 160mm rad if in the future I want to upgrade to liquid cooling).

And lastly, this will be the possition of an SFX PSU that will power the itx board (obviously, needs to be painted).

.

You may notice the fan of the ATX PSU is pointed towards the wall. There will be a piece of metal or wood blocking the air spreading to the rest of the case and a mesh aperture on the back panel to allow the air to flow. By doing this, none of the heat created by the PSU stays in the module.

Anyhow, that´s about it for today and as always...

...thanks for reading!

[TheMainMan]

You may notice the fan of the ATX PSU is pointed towards the wall. There will be a piece of metal or wood blocking the air spreading to the rest of the case and a mesh aperture on the back panel to allow the air to flow. By doing this, none of the heat created by the PSU stays in the module.

Not sure you'll need that divider, by the look of the fan it's an intake and the hot air will come out the grill on the back. Might want to check the fan direction first.

It's really starting to come together. Love the little red triangles carried throughout that tie the theme together!

[Luciel]

You may be completely right Sir! That said, in the case of it being an intake, with a divider most of the air it´ll take it will come through the mesh from the outside, in the case of no dividir the air will most likely be warmer since it´s propagating from the rest of the module no?

----------------

Hi Everyone,

Today´s update isn´t much of a work update as such, but rather an update on materials as I haven´t had much time these last few days. Unfortunately my compressor died the other day, it was 6 and a half years old and to be honest it was never very good, I´m convinced it leaked air as it could never hold a full load within the tank, had no pressure control (so it was useless for smaller sprayguns) neither did it have an auto on/off depending on the quantity of air within it´s tank which was a pain in the rear, I bought it when I first started painting and it´s what happens when you buy something without knowing any better.

So, I went down to the same shop I always go for paint supplies (sure I could´ve provably bought the following cheaper online but it´s a local shop, not part of a chain and they´ve always been extremely good to me, hell if it wasn´t for them existing I wouldn´t know what to do so I like to support them) and got myself a spanking brand new compressor, this time round however with all the bells and whistles.

For the same price I could´ve gotten a 50ltr one, with the same specs all round but it was simply to big for the space I have allocated for it, plus fact is I don´t need it to hold so much air at any given time. So I mounted the wheels on it and placed it where the old one used to live, just outside my "paintbooth". I was going to install the tubing I have from the old one but the fittings where different!

So had to go back to the shop (thankfully, it´s only a 5 min drive from where I live) and get some new fittings, I figured for the price I might as well also get some new tubing (what you also see in the picture are some measuring cups I use for mixing the paint components, I change them once a year or so as they get rather dirty after many paint sessions and it´s increasingly harder to read the measurements on them)...

...and just as I was about to leave... the owner knows I´ve been keeping an eye on 2 sprayguns they have there (a mini and a detailing one) but I couldn´t really justify the price since I already had some (even though they weren´t exactly expensive) so he mentioned that they are now the last two and they are end of line models so I could have them at cost price if I wanted (love this shop!) so I figured... what the hell...PLUS it is my BIRTHDAY on Sunday the 13th and of course while I was at it I figured I needed some new suplies aniway (I was going to get them next week, but while I was there I figured I´d get the lot as I know when I buy a certain amount of stuff they give me a further discount) so...

And the spanking new sprayguns! (I´m veeeery happy right now!)

While I was out, a package arrived (love the feeling of coming home to even more goodies).

Cables, cables and more cables, all the cables and extensions I ordered and need for this project.

At one point when I started this project I thought about sleeving but, to be honest I´m not a huge fan of sleeving and just looking at the amount of cables gives me a headache plus the fact is, you´re going to see next to none of them once installed so, figured, no point.

Anyhow, next thing I decided is I´m going to install a small kvm switch on the back of the module. You see the servers are going to be connected to a TV i have on the wall above where the module will live, so, not just a server, but as I mentioned at the beggining of this project, also a media center and streamer. Don´t really need the KVM as all the files and storage will be on the M-ATX, but I already had it laying about, never really used it much so figured, hell if I ever can´t access the servers remotely at least this way I can see what´s going on without having to move the module to plug a monitor in the back. So, haven´t fitted it on yet nor have I decided it I will get rid of the enclosure it comes with but, just so you get an idea of where it will go:

Lastly, but no less important. I was taking some measurements to cut the opening for the 80mm fan. While doing so I realised, as I mentioned in a previous post that I could fit two. I also realised the cpu heatsink that I was going to use for the M-ATX is to tall! So started looking for a smaller one online and though... I can fit 2x 80mm fans... I have spare fittings... I have some tubing... I have a spare basic cpu block... I have a spare small reservoir... hell I´m not going to buy a new heatsink, instead I´ll get a 2x80mm radiator, sure it´s a small but it´s only cooling a very low end 1155 cpu so what the hell and so I did. I bought the only one I could find which wasn´t to expensive (there are not that many 2x80mm models out there), 57€ with shipping, not to bad! It´s an Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 80mm Dual and should arrive at some point next week.

Anyhow, for an update without any actual work progress, it certainly has turned a few things around and... crap I just realised I don´t have any decent 80mm fans laying about...!!

That´s all for today folks and as always...

...thanks for reading!

[Luciel]

Hello Everyone,

Small update today, it´s been my birthday weekend and well, you shouldn´t use powertools when... not sober so no work this weekend. So, got a couple of hours in of work today, not much though, measuring hole placements and so on. I wasn´t going to show anything until they where all done but I really felt like seeing how it looks.

Before that however, got the card reader in place, so that´s done.

So, after I did the holes I started getting everything togueter for a mock shot, because of this have in mind the holes exposed wood needs to be painted, nothing is held down by screws so parts might look somewhat out of placement and so on, this is purely so you get an idea of how the cables could look once done, at least on the right side of the module (just one set of hdds and the m-atx mobo).

As I started, I was so glad I got the idea for the trap door, sooo many cables, and this is only a part of the whole lot!

And here are a few closeups of the lot, enjoy

And that´s it! Will try to get some work done tomorrow though no promises, a lot of "real-life" work to catch up to from 3 days off.

And as always...

...thanks for reading!