Rob's /sun/Norco/ Image Archive

I've always wanted the 24 disk supermicro case.

  • Its loud despite the PWM fans because most MB's bios arn't as agressive as HP's blades.
  • Has front mounted LEDs
  • Sleds fit tight with no vibration.
  • Single backplane with optinal expander.
  • Over $1k.

    so in May 2007 I built my own with three 5in3 trays in a tall case that could hold 4.

    I've never really been happy with the setup.. the drive activity LEDs are not on the drive trays, but are on the edge of the cage. the trays are easy to slide in and out, but vibrate, so I use heavy grease to remove the vibration. Yea, each of the three 5in3 have their own fan, with two speed settings, and an over temp alarm, but the supermicro 5in3 are better. photos

    anyways, Sept 2010 I tried again and ordered a new $400 case.

    so that leaves me with:
    $250 X7SBE MB two 133MHz PCI-X @ 1,067 MB/s each (PCI Express 4x speed)
    $195 Xeon E3110 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core CPU
    $204 8G ECC ram
    $210 two AOC-SAT2-MV8 PCI-X133 8 port SATA cards
    $400 NORCO RPC-4224 case
    $78 six 4 Discrete SATA to SFF-8087 (Reverse breakout) Cables
    $7 4P in Molex 1 Male to 7 Female Power Extension Splitter Cable
    powersupply with at least 6 Molex power connectors

    two unused disk slots, but no expander GUID issues with SATA disks.

    If I did it over today, an extra $23 buys one newer stuff and the ability to add a third 8 port SAS PCIe 4x controller off the south bridge.

    $190 X8SIL-F Xeon X3400 / L3400 / Core i3 MB Dual LAN Micro ATX w/ Remote Management
    $232 Xeon X3440 Lynnfield 2.53GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core
    $134 * 4 for 16G Registered ECC ram
    $244 two AOC-USAS-L8I PCIe 4x
    $90 six SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 Internal Multilane SAS Cable

    Another idea for more zfs arc (system ram) are amd's G34 designs.

    $265 H8SGL-F with ether kvm
    $280 or $516 8core single processor
    $102 * 4 for 16G Unbuffered ECC ram
    $134 * 8 for 32G Registered ECC ram

    so what's better four 4+1 or two 8+2 vdevs?

    The 4 center fan aren't too loud, sort of like the computer you had 4 years ago. Moving from 12v to 6.3v takes the edge off, but still noticeable. They won't spin below 5v. But boy, the two fans in the back, are nuts! In fact you can feel the gyro forces while you hold them. Dragging them down to 6.1v helps alot, but even then, they are still very noticeable and won't spin lower than 4.4v. The 1600rpm Scythe Slipstream is silent at 7.8v like the 1200rpm @ 12v.

    The back planes are nice. The strain relief on power and sas connectors are soldered a second time after the wave bath.

    The pleasant surprise was that one can shut off the air on unoccupied bays and mounting holes for 2.5" disks.

    wonder what's going to happen next?


    treadstone's proposal is the best for the community, but selfishly this is a replacement for a tri 5in1 disk theory that I was never happy with. My goal is to improve on it, not the the stock 4224.

    But as a gesture we could do a baseline disk temp graph on the old box doing a scrub and see how that compares to the modified 4224. In all cases 120mm fans should offer more CFMs, we just need to balance how much wattage we pump into the fans :-)
    the marketing theory is
    4 * 35.3 CFM @ 31 dB(A) (141.2) is less then 3 * 68.54 CFM @ 24 dB(A) (205.6)
    and
    2 * 57.2 CFM @ 44.5 dB(A) (114.4) compared to 2 * 88.11 CFM @ 33.00 dB(A) (176.22)

    yea, two fans in the back... but to treadstone's point.. lets measure it because we realy don't the effect on deltaP.


    A few notes from my build:

  • The disk powered green LED is perfect brightness.
  • The disk activity blue LED is fast acting, but dim.
  • Three good (68.54 CFM @ 24 dB(A) 1200rpm Slipstream with nothing in the back should be enough for most green disk loads. The flow out with this setup is quite impressive. I'll graph it to be sure.
  • Rattles are hard to find and can happen on any metal to metal contact. Bathroom cawk is our firend.
  • Fans tightened enough to warp will make a noise.
  • WD black disks are louder than Slipstream fans.
  • This build has met its mission of holding more disks, quite, and cooler than the last theory.

    Most disk trays have little springs on the sides to stop rattling (my old 5in1 didn't and rattled badly, axle grease was my friend)

    Norco "could" rattle because they wiggle in the slot, but I admit I haven't experienced it. Anyway, its easy to add four spring steel loops on the side.


    The PS has 5 drive molex feeds, I use them all to maximize copper to backplane.

    sweloop64 is correct, graphs from smart, a line for each disk.

    I'll be ordering the Norco 120mm midplane, less holes than mine.

    the brown/gold thing is a south bridge cooler (xmas gift)

    X8SIL-F+x3440
    that's a nice setup novadude! I showed you mine, now show me yours :-)

    #!/bin/sh
    
    while [ 0 ] ; do
      /usr/ucb/echo -n `date +%k:%M`
      hdadm display | awk '{
    if ($6 == "0K05") printf " " $7
    }'
      echo
      sleep 60
    done
    

    Old case New 4224
    Rise during scrub
    Delta T ~5°
    Max T 48° 42°
    Resting Max T 45° 40°

    So with 5 120mm 1200rpm Slipstreams there is an overall reduction and increased control for the 10 black disk. The new green spare is at least 5° cooler than the black drives too. I can hear the air seperate from the 3 inner fans when I put a cover over the backplane to midplane so there is a slight deltaP issue. We do have a max operating of 60° we could decrease the flow and take advantage of the delta from ambient. naaa.

    The first hr is steady state with all five 1200rpm slipstream fans. The second hr is with the case top covering the mid plane and back plane to simulate no rear fans. The third hr is with no case top. and the last two hrs are with the case top replaced. It looks like one needs to run each state for over 2 hrs, (looking at the scrub graph, perhaps 5hrs) but it give us an idea on fan options.

    Device    Serial        Vendor   Model             Rev  Temperature     
    ------    ------        ------   -----             ---- -----------     
    c11t1d0p0  WMATV0109098  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 42 C (107 F)
    c11t2d0p0  WMATV0086641  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 45 C (113 F)
    c11t3d0p0  WMATV0086430  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 46 C (114 F)
    c11t4d0p0  WMATV0075456  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 45 C (113 F)
    c11t5d0p0  WMATV0078325  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 43 C (109 F)
    c7t0d0p0  WCAV59169098  ATA      WDC WD10EVDS-63U  0A01 33 C (91 F)
    c7t1d0p0  WMATV6790152  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 45 C (113 F)
    c7t2d0p0  WMATV6789810  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 47 C (116 F)
    c7t3d0p0  WMATV6963118  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 47 C (116 F)
    c7t4d0p0  WMATV6936555  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 46 C (114 F)
    c7t5d0p0  WMATV6770119  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 42 C (107 F)
    c9t0d0p0  B41BT4D83VBC  ATA      HDT722525DLA380   A91A 255 C (491 F)
    c9t1d0p0  WCAMR2404913  ATA      WDC WD3200JD-00K  5J08 0 C (32 F)
    c9t2d0p0  WMAP41972847  ATA      WDC WD1500AHFD-0  7QR5 38 C (100 F)
    c9t4d0p0  WCASY8899432  ATA      WDC WD5000AAKS-0  4C07 38 C (100 F)
    c9t5d0p0      L592ZJRH  ATA      Maxtor 7L250S0    1E00 40 C (104 F)
    
    
    sata1/0
    sata1/1::dsk/c9t1d0 Mod: HDT722525DLA380 FRev: V44OA91A SN: VDB41BT4D83VBC
    sata1/2::dsk/c9t2d0 Mod: WDC WD3200JD-00KLB0 FRev: 08.05J08 SN: WD-WCAMR2404913
    sata1/3
    sata1/4
    sata1/5
    sata2/0::dsk/c7t0d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00E8B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV6936555
    sata2/1::dsk/c7t1d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00E8B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV6770119
    sata2/2::dsk/c7t2d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00E8B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV6963118
    sata2/3
    sata2/4::dsk/c7t4d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00E8B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV6790152
    sata2/5::dsk/c7t5d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00E8B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV6789810
    sata2/6
    sata2/7
    sata3/0::dsk/c8t0d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV0086641
    sata3/1::dsk/c8t1d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV0109098
    sata3/2::dsk/c8t2d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV0086430
    sata3/3
    sata3/4::dsk/c8t4d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV0078325
    sata3/5::dsk/c8t5d0 Mod: WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0 FRev: 05.00K05 SN: WD-WMATV0075456
    sata3/6
    sata3/7
    
    Device    Serial        Vendor   Model             Rev  Temperature     
    ------    ------        ------   -----             ---- -----------     
    c7t0d0p0  WMATV6936555  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 43 C (109 F)
    c7t1d0p0  WMATV6770119  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 42 C (107 F)
    c7t2d0p0  WMATV6963118  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 43 C (109 F)
    c7t4d0p0  WMATV6790152  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 43 C (109 F)
    c7t5d0p0  WMATV6789810  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 43 C (109 F)
    c8t0d0p0  WMATV0086641  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 44 C (111 F)
    c8t1d0p0  WMATV0109098  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 43 C (109 F)
    c8t2d0p0  WMATV0086430  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 45 C (113 F)
    c8t4d0p0  WMATV0078325  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 43 C (109 F)
    c8t5d0p0  WMATV0075456  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 44 C (111 F)
    c9t1d0p0  B41BT4D83VBC  ATA      HDT722525DLA380   A91A 255 C (491 F)
    c9t2d0p0  WCAMR2404913  ATA      WDC WD3200JD-00K  5J08 0 C (32 F)
    
    
    Device    Serial        Vendor   Model             Rev  Temperature     
    ------    ------        ------   -----             ---- -----------     
    c11t1d0p0  WMATV0109098  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 39 C (102 F)
    c11t2d0p0  WMATV0086641  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 40 C (104 F)
    c11t3d0p0  WMATV0086430  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 40 C (104 F)
    c11t4d0p0  WMATV0075456  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 39 C (102 F)
    c11t5d0p0  WMATV0078325  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 38 C (100 F)
    c12t0d0p0                        Patriot Memory    PMAP None     
    c7t0d0p0  WCAV59169098  ATA      WDC WD10EVDS-63U  0A01 33 C (91 F)
    c7t1d0p0  WMATV6790152  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 42 C (107 F)
    c7t2d0p0  WMATV6789810  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 43 C (109 F)
    c7t3d0p0  WMATV6963118  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 42 C (107 F)
    c7t4d0p0  WMATV6936555  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 42 C (107 F)
    c7t5d0p0  WMATV6770119  ATA      WDC WD1001FALS-0  0K05 38 C (100 F)
    c9t0d0p0  B41BT4D83VBC  ATA      HDT722525DLA380   A91A 255 C (491 F)
    c9t1d0p0  WCAMR2404913  ATA      WDC WD3200JD-00K  5J08 0 C (32 F)
    c9t2d0p0  WMAP41972847  ATA      WDC WD1500AHFD-0  7QR5 34 C (93 F)
    c9t3d0p0  WMAPZ0538599  ATA      WDC WD3200AAJS-0  1B01 None     
    c9t4d0p0  WCASY8899432  ATA      WDC WD5000AAKS-0  4C07 35 C (95 F)
    c9t5d0p0      L592ZJRH  ATA      Maxtor 7L250S0    1E00 36 C (96 F)
    
    
    
    Desired front disk map
    Color
    0 1 2 3
    f white a1 a2
    e yellow c6 b6 b8 a3
    d black c5 b5 b7 a4
    c blue c4 b4 c8 a5
    b green c3 b3 c7 a6
    a red c2 b2 c1 b1

    Resulting cabling
    ControlerCable
    c8 blue2
    c7 green2
    c6 yellow0
    c5 black0
    c4 blue0
    c3 green0
    c2 red0
    c1 red2
    b8 yellow2
    b7 black2
    b6 yellow1
    b5 black1
    b4 blue1
    b3 green1
    b2 red1
    b1 red3
    a6 green3
    a5 blue3
    a4 black3
    a3 yellow3
    a2 white3
    a1 white2

    New desired front map:
    A b c D yellow
        E f white
    a B c D black
    E f G h blue
    a B c d green
    E f G H red
    
    

    Click on any of the images below for a better view. The number under the image is the size of the better view in bytes followed by the date it was last edited and its name. Click on the name to view the jpeg header. Click back in your browser to return to this index or the parent of this archive has more images too.



    910K Nov 2 18:16 nas-fan2-01591.jpg

    632K Nov 2 18:16 nas-fan2-01589.jpg

    915K Nov 2 18:16 nas-fan2-01588.jpg


    1.4M Sep 19 10:11 nas-build-01571.jpg

    735K Sep 18 20:30 nas-build-01569.jpg

    881K Sep 18 20:09 nas-build-01566.jpg


    1.2M Sep 18 17:07 nas-build-01565.jpg

    1.0M Sep 18 16:52 nas-build-01563.jpg

    959K Sep 18 15:20 nas-build-01561.jpg


    553K Sep 17 22:19 nas-build-01555.jpg

    20K Sep 17 21:07 ibm-server-drive-rails.jpg

    26K Sep 17 21:07 supermicro_sled.jpg


    769K Sep 17 20:54 nas-sled-01553.jpg

    692K Sep 16 19:44 nas-fans-0063.jpg

    953K Sep 16 18:37 nas-fans-0059.jpg


    933K Sep 16 18:10 nas-fans-0045.jpg

    890K Sep 15 23:22 nas-3-01550.jpg

    904K Sep 15 21:02 nas-fans-01547.jpg


    807K Sep 15 19:32 nas-fans-01540.jpg

    585K Sep 15 19:28 nas-fans-01538.jpg

    786K Sep 15 19:27 nas-fans-01536.jpg


    756K Sep 15 19:25 nas-fans-01534.jpg

    1M Sep 15 18:14 nas-fans-0042.jpg

    39K Sep 6 23:20 rpc4220_7.jpg


    397K May 28 13:18 First-Second-0014.jpg

    575K May 26 2007 Nas3-Upgrade-4257.jpg

    This 338 index.shtml was served for (none) (207.58.244.114) via (none) on Tuesday, 02-Nov-2010 20:59:02 EDT using Wget/1.9.1 last edited by webservd on Wednesday, 27-Oct-2010 13:16:46 EDT.