After >30 hours of work on a custom case, my home server (v. 2011) is complete!
It’s powered by an Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz processor, on an ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe mini-ITX motherboard, with 8GB of Kingston DDR3 1066MHz SO-DIMM memory. The system drive is an OCZ Vertex 3, 120GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD housed in a Startech Dual 2.5” trayless hot swap bay.
For storage, there are six Seagate 2TB SATAII LP (Low Power) hard drives enclosed in an Intel AXX6DRV3GEXP hot swap SAS/SATA expander. The expander is connected to an LSI MegaRAID SAS 8704EM2 RAID controller on a PCI express x8 bus. The drives are configured in a RAID6 array, resulting in 8TB of usable data storage.
The guts are powered by a Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 500W power supply, and cooled by two rubber-mounted GELID 140mm 1200rpm case fans. Processor heat is handled by a modified GELID Silent Spirit CPU Cooler. Airflow through the Silent Spirit is provided by the power supply fan, which is mounted 5mm above the heat sink.
The custom case was fabricated completely from scratch using 16ga galvanized steel for the bottom pan and motherboard tray, and 20ga stainless steel for the fan shroud and cover. All of the steel is recycled scrap from a local metal fabrication shop. The only purchased case components were the two stainless steel handles on top. Why two handles? The complete server, loaded with drives, weighs around 35 lb.
Last, but not least, the airflow through the case is filtered through a 3M Filtrete high performance furnace filter, cut down to fit the case’s filter holder in front of the fans.
Overall, I’m very happy with how it turned out. The case fans make more noise than I’d like, especially pulling air through the filter. I may reduce the speed from 1200rpm down to 900rpm once I’m sure heat won’t be an issue.
Now, you might ask, why did I spend so much time on a custom case? A few reasons: it will save space, as my old server case was a large, ugly MDF beast; it didn’t cost me anything but my time; it was lots of fun. In the process of fabrication, I actually built a sheet metal brake (bender) from scrap metal that’s capable of bending 14ga steel.