Mini ITX Home Server build

[cdawall]

I would have prefered a board with an x16 slot, but not for a graphics card, so that I could slap an x4 dedicated RAID card in there to run the data HDDs off of, and run the ODD drives and OS drive off the onboard.

Great build none the less though!

Though if you are anything like me, you'll be disappointed with Windows Home Server. I tried it but quickly went back to good ol' Win7 Professional. There isn't anything Win7 Pro can't do that Win Home Server could, and Win7 Professional can actually be used as a workstation if need be.

i did the same server 2008 was kinda gay...

 

[t_ski]

my HDD are external and i modded in some eSATA adapters for the rear of the case. going to try and unlock the sempy?

Not sure if this one likes it. I tried to flip the setting in the BIOS that does the unlock, but it wouldn't post. Not sure if there was something elst that needed tweaked or not.

Though if you are anything like me, you'll be disappointed with Windows Home Server. I tried it but quickly went back to good ol' Win7 Professional. There isn't anything Win7 Pro can't do that Win Home Server could, and Win7 Professional can actually be used as a workstation if need be.

Yes, Windows 7 is great, but WHS has all the things I'm looking for and I'm familiar with the interface.

On to the update! This week I received the last two 1TB drives.

These joined the first two rather nicely!

Here they are back in tha case. Notice the matching orange 90 degree SATA-2 cables, the Rosewill SATA controller card installed, and another 2GB stick of Patriot ram. Ram is probably overkill...

Today the new power supply arrived. This is a Silverstone Strider 500W PSU.

As you can see, the beauty of the Strider is that it is completely modular, even the 24-pin cable! When you combine the modular PSU with the PP-05 Short Cable Set, it makes a small build so much nicer!

All of the cables are reduced by about a third, and you can interchange the long and short cables as you need them to further customize your build.

Oddly enough, right out of the box the first thing I did (except take pictures for you guys) was mod it! I took the connectors off one of the long cables and added them to one of the short cables and got this:

Now the PSU is back in the case and ready to rock and roll...

I've added the two new drives to the system and formatted them. Just for fun I am installing SP1 for Windows 7 on it while I wait for the WHS OS to arrive. And yes, I am doing so through a Remote Desktop session from my main PC. I might even try an RDP session through PosketCloud on my phone.

 

[cdawall]

very very clean and try dropping the multo to 6x and setting volts to 1.45v if it will boot like that the second core is crappy if it wont well the second core is dead

 

[Delta6326]

now i see where your sweet pic of the sata cable mod is from. looking great

 

[t_ski]

very very clean and try dropping the multo to 6x and setting volts to 1.45v if it will boot like that the second core is crappy if it wont well the second core is dead

I may have to try this You think the stock heatsink can handle the extra voltage? I'm not so sure...

 

[cdawall]

I may have to try this You think the stock heatsink can handle the extra voltage? I'm not so sure...

yes it can i had one. see if you can pick up a used heatpipe cooler lots of people and places sell them for $5ish it would cool alot better than the alum nugget

 

[PopcornMachine]

Nice job with the sata power connectors. Would like to know how you did that, but probably wouldn't understand anyway.

 

[t_ski]

Nice job with the sata power connectors. Would like to know how you did that, but probably wouldn't understand anyway.

If you look at this pic:

You can see that each SATA connector has a cap across the back. I took a pair of scissors, opened them up, and used one of the blades to pry off the cap. Each wire is just pushed down between some metal blades that cut through the wire's insulation and make contact with the wire itself. In the image above, drives one (at the top) and three were the original spacing on the cable. I put the extra connectors on the drives in the HDD cage so I had the right spacing, then pushed all the wires down into the connectors. When I was done, I put that caps back on the backside of the connectors.

Now, technically, I did another mod on this cable, but I didn't snap a "before" pic for you. Because of the way the wires ran through the connectors, the cable originally would start at the bottom drive and go up, then around to the PSU. I wanted the cable to go down, so I also flipped the connector around to the other side of the wire.

Really, if you have a SATA cable like this where the cap can come off the back, just take it off like I described. It would probably make a lot more sense once you saw how it fit together. Alas, I didn't take thise pics for you.

Also, note that the connector on the end of the cable has a slightly different cap so that it can wrap around the end of the cable and cover the bare ends of the wires.

 

[newtekie1]

Yes, Windows 7 is great, but WHS has all the things I'm looking for and I'm familiar with the interface.

Thats cool, use what you like.

 

[PopcornMachine]

Thanks for the detailed description. I will have to look at the SATA power on my psus to see if they have caps like that. Don't think so as my corsair uses a banded ribbon, but might be.

My only concern would be that, as I understand it, you have doubled the number of connectors on that cable and will it still provide enough juice. I know drives don't use that much power, but being as I know next to nothing about electricity it would worry me.

It is just so clean looking that way. Usually there is about 3 inches extra between each drive, or they're not long enough.

Again, good job.

 

[Shou Miko]

looks soo nice, and soo good cable work, not cables all over the place ^^

 

[chuchnit]

Dang that build is looking sweet!

 

[t_ski]

My only concern would be that, as I understand it, you have doubled the number of connectors on that cable and will it still provide enough juice. I know drives don't use that much power, but being as I know next to nothing about electricity it would worry me.

I am not worried for two reasons:

1. The original cable I modded had two connectors, yes, but it was the short cable set SATA cable. The standard length cable has three SATA connectors, and the molex cables have thee molex and one berg (floppy). I figure I am putting the same amount (roughly) through that cable as the standard molex + berg.

2. This PSU has a single 12V rail, so I am not drawing more through one rail than the PSU can handle.

But then again, I don't know that much about electricity either

 

[cdawall]

this will help with clocking quite a bit

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CMHKM-7M52A-A1-GP&cat=CPU

 

[Soylent Joe]

Very good looking, clean little rig. How long of a video card can the Mini-Q hold?

 

[t_ski]

AFAIK, something along the lines of a 5870 or 480

EDIT: Lian Li site says a card up to 300mm.

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/produc...ex=480&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=64&g=f

 

[PopcornMachine]

I am not worried for two reasons:

1. The original cable I modded had two connectors, yes, but it was the short cable set SATA cable. The standard length cable has three SATA connectors, and the molex cables have thee molex and one berg (floppy). I figure I am putting the same amount (roughly) through that cable as the standard molex + berg.

2. This PSU has a single 12V rail, so I am not drawing more through one rail than the PSU can handle.

But then again, I don't know that much about electricity either

You know more than I do.

 

[t_ski]

The OS arrived today! Maybe installing tonight? Man, I hope so...

 

[Geofrancis]

did your sempron cpu unlock to a dualcore? drop the multi and up the volts. if its going to unlock that will do it.

the more i look at that case the more i want one. it would make a good replacement for my itx server.

 

[t_ski]

No, I haven't had a chance to mess with it yet. I tried to install the OS last night, but had some issues with the setup not liking one of the controllers. It won't initialize the UI, and I never get far enough to be prompted for drivers. Going to try some finaggling...

 

[t_ski]

Installed the OS last night and am in the process of updating. I need to sort the drivers out for the wireless and a few others...

Nice job with the sata power connectors. Would like to know how you did that, but probably wouldn't understand anyway.

BTW, was looking around for some parts for my other build and found these:

http://www.jab-tech.com/ConnectorZ-90-Degree-END-CAP-SATA-Connector-Black-pr-3156.html

http://www.jab-tech.com/ConnectorZ-90-Degree-Pass-thru-SATA-Connector-Black-pr-3157.html

Those are the connectors you'd need.

 

[1Kurgan1]

Nice build, I will be soon upgrading my fiancees processor and tossing the AII 240 in a similar build to this to run as a media server.

 

[t_ski]

I finished this up over the past weekend by installing a stock AMD heatpipe heatsink on the chip and replacing the screws on the main side panel with some Lian Li thumbscrews. I have been in the process of moving over files and setting up shares again, and the server came in very handy when trying to backup and restore an image from my daughter's laptop (drive was full).

The bad news is that I'm having some issues with .NET Framework 2.0 errors on the system, which is preventing the console from being able to open. I also had everything quit on me while I was trying to copy over backups to the shares on the server, but I think that the router may have taken a crap on me as I have been having a lot of issues with it. I still have a few things that need to be sorted out on this...

 

[Shou Miko]

i still luv that case, too bad it's not for micro-atx motherboard, it could be nice with a similar case for microatx with psu in top for proper cooling for i maybe i need to make one on my own x:

 

[Disparia]

^ Lian-Li V354 for mATX. Available in the same colors as the Q08.