Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

[WiiManic]

Should be able to make a Persistent Debian Live Disc on a USB key, I've got one running Ubuntu so I always have a copy on me.

I just used this and set a size for the persistent partition.

[Shaqalac]

Should be able to make a Persistent Debian Live Disc on a USB key, I've got one running Ubuntu so I always have a copy on me.

I just used this and set a size for the persistent partition.

Looks like the tool I need. If it doesn't work out I can always put a 2.5" HDD in there but like I said, I rather not to keep the case as clean as possible.

[Hikaru12]

How many HDD's do you plan on putting in there? I haven't been following the thread lately but that's a sweet looking case. Just what a server case should look like.

[Shaqalac]

How many HDD's do you plan on putting in there? I haven't been following the thread lately but that's a sweet looking case. Just what a server case should look like.

The case natively supports up to 7 x 3.5" HDDs and 1 x 2.5" HDD. As you'll see in my upcoming update, hopefully it will come today, I will start with 4 x 4TB HDDs in a RAID6 config, which will give me a total of 8TB of usable storage. Once I run out of storage I'll add another 4TB HDD to the RAID array and when I've used those 4TB I'll add another one and so forth. With a maximum of 7 x 4TB HDDs (20TB usable storage) I don't think I'll need to upgrade the NAS further within the next year or two.

 

The case seems just fine for a server task, but it's perfect for a NAS.

[Hikaru12]

The case natively supports up to 7 x 3.5" HDDs and 1 x 2.5" HDD. As you'll see in my upcoming update, hopefully it will come today, I will start with 4 x 4TB HDDs in a RAID6 config, which will give me a total of 8TB of usable storage. Once I run out of storage I'll add another 4TB HDD to the RAID array and when I've used those 4TB I'll add another one and so forth. With a maximum of 7 x 4TB HDDs (20TB usable storage) I don't think I'll need to upgrade the NAS further within the next year or two.

 

The case seems just fine for a server task, but it's perfect for a NAS.

 

What OS are you planning on using? FreeNas? If so, I didn't know you could just add drives to the volume like that. 

[AndyCapets]

What a lovely case  :wub:

 

Also subbed!

[Shaqalac]

What OS are you planning on using? FreeNas? If so, I didn't know you could just add drives to the volume like that. 

My plan is to run a Linux based OS and I think I'll be going with Debian. As this will be my first experience with Linux I'll probably follow MG2R's Howto: create your own linux home server using Debian. The reason for that is that it seems to contain guides for a lot of the features I'm going to use and hopefully it'll give me some insight on how Debian works so I can continue by myself after I've set up the most essential.

I don't know about FreeNAS but with mdadm I should be able to do that. Not sure of how difficult it is.

 

What a lovely case  :wub:

 

Also subbed!

I'm glad you like it as well. So far I can definitely recommend a Lian-Li case for a NAS or mITX computer in general. I think it's too sad, especially on r/buildapc, that you don't see cases like the Lian-Li more often. I'm sure Fractal Design R4 is a great case, actually considering the Arc Midi for my main rig, but when you're browsing the subreddit it would be nice with some diversity. The price of it is another thing, it's a bit more expensive than the mainstream cases at the moment.

[alpenwasser]

I don't know about FreeNAS but with mdadm I should be able to do that. Not sure of how difficult it is.

I recently looked it up, and while I did not personally implement it, it does

seem to be possible, and not too difficult.

[AndyCapets]

I'm glad you like it as well. So far I can definitely recommend a Lian-Li case for a NAS or mITX computer in general. I think it's too sad, especially on r/buildapc, that you don't see cases like the Lian-Li more often. I'm sure Fractal Design R4 is a great case, actually considering the Arc Midi for my main rig, but when you're browsing the subreddit it would be nice with some diversity. The price of it is another thing, it's a bit more expensive than the mainstream cases at the moment.

Yes I totally agree, Fractal cases are great no doubt about it, but Lian Li cases are generally more "premium" priced and the construction is generally almost 100% metal and they are just so well put together, and that is why I think that you made a great choice choosing this case, it just looks so unique!

Anyways, great build so far!

[Shaqalac]

Hikaru12

I recently looked it up, and while I did not personally implement it, it does
seem to be possible, and not too difficult.

From the wiki on mdadm it doesn't look like it.

 

And while we're at it, I'll probably use alpenwasser's guide or this one on how to flash your RAID card to IT mode.

[Shaqalac]

Yes I totally agree, Fractal cases are great no doubt about it, but Lian Li cases are generally more "premium" priced and the construction is generally almost 100% metal and they are just so well put together, and that is why I think that you made a great choice choosing this case, it just looks so unique!

Anyways, great build so far!

I'm stucked with my old Antec900 for my main rig and I haven't done any modding to it, so it's kind of terrible in terms of radiator support, cable management, noise level and so on.

After I bought the Lian-Li Q25B I started to look at Lian-Li's tower cases but they don't look super like the optimal choice for a custom water cooled system. Anyways that's for another time.

 

For the NAS build my first choice was the Fractal Design Array R2, but it's a discontinued product and was a bit tough to find anywhere. What I found appealing about that case was the flat front with the brush aluminium, hence my choice of the Q25B. For a short period of time I considered the Fractal Design Node 304 in black but I doesn't seem to have that premium feel to it, which I was looking for. I ended up with the Lian-Li as it has that very gorgeous brushed aluminium and I haven't seen it that much, not here on LTT nor on reddit. That gives the build an extra touch of special, at least in my mind.

[Shaqalac]

Update #9: It's almost a complete NAS.

 

So this is what I managed to do in terms of progession this weekend.

 

I managed to install the motherboard, IBM M1015 and 4 x HDDs. On top of that I did, what I think, is the best cable management I've personally done but there's still room for a lot of improvement.

 

Another shot of the motherboard and co. before installation. Looks tight and neat, except from that bloody hair there's stuck in the heat sink, it messes with my OCD.

 

Almost forgot to mount the I/O shield. Metal against metal is a terrible noise. After the installation I actually don't mind the complete silver shield as it matches the internals of the case. I've been considering to go a similar route with the sleeving, what do you guys think about that?

 

What will be handling my drives, the IBM ServeRAID M1015, in IT mode though.

 

It has a few scratches on the heat sink but nothing that worries me.

 

What the board really is, a LSI MegaRAID SAS 9220-8i. I am a bit confused with the smaller sticker to the right though, it says 9240-8i.

 

Locking mechanism for the PCI-e expansion card. I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be able to hold the expansion card in place without the screws. I'm going to screw the IBM card to the case, just in case.

 

Motherboard and co. in place. Now let's get started with the cables that are in the case so far. Mostly to avoid one big mess with everything installed.

 

One big cut out. This might be an alternative way to do it and what I probably should have done in the first place. Before mounting the motherboard place the thermal compound on the CPU, mount the motherboard and mount the CPU cooler. With this way the motherboard will stay in place and you can use one hand to hold the cooler in place and the other one to mount the cooler.

 

I routed the cable for the front I/O between the cooler and RAM along with the fan cable for the NH-L9i. Just to be clear, no unnecessary pressure is being applied to the RAM.

 

Used a zip tie to hold the cables for the NH-L9i and front I/O together. They are not tied to anything else than each other and they're actually staying nice along the side of the heat sink.

So there's only two fan headers on the motherboard so had to get a bit creative.

The cable you see to the left is the extension cable routed behind the top fan.

 

Extension cable and the NF-F12 cable tied together but not hooked directly together. The extension cable is routed passed the NF-F12 fan connector.

 

Moving on from the previous picture. The extension cable is routed in above the NF-A14 where it's connected with the Y-splitter and tied together. The Y-splitter is then connected with the NF-F12 and the NF-A14.

The drawback to this is that both fans will run at the same speed but as it is for right now this will be my config for the fans. Will probably do some custom cables in the future to prevent too many splitters and extensions.

 

The cable for the front I/O was a bit too long so I tucked it under the NF-A14.

 

Overall I'm pretty happy with the cable management so far. Definitely room for improvement like mentioned before with custom length cables.

 

What this project/build is all about. Storage.

 

In fact 4TB of it.

Lot of discussion whether you should pick WD Red or Seagate NAS. I choose these as they're rated double the cycles than the Reds are. The Seagate drive is a tiny bit more power hungry but I can live with that.

 

So I noticed a difference with the drives. They're all from the same batch. Can anyone explain what the pink glue is and if it's supposed to be there and why does only two of the four drives have it?

 

All the mounting hardware you need for four drives.

 

Easy, easy, easy. Took a few minutes and they're all ready for installation.

 

Locking mechanism for the hot swap cage. This slider will slide down around the front right screw when you look at the drive. How hard can it be.

 

The drives slide right in and they will not go anywhere. I was a bit sceptical about this locking mechanism that I was afraid the drives would be able to move back and forth just a little bit. That is not the case, the drives have to align perfectly for the slide to go down.

 

Four HDDs mounted and they doesn't take up much space, they do still have a good amount of air between them.

 

From this angle the case look so clean and tight, I'm afraid that's about to change when I'll install the PSU.

Left all the covers for the display ports, just in case.

 

I'm happy with my progression this weekend. It finally looks like a NAS.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed this update as much as I did.

 

Cheers Shaqalac.

[Raboo]

Love the build

[WiiManic]

There is something reallllyyyyy nice about how those 4 HDDs look there, I'm not sure what but I'm loving it.

Think its how uniform they all are, regardless loving how its coming along.

[alpenwasser]

Coming along nicely. I love storage builds.

[jscho]

It wasn't until I started reading through this build log and seeing all of your photos of the case that I realised how well built Lian-Li cases are! You showed how thick all of the panels are and all of the mechanisms. That locking mechanism for the drives though, oh my...  :wub: You've completely changed the way I look at Lian-Li cases and I thank you! :lol:

 

 

Coming along nicely. I love storage builds.

 

I couldn't agree more! These builds (your ZEUS in particular) has made me want to build a NAS more than ever! :wub:

[Shaqalac]

Love the build

Glad you like it as well.

Will probably get the build up and running before I do any sleeving, just to make sure it all works.

 

There is something reallllyyyyy nice about how those 4 HDDs look there, I'm not sure what but I'm loving it.

Think its how uniform they all are, regardless loving how its coming along.

When I see HDDs laid down on the table like that, I get the same feeling when you hold many big bills in your hand. The HDDs alone is worth $935, maybe that's why

 

Coming along nicely. I love storage builds.

So do I, it's nice to see something different than R4 and NZXT build.

 

But, and it's a big one, how am I ever to compete with your ZEUS?

 

It wasn't until I started reading through this build log and seeing all of your photos of the case that I realised how well built Lian-Li cases are! You showed how thick all of the panels are and all of the mechanisms. That locking mechanism for the drives though, oh my...  :wub:  You've completely changed the way I look at Lian-Li cases and I thank you! :lol:

When I did the last two updates I was thinking "is this too many pictures, will people be bored scrolling through all of them". So it's very pleasing to see that at least one enjoys it!

 

I can't even remember who recommended me the Lian-Li case, think it was someone on Reddit, regardless I haven't regretted getting the Lian-Li one single time. It is beyond gorgeous.  :wub:

[alpenwasser]

It wasn't until I started reading through this build log and seeing all of your photos of the case that I realised how well built Lian-Li cases are! You showed how thick all of the panels are and all of the mechanisms. That locking mechanism for the drives though, oh my...  :wub: You've completely changed the way I look at Lian-Li cases and I thank you! :lol:

Some of their cases are rather lacking in the cable management department, but

the ones that are good are usually really good. My dad has an A71 (I think,

can't recall the exact model number ATM), and build quality on that thing is

superb. 

 

I couldn't agree more! These builds (your ZEUS in particular) has made me want to build a NAS more than ever! :wub:

 

Well thank you.

 

So do I, it's nice to see something different than R4 and NZXT build.

 

But, and it's a big one, how am I ever to compete with your ZEUS?

I must say I still love looking at that machine, I'm really happy with it,

and also very flattered at the great reception it has gotten.

When I did the last two updates I was thinking "is this too many pictures, will people be bored scrolling through all of them". So it's very pleasing to see that at least one enjoys it!

Make that at least two.

[JokuTyyppi]

Damn, this is like a very good book. I never want to stop reading these updates! Well done! And please don't stop posting when the parts are in, give us some pictures about how the software side is going (when you start) as well

[Shaqalac]

Some of their cases are rather lacking in the cable management department, but

the ones that are good are usually really good. My dad has an A71 (I think,

can't recall the exact model number ATM), and build quality on that thing is

superb. 

I especially find their mITX cases really solid and very appealing. Take this PC-TU100 for instance, it looks like something you could drop on the ground and it would still be intact (please don't try this at home).

Of their ATX cases I've only really found their PC-7HWX interesting, I think it's because it reminds me of the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2.

 

I must say I still love looking at that machine, I'm really happy with it,

and also very flattered at the great reception it has gotten.

I not surprised that you still look at it. The recognition it has got from Build of the Week and being showed in intros on LTT is well deserved!

 

Maybe that's what it takes, throw a radiator in your NAS and get featured on Build of the Week. I guess I should start look for those options.

 

Make that at least two.

I will keep the flow of the massive amount of pictures.

 

Damn, this is like a very good book. I never want to stop reading these updates! Well done! And please don't stop posting when the parts are in, give us some pictures about how the software side is going (when you start) as well

Thanks for the great response. I will keep uploading pictures when I begin with the software, hopefully people will be able to point out if I make any mistakes.

[Shaqalac]

So I'm about to order an USB stick for the OS and will most likely buy the SanDisk Cruzer Fit but I'm a bit unsure of how much storage I need for the OS (Debian). Any thoughts on this one, I'm thinking a 8GB or 16GB but I'm really unsure of how big it needs to be.

 

I mentioned this in one of the first posts I made, that I'm considering to buy some noise dampening foam to minimize noise as much as possible. I'm considering to buy some for my Antec900.

Do any of you have some experience with be quiet! Noise Absorber Kit Big or SilverStone SF01? Price is pretty much the same but it looks like I will get more surface area covered with one pack of the be quiet! kit.

[alpenwasser]

Of their ATX cases I've only really found their PC-7HWX interesting, I think it's because it reminds me of the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2.

Definitely. The only thing I'm not too crazy about is having the window on the

outside of the panel, but that shouldn't be too hard to fix with a bit of modding.

 

I not surprised that you still look at it. The recognition it has got from Build of the Week and being showed in intros on LTT is well deserved!

 

Maybe that's what it takes, throw a radiator in your NAS and get featured on Build of the Week. I guess I should start look for those options.

Pssshhht, don't tell anyone, it's a trade secret!

EDIT:

So I'm about to order an USB stick for the OS and will most likely buy the SanDisk Cruzer Fit but I'm a bit unsure of how much storage I need for the OS (Debian). Any thoughts on this one, I'm thinking a 8GB or 16GB but I'm really unsure of how big it needs to be.

I mentioned this in one of the first posts I made, that I'm considering to buy some noise dampening foam to minimize noise as much as possible. I'm considering to buy some for my Antec900.

Do any of you have some experience with be quiet! Noise Absorber Kit Big or SilverStone SF01? Price is pretty much the same but it looks like I will get more surface area covered with one pack of the be quiet! kit.

8 GB should be enough to fit the OS, but personally I'd probably go for a 16 GB

one just to have a bit more headroom.

Don't have any experience with the noise absorbtion kits, sorry.

[JokuTyyppi]

I would say 8g is enough for debian. I am running elementary os (based on ubuntu) from my 8g stick and i have almost 4g of free storage after installing some software. But if you can afford 16g you can go for it.

[Shaqalac]

Definitely. The only thing I'm not too crazy about is having the window on the

outside of the panel, but that shouldn't be too hard to fix with a bit of modding.

Agreed but like you said it shouldn't be that hard to fix, guess some tough glue could handle it. Another thing I think it lacks of is radiator support in the top. I'm not even sure the top supports a 240mm radiator, it looks like the fan mounts have too much spacing between each other. I'm well aware of that the Lian-Li cases isn't radiator optimized at all but it would have been nice.

 

Pssshhht, don't tell anyone, it's a trade secret!

Don't worry, I wont tell anyone.

 

8 GB should be enough to fit the OS, but personally I'd probably go for a 16 GB

one just to have a bit more headroom.

I would say 8g is enough for debian. I am running elementary os (based on ubuntu) from my 8g stick and i have almost 4g of free storage after installing some software. But if you can afford 16g you can go for it.

I think I'll go for the 16GB stick. Better safe than sorry.

[Shaqalac]

Update #10: It is finally complete, for now at least.

 

So for this update I've installed the PSU and the last cables.

I'd love to get some feedback on what you think I should have done differently or what I should do in the future.

 

Now lets see some pictures.

 

SAS to SATA cable plugged to the IBM ServeRAID M1015.

 

For now it's fine but I have to figure out a way to make a more clean run to the back of the hot swap cage.For now it's fine but I have to figure out a way to make a more clean run to the back of the hot swap cage.

 

All the SATA data cables plugged in. Had to bent them to be able to get the side panel back on again. Attached the cables accordingly to the numbers on the cables, so the top one is #1 and the bottom one is #4.

 

The best cable management I could have done to this cable. Have to figure out whether it's possible to get a custom one with 90 degree angled headers and custom length of each SATA data cable. Not my biggest concern as it most likely will be very expensive.

 

Two SATA power cables should be enough to power all four drives. As you can see I did choose not to plug in the last power cable as there isn't a drive in the bottom slot, so should be easier to close the side panel.

This however is my biggest concern and will be the first thing I'll make. Make the length between the SATA power headers so that the cables wont bent. Going to sleeve them while I'm at it. Will order sleeving parts this weekend.

 

Seven screws to keep this bad boy in place. If I had one complaint about the ST45SF-G it would be that SFX to ATX mounting bracket. Why is it silver SilverStone?

The black screws came with the PSU and the silver ones came with the case, swapped them around to calm the eye.

 

The Lian-Li mounting bracket is so thick, I love it.

 

In all its glory.

This is the orientation I'll mount it.

 

Finally the last piece is installed.

 

I've only connected the 24 pin connector and as I'm writing this I completely forgot to connect the 4 pin...

Anyways, I haven't connected the storage drives just yet as I want to install to OS without them connected to the system to prevent any boot files being placed on the drives.

As you can see I had a hard time to properly connect the 24 pin to the PSU itself, it was a tough one and I couldn't get it further in.

 

The same goes for the motherboard, I couldn't get it all the way down, I put so much pressure on it that it got uncomfortable. You might be able to spot it but the plastic lock hasn't locked in place, it is further down than the other end at the PSU. 

 

So far I'm pretty satisfied with the final result, well almost, still need that 4 pin connector.

 

4 big thumb screws to hold the PSU in place.

 

Back view of the final assembly.

 

Front view of the final assembly.

 

Cheers Shaqalac.