Thinking about merging my desktop and server

[Blindsay]

So right now my gaming machine and unraid server are separate boxes and I was thinking of merging them down to 1 box (less of a footprint, I like to build cool machines and my unraid server has some poor part choices right now). There are 2 ways that I am considering approaching this right now and weighing the pros/cons of each.

1: Build a big unraid server and run a gaming VM. Saw recently Nvidia is finally allowing the consumer gpus to be passed through. Concerned about reliability as a daily driver though. Need to make sure my valve index and my Sony A6100/w elgato camlink work well being passed through as I use them both a lot (I also work from home on this setup). Dont have to buy 2 of everything with this setup

2: Get a case like the Enthoo Pro 2 or the Corsair 1000D and build a dual system in 1 case setup. Still reduces my footprint, I could do a cool dual water loop in it but still requires buying basically 2 of everything. If i go the phanteks case, their special dual system psu seems impossible to find right now and the corsair case allows dual psu but is a giant case.


If you are wondering what I meant by my unraid server has some poor part choices right now, basically i used some left over parts from my prior build,
9600K - this would have been fine but the motherboard i have does not support the iGPU which is what I was originally planning on using for the plex transcoding (Mobo is a MSI Z390 MEG ACE)
Li Lian o11d - Before I bought the XL for my new build I had the normal sized one and I have the side distro in it for a cpu on loop because I also had the EK monoblock for the board in here. HDD temps suck and it only fits 2

Thoughts?

 

[Blindsay]

Alright so I heard back from Phanteks and they expect newegg to have some of the revolt x soon.

Right now I am leaning towards getting the Enthoo Pro 2, moving my existing gaming pc into that and then doing an ITX 11th gen system for my unraid/plex server.

Plan would be to watercool both and do separate loops and try to find a cool color scheme for each of them

[brob]

Phanteks has https://www.phanteks.com/PH-PWSPR.html which should let you use any good quality psu in a dual system installation. I believe the Corsair 1000D can also host a dual system. I don't think it is any smaller than the Enthoo Pro 2.

[Blindsay]

On 4/28/2021 at 8:43 PM, brob said:

Phanteks has https://www.phanteks.com/PH-PWSPR.html which should let you use any good quality psu in a dual system installation. I believe the Corsair 1000D can also host a dual system. I don't think it is any smaller than the Enthoo Pro 2.

Good to know for future reference, thanks.


I ended up ordering the Enthoo Pro 2, the 1200W Revolt X (finally got it at a reasonable price), the ITX board/RAM, a 480 RAD for the front (I might regret getting the 60mm), more corsair QL fans and the Phanteks D140 rear distro.

That should give me enough parts to start figuring out my loops.

Attached a quick photo from my current build. I plan to mostly transfer my gaming PC as is (still hoping to get a 3080/3090). Going to keep all the QL fans white, the blue liquid in the gaming PC and the RAM is white/blue. In the ITX build I plan to do purple liquid and then Purple/White on the RAM (I also grabbed trident z royal for the ITX build)

My tentative plan is to mount an EK FLT 120 D5 pump/res combo at a 90 degree angle off of the front rad for the ITX system and then an EK FLT 240 D5 above that for the main system. HDD cages will likely sit somewhere on the bottom

[Blindsay]

Alright, ended up ordering a slimmer rad as the 60mm in push/pull + a res mounted off of it was gonna take up way to much depth (For my preference).

I was thinking about these for a pump/res combo - https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/combo-pump-reservoir/aquacomputer-ultitube-d5-150-pro-reservoir-with-d5-next-pump.html but I would have to mount them side by side and again i run into depth issues (my gpu is at least a couple inches longer than my motherboard). I liked that they had a coolant temp sensor and flow meter built in. 

That said, Right now I am back to thinking about the EK FLT120 and FLT240 both with D5's. I could mount them both off of the front fan/rad combo at a 90 degree angle using those brackets that ek sells. Since these only add up to ~360 in height that would give me some wiggle room as far as moving them up and down in the case to find the best fitting. Going this route I will probably also add in a a Bykski B-TFC-CS-X Flow meter to each loop (I like the idea of knowing the coolant temp and i think they look cool).

Still have to figure out where my HDD's will go, I only have 1 at the moment but could see myself adding a couple more. The HDD cage it comes with will not fit in the stock location because of the ITX board in the rear, and the rad setup in the front so I have to think of something else. Maybe either drill some mounts for the cage somewhere else or possibly on those side plastic covers if the front rad doesnt block it.

 

 

 

[brob]

One can mount hdd in the side fan positions, perpendicular to the motherboard tray. Might be tight given the front mount rad, pump, and reservoir.

[Blindsay]

3 minutes ago, brob said:

One can mount hdd in the side fan positions, perpendicular to the motherboard tray. Might be tight given the front mount rad, pump, and reservoir.

Thanks, yeah I should have my rad today so i will have a better idea if it will fit. 

Please excuse the poor paint quality but these are a couple of the ideas i am thinking

 

1: If i went with the tube style res, because of how obnoxiously long my gpu is, i would not have room for them side by side (because I will have the rad and fans in front as well). So my thought is mount the one for the main system off of the radiator close to the top and then mount one to the floor of the case for the ITX system

 

2: Possibly mount the HDD cage at the bottom (I would have to find a way to custom mount it) and then mount the FLT 120 and 240 directly above each other. In this system I would also have to buy the flow/temp sensors separate since they are not built in like in the above setup

 

 

Both setups have a 28MM 480 in the front in push/pull and a 20mm 360 in the roof in push. Both would also use the Phanteks D140 rear distro

 

[brob]

In bottom pic, could you not rotate the drive cage 90 degrees and use the existing mounts for the middle two brackets?

[Blindsay]

1 minute ago, brob said:

In bottom pic, could you not rotate the drive cage 90 degrees and use the existing mounts for the middle two brackets?

The picture is not properly to scale, I will know better once the rad arrives but based on my measurements the rad/fans will block too much of the opening

[brob]

Too bad. I suppose going all ssd is out of budget?

[Blindsay]

2 minutes ago, brob said:

Too bad. I suppose going all ssd is out of budget?

Yeah I have a 14TB drive right now that is completely full and I am looking to at least double if not triple that. (It would be fun to slap 4x 8TB nvme on a card and put it in an X16 slot but that would be like $5k haha)

[Blindsay]

Well in theory everything is ordered. Never fails to amaze me how much watercooling gear can add up to lol.

[Blindsay]

Test fitting the ITX board (Ill have to take it out when the cpu block arrives since you cant get to the back of the ITX board)

[Blindsay]

Well this is looking less promising. Really having a tough time finding a good place for the HDD's. I cant mount in any of the official locations and i would like to fit at least 3 drives.

 

I have the FLT120 mounted and the 240 will go right above it. When the 240 is mounted it is going to be a bit of a mess in the top right where the to rads meet and the top of the FLT240 will be there in the way too.

 

My original plan was push/pull on a 60mm rad in the front and now I barely have room for the 28mm in push. That is a 20mm in the roof too. 

 

Might have to consider something like the Corsair 1000D or buy a cool small case for the ITX system and keep them separate 

 

 

[brob]

It's tighter than I thought it would be. Can you put anything on the back side?

[Blindsay]

6 minutes ago, brob said:

It's tighter than I thought it would be. Can you put anything on the back side?

I'm worried about fitting all the cables back there (along with a commander pro etc.)

 

Crazy how such a big case can run out of space so quick

 

[Blindsay]

Yeah and in the photos above I have not even mounted the fans to the top rad so it is even more cramped than it appears. 

 

Could do the Corsair 1000D but aside from it being $500 for just the case, the amount of fans it requires to populate it is absurd (especially when using QL fans lol). And I dont like that it is 65lbs empty (probably would be 90-100lbs when done). 

 

Thermaltake has that big double wide case but is very boring looking imo.

 

Lian Li announced the V3000+ but there is no release date.

 

 

Not sure of any other good dual system cases?

 

 

The other thing i thought might be cool is 2 identical or 2 very similar cases and do the gaming pc in 1 and the server in the other. Maybe a Fractal Meshify and an XL together. (only thing that stinks for the server build is i have this expensive ITX mobo that will look pretty silly in a giant case).

[brob]

There is the larger and much more expensive Enthoo Elite. It has space in the bottom for drive bays.

[Blindsay]

27 minutes ago, brob said:

There is the larger and much more expensive Enthoo Elite. It has space in the bottom for drive bays.

Yeah, I did take a look but $900 for a case, at least for me if i were to spend that much on a case it better be perfect which imo that one is not.

One other idea I started thinking about. If i ditch the 3.5" cage i could slide the 120 res down and probably have just enough room to make it work. I need my 3.5" drives so I was thinking about something like this - https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TR-004-Enclosure-Attached-hardware/dp/B07K4RC7X9
 

I have a post elsewhere though to make sure something like that would be ok with unraid (I wouldnt configure the QNAP for raid of course)

[brob]

Orico makes a number of external enclosures, including one that can be daisy chained. https://www.orico.cc/usmobile/product/detail/id/7164.

 

Startech also has multidrive models, but I believe they are usb 3.0 or eSATA.

[Blindsay]

6 minutes ago, brob said:

Orico makes a number of external enclosures, including one that can be daisy chained. https://www.orico.cc/usmobile/product/detail/id/7164.

 

Startech also has multidrive models, but I believe they are usb 3.0 or eSATA.

I couldnt do eSATA but USB 3.0 is fine 

Oh I just totally found the one I want haha - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DLSC1TJ

All I really want is it to pass the disks individually which it sounds like that one will do