Picking a case for Home Server Upgrade

[felix920506]

I am trying to pick a case for my home server upgrade.

 

Region: Taiwan

Budget for case: 5000 TWD (Aim for 150 USD as things in Taiwan tends to be a bit more expensive)

 

System Specs

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Ryzen 7 5800X (haven’t decided yet)
• ASUS ProArt B550 Motherboard OR ASUS Strix B550-XE (depending on availability but layout is the same so shouldn’t matter which one I end up with)
• Nvidia GT210 (for display output)
• Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition
• Seasonic Focus GX 850 (Old version, not ATX3.0)

Storage devices (excluding M.2):

• 2x 3.5’ 7200RPM HDD
• 2x 2.5’ SSD

I haven’t chosen a cooler. Maybe going to slap on a ID Cooling SE-224-XT I have lying around but that Noctua passive cooler also looks like a legit option.

The following aspects are important for this build:

Acoustic Performance

The machine is going to sit in a bedroom. While I understand that at full load it is going to make some noise, I would like it to be near silent at idle with drives spinning. The vibration from HDDs can’t cause the whole case to vibrate with it. (cough cough FSP) I’m not against swapping the stock fans with high quality ones (Not Noctua but maybe something cheaper)

Size

Yes I know I got an ATX board. However I would still like the case to be as compact as possible so that it doesn’t take up as much space.

Thermals

The system shouldn’t throttle or sound like it is going to take off under a full system stress test with normal ambient temperatures (<30C)

However, the ambient temperatures for this place can get quite high when no one is home and the AC isn’t running during the summer, around 40C. In this case I don’t mind it ramping up its fans as long as the system doesn’t cook itself to death.

Current Candidates

These are my current picks but I’m open to other suggestions as long as it isn’t from FSP because their build quality and design with cases is bad in general

Fractal Define 7 Compact

This looks like a promising option, though I’m a bit concerned about its thermals since it’s more geared towards noise deadening than airflow.

Fractal Meshify 2 Compact

I’m a bit concerned about noise at idle but this might be quieter than the define 7 compact under high load.

 

[The Hope]

https://www.phanteks.com/Enthoo-Pro2-Server.html

http://anidees.com/product/ai-crystal-cube-lite-2/

[chtorogu]

1 hour ago, felix920506 said:

I am trying to pick a case for my home server upgrade.

 

Region: Taiwan

Budget for case: 5000 TWD (Aim for 150 USD as things in Taiwan tends to be a bit more expensive)

 

System Specs

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Ryzen 7 5800X (haven’t decided yet)
• ASUS ProArt B550 Motherboard OR ASUS Strix B550-XE (depending on availability but layout is the same so shouldn’t matter which one I end up with)
• Nvidia GT210 (for display output)
• Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition
• Seasonic Focus GX 850 (Old version, not ATX3.0)

Storage devices (excluding M.2):

• 2x 3.5’ 7200RPM HDD
• 2x 2.5’ SSD

I haven’t chosen a cooler. Maybe going to slap on a ID Cooling SE-224-XT I have lying around but that Noctua passive cooler also looks like a legit option.

The following aspects are important for this build:

Acoustic Performance

The machine is going to sit in a bedroom. While I understand that at full load it is going to make some noise, I would like it to be near silent at idle with drives spinning. The vibration from HDDs can’t cause the whole case to vibrate with it. (cough cough FSP) I’m not against swapping the stock fans with high quality ones (Not Noctua but maybe something cheaper)

Size

Yes I know I got an ATX board. However I would still like the case to be as compact as possible so that it doesn’t take up as much space.

Thermals

The system shouldn’t throttle or sound like it is going to take off under a full system stress test with normal ambient temperatures (<30C)

However, the ambient temperatures for this place can get quite high when no one is home and the AC isn’t running during the summer, around 40C. In this case I don’t mind it ramping up its fans as long as the system doesn’t cook itself to death.

Current Candidates

These are my current picks but I’m open to other suggestions as long as it isn’t from FSP because their build quality and design with cases is bad in general

Fractal Define 7 Compact

This looks like a promising option, though I’m a bit concerned about its thermals since it’s more geared towards noise deadening than airflow.

Fractal Meshify 2 Compact

I’m a bit concerned about noise at idle but this might be quieter than the define 7 compact under high load.

 

What do you intend to use your home server for? You've got a video card capable of doing video transcoding so you don't need a beefy CPU for that. Unless you have some CPU intense tasks in mind you can switch to a Ryzen 3 or possibly even an Athlon and still have good performance while saving on money and getting a cooler and more quiet system.

 

As for the case, I'd go with the smallest full ATX case I could find. There are ATX cases not much bigger than larger Micro ATX cases. If you look on the used market you can probably get a good one for like $20-30. Also, look for one with insolation for sound dampening.

[The Hope]

24 minutes ago, chtorogu said:

As for the case, I'd go with the smallest full ATX case I could find. There are ATX cases not much bigger than larger Micro ATX cases. If you look on the used market you can probably get a good one for like $20-30. Also, look for one with insolation for sound dampening.

The size of the case can have a significant impact on the airflow within a PC. In general, larger cases offer more room for components and have more space for air to circulate, which can help improve cooling.

 

Quote

However, the ambient temperatures for this place can get quite high when no one is home and the AC isn’t running during the summer, around 40C.

 

[chtorogu]

46 minutes ago, The Hope said:

The size of the case can have a significant impact on the airflow within a PC. In general, larger cases offer more room for components and have more space for air to circulate, which can help improve cooling.

 

 

Yes, but he said he wanted it compact. There's no reason a home server can't just run a low powered CPU. The GPU seems to be overkill as well. Unless he intends to use his home server to run and stream games to play on other machines or has some other CPU and/or GPU intense tasks in mind, he should be able to get the system down to 200-300w easily and still have good performance.

 

For home server and video transcoding (for PLEX or similar)

 

Cheap-ish B450/B550

Ryzen 3 3100

2x8 GB DDR4

GTX 1660

Decent 300-400 W PSU

Mid-tower ATX case

 

Shouldn't be more than $200-300 depending on if new or used or a combination and provide ample performance while using little power and producing little heat.

 

[The Hope]

4 minutes ago, chtorogu said:

Yes, but he said he wanted it compact. There's no reason a home server can't just run a low powered CPU. The GPU seems to be overkill as well. Unless he intends to use his home server to run and stream games to play on other machines or has some other CPU and/or GPU intense tasks in mind, he should be able to get the system down to 200-300w easily and still have good performance.

 

For home server and video transcoding (for PLEX or similar)

 

Cheap-ish B450/B550

Ryzen 3 3100

16 GB DDR4

GTX 1660

Decent 300-400 W PSU

Mini-tower ATX case

 

Shouldn't be more than $200-300 depending on if new or used or a combination and provide ample performance while using little power and producing little heat.

 

 

He said:

 

Quote

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Ryzen 7 5800X (haven’t decided yet)

Quote

 I would like it to be near silent at idle with drives spinning. 

Quote

The system shouldn’t throttle or sound like it is going to take off under a full system stress test

 

Cheap small cases often make noise with this CPU, 2 GPUs and four storage devices . And they also cool less, which can be a problem at 40°C.

 

I would make the compromise of getting a decent, slightly bigger case so that your hardware stays cooler and is going to have a longer lifespan.

[chtorogu]

10 minutes ago, The Hope said:

 

He said:

 

 

Cheap small cases often make noise with this CPU, 2 GPUs and four storage devices . And they also cool less, which can be a problem at 40°C.

 

I would make the compromise of getting a decent, slightly bigger case so that your hardware stays cooler and is going to have a longer lifespan.

A combination that's impossible so he'd have to give up something. I suggested the lower power CPU in case he didn't know better.  A CPU like that is very rarely needed or even beneficial for a home server. Up to him of course if he wants powerful and silent but bulky or powerful and compact but noisy or less powerful but much more compact and silent.

[The Hope]

2 minutes ago, chtorogu said:

A CPU like that is very rarely needed or even beneficial for a home server.

That depends a bit on what he means by the word home server.
If he only wants to use it to provide services for his home, it's more than he needs anyway.

But since he is Taiwanese, by home server he may also mean he just wants to run a server (for the world') 'in his house'.

[felix920506]

16 hours ago, chtorogu said:

What do you intend to use your home server for?

Nas, Minecraft servers and a Media server for now.

Minecraft servers, especially modded ones can get quite intense on the CPU

[ToboRobot]

9 minutes ago, felix920506 said:

Nas, Minecraft servers and a Media server for now.

Minecraft servers, especially modded ones can get quite intense on the CPU

You sure two HDDs will be enough for the future?

[felix920506]

1 hour ago, ToboRobot said:

You sure two HDDs will be enough for the future?

I will also have 2 1TB M.2 Nvme SSDs for my applications that will live on this box. I just didn't list them because they don't really matter for picking a case 

[ToboRobot]

7 minutes ago, felix920506 said:

I will also have 2 1TB M.2 Nvme SSDs for my applications that will live on this box. I just didn't list them because they don't really matter for picking a case 

Yes, I assume your hard drives are for the NAS and media server. 

RAID or parity?  Expansion when you fill the drives you currently have? 

Define is quieter than Meshify (I have larger versions of both). 

[felix920506]

1 hour ago, ToboRobot said:

RAID or parity?  Expansion when you fill the drives you currently have? 

The 2 drives are in a ZFS mirror. Looking at my current usage, I don't think I will run out of space for at least the next 5 years after some cleaning up of duplicate files. If I need more capacity, my path would be to get higher capacity drives and add my current drives to my offsite backup machine.