APOLLO (2 CPU LGA1366 Server | InWin PP689 | 24 Disks Capacity) - by alpenwasser [COMPL. 2014-MAY-10]

[alpenwasser]

Really nice build, been following it, have finally subbed

Good luck

 

Thanks, much appreciated!

 

- snip -

 

Yes, that would indeed be a possibility, and I have in fact used this

technique on other occasions (for instance, the copper faceplate for

my lamptrion fan controller on HELIOS). The primary problem in this case

was one of time. The side panel is steel, not alu or copper, so grinding

it down to the desired straightness would have taken a lot more time

than I can afford to spend on it with college at the moment.

Besides, it is pretty damn straight if you compare it to the slots on

the perforated sheet, the top is slightly crooked, but other than that it's

almost perfect.

Bottom line: Even if I had had the time to do it really, really properly,

it would have been a lot more work for an only marginally better result.

 

Nonetheless, your advice is certainly appreciated.

It somewhat resembles a PowerEdge VRTX. Except much cooler because it's got custom hardware inside.

Haha, thanks! Yeah, the VRTX is a pretty neat machine, but as you say, this

one has that little extra custom touch.

[flibberdipper]

 HELIOS

 

I like the way you made the fans go in and actually work as you had hoped. Genius. Especially on the chipset.

[alpenwasser]

I like the way you made the fans go in and actually work as you had hoped. Genius. Especially on the chipset.

Yeah, it's a pretty tight fit getting the fans, the HDD plus the cables

inside the case in this fashion since the case is not very wide, but it

does fit. I deliberated quite a while on how to pack as many disks as

possible inside the front compartment while still being able to cool them,

and I must say I'm very happy with the solution that's implemented.

Funny thing is, the main compartment with the M/B is actually pretty

crowded as well now as you can see to some extent in one of the pics

above, I'll upload more pics in a future update about that though.

[d33g33]

Those SATA power leads....

[alpenwasser]

Those SATA power leads....

Yeah, they're neat, right?

It's a shame that SATA/SAS is point-to-point instead of a bus, just imagine

how tidy the cabling on this thing would look if you only needed one data bus

cable for each stack... :wub:

They were a bitch to do though, the wires on the Enermas PSU have rather

robust insulation, so crimping those wires into the connectors took a lot of

force and about three hours of time. Also, rather painful for the fingers.

Will have more pics of those runs in one of the next updates.

[d33g33]

Oh you made them?

 

+1million points.

[spwath]

Yeah, I'm quite conflicted when it comes to fans in general. On one hand, I love stuff

with heft and solidity to it, things with proper build quality. I would have loved to

use some proper solid fans in HELIOS, but it just doesn't make sense.

Because, on the other hand, I want my PC (the one that's going to end up in my room, which

APOLLO won't) to be whisper quiet, for which these sorts of fans just aren't suited.

Even if you turn them down, you can never turn them down as much as a good "normal" PC

fan, they're just not made for that.

Also, finding San Ace or similar fans in 140 mm is very tricky, and they are very expensive

(cheapest source I've been able to find was 50 USD per fan, and I'd need 8 of them :lol: ).

The Spectre Pros I'm using in HELIOS can be turned down to almost noiseless levels, plus

with the copper paint they look pretty good IMO, so I'm still quite happy. I would love to

have a really silent 140 x 38 mm fan though, but that just doesn't exist. But the radiators

I'm using are extremely well suited for low-rpm fans, plus I have enough radiator surface

so that I should get some very good temps even with just a whiff of air moving over the rads.

But at least APOLLO is giving me the opportunity to play around with some proper fans for

a change, so I get to do that after all.

I find the bitfenix ones loudd, especially at high speed compared to ap122's

[alpenwasser]

Oh you made them?

 

+1million points.

Haha, well, to some extent. They (i.e. two cables) were stock cables that

came with the PSU, but one cable only had like four SATA connectors on it,

the other one three SATA connectors and two Molex connectors, or something

in that neighbourhood.

Luckily though, one of them had more or less the perfect length to service

the entire front disk stack, and the other one was perfect for servicing the

rear disk stack plus the disk fans, so I bought myself a ton of SATA connectors

from Lutro0 and just added those to the cables (and removed the original ones

since they were the wrong way around).

So yeah, 95% custom.

EDIT:

I find the bitfenix ones loudd, especially at high speed compared to ap122's

You mean the 140 ones? Yes, I agree, they make a fair bit of noise when

they're turned up. That is why I run them undervolted, they're inaudible

at the voltage I'm currently running them (a bit more than 5 V).

The 120's aren't that loud IMO, although I will also undervolt them once

I mount them.

I've never heard an AP122 in person, so I can't really say anything about

them.

[d33g33]

I haven't had much luck with the push over wire style sata connectors. As I have the NAS and the desktop only ever has a couple of drives making up the sata connectors with the blade style would probably suit me better.

[Raboo]

That's a lot of fans.

[alpenwasser]

I haven't had much luck with the push over wire style sata connectors. As I have the NAS and the desktop only ever has a couple of drives making up the sata connectors with the blade style would probably suit me better.

 

Yeah, they're not necessarily right for every situation, but in this case

I'd say they were pretty much perfectly suited for the job.

 

That's a lot of fans.

Of course, there are lots of disks!

[LukaP]

 

Yeah, they're not necessarily right for every situation, but in this case

I'd say they were pretty much perfectly suited for the job.

 

Of course, there are lots of disks!

have you tried the temps while those fans are disabled? just interested in how much they actually help

[Raboo]

 Of course, there are lots of disks!

Good point 

[alpenwasser]

have you tried the temps while those fans are disabled? just interested in how much they actually help

You mean turning off the disk fans? No, haven't tried that yet, the connector

for the PCB to which the fans are connected is a bit of a bitch to get to.

I have run one of the Samsung disks in there in another case in a spot with

zero airflow before for a few hours (not an external enclosure, just a normal

case which didn't happen to have any airflow in that one disk slot), temps on

that disk went up to around 63 deg C. And they're pretty cool disks usually,

in this setup they run at 25 deg C. The disks don't require much ventilation,

but running them with zero airflow is not something I'd advise, especially

not with so many disks stacked so closely together.

[LukaP]

You mean turning off the disk fans? No, haven't tried that yet, the connector

for the PCB to which the fans are connected is a bit of a bitch to get to.

I have run one of the Samsung disks in there in another case in a spot with

zero airflow before for a few hours (not an external enclosure, just a normal

case which didn't happen to have any airflow in that one disk slot), temps on

that disk went up to around 63 deg C. And they're pretty cool disks usually,

in this setup they run at 25 deg C. The disks don't require much ventilation,

but running them with zero airflow is not something I'd advise, especially

not with so many disks stacked so closely together.

Yeah i thought they'd get hot, but only one disk at 63 already imagine the ehole rack then... Insta death

[MG2R]

I have run one of the Samsung disks in there in another case in a spot with

zero airflow before for a few hours (not an external enclosure, just a normal

case which didn't happen to have any airflow in that one disk slot), temps on

that disk went up to around 63 deg C.

I knew Samsung disks used to have a tendency to run hot, but

damn! My four drives are running passive at 40 C max!

[Vitalius]

I knew Samsung disks used to have a tendency to run hot, but

damn! My four drives are running passive at 40 C max!

Somewhat related, I thought enterprise drives ran cooler.

Apparently not. All 8 of the WD RE drives we recently

bought get almost "too hot to touch" hot while they are

read/writing and stay hot even when passive. I haven't

checked the actual temps, but I found it weird.

[jscho]

Somewhat related, I thought enterprise drives ran cooler.

Apparently not. All 8 of the WD RE drives we recently

bought get almost "too hot to touch" hot while they are

read/writing and stay hot even when passive. I haven't

checked the actual temps, but I found it weird.

 

Well, if a particular model isn't engineered to run cooler, they usually can withstand higher temperatures without issues. So I suppose there's that

[alpenwasser]

I knew Samsung disks used to have a tendency to run hot, but

damn! My four drives are running passive at 40 C max!

 

Well, to be fair, it was not just that the drive was running passively

cooled, it was placed right below the case roof (which was solid plastic),

so it just heated up the air, and the air could not move away due to

convection, there really was no possibility for air exchange at all. I'm

very confident that running them passively in APOLLO would not result in

the same situation.

Also, they're actually the coolest-running drives in this build:

 

Somewhat related, I thought enterprise drives ran cooler.

Apparently not. All 8 of the WD RE drives we recently

bought get almost "too hot to touch" hot while they are

read/writing and stay hot even when passive. I haven't

checked the actual temps, but I found it weird.

 

I can only speak for my own drives, but as you can see above, the

RE4's are actually the hottest drives in this build.

 

Well, if a particular model isn't engineered to run cooler, they usually can withstand higher temperatures without issues. So I suppose there's that

Interestingly, the WD Red is rated for higher environmental temps than the

RE, 70 C as opposed to 55 C (note: environmental temps, not drive temps):

Red:

RE:

RE spec sheet

Red spec sheet

[alpenwasser]

Triple Fan Unit



As hinted at earlier, the airflow in this build will go from
the front compartment  through the middle wall  into the M/B
compartment and out the back.

This  is  pretty much  how  the  stock configuration  works,
except in that the air gets  in through the front panel, not
through the side panel.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of the stock config, but
luckily tweaktown.com did a review on this case and took them
for me.


Source article where I got the image  from can be found here.

In  the stock  config, the  92  mm fans  are mounted  inside
some plastic  fan cages  that allow  quick and  toolless fan
replacement in case of failure.

(click image for full res)



And without the fan cages:

(click image for full res)



Originally  I  just screwed  the  fans  to two  aluminium  L
profile bars.

(click image for full res)


(click image for full res)


(click image for full res)



It was fixed  to the middle wall  with double-sided adhesive
tape. It's very  strong stuff, so  the fan unit  falling off
was not a concern. Additionally, the tape has some thickness
to it, which  should provide some dampening  between the fan
unit and the middle wall.

(click image for full res)



Unfortunately, due to some bumps on the middle wall getting in
the way, the tape on the rear angle didn't make proper contact
with the wall. It held, but not very well.

Additinoally,  I  noticed  that  there  were  rather  strong
vibtrations on the middle wall. It  turned out that the tape
did  indeed  offer some  decoupling,  but  it also  did  not
offer any  additional strength to  the middle wall  (i.e. no
additional  stiffness), which  meant the  wall could  easily
vibrate.

(click image for full res)



So, I took the unit out, and while I was at it, I also cut
out some recesses for the fans which I didn't bother doing
before. I also put some dampening foam between the fans and
the alu angles.

(click image for full res)



Aaand  of   course  I  mounted   the  fans  the   wrong  way
round. Sigh.

(click image for full res)



Disassemble again, reassemble.

(click image for full res)



Also: Foam between the alu angles and the wall itself:
(click image for full res)



This time  I bolted  it to the  wall with  some screws. Much
more solid now, no more vibrations.

(click image for full res)



How it looks from the other side:

(click image for full res)



Cheers,
-aw
 

[IdeaStormer]

Well, if a particular model isn't engineered to run cooler, they usually can withstand higher temperatures without issues. So I suppose there's that

 

I have some older 10K RPM SCSI drives that if you take them out hot you can't hold them in your bare hands. Used to dare other people to hold it in their hands as we took them out, I should of saved the temps we took of them. I can stand behind our FC fileserver at anytime and get that nice warm air, then move to the front of it get that cold air to freeze me up again, prefer to work in the back of the servers than the front for sure that cold air gets to you after a while unless you are wearing warm clothes.

[MG2R]

<all them cables>

Cable management in that thing is going to be a b***h

[alpenwasser]

I have some older 10K RPM SCSI drives that if you take them out hot you can't hold them in your bare hands. Used to dare other people to hold it in their hands as we took them out, I should of saved the temps we took of them. I can stand behind our FC fileserver at anytime and get that nice warm air, then move to the front of it get that cold air to freeze me up again, prefer to work in the back of the servers than the front for sure that cold air gets to you after a while unless you are wearing warm clothes.

 

Haha, yeah I used to have a 15k Seagate Cheetah SCSI disk, exact

same thing, could not touch that thing for very long.

 

Cable management in that thing is going to be a b***h

Cable management?

Seriously though: It's a matter of prioritizing. Either you have

a tidy M/B compartment or a tidy disk rack compartment, but you

can't really have both. I have opted for the tidy(-ish) disk

compartment, so the M/B compartment will be a bit messy. Such

is life.

[Raboo]

That's a lot of cables.

[IdeaStormer]

 

Cable management?

Seriously though: It's a matter of prioritizing. Either you have

a tidy M/B compartment or a tidy disk rack compartment, but you

can't really have both. I have opted for the tidy(-ish) disk

compartment, so the M/B compartment will be a bit messy. Such

is life.

 

A hot glue gun can help, especially to keep cables out of the fans.