I am already on the 120mm fans... upgrading to the next highest CFM. Won't argue that ambient temp makes a big difference. Two challenges this week, higher humidity for the Phoenix area and still freaking hot!!!

Yorick - on one of the previous pages I have the kill-a-watt measures. You would have to apply your rate to those estimates.

The costs appear to be approximately 20% more than a comparible MSS with an equal number of drives. With an MSS anything over 4 drives requires an external enclosure and this is figured into the 20%.

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HP EX470, 4 GIG, 4200+ EE SFF, WHS V1, Production
HP EX485, 4 GIG, E5800, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Transfer Server, Backup Server
HP EX490, 4 GIG, Q9400S, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Mediaserver
HP EX485, 4 GIG, Q8200S, WHS 2011, ITUNES Server

I went ahead and purchased and installed 3 of the 1600 rpm scythe fans SY1225SL12H into Andromeda yesterday. Below are Disk Management screenshots showing the drive temps before and after the fan change. The server is a little louder, but not too much. Drive temps are 3 -5 deg F cooler with the 1600 rpm fans. I also modified the fan board by cutting out the metal on the side of the cable hole. It definitely made the board and cables easier to install. I'll most likely include that design change in future production runs if any.

Cavediver,

What are your drivers for the MV8s? Mine are 3.1.0.17 dated 10/10/2008.

I am still not getting the SMART temperature data from the drives connected to the 2nd card. Trying to find additional drivers, but can't locate anything on SuperMicro's site except the manual.

The drivers for both of my MV8's are version 3.1.0.17, same as yours. Mine came off the supplied cd. What mobo are you using and what type of pci slot is it installed in? Mine are installed in the x16 and x8 slots. I wish my mobo had another x8 slot or an x4 slot so I could install another MV8 and forego the mobo sata ports entirely.

Same motherboard, same slots, same cards, cables are different - but SMART picks up on them.

I never had the boot problems you were mentioning on the H forums, but mine don't like hotswapping some times...

I populated mine left to right then down a row, left to right, etc.. Tried your way, but caused more issues.

Ok. I'm confused. SMART picks up on what? Your mobo ports? If you've got your mobo ports showing temp data in Disk Management, I'd like to know what your bios setting are.



All of my ports, both mobo and MV8s work great with hot swap. Maybe you've got a poorly functioning cable?



This is the pattern that solved my boot issue. One row at a time left to right.



Do you mean top left to bottom left, then move over one column? This is the pattern that didn't work for me.

Maybe a bad cable - but it would be two bad cables on the same MV8. #1 is in the big slot closest to the processor (next to a PCIe x1) and the second card is in the slot in the middle (think that is the x8). The second MV8 does not display SMART temp data. The motherboard SATA ports do not display SMART temp data. ALL display activity.

Layout of drives.
Motherboard - DVD and SSD
MV8#1 cable 1 - bays 1 2 3 4
MV8#1 cable 2 - bays 5 6 7 8
MV8#2 cable 1 - bays 9 10 11 12
MV8#2 cable 2 - bays 13 14 15 16
Motherboard - bays 17 18 19 20

I am filling drives in this sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... - you had yours going 1, 5, 9, 13, 17... originally. 1, 5, 9... did not work well for me. Hotswap is hit or miss. Interestingly enough I plugged a ThermalTake BlacX into the USB port and it is recognized in MY COMPUTER but not in WHS Disk Management. I may try to play with that program.

The setup works very well, not perfectly, but neither did the MSS and I was out of space and I didn't want to go USB. This fits in my rack with rails and takes up less rack height than the MSS did.

Thanks for the push start.

Hi cavediver, first of all I'd like to say you've got an awesome build. Frankly, I wanna build the same thing for my storage needs. I would like to ask for some guidance though on the bold items.

a. Does the case have a total of 5 backplanes for the case and each backplane accepts 4 hard drives?
b. Do the 4 Startec Cables MiniSas sff-8087 to sff-8087 connect to the 4 backplanes and does the 3ware cable connect the motheboard's SATA ports to one of the back planes?
c. Are the backplane power connectors Molex cables? What are the materials used for your custom build power cables?
d. I see that your PSU has a maximum 8 molex power cables, you're not utilizing the SATA power cables?

Thanks and more power to your build.

Yes.



Yes, one SFF-8087 cable per backplane.



Yes. 4 SATA connectors connect to 4 of the mobo sata ports and the SFF-8087 connector connects to one backplane.



Yes.



Molex 4 pin power connectors, 6 pin pcie connectors, 18 ga wire, 1/8" & 1/4" pet sleeving, and heat shrink tubing. All are available here at FrozenCPU.com. Although I bought wire at Fry's and sleeving locally at Graingers.



I'm not quite sure what you mean by this question. Each backplane has two 4-pin male molex power connectors attached. You only have to connect one per backplane to power the backplane & 4 hard drives. I went ahead and connected both power connectors on each backplane, just because. There is no need for sata power cables with a backplane. You will need an sata power connector for the 2.5" drive if you install one and for an sata dvd drive, again, if you use one. The dvd drive does not have to be sata. It can be ide.

Hi cavediver:
Not sure you got my pm right. I sent you the paypal for the fan cage.
Looking forward to it!

I got it, but it was after shipping cut off and a holiday weekend. I'm shipping it out today and will provide you a UPS tracking number when I get it.

I understand why you went with the Intel NIC. The realtek 8111c onboard NIC is horrible, drops off nearly every night and you can't wake it up. I made all of the adjustments to ensure the card never is turns off to save power or the such; power management is set properly in WHS and on the motherboard. I connected a mouse just to try to wake up the PC until my new card arrives. PITA. Intel NIC on the way.

Also, got the 110CFM Sycthe Slipstreams in - nice! Now 330CFM which is more than stock fans and I still don't hear the unit over my other PCs. These are the highest output slipstreams, running 37dba each per the box, about 40 for all three.

What are your drive temps with the 110s?

Dropped 3-5 degrees. Center drives see the most improvement. Outside drives see the least.

It is drawing 25% more air through the unit than three at 88CFM. 330cfm/264cfm - 1 = 25% increase.