That Asus is a fun board! I probably would use it as a board for my main system, but I like my old Gigabyte X58-Extreme. Oh well another SuperMicro adventure begins this week.

I would suggest moving this box away from anywhere in earshot of where you watch movies. It will likely get loud since there's a hot CPU, hot motherboard (due to the NF200's), add on cards, and lots of drives. Also, if you start doing VM's, you are going to want 6GB+. There's always a temptation on the i7 to run one more, so it pays just to put the ram in now and forget about it. Running 100% SSD's on any systems I type on these days, all storage sits far away where I don't hear it

Yep, the noise issue is well known.
If you havent done so yet look at "Andromeda" by CaveDiver.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4816
He's designed a fan replacement therapy for noisy rpc-4020/rpc-4220.
I will be using this and probably a dose of H2O. and a bit of sound proofing as well.
Not that it will be near my TV, but it will be in my office 3ft away from where I practically live.

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Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

Just an update on the part pecurement front.
Found a source for the ARC-1300ix-16 cards at $342 ea.
http://www.atacom.com

They are in Fremont ca, lucky the cheapest source I could find is a little bit of a drive but I must go there Friday anyway.
So, the parts are trickling in.

I have also decided to change the fan out not for the 35-38dba 90cfm fans others have used.
Instead I will be using 6 of the Scythe Ultra Kaze DFS123812H-3000 133cfm fans
I will use a fan controller to drop their RPM's to a lower number and hopefully the dba as well, but will have the option on hot days to run 3000rpm.


2 X Areca ARC-1300ix-16 Sata controllers $342ea + tax tot = $763.00
2 X RPC-4220 cases Mwavevideo.com $333.00 ea + tax tot = $728.00
1 X GT220 1gb HDMI/DVI video Amazon.com = $78.02
2 X Ultra X3 1000W power supplies TigerDirect $159 ea Tot = $318.00
1 X TR3X6G1600c7D 6gb Corsair Dominator ram Amazon.com $208
1 X Cool Master V8 cpu cooler Amazon.com $60.37
6 X Scythe Ultra Kaze Fans Platinum Micro $12.94 ea tot = $77.64
1 X Asus P6T7 mobo Ebay $285
1 X I7 940 CPU Ebay $295
1 X 10pk 3ware SFF-8087 .5m cables Aberdeenllc $60
1 X Rack 25U Bud rack from a friend $100
1 X WD500 blue scorpio, $0 gift from Bro
1 X WHS OEM $100
1 X Disk manager $10
5 X Fan Controllers $5.95
Misc tools to cut cases, $80


Grand total on parts orderd so far $3194


Tot remaining to order $? =$3194 Under budget for my original $3500 estimates

For anyone who's paying attention, I changed to two 1000w power supplies rather than one single.
This has nothing to do with redundancy as there are simply too many single points of failure in this system.
Rather these power supplies are capable of in excess of 85% eff with a 60% load they drop off sharply after that as do all supplies, so I'm trying to keep them in the 40%-60% load range.
And I could get two 1000W PSU's for less money than the one 1600W which would have maxed out at 1200W due to plug outlet limitations.
Now I just need to make sure I plug each into a different circuit/UPS.

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

Well, the tracking numbers say the parts should be arriving this week.
I have borrowed some tools from my Bro, to conjoin these two cases together.
I have my camera all primed for the gorey details.
I am however having a problem someone may be able to help me with.
I want to incorporate a good fan controller with a display of temp and fan rpm, but all of them are too big.
So I'm looking for controllers in the 3.5 drive size, please feel free to recomend one and I will have a look.

Something like this is what I have in mind.


Thanks

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

Recieved some of the parts today.
The Areca ARC-1300IX-16 card look awsome.
they came very well packed, a complete manual, Drivers, A full and low profile back plate.
And four(4) SFF-8087 to four sata drives with sideband cables.
They do not list the cable on the purchase site, but that could save a bit of money for some.

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

what do the sideband cables do? Where would they connect

_________________
Mac Pro Quad 2009, MBA REV B, DROBO, HP EX 485 6.4TB

If I read the docs right, it's used with some backplanes to select which drive is being accessed.
Generally in raid setups, WHS/JBOD will not need it.
Bear in mind I think the docs were ran through a chinese>english translator and some of the stuff just doesn't make sense luckly the basic setup works out of the box, and I will be using sff-8087>sff-8087 cables no sideband invloved.
It will look the same as CaveDivers SuperMicro cards just two more ports per card, and only two cards for the system.

YAHOOOO!! tracking says the cases are sitting at home waiting for me.
Looks like Surgery this weekend.

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

Your build is definitely something I would want to try and replicate. 40TB WITH duplication turned on!!! I would have room for everything I have now (16TB or so) plus plenty of bays to add drives as my BR collection grows.

Regarding your need for fan displays, have you thought about locating these just above or below your "BEAST"? With a 2U blank and shelf, you could cut out the front and do a custom mount. I can understand you wanting everything in the main case, just a thought. I have done my own custom faceplates for a few things on HT jobs in the past. There is a shop here that can laser cut the blanks and they end up looking like factory faceplates from Middle Atlantic or Raxxess.

On another note, if the displays are "self contained" you can send them in to MA or Raxxess and they will make a custom rackmount for you, but it will be a little more than a DIY.

I thought about doing that, but I want to try to make it look as factory as possible while doing as much as possible myself.
The biggest problem I have is that the first parts I ordered are turning out to be the last to arrive.
Even stuff from asia is coming in faster than my Mobo/CPU from New Jersey.
I know the weather was bad but 14days!

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

Although, I've never been able to figure out exactly what sidebands to; my sff-8087 -> sff-8087 cables have sidebands, and I think that may be the reason I'm able to get SMART data from the drives attached to the SASLP cards where others can't. I didn't purchase the cables I have because of the sidebands, but they just happened to have them.

Are 8+ drives just going to be used as independent drives. When tsha222 posted 40TB with duplication on, am I missing something. Current WHS has 32 drive limit I thought.

If you have 40 drive bays for storage plus an OS drive you will have 9 bays open or just in there as independent drives.

@cavediver, I can get SMART data from the drives, just not through WHS Disk Management. It is a program issue with WHS disk management and how it pulls the SMART data. I beta tested the latest version and still had issues.

That would make sense, the 3ware cables I purchased I think have them as well but integrated where the ones that came with the controller it's integrated at the sff-8087 end but seperate at the sata multihead end.
But it just a single little 8pin connector and the diagram shows it plugging into a backplane board like the 5into3 box, and the docs make some references to drive id/selection.
But we all know sata works on a 1:1 cable so no drive selection necesary, so your probably right it's an i/o cable.
The sweet thing is the cable even though suposedly come from different vendors they look like siblings.
similar construction, connectors etc...

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

@walkabt,
I will be growing my storage slowly over time, hoping vail comes along before I max out.
If not the extra bays will be used for backups, or non storage pool shares.
I want to reserve my storage pools drives for movies.

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

I'm able to get temp data in WHS Disk Management from the drives attached to the SASLP cards.

That's not because of the cables - having worked with Sam Wood and testing it.

I used to be able to get the data the first time I loaded WHS through one card. The other card was assigned a different drive ID. Switching the cables made no difference. Remember, I reinstalled WHS and the situation became worse. It was the way the drive IDs were assigned through the cards at installation.