MiniHack Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 Yep, that tray ain't gonna move once it is screwed down. For the shelf screw bits are the little M3 screws not long enough now to reach? They should reach as they are 8mm and the plexi is 5mm thick so even when the shelf is in place and using a washer (the thin m3 washer not the thick 3mm ones) they should be able grab those threaded inserts..... Anyway. Any problem you can always email me direct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 20, 2013 Author Share Posted April 20, 2013 Ah ok then it's an oversight on my part. i haven't tried it yet so I'm not sure. It will be a while before the top shelf can go back in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 20, 2013 Author Share Posted April 20, 2013 Preparation for the storage system: (pictures of Mac Pro Drive Sled and Corsair SATA Backplane measurements) Yes we Europeans sure love our metric system ! The photos might not display it 100% correctly, so I'll put the exact measurements here in Metric and Imperial: Object: W x H x D in cm MacPro Sled: 10.5 x 15.5 x 3.1 SATA backplane: 10.0 x 14.1 x 1.0 Object: W x H x D in inch MacPro Sled: 4.13 x 6.10 x 1.22 SATA backplane: 3.94 x 5.55 x 0.39 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baudouin Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 Can't wait to see the following, had thought to do something alike after having seeing what you're about and what MiniHack had done . Congratz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 20, 2013 Author Share Posted April 20, 2013 Thanks for the support ! I did some measuring and I'm affraid MiniHack is right (again * ): I can only fit 7 HDD's with the Corsair SATA backplanes. * You might start to think he's been around many many G5 cases This is a rough drawing of how it should look like: If those backplanes from Corsair would have less space between the ports, I could have fitted them all but I doubt I'll find a better solution anytime soon. I can live with 7 drives People, I'd like to hear some of your input: What should I do with the top shelf ? I don't want to stuff more disks in there, it wouldn't look very nice and I really don't need more than 8 disks anyway. 4TB x 8 in RAID-Z2 = 24TB which is about 6 times more than I have now. I'm able to place an SSD there but basically they are so small I could just as easily stuff it behind the motherboard tray if I'd like. Keep in mind that it's going to be a decent NAS system based on ZFS (based on FreeNAS, ZFSguru, NAS4Free) so optical drives are useless, as are watercooling kits. If I can't find anything useful, I'll probably put an ODD in there "to fill the hole" but it seems like such a waste... But I'm coming up empty on ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniHack Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 I don't enjoy being right...... Question I guess is if you don't want to cut the front then you are probably going to either have to keep the ODD or use the panel space of the DVD hatch for something useful - little display? Fan controller? or convert the DVD player into something else. I have just gutted one for fun (yes, I need to get out more I know) and you could adapt a gutted DVD player to give you a pop out card reader or SSD drive tray (or cup holder). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baudouin Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 You could place several SSD's in Raid where the DVD player is located ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 23, 2013 Author Share Posted April 23, 2013 OK been pondering the storage system; remember that aluminium beam I got a while back ? I'd like to make something like this: The disk, Velociraptor (2,5") just as an example but going to use 3,5" disks, sits slanted because the other side is free-floating but you get the idea. I found some rubber grommets that I can cut into two equal pieces, which I then can cut again in two not-exactly-equal pieces. With a certain sized screw and a small nut, I "fabricated" this concept. I'd like to make it some somewhat higher quality with inset screwheads and smaller nuts. Preferably also better rubber grommets but I'm having a hard time finding the correct ones. Any tips on this are welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baudouin Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Have you tried to use the original Apple HDD's screws or DVD's screws ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 23, 2013 Author Share Posted April 23, 2013 I don't know about the HDD screws because I don't have any, but the DVD screws don't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 27, 2013 Author Share Posted April 27, 2013 Not much news to post, except I found some rubber faucet joints that are 12x3mm, useable as rubber wheels to for the rails. Now I'm also looking for the right screws and as soon as I have the hard drive suspension that is according to my wishes, I'll post pictures ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 27, 2013 Author Share Posted April 27, 2013 OK that went faster then expected: Those are the rubber faucet joints I was talking about. Two together are to thick for the inside of the rail so I tried the next best thing. Easy solution, although the store only had 30 of those rubber joints and I need 56 (2 per screw, 4 screws, 7 hard disks) so tomorrow I'll check another of their locations. They are awaiting more rubber joints This works very well, the metal (rail and screw) are dampened from eachother with the rubber joints, so it'll minimize vibrations. Now I need to figure out the cage... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 Some more pictures of the system: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baudouin Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Looks great. Well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 Thanks ! The worst part is yet to come: the entire cage. Tum-Tum Tuuuummm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baudouin Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 Plexiglas or brushed metal ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 29, 2013 Author Share Posted April 29, 2013 The beams I already have are made out of aluminium and since the entire case is too, I'd like to keep it that way It's easier to do with DIY-tools than plexiglass as I only need to drill holes and cut strips at the correct lengths. For that to work well with plexiglass, I'd need professional equipment I don't have and can't afford just for my casemods. I'll be measuring tomorrow probably and hopefully have something tangeable this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baudouin Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 That's right, plexiglas work is not so easy and Minihack has the pro tools. Wait and see your work progress . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 I'm a sad panda. After taking measurements, I can't fit the SATA backplane AND the hard disks AND the Mac Pro HDD sleds. It would take up almost 20cm along with cables and considering I only have about 18.5 - 19.0cm of depth, this isn't going to work. I can't very well ditch the HDDs and without the SATA backplane the HDD sleds are also useless, so I'm going to ditch the sleds. The problem is the HDD sleds stick out about 2.5cm beyond the hard disk and that is crucial to fit. Modding them isn't worth it, I'd have more success making my own (still an idea though). So for now I'll construct a cage as planned, just without the sleds. It actually doesn't matter, as the sleds wouldn't have altered the cage construction anyway. Now I've taken measurements, I'm going to whip up something in Photoshop (not the right tool but I know it very well) and try to have something concrete to show soon ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniHack Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 I'm a sad panda. After taking measurements, I can't fit the SATA backplane AND the hard disks AND the Mac Pro HDD sleds. It would take up almost 20cm along with cables and considering I only have about 18.5 - 19.0cm of depth, this isn't going to work. I can't very well ditch the HDDs and without the SATA backplane the HDD sleds are also useless, so I'm going to ditch the sleds. The problem is the HDD sleds stick out about 2.5cm beyond the hard disk and that is crucial to fit. Modding them isn't worth it, I'd have more success making my own (still an idea though). So for now I'll construct a cage as planned, just without the sleds. It actually doesn't matter, as the sleds wouldn't have altered the cage construction anyway. Now I've taken measurements, I'm going to whip up something in Photoshop (not the right tool but I know it very well) and try to have something concrete to show soon ! Is it not possible to modify the sleds to make them sit closer to the rear edge of the HDs and then keep the cool look? maybe a thin adapter plate between the disk and the sled with some elongate slots??? Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 Modding them isn't really possible, the screws are too far to the back. The short version has them much closer to the front of the sled. I'm not sure the short version would work, I'll figure it out when my cage is done Using/making an adapter would make it more difficult to install and I'd rather make my own or use the shorter ones if possible. Or a totally different solution, I'm still contemplating that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 I cut the aluminium beams into 17cm pieces, all with a saw and files. They may not all be accurate to the tenth of a mm but they are all 170mm The keen eye will have noticed there are only 12 beams and I need 14. I just ran out of beam Getting one more soon ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted May 3, 2013 Author Share Posted May 3, 2013 I finally have a throw-away system to test the PSU and as you can see, it's basic tasks work just fine. Right now I'm using Ultimate Boot CD to stress-test the computer, to see if it acts up. It seems to be stable. I'm still concerned about the SATA power connectors, I only have a few HDD's to test them out so the real stress-testing won't happen until I hook up all the drives. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted May 5, 2013 Author Share Posted May 5, 2013 After about 36 hours of continuous number-crunching with prime95, it stays stable, although I can't say how much power it draws or how it will do when fully stressed, but I doubt that is ever going to happen. Tomorrow I'm going to start at my new job, so I might not be able to get a lot of done to the storage system, but I'll try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phunczz Posted May 9, 2013 Author Share Posted May 9, 2013 Today I got a hold of some more needed materials, namely an L-beam and just a strip. Both annodized: Too bad they are a different thickness but I couldn't find any matching ones that were also annodized. Question: would I best add some vibration damping material between the C-beams I had and these beams for the entire construction ? Or would it suffice that I try to make it as tightly fitting as possible ? Also this: Cheap pillar drill, I'll need this to correctly drill the holes for the storage system. Already "modded" it, with some grease where needed, vibration damping material on the belt casing, Magnet© for the drill key, and a better system for the transparant shield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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