Mini-ITX, High capacity build.

[Latty]

You're wasting your time with getting multiple drives from different manufactures. It's much easier to just get all the same drive in one big order and then test them. If a drive is going to die it most likely will die in the first 72h of heavy usage. So use badblocks to test them, that test alone will probably last 3 days.

I've had two drives from a batch I bought die very close to each other after years - that's one experience, so could be complete coincidence, but it can't hurt. It ends up costing me only a little more to mix it up, given I already need to order from a selection of places because of availability of the parts. The cost is like £30 in price difference over just getting 6 of the cheapest from the cheapest supplier (which I couldn't actually do as they have an order limit at 3 drives), and it takes virtually no time and doesn't result in extra shipping costs. Maybe matched drives would be faster? It's not going to be a difference I care about, I think. As I said before, it's mostly for backups and long-term storage. It seems at least plausible to me that there is more risk of some kind of systemic failure within a batch and within model lines. Probably not enough to be worth worrying about, but as I say, if I'm doing it, I'd rather do it properly.

I contacted Kingston and they confirmed the kit on Amazon should work with the motherboard - and my supplier for that has agreed to update it to the latest BIOS before shipping, so I've placed my orders, I think I'm happy with the build. Thanks for all the help in this thread, I'll make sure to post about how it comes together for anyone following my footsteps.

 

[Latty]

So, I got everything in and have my machine up and running. The notes:

- The IPMI remote control is implemented as a bad Java web start applet that refuses to work on my Linux machine. It does run on my Windows machine (might be because that's still running Java 8, not 9?). I'll continue messing with it trying to get it working. It didn't work at all on the initial version (signed with an obsolete MD5 signature that modern Java rejects), but an update fixed that much.
- The case worked nicely with all of the components. It's a shame the case doesn't have a version specifically for SFX PSUs - it creates a lot more free space that could be used to give the front panel a big 140mm fan mount rather than the two 92mm fan mounts it currently has. Either way, airflow is great as it's just straight front-to-back as a series of fans, the Noctua fans are way quieter than the actual drives and barely even spinning up. Temps are happily sitting nice and low.
- The CPU intake fan is very close to the hard drives - I had to dig out two more right angled SATA cables (the motherboard came with two right angled, four straight) to avoid cables getting into the fan. One of these ended up being faulty and throwing a bunch of errors. Swapping it out for another one fixed that. In general this was the most awkward part of the build - wiring the sata cables and sata power to the drives here was a real pain with not much finger room. With a full ATX PSU and/or PCI-E card it'd have been even more tiresome.
- I messed up and bought the AM4 version of the CPU cooler (I didn't realise they did a version, didn't notice the suffix when I ordered, my bad). Incredibly luckily, my main PC is a Ryzen machine for which I'd bought a Noctua CPU cooler which didn't have an AM4 version, and then got an AM4 conversion kit. I fished out the box and took the original Intel mount from that, which worked. A lucky save. That said, the AM4 version was actually cheaper by more than the £7 adaptor kit for Intel systems (which you can buy) would have cost, so either way it worked out, I just hadn't planned it and would have had to wait for a delivery of the kit.
- The CPU, despite what Scan claimed on their product page, did come with a stock cooler. So I could have used that until I got the kit anyway. I'm still happy enough I bought the cooler - it gives additional pull of air from the hard drives and it's incredibly quiet.
- The case has a built-in fan controller, but you can easily just disconnect the cable if you aren't using it, which is nice. In my case the motherboard has front, CPU and rear fan sockets, and so I have all I need thanks to Noctua including Y connectors - (two front fans with a Y connector, two CPU fans with a Y connector, one rear fan).

Overall, happy with the build. It all came together reasonably easily, and seems to be working well. Currently transferring my data across from my old machine to the new one.

 

[Redcoat]

Glad you have done so well so far!
There's a new BMC version for your board on the ASrock website:
"Version 07.12.00, Date 11/15/2017, BMC Megarac SP GUI 15.20MB 1.Improve JAVA compatibility, 2.Improve WebUI interface, 3.Improve NCSI link"

 

[Latty]

Glad you have done so well so far!
There's a new BMC version for your board on the ASrock website:
"Version 07.12.00, Date 11/15/2017, BMC Megarac SP GUI 15.20MB 1.Improve JAVA compatibility, 2.Improve WebUI interface, 3.Improve NCSI link"

Yeah, that's the one I picked up - that stops the issue with the insecure signature on the Java applet, but it still doesn't work on my Linux machine for whatever reason. The applet launches, but blows up with an exception:

Code:

Exception in thread "Timer-1" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.ami.kvm.jviewer.gui.JViewerApp
	at com.ami.kvm.jviewer.gui.JViewerView$MousesendTask.run(JViewerView.java:1314)
	at java.base/java.util.TimerThread.mainLoop(Timer.java:556)
	at java.base/java.util.TimerThread.run(Timer.java:506)
#### Java Web Start Error:
#### Index -1 out-of-bounds for length 18

Fun stuff. I tried Java6-9 and all of them fail (differently!). It's kind of crazy for anyone to still be using Java Web Start today. The browsers have all stopped supporting the plugin APIs it used to use, and there are better alternatives.

 

[KrisBee]

Yeah, that's the one I picked up - that stops the issue with the insecure signature on the Java applet, but it still doesn't work on my Linux machine for whatever reason. The applet launches, but blows up with an exception:

Code:

Exception in thread "Timer-1" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.ami.kvm.jviewer.gui.JViewerApp
	at com.ami.kvm.jviewer.gui.JViewerView$MousesendTask.run(JViewerView.java:1314)
	at java.base/java.util.TimerThread.mainLoop(Timer.java:556)
	at java.base/java.util.TimerThread.run(Timer.java:506)
#### Java Web Start Error:
#### Index -1 out-of-bounds for length 18

Fun stuff. I tried Java6-9 and all of them fail (differently!). It's kind of crazy for anyone to still be using Java Web Start today. The browsers have all stopped supporting the plugin APIs it used to use, and there are better alternatives.

Which java were you using on Linux ( and which distro)? You might have better luck if you use "Oracle Java".

 

[Latty]

Which java were you using on Linux ( and which distro)? You might have better luck if you use "Oracle Java".

This was Oracle Java 9 on Arch Linux - I tried OpenJDK 9 (w/IcedTea-Web) and Oracle Java 6, 7, 8, 9. All of them failed in different ways, Oracle Java 9 got the furthest and was the one that gave me that exception.

 

[KrisBee]

This was Oracle Java 9 on Arch Linux - I tried OpenJDK 9 (w/IcedTea-Web) and Oracle Java 6, 7, 8, 9. All of them failed in different ways, Oracle Java 9 got the furthest and was the one that gave me that exception.

I must have been lucky then, as Oracle Java 9 + debian unstable + Firefox ESR works with HP's ilo4 remote console which is another java web start app.

 

[Inxsible]

This was Oracle Java 9 on Arch Linux - I tried OpenJDK 9 (w/IcedTea-Web) and Oracle Java 6, 7, 8, 9. All of them failed in different ways, Oracle Java 9 got the furthest and was the one that gave me that exception.

I am using jre7 from AUR in order to access IPMI and it works fine for me on Archlinux.

I have to download the jnlp file first, and then explicitly start up web start using the javaws command. I can give you the exact path later tonight, if you like, but it's under /usr/lib/

Java8 did not work for me though and kept failing with a SSLHandshakeException.

 

[Latty]

I am using jre7 from AUR in order to access IPMI and it works fine for me on Archlinux.

I have to download the jnlp file first, and then explicitly start up web start using the javaws command. I can give you the exact path later tonight, if you like, but it's under /usr/lib/

Java8 did not work for me though and kept failing with a SSLHandshakeException.

Just tried that again, same results as last time with `/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-jre/jre/bin/javaws` - no window appears, the program just exits after the Java prompt comes up to confirm I want to run it.

 

[Inxsible]

Code:

/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-jre/jre/bin/javaws jviewer.jnlp

That works for my TYAN S5533 board. I do have to download the jnlp beforehand though as the browser plugins have been deprecated and no longer work.

My supermicro board works as well, just the default name for the jnlp is launch.jnlp

 

[ShimadaRiku]

If you're talking about a HBA controller card then you don't have to buy from China via ebay, in fact that's a risk. LSI SAS/SATA (9211-8i and other chipsets) type cards come up pretty often in various guises and if a 4 port card is sufficient, how about this one for £35 in P&P? :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LSI-MEGAR...150457?hash=item25e30e3a79:g:OXIAAOSwOgdYohyM

The servethehome website has a long running thread on all the various cards ( LSI RAID Controller and HBA Complete Listing Plus OEM Models) , together with a top picks list.

But does it really have to be a mini-itx based system? You've instantly restricted your choice of m/board and that DS380 case looks very cramped and I'd be concerned about airflow and temps with six HDDs in flimsy looking plastic sledges that might suffer from vibration.

Of course the idea of a mini-itx system in a compact case is appealing for some home users, but I wonder if above 4 HDD it's a viable solution. The Fractal 304/804 is an alternative.

IPMI is something you'd wouldn't want to be without, once you have it.

Got a E3C224D4I-14S to fit inside and have 8 drives in a ds380. They run between 32-38c, but requires some modifications to manage the heat. Need a cardboard shroud or something to direct the air through the cage. https://blog.brianmoses.net/2017/04/creating-a-cooling-duct-for-the-silverstone-ds380.html he also changed the fan grill but I still have the stock mesh one.