Pictures (as promised) of DrKK's New Build

[DrKK]

This is the final installment in what has turned out to be a three-piece series. Here is part 1, here is part 2.

Picture #1: This is the old box, Giskard. The case is the very nice Bitfenix Phenom M, which I recommend. Giskard was a very small box, as per my wife's request at the time. I wish I had a banana (or a Cyberjock's you-know-what) for scale. Giskard gave totally flawless service, never one bit, never for one instant, was ever out of place. He has earned my respect, and I wish him a satisfying retirement.

Here is the interior view of the new, much larger, NAS in the white Fractal Design R5. I notice the auxiliary CPU 12v power cable is not connected for some reason at the moment I snap this shot. (Edit: yes, it is. Sorry).

The flip side of the case has a very nice cable management system, and a sweet little place for two SSD's. Here you can see my cheap boot SSD, and my significantly less cheap jails SSD mounted on to the underside of the motherboard tray:

Here is the new NAS (daneel) in its final resting place in the (lol) "server room":

And for La Piece De La Resistance, here is the shot in the darkness of the room, showing the panoply of tasty colors dancing about the walls in breathtaking splendor:

DrKK really recommends LEDs. As many as possible.

 

[DrKK]

Oh, and here's the watt meter.

This was a pleasant surprise, it's about the same wattage (48 at idle) as giskard (42 at idle), despite having a more powerful CPU and two more HDD's, and way way way way more LEDs.

 

[SavageAUS]

Nice rig but wouldn't cable management be "cleaner" if those HDD's were facing the other way?

 

[DrKK]

Nice rig but wouldn't cable management be "cleaner" if those HDD's were facing the other way?

CURSE YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE FROM SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA.

Except Joe Hachem.

 

[DrKK]

Damn it, now that's going to bother me until I turn the hard drives around. CURSE YOU.

 

[SavageAUS]

CURSE YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE FROM SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA.

Except Joe Hachem.

HAHA my bad I just like clean :)

I'm thinking about moving my rig into one of these soon
https://www.pccasegear.com/products...sSFehqjzTkaOoDTrNLDaYaArDG8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[iammykyl]

Being from Queensland, I was to polite to mention it

What"s the big drop in the chart? a restart?

 

[Mlovelace]

Nobody puts baby in a corner!

 

[Dice]

yeah, the drives are meant to be mounted cable inwards. However, that sucks for maintenance. It is a constant struggle between what looks the best when putting the case away and actually working on the guts..

On top of that, I can't stop thinking you've managed to rotate the CPU cooler sideways?
My EVO212 (non-led version) is ...pointing towards the rear.
Perhaps it makes more sense in your particular case to have it pointing upwards granted the ventilation.
Was the orientation an intentional maneuver or a lucky move?

 

[Jailer]

Nice pics. I think I'm sold on one of these cases for my desktop hardware. Of course without all the bling and LED. Less LED = good.

 

[Stux]

I think I'm sold on one of these cases for my desktop hardware

I can thoroughly recommend the Fractal Design Define C if you're looking for a high end desktop case... without a requirement for lots of 3.5/5.25" bays.

 

[DrKK]

On top of that, I can't stop thinking you've managed to rotate the CPU cooler sideways?

Is that so? Hmmm. Weird. I guess you're right, a quick perusal of youtube shows that everyone has this mounted 90 degrees from me. Oh well, I guess I didn't think much about it except "push heat up or back". For a minute there I thought maybe the holes weren't symmetric and mounting it 90 degrees off was not possible and you guys are crazy, but the tech specs for the socket (1150 socket actually linked, but the hole layout is the same) certainly indicate the holes are wholly (no pun intended) symmetric.

 

[DrKK]

What"s the big drop in the chart? a restart?

Yes. Forgot why I had to restart it, but it was routine. Maybe I put the case side panels back on at that point.

 

[DrKK]

Of course without all the bling and LED. Less LED = good.

You wouldn't last two seconds in Baltimore, sir.

 

[DrKK]

To be fair about the LEDs: I only expected a mild to moderate amount of LED'age, wholly contributed by the 212 LED cooler. In reality, there were two other unanticipated and unanticipatedly bright LED sources:

1. Surprisingly bright blue LEDs in the case body itself, unimpeded since nothing is installed in the 5.25" bays
2. Surprisingly bright green LED on the X11SSM itself for power on, and the same type of LED, except flashing, for the IPMI chip.

As it happens, I find these a feature, not a bug, and if they had ECC RAM DIMMS in with dancing RGB LED like the water display at Bellagio, I'd buy those too. I won't lie.

 

[DrKK]

On top of that, I can't stop thinking you've managed to rotate the CPU cooler sideways?

Come to think of it, I got lucky.

Note that if I installed the cooler the "right" way, I'd be over the DIMM slots, and I'm almost certainly adding 16GB more of RAM, so that was a fortuitous "accident".

 

[Jailer]

You wouldn't last two seconds in Baltimore, sir.

You are absolutely correct. But I'll keep my political views out of this thread. ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

Come to think of it, I got lucky.

Note that if I installed the cooler the "right" way, I'd be over the DIMM slots, and I'm almost certainly adding 16GB more of RAM, so that was a fortuitous "accident".

It's common for large 120mm coolers to obstruct the DIMM slots to some extent on server-layout boards. That's one of the reasons why the 90mm format is popular in servers.

 

[anodos]

The LEDs make it look classy. More Vegas than downtown Detroit. Congrats.

 

[m0nkey_]

That dirty floor bothers me