Thoughts on the new Fractal Meshify 2?

[Mannekino]

Gamers Nexus uploaded a review today of the new Fractal Meshify 2 and when this part came about I was very interested in this case for a future build.

I'm planning on building a completely new TrueNAS server sometime early next year with 8 HDDs and this potential setup looks pretty nice.

Cooling capability for the HDDs seems excellent with 8 HDDs in the "top" compartment right in front of 2 or 3 fans intake and then 2 or 3 fans exhaust on the top. Or maybe an AIO cooler at the top with 2 or 3 exhaust fans.

What do you guys think of this case for a TrueNAS system?

 

[BBarker]

Looks like my NZXT H440 case. Works great for me, everything is easy to get to and stays cool and quiet. I picked it up new for $55 on Amazon.

H440 Mid Tower Gaming Case | NZXT

The H440 White PC Gaming Case is a primarily gloss white finish with key black trim accents. NZXT H440 Series of Mid-Tower PC Gaming cases have set the highest bar in regards to design and functionality. With Ultra cooling capabilities and extremely clean design, the NZXT H440 series of cases...

www.nzxt.com

 

[Mannekino]

Looks like my NZXT H440 case. Works great for me, everything is easy to get to and stays cool and quiet. I picked it up new for $55 on Amazon.

H440 Mid Tower Gaming Case | NZXT

The H440 White PC Gaming Case is a primarily gloss white finish with key black trim accents. NZXT H440 Series of Mid-Tower PC Gaming cases have set the highest bar in regards to design and functionality. With Ultra cooling capabilities and extremely clean design, the NZXT H440 series of cases...

www.nzxt.com

Max for that case is 5 of those drive trays in the "top" compartment? Like shown in this picture:

I don't see extra hole, so that must be the max

 

[BBarker]

You mount two drives to each tray. I currently have 8 drives in mine with two SSDs mounted on the shelf above the PSU and one in the back panel for the OS.

 

[Mannekino]

You mount two drives to each tray. I currently have 8 drives in mine with two SSDs mounted on the shelf above the PSU and one in the back panel for the OS.

How do you do that then? One with screws from the side, and one with screws from the top?

 

[BBarker]

Exactly. You can see the little "dimples" on the bottom of the trays for the drive to mount underneath the tray while the other drive sits in the tray and the screws go into the side. You want the label side of the drives exposed to airflow as that is where the most heat is generated. One drive faces up and the other drive faces down.

 

[Mannekino]

Ah yes, I see it now. Do you think this was by design or just you making use of this very nicely?

Also, what kind of HBA do you have and have you experienced overheating issues with just a heatsink on that chip?

I've had a HBA fail on me due to overheating I suspect (but not 100% sure). I decided to mount a fan on it and control it using a Corsair Commander Pro.

Some pictures.

 

[BBarker]

I remember the instruction manual showing this configuration but the trays are definitely designed with this in mind.

Hottest temp I have seen to date on any drive is 40 degrees C and that is from one of two 7200 RPM drives in the system. Once I change those out to 5400 RPM drives I won't expect to see anything over 36 degrees C.

 

[Mannekino]

And the HBA? I don't see a lot of possible airflow over that small heatsink. But that 140 mm. (?) exhaust fan looks like it might be able to pull some air over the heatsink. I was quite shocked when I first stuck a temperature sensor on my HBA heatsink.

The temperature of my heatsink dropped form 53.00 C to 34.00 C with just a small 40 mm. Noctua fan running at about 2,500 RPM and it's very quiet. Massive difference.

I chronicled all of this here: https://www.truenas.com/community/t...nitor-temperature-of-my-dell-perc-h200.82667/

 

[BBarker]

I have never checked the temp of the HBA heatsink. The overall temps in the case, CPU and disks have always been well within reason. I believe LSI publishes that anything under 100 degrees C is within spec and I know it's not anywhere near that temp.

Those are the stock fans that came with the case. I thought about adding fans to the top of the case but like I mentioned, temps have been well within spec, so I left well enough alone.

The HBA is a SAS 9207-8i PCI-E 3.0 Adapter by LSI

 

[Inxsible]

1. Buy a 4U rack unit -- eg SC845 series
2. Stand it up like a tower
3. Enjoy 24-36 drives (some 4U chassis have 12 drives in the rear)

 

[Mannekino]

I'm not going to have a 4U rackmount unit in my hallway making an insufferable amount of noise. I want a near silent chassis with good airflow for 8 HDDs and 2 SSDs.

 

[jayecin]

I have a Meshify C for my main gaming rig, its a great case.

 

[Inxsible]

I'm not going to have a 4U rackmount unit in my hallway making an insufferable amount of noise. I want a near silent chassis with good airflow for 8 HDDs and 2 SSDs.

My 1U chassis and 2U chassis don't make much noise. They do screech after a cold boot, but about 30-40 seconds in, they go down to a whirr. You can choose to install quieter fans in the chassis for even more noise reduction. Buying compatible 3rd party fans for a particular chassis might be a tad difficult though, I would concede.

Added advantage for me is that my server rack is in the basement, so I don't give a rat's ass about how much noise it makes.

 

[jayecin]

Yeah as someone who has tried to use 2u rack mount servers twice now, they are just a pain in the ass when it comes to noise. Sure you can buy more expensive and quieter fans and solder on special connectors and possibly deal with hardware alarms due to low fan RPMS, find a place to stick it in your house that doesnt allow it to resonate throughout. Or just build something, a lot easier to build something. I recently sold my Dell Power Edge R720 with Dual Xeon E5-2690s to build the server in my sig, simple because that server is quieter, generates less heat and doesnt draw nearly as much power.

 

[Inxsible]

sold my Dell Power Edge R720 with Dual Xeon E5-2690s to build the server in my sig, simple because that server is quieter, generates less heat and doesnt draw nearly as much power.

TrueNas Server | i7 10700 | Asus Prime B460M-A | 2 X 16GB Non-ECC 2933MHZ | 2 x 8TB WD Red | 2 x 500GB Samsung 840 | 256GB WD Blue NVME Boot | Corsair CX Series 750 Watt 80 Plus

So you went from server grade components to using desktop grade components without ECC?
You may be drawing less power, but assuming that you bought those components new, it'd take you years before you'd recoup the amount spent on the new gear.

 

[jayecin]

So you went from server grade components to using desktop grade components without ECC?
You may be drawing less power, but assuming that you bought those components new, it'd take you years before you'd recoup the amount spent on the new gear.

Not everything is about money, the noise and size improvements more than justified the cost. Add in that I sold the R720 on craigslist for 450 bucks along with an old mini itx i5 server I no longer used for 200 bucks, I only paid a few hundred out of pocket. And yes, i downgraded from ECC to non ECC because well I dont care to get into a debate about the need for ECC outside of enterprise environments.