They’ve started to arrive! Unfortunately, the motherboard that everything connects to isn’t going to arrive until around the 13 December, so I’ll just have a pile of parts in the corner of my office until it does!
In the meantime, here are some pictures 🙂
- 1 x Intel Xeon E3-1230 v6
- 4 x Crucial 16GB DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMM
- 2 x Crucial BX500 120GB SSD
- 2 x HD Mini SAS (SFF-8643) to 4 SATA Cables
- 6 x WD My Book 8 TB Desktop Hard Drive
- 3 x WD 8TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive
I’ve shucked a couple of the My Books and one of the Elements and they look pretty much identical, although have slightly different model numbers (WD80EZAZ v WD80EMAZ). The internet has lots of suggestions as to exactly what these white-label Western Digital drives are, but the general consensus is that they are Red NAS drives, or at least perform the same.
The My Books come with a 3-year warranty and the Elements a 2-year, although fingers crossed I’ll not need to use them or I’ll be trying to fit them back in the enclosures. Probably more difficult than getting them out! For the saving, even if a couple died and I replaced them, I’d still be quids in. I’d used a Hard Disk Cost Analyser and the My Book drives (which were £2 cheaper) come in at 1.4p per GB, which is pretty incredible.
I’m sure they will be some trials and tribulations having bought these drives, but I’m sure there will be a number of solutions, and for 1.4p per GB it’s a chance worth taking.
The case and power supply arrived today.
- 1 x Fractal Design Define R5 Case
- 1 x Seasonic Focus PX-650 Platinum Power Supply
So just the motherboard to go! I was thinking about this being the most critical part, so typically it would be the last to arrive, but then I started thinking about the other parts. While I could probably start putting things together without them, the machine wouldn’t boot, so I’ll just have to wait until the 18 December to begin the build.
Oh, I’d forgotten about the extra fan I’d bought to go in the front of the case. It comes with one but given I’ll have 8 drives behind the cover, made sense to add another one in the space.
- 1 x Fractal Design Silent Series R2 140mm Fan
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