I've decided to try and build all this into as compact an enclosure as possible, mostly because I like the idea, but also so it's relatively easily transportable in the future, especially if the business expands and I end up building more than one.
I thought I'd put it up here as a bit of a sanity check, and to make sure I haven't missed any crucial details that could screw up the build after I lay down the cash.
Here goes, the planned spec list reads thusly:
- Silverstone GD08B Case
http://silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=331 - Intel S2600COE Motherboard - 2x Socket 2011
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/server-motherboards/server-board-s2600co.html - 2x Intel Xeon E5-2687W - 8 Core, 3.1GHz, 3.8GHz Max Turbo
- 2x Silverstone NT01-Pro heatsinks
http://silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=367 - 8x 8GB Hynix DDR3 PC3-12800 ECC Registered
- 8x Seagate 3TB Constellation CS ST3000NC002
- Seasonic X-750 Power Supply
- MSI GTX650 OC 2GB
- Edit: Samsung 830 SSD as a system drive... of course
Now, when I first looked at the GD08 case, I wrote it off, assuming the EATX specification was just a misprint, or a silly claim that wasn't actually any use, because obviously, the drive cage completely covers the whole back end of an EATX board, and that's where one of the CPU coolers would have to be.
When I looked more closely into it though, I started to realise that they'd considered it quite well. The bottoms of the bay areas are cut out, to allow upward airflow from the bottom-mounted fans at the front.
That doesn't help much though, as the divider wall of the 5.25" bay sits directly above where the 2nd CPU socket would be.
My solution is, using the NT01-PRO coolers, which are Socket 2011 compatible, are rated for the full 150W the CPUs require, are short enough to fit the height of the case, and most importantly, are L-shaped, so I can aim them off towards the side of the case, right in the path of the two 120mm fan side-mounts, and crucially rising up right inside the cutout area of the optical drive bays. I'm pretty sure they'll give just enough clearance to avoid touching the RAM too... just.
I want to fill up every available 3.5" bay with 3TB drives, and run a Raid 10 array, for maximum performance. To that end, I've picked out a super-short-ass midrange GeForce card that barely overhangs the end of the PCI-E slot, so it doesn't get in the way of the hard drives. Also, with an EATX motherboard installed, the front fan-space is limited to a row of 6x60mm fans, instead of the 120mm it comes with... so I've settled on the Sunon HA60251V4 60mm Maglev fan, which seems like it should be pretty quiet while still shifting plenty of fresh air directly up into the hard drive array.
I'm wondering about the PSU... All told I've got 2x150W-TDP CPUs, a 64W TDP graphics card, 8x~11W hard drives, various fans, 8 sticks of ram... I guess it could hit about 500-550W peak... so a 750W Seasonic Gold-efficiency PSU seems reasonable enough, right?
Phew... so, any glaring pitfalls I haven't spotted?