Robbin says Hi! Beginnings of home server rack, Skulltrail rig, home theater, some ramblings

Hardware Build Logs
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So, Hi!
Im new here, finally joined after seeing lot’s of L1 video’s. Seems like you guys are people I can really learn from.

I’m Robbin, 27 yo male from Amsterdam.
At daytime I zombie through a car-mechanic job. At night I browse the internet for cat video’s and the youtubes.

Recently I saw Linus’ video of the storinator network storage server and I thought, I want something that vaguely-resembles-that on a budget. Went searching for a cheap server and bought a Dell 2950 III for €75,- and another one for €25,- without CPU’s.
Then found a Dell MD1000 and lots of 1/2TB drives, two Perc controllers and a LSI HBA for a tiny price… Then my hoarding genes kickt in and found another 2 MD1000’s on local eBay, and another 2 2950’s while dumpster diving…

Bought some front bezels on eBay to complete the look…
Watching the L1 video on the storage update i realized it must have been Wendell inspiring Linus, or even helping Linus. Then watched the “Downloading games at 10Gbit” video from Linus and realised it must have been Wendell who set the whole thing up. They even use the same set as on the Gaming on Linux video, and I think I cought a glimpse of Wendell in the video as well. Am I stupid for realising this just now?

Anyhow: this is my whole 19" stack so far:

On top some audio processing and amplifiers. The device with only a power switch on the front is my DIY LM3886 amp.

I am planning to use all this storage for saving all my Hi-Res scans of recipes for tomato soup, and serve it via FreeNAS, Plex and the likes. Never have done something like this, so it will be fun.

My main PC consists of the Intel SKulltrail platform, ten years old now. Still going strong. It had one broken pin on the second CPU socket, but I revived it with the sacrifice of a 775 board, transplanted a pin. Reseated twice, and it worked.
Cooler Master Stacker 830
Corsair RM750x
Intel D5400XS
2x X5460 @3,6Ghz daily, 4.0Ghz for fun.
16GB DDR2-FBDIMM 800Mhz.
2x GTX1060
Samsung 860 Evo SSD
Asus Essence STXII 7.1


It’s waiting for a i7-9900K built to be replaced with.

I have built my own subwoofers, speakers for home theatre, I care a lot about sound quality. More on that later. I am building a second floor in a warehouse behind my garage where it’s all supposed to go.

Since I dumpster dive every week I literally (no really, literally) have piles of computer parts, monitors and stuff that I sell for cheap or give away to friends. This keeps the hobby afloat.

See ya!

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mmm pervy tomato soup, welcome

I’m assuming you shimmied up the rack on that plank to make the rack level as your floor is probably not flat, why not miter cut it and bolt the wood into the concrete?

Also, any thoughts on going solar and maybe coming up with a diy powerwall to support your growing kwh hoarding hobby?

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The floor isn’t level indeed… It’s temporary, as they will eventually get a server rack in which they will be mounted. Nothing is connected or being used as of right now…
Nothing pervy is going to be stored on the servers, I just don’t know how this forum reacts to pirates.
It’s likely to have several functions, it will be internet caching server, game server, mail and web server, plex server for movies (I intend on buying a 4K TV in the future) and music, lots of FLAC. I have a 500/500Mbit connection to ISP so one of them is going to run VMware hosts for my friends to play around with, and store files for them.

I don’t intend on running them all all the time, but when I do, power is just a part of business expense. Solar is not an option for me as the building is a rental, and they don’t want me to fiddle around with the roof. I would love to have some DIY solar but it’s not an option. Power is 230v, all the stuff can run from a single outlet. If temperatures are getting too high in the room, I will DIY fit an airconditioning.

The servers are going to be in a seperate server room that doubles as a PC/electronics workshop, the audio stuff is going in a fancy rack with a smoked glass front panel or something like that in the home theater/living room.

Another project is also waiting, a big plasma TV (just slightly burnt in, haha) with a VGA input, is going to be a MAME box.

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Funny I mentioned Linus in my first post and how Wendell must have had a lot to do with the Linux video’s.

A couple of hours later, in Linus’ “Troubleshooting the $100.000 PC” livestream video, Linus gives Wendell a lot of credit for his work. Check around the 24 minute mark.

“Wendell never lets me down”
“That guy knows his shizz”

Good.

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Welcome to level1techs. :wink:

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Why couldn’t you be female? :cry:

JK

Welcome to L1T! :smiley:

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Did you create a gainclone amplifier?

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Thanks everyone, I already feel at home.

I don’t know if it falls in the gainclone category… It outperforms a lot of LM3886 amps because of the feedback circuit and LCR calculations on the traces. It also has massively overkill power supplies and snubber circuits to eliminate ripple. Further, the inputs are balanced, and use intermediate INA chips. Balanced inputs are the best way to overcome noise picked up by the signal wire.

Some updates:

  • I have made a deal on the missing front panel of one of the MD1000 disk shelfs. I’m expecting it to be delivered next week. €40 is still a lot of money for a front panel of a device I payed €50,- for, but at the same time I can’t have it missing… It would look awful in the final assembly.
  • While dumpsterdiving today, I found a rack mount 8-port KVM switch from Belkin. Coincidentally was looking for something like it on eBay, so I am happy to have found it. Will be testing it soon. Hope I find a console some day.

That’s it for tonight, back to car repairs tomorrow.

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