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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 24 2007, 7:31 AM EST (current) | snootch | 1 word added |
| Feb 24 2007, 7:31 AM EST | snootch |
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The SuperTalent 901BS server case:
The case is made from your average sheet steel and the inside edges are quite sharp. I almost cut myself once or twice during this build.
Supplied are a bag of assorted screws and brass motherboard standoffs, a steel bracket needed if you want to padlock the case, a small piezo buzzer for attaching to the motherboard, and a piece of paper illustrating the pin-outs for the case connections. A small hinged door at the front bottom of the case features two USB connectors, a single fire wire connector, and audio connections for headphones and a microphone.
The side of the case features two fan grilles, one of them filled with a 120mm fan. The other grille has an adjustable black plastic shroud on the inside to direct air onto the CPU cooler.
On the back of the case there are slots for seven cards, a single 120mm fan (which could be helped with a better grille) and the standard space for an ATX power supply. Opening the case, we see the plastic shroud for the CPU cooler, and the 120mm fan attached to the inside of the case lid. Inside, the motherboard tray has mounting points for Micro-ATX or full-size ATX motherboards. There are 9 drive slots, but they all look like 5-1/4” slots. Since there is no documentation provided with the case, I must assume in order to get 9 -3.5” hard drives in there you must buy 5-1/4” to 3.5” adaptor brackets separately. I wish I would have known that earlier. For right now I guess I will have to mount the disks only on one side.
I mounted the motherboard using the brass standoffs, and mounted all the hard drives:
Next, I mounted the Silverstone 500W power supply. It came in a hefty black box, proclaiming 500 watts of continuous power on the lid.
Installing the power supply was a snap. The larger bunches of wires exiting the back of the unit are encased in black techflex loom. The supply comes with a manual in several languages, four black mounting screws and two wiring adapters for different ATX and 12v molex connections.
I connected power to all the drives, and routed the excess wire behind the drives out of the way. Next, I installed the Highpoint RocketRAID PCI card:
The card comes in a pretty blue and yellow box with the card’s description and features emblazoned on the front.
Inside the box was the card, a half-height header bracket for use in rack mount applications, and four very long blue SATA cables.
I installed the card with no issues other than the SATA cables. They are so long that I had to bundle the excess at the bottom of the case. I connected the case’s front panel connection cables to the header on the motherboard, and connected the side panel fan to the power supply before the side lid was screwed on.
It powered up with no issues, I configured the RocketRaid BIOS, installed Windows and the driver and software for the Highpoint card. Once the RAID management tools were installed it took 7-1/2 hours to initialize and build the RAID 5 array. Once the array was done and I formatted it through the disk management service, it showed as a 1,1178Gb disk in the My Computer screen. I installed the IIS snap-in to enable FTP capabilities. Once the FTP was configured, I was able to access it over the Internet. I removed the CD-ROM drive I installed to load Windows and disconnected the monitor and keyboard.
The case is made from your average sheet steel and the inside edges are quite sharp. I almost cut myself once or twice during this build.
Supplied are a bag of assorted screws and brass motherboard standoffs, a steel bracket needed if you want to padlock the case, a small piezo buzzer for attaching to the motherboard, and a piece of paper illustrating the pin-outs for the case connections. A small hinged door at the front bottom of the case features two USB connectors, a single fire wire connector, and audio connections for headphones and a microphone.
The side of the case features two fan grilles, one of them filled with a 120mm fan. The other grille has an adjustable black plastic shroud on the inside to direct air onto the CPU cooler.
On the back of the case there are slots for seven cards, a single 120mm fan (which could be helped with a better grille) and the standard space for an ATX power supply. Opening the case, we see the plastic shroud for the CPU cooler, and the 120mm fan attached to the inside of the case lid. Inside, the motherboard tray has mounting points for Micro-ATX or full-size ATX motherboards. There are 9 drive slots, but they all look like 5-1/4” slots. Since there is no documentation provided with the case, I must assume in order to get 9 -3.5” hard drives in there you must buy 5-1/4” to 3.5” adaptor brackets separately. I wish I would have known that earlier. For right now I guess I will have to mount the disks only on one side.
I mounted the motherboard using the brass standoffs, and mounted all the hard drives:
Next, I mounted the Silverstone 500W power supply. It came in a hefty black box, proclaiming 500 watts of continuous power on the lid.
Installing the power supply was a snap. The larger bunches of wires exiting the back of the unit are encased in black techflex loom. The supply comes with a manual in several languages, four black mounting screws and two wiring adapters for different ATX and 12v molex connections.
I connected power to all the drives, and routed the excess wire behind the drives out of the way. Next, I installed the Highpoint RocketRAID PCI card:
The card comes in a pretty blue and yellow box with the card’s description and features emblazoned on the front.
Inside the box was the card, a half-height header bracket for use in rack mount applications, and four very long blue SATA cables.
I installed the card with no issues other than the SATA cables. They are so long that I had to bundle the excess at the bottom of the case. I connected the case’s front panel connection cables to the header on the motherboard, and connected the side panel fan to the power supply before the side lid was screwed on.
It powered up with no issues, I configured the RocketRaid BIOS, installed Windows and the driver and software for the Highpoint card. Once the RAID management tools were installed it took 7-1/2 hours to initialize and build the RAID 5 array. Once the array was done and I formatted it through the disk management service, it showed as a 1,1178Gb disk in the My Computer screen. I installed the IIS snap-in to enable FTP capabilities. Once the FTP was configured, I was able to access it over the Internet. I removed the CD-ROM drive I installed to load Windows and disconnected the monitor and keyboard.
