CX4712 NAS Build

Introduction

I will call this a midlife crisis, because even though it makes no sense I transferred my server again into a new case... a rack case... but wait did you not just switch from a rack case to a tower case because it makes life so much easier... yeah.

So, all I can say is don't do this, it was way too expensive I even had to buy another rack (my fault, because I only had a 2post rack).

Hardware

Scope of delivery

Build

This time we move into a case that is way less mainstream and way too expensive in my opinion for an Unraid server that sole purpose is to satisfy my data hoarder tendencies.

After unpacking came a disappointment, it got damaged while shipping, the top bar is bent, so that the top cover will not 100% align and close flush, I contacted the seller, and he was very helpful and offered me to ship it back or a discount, because it otherwise worked, and the HDDs could still slide in I opted for the discount because it's mostly a cosmetic problem and the 5 1/4 bay could still be inserted after some prying.

Here is a photo after transferring the setup into this case, nothing really changed, if you are wondering where the

CableCreation SATA data connectors from the last build went? Into the trash, I had disk dropping out of the array because of apparent CRC errors after using them, so back to more traditionally SATA Cables, also they changed the listing, they now show a different product.

This server case has no backplane, which comes with upsides and downsides, the upside is that in this case there is a simple gender changer installed where the HDDs slide in, so even if one of them breaks I could either exchange it for a new one, or rip it out and just hardwire the disk directly.

If you are wondering how the HDDs are mounted, it happens with these screws you just screw them into the normal HDDs mounting holes and can then slide them into the rails.

The downside is the cable management, thankfully here again these SilverStone SST-CP06-E4 Adapter helped out greatly on the power connector side, because I'm using mainly the motherboard SATA ports I had to wire them individually, this could look a lot cleaner if you only used SFF-8087 breakout cables.

Here is how it looks with the installed fan divider, I switched here to Phantek T30 mostly because I was intrigued of fans not made by Noctua and also because of their dimensions of 120 x 120 x 30 mm which is a bit bigger than normal, also they have a build in daisy chain option and all in all I wanted to test them out myself after seeing great reviews of these.

Something that I should mention while at it, in my last build I used the included fan hub, and well it's my own fault but because I had the 40 mm Noctua on that hub which had a whole different start and stop threshold it was a bit fuckery to get it to play nicely with the rest, so now it got its own fan header.

Here is the final state not much changed but in the front you can see that now all 10 HDDs gender changer are connected, or at least are now connected to one of the SilverStone SST-CP06-E4 Adapter Not only did I do this in case I ever need to add more storage the cables would already be there but, I noticed that one of my HDDs was not showing up, at first I thought that maybe the connector is broken, but I noticed that if I switch places with another disk it then would be correctly recognized, there was the classic 3.3V pin Problem thankfully with the SATA Power Adapter there is no need to modify the disk and the setup also looks cleaner... well depens how far you can call this rats nest clean.

Maybe I should mention that the tape on top of the fan wall, is only there for it not falling out, you can take that part out for an easier time to assemble it, and it really helps, but in my case it would not stay together with friction alone, it could be my fans that are too heavy? No idea, but a quick fix was just taping it.

If you put everything together it looks quite sleek, ignore the dust, where I live it gets way too dusty.

Afterthoughts

The bad

To be honest, I have some buyer's remorse, but maybe that's just me, so this case has cost me €480 that is in another realm for a case... this is the rack mount problem if you even try going this way everything gets expensive as fuck, but nobody put a gun to my head so its was my own decision.

The build quality is otherwise very nice, but sharp as fuck, this has the same problem as the cheap Inter-Tech cases it feels like a can opener on the inside.

There are no instructions, okay if you are not retarded you will manage it yourself, but some stuff like what screw is for what is literally trial and error.

One feature that I did not even show, but you can see it here on their website, is the removable motherboard tray, in theory this could be great, remove it put your stuff on it and just slide it in, in practice I found it really hard to slide in even without a motherboard on it, it has some grooves which you need to line up, but mine needed some pressure and force to finally slide in, with a motherboard on top I would never have known 100% if I'm now in the grove or slightly sliding over it.

I found it way easier to just install everything in the case itself.

No extras, with this I mean for example no empty bays (covers) for the 5 1/4 slots or that the PCI slot cover are made of solid steel, I had to buy aftermarket parts (AKYGA AK-CA-22).

No intake filters, I had to cut my own (PVC-Staubnetzfilter für PC-Gehäuse) I would have loved if they came with an official, maybe already perfectly fitting version.

The good

The good things are, well it's unique and fixes a lot of problems I had with my old server, the biggest improvement that I can see is that this design is really nice, the layout allows you to fit 3x 120mm inside and because of the missing backplane the fans also have a chance to pull cool air from the front, or better said pull heat from the HDDs.

For people like me that try to use this stuff at home, this is perfect, with this setup you can live next to the server without needing really high RPM fans.

So yeah, I will come back to €480 is it worth it, no? Only if you are kinda crazy and want to have this at home, I understand the price totally if you think about it that Sliger is a small company doing custom cases for which they need to introduce their own production lines, I have seen many rack cases in my research, but they all are quite alike, well it's a 19" box so not much room for design but, Sliger is producing something here for a small market of homelab / datahoarders which are willing to pay for a solution that right now nobody else is producing.

All in all if you are a datahoarder and have disposable income maybe take a look, it's not perfect, but it's the best you can get right now without having your own machine shop.

Shoutout here to density.sk where I bought it, they were really great and helpful when confronting them with the shipping damage, if you are in the EU they are right now your only option to get one of these cases but as far as my encounter with them, I would buy there again.

CPU and RAM Upgrade 06.10.2023

Finally, made the move and upgraded from the G4560 to the E3-1270 v6, in the same stroke I also upgraded the RAM mainly because I'm now running Home Assistant in an VM and I guessed that some more RAM could help.

This also should make this the last and final upgrade of this Supermicron X11SSM-F the CPU is pretty much maxed out like this and if i would ever want to upgrade it would be time for a total rebuild on a newer socket then the LGA 1151.