I've been working on a bit of a project the last few weeks.

The gadget below caught my eye, and (ever thinking of future requirements) I grabbed one 🙂

Behold, a Norco 4224 SAN Chassis!

I filled it with a simple Asrock Motherboard, a G41C

I Used an Intel Quad-Core Extreme CPU that I had lying around, added 8GB of DDR3 (after some experimenting and eventually finding out that the particular CPU I used was a bit fussy about memory) and a 120GB Verbatim SSD for the OS.

A HighPoint 2760A 24-port Raid Controller and half a dozen Mini-Sata Cables rounded the system out nicely, ready for some Hard Drives!

I started out with 6 shiny new Seagate 4TB's.

After experimenting with various Operating Systems, I decided to used Linux Mint 15, and the excellent Linux Raid software in RAID5 configuration rather than the on-board HighPoint Raid software, which offloads most of the work to the motherboard CPU anyway.

I have tried everything I could think of to break it - pulling Drives out, powering off (even in the middle of rebuilds), added and removed Drives with nary a care - and it works!

I'm currently copying my media library to the box while it grows the Raid Array with the final Drive, and I've installed SickBeard, Sabnzbd, Utorrent and all the usual tools.

Fun, Fun, Fun!