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Hello fellow overclockers,
I am the Network Administrator of my small company (about 25-30ish users) and our president had recently came to me asking about upgrading our capabilities at the office; such as, VPN, Active Directory, File Sharing, etc. We are a Telecomunications Contractor so we install most of this stuff on a daily basis along with mostly structured data cabling. What i have proposed is to install a 2U custom built Untangle Firewall/Router along with a 3U custom built server running Windows 2012 R2. I will also be installing a D-Link Smart Layer 2 Switch I picked up from ADI. I have spent about the past week in the basement living next to the rack on the wall installing components. This wall had no rack on it earlier this week. First I will start with the router.
Untangle Firewall/Router
All the components have been ordered from Newegg as we have some good deals with them. We recently did the cabling for their new Indianapolis,IN warehouse location... anyway here is the specs for the Firewall/Router.
Components:
GIGABYTE GA-H97N-WIFI
Intel Pentium G3258
CORSAIR XMS 8GB
SAMSUNG 840 EVO 120GB
Rosewill RSV-Z2600 2U Chassis
Free Version of Untangle

I installed the blue Rosewill fans. Gotta make things look cool!


Gigabyte ITX board, G3258 and the 8GB of Corsair RAM. I love the XMS RAM, it's very reliable and i have use it to build many customer PCs.



There is so much space left over inside this 2U Chasis!
Yay for ITX boards.






Installation of the Untangle software is completed with a bootable flash drive. Untangle is much more user friendly compared to PfSense; however, PfSense is much more powerful. But I dont need this box to do much, most everything including DHCP will be done by the server.
Here is the state of the 25U Rack after the Router install. Top U is a 24Port Patch panel accompanied by a NeatPatch Organizer. Also I have installed a 2U Tripp Lite Smart 1500LCD UPS to keep those new boxes from shutting off unexpectedly.

Windows 2012 R2 Server
All components for the server were also ordered from Newegg. Got them overnighted for dirt cheap.
Components:
ARK IPC-3U380 3U Chassis
SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O
Intel Xeon E3-1246 v3
Crucial 2x8GB ECC RAM
Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD
2x WD Red 2TB HDDs (RAID1)
5x WD Red 3TB HDDs (RAID1E)
ICY DOCK 5in3 HotSwap Cage
I will be running RAID1 on the two drives for critical OS backups and Server configuration. The RAID1E is going to be for company and user files such as; quotes, invoices, quickbooks, etc. I am running RAID1E becuase of the software RAID provided by the LSI 2308 SAS controller built into the motherboard. Otherwise i would have probably done a hardware RAID5. Got all the Newegg boxes in today and built the server tonight... Well its operational and running 2012 R2 right now but i do not have the drive arrays setup the way i would like them. I ran into an issue with the internal 3.5in drive cages hitting the CPU Heatsink.

Newegg has to have the best packaging ever! Especialy on their hard drives I mean DANG! I could have dropped this drive off my roof and not even put a scratch on it! Kudos to Newegg.


Reason there is only 4 HDDs is becuase I had origionally planned on using the internal drive cages but you will see shortly that didn't work out.








Panorama Shot of my work are in the basement of the office.

CPU, and RAM installed

This Dynatron Cooler is a pretty sweet unit. Its in both the Server and the Router. Perfect for a 2U little small for a 3U but it still got in the way of my drives. In later pics you will noticed I had to flip the heatsink 180degrees and change the fan direction from push to pull.

Motherboard installed into the chassis. It allows for a ATX board but mine is only Micro ATX. With a full ATX board the bottom I/O would have been under the PSU.

Attempting to install hard drives. if the CPU socket would have been 1/2in closer to the I/O Sheild i could have fit atleast four 3.5in drives internally. All i can fit is two 3.5in drives and two 2.5in drives. I only have the one SSD currently, but I am thinking about grabbing a second one for sotrage for large CAD files or something.
You can see here how i flipped the CPU cooler...

Here is final placement of the two internal 3.5in drives. Under the left HDD is the boot SSD. The 5 sata cables neatly bundled together are going to be for the RAID Array that will sit in the three 5.25in Drive Bays.

SATA and Power now hooked up to the drives. I know those cables look hideous but those off color cables that came with the mobo are way too long so I will be ordering the same cables I used for the RAID array.

Got the box mounted on the rack and plugged in to install Server 2012 R2.

Had to grab a few cups of coffee while that install took forever.

Don't you just love it when a swing out type rack actual is able to swing out with the proper cable management!

OKAY guys thats all I have fro tonight. It's now 6am and I have been looking at computers for way to long today. LOL Here is the Raid Cage I have on the way from newegg. Got nextday shipping again but its friday.... well now saturday morning so it probably wont be in until monday. I will update soon with any details!
Thanks for your support in advanced guys!
I am the Network Administrator of my small company (about 25-30ish users) and our president had recently came to me asking about upgrading our capabilities at the office; such as, VPN, Active Directory, File Sharing, etc. We are a Telecomunications Contractor so we install most of this stuff on a daily basis along with mostly structured data cabling. What i have proposed is to install a 2U custom built Untangle Firewall/Router along with a 3U custom built server running Windows 2012 R2. I will also be installing a D-Link Smart Layer 2 Switch I picked up from ADI. I have spent about the past week in the basement living next to the rack on the wall installing components. This wall had no rack on it earlier this week. First I will start with the router.
Untangle Firewall/Router
All the components have been ordered from Newegg as we have some good deals with them. We recently did the cabling for their new Indianapolis,IN warehouse location... anyway here is the specs for the Firewall/Router.
Components:
GIGABYTE GA-H97N-WIFI
Intel Pentium G3258
CORSAIR XMS 8GB
SAMSUNG 840 EVO 120GB
Rosewill RSV-Z2600 2U Chassis
Free Version of Untangle
I installed the blue Rosewill fans. Gotta make things look cool!

Gigabyte ITX board, G3258 and the 8GB of Corsair RAM. I love the XMS RAM, it's very reliable and i have use it to build many customer PCs.
There is so much space left over inside this 2U Chasis!

Installation of the Untangle software is completed with a bootable flash drive. Untangle is much more user friendly compared to PfSense; however, PfSense is much more powerful. But I dont need this box to do much, most everything including DHCP will be done by the server.
Here is the state of the 25U Rack after the Router install. Top U is a 24Port Patch panel accompanied by a NeatPatch Organizer. Also I have installed a 2U Tripp Lite Smart 1500LCD UPS to keep those new boxes from shutting off unexpectedly.
Windows 2012 R2 Server
All components for the server were also ordered from Newegg. Got them overnighted for dirt cheap.
Components:
ARK IPC-3U380 3U Chassis
SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O
Intel Xeon E3-1246 v3
Crucial 2x8GB ECC RAM
Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD
2x WD Red 2TB HDDs (RAID1)
5x WD Red 3TB HDDs (RAID1E)
ICY DOCK 5in3 HotSwap Cage
I will be running RAID1 on the two drives for critical OS backups and Server configuration. The RAID1E is going to be for company and user files such as; quotes, invoices, quickbooks, etc. I am running RAID1E becuase of the software RAID provided by the LSI 2308 SAS controller built into the motherboard. Otherwise i would have probably done a hardware RAID5. Got all the Newegg boxes in today and built the server tonight... Well its operational and running 2012 R2 right now but i do not have the drive arrays setup the way i would like them. I ran into an issue with the internal 3.5in drive cages hitting the CPU Heatsink.
Newegg has to have the best packaging ever! Especialy on their hard drives I mean DANG! I could have dropped this drive off my roof and not even put a scratch on it! Kudos to Newegg.

Reason there is only 4 HDDs is becuase I had origionally planned on using the internal drive cages but you will see shortly that didn't work out.

Panorama Shot of my work are in the basement of the office.
CPU, and RAM installed
This Dynatron Cooler is a pretty sweet unit. Its in both the Server and the Router. Perfect for a 2U little small for a 3U but it still got in the way of my drives. In later pics you will noticed I had to flip the heatsink 180degrees and change the fan direction from push to pull.
Motherboard installed into the chassis. It allows for a ATX board but mine is only Micro ATX. With a full ATX board the bottom I/O would have been under the PSU.
Attempting to install hard drives. if the CPU socket would have been 1/2in closer to the I/O Sheild i could have fit atleast four 3.5in drives internally. All i can fit is two 3.5in drives and two 2.5in drives. I only have the one SSD currently, but I am thinking about grabbing a second one for sotrage for large CAD files or something.

Here is final placement of the two internal 3.5in drives. Under the left HDD is the boot SSD. The 5 sata cables neatly bundled together are going to be for the RAID Array that will sit in the three 5.25in Drive Bays.
SATA and Power now hooked up to the drives. I know those cables look hideous but those off color cables that came with the mobo are way too long so I will be ordering the same cables I used for the RAID array.
Got the box mounted on the rack and plugged in to install Server 2012 R2.
Had to grab a few cups of coffee while that install took forever.
Don't you just love it when a swing out type rack actual is able to swing out with the proper cable management!

OKAY guys thats all I have fro tonight. It's now 6am and I have been looking at computers for way to long today. LOL Here is the Raid Cage I have on the way from newegg. Got nextday shipping again but its friday.... well now saturday morning so it probably wont be in until monday. I will update soon with any details!
Thanks for your support in advanced guys!