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Making the XRaid Great again! Ultimate Modification.

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Mar 28, 2013
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Motherboard
Mac
CPU
I7
Graphics
330gt
Classic Mac
  1. Xserve
Hello Folks,
Almost a year ago. I read a forum post on another website of of a guy named xxredxpandaxx modding an old apple XRAID. Essentially Gutting the unit and painstakingly soldering sata through the mother board to allows the caddies to hold SATA drives. It was a great idea and it got me thinking of undertaking such a task. I however have no soldering skills. And with say 14X 8TB I don't trust my soldering when data is at stake. Also nothing on the outside was functional. It was just a case mod, nothing more.

Link provided https://forums.lime-...le-xserve-raid/

SO I had an idea, redesign boards for both the XRAID and the Caddies. So that at least the drive lights worked in front of the caddy.

If you are having a hard time picturing this I will provide pictures.

But basically my idea entailed making a Daughter card which would accept multple sata and power wires from a mother board and power supply and then transfer the leads through the XRAID style connectors (SCSI 80) into the Caddy and then back to a sata connector to use with sata drives inside the caddy. I wanted the lights to also be functional.

Again I hit a road block I don't know much about making PCB boards. So I enlisted the help and expertise of another forum member, Prerunnerseth. Not only was he able to make new caddy boards for SATA, and make the large daughter board to accept the sata from a pc motherboard and power from the power supply. He also was able to get the caddy lights to be functional.

So the caddies are done. We are now in the final stages of the large 17" daughter board. I will also have pictures of the progress.

The third task which will be started soon is getting the throughput lights to work in the center of the machine. My hope is to have it register network bandwidth. Also rewiring of the power button from the back to the front is also on the list.

The second part of this project is aesthetics and airflow. I again have no knowledge of how to cut aluminum or design mother board trays. So I enlisted help from someone in the UK. And let me tell you he designed the most beautiful pc tray and top. The tray will have holes for risers for mitx, or matx. and the top will have a cutout that will make it easy to swap cards out so you dont have to unscrew everything to get to them.

I will have more pictures and will be editing this post to make it a little bit more linear.

I think this will be the best looking NAS out there. Perfect for holding all your data and transcoding plex videos provided you buy enough horsepower under the hood.
 

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New 17" PCB which will act as a daughter card. accepting SATA from PC mobo and Power molex from Power supply.

post-1778331-0-88755900-1489632118.jpg


New Caddy PCB which accepts a SATA Hard Drive.
post-1778331-0-35149900-1489632087.jpg


OEM plastic Top covering the redesigned PCB

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Video of the front LEDs working on the caddy.

 
I also have photos of the redesigned top case and back chassis to accept the pc mobo and power supply. I am waiting for permission from the creator to post them.

Kits including all necessary PCBs will be available for sale soon. and Xraids are relatively cheap now on ebay.

These will make the perfect plex servers... provided you give it enough horsepower under the hood. and What makes it great is these are absolutely stunning.
 
Moderators I just realized I posted in the wrong section. Apologize ahead of time can you move this post to Case mods section.
 
Moderators I just realized I posted in the wrong section. Apologize ahead of time can you move this post to Case mods section.

OK done. ;)
 
New update. Back Plane daughter card is complete.
As you can see there is placement for (24) 15 mm fans, to help keep the drives cool.
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0321170627b.jpg
 
New update. Back Plane daughter card is complete.
As you can see there is placement for (24) 15 mm fans, to help keep the drives cool. View attachment 243430


View attachment 243431
You're doing some awesome work! I got my hands on 4 of these for under $80 and was going to go the route of the initial person you linked. I am highly interested in getting my hands on these daughter boards and caddy boards.

Keep up the good work!
 
New update. Back Plane daughter card is complete.
As you can see there is placement for (24) 15 mm fans, to help keep the drives cool. View attachment 243430


View attachment 243431
Doing some awesome work Adam, bringing this gorgeous X-Raid too life. Your mod and creativity actually inspired me therefor I brought back my prehistoric X-Raid back from the garage. That daughterboard your using is exactly what I need. Exist the probability that I could obtain one by purchasing one from you? You would make me a very happy man^^ Keep up the great work ;-)

Djeff

IMG_1034.JPG
 
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