Example tardis Hardware Build
- Motherboard: AsRock Z87E-ITX; http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87E-ITX/
- Case: Lian-Li PC-Q25B; http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-q25/
- supports 8 HDs in total. however this Z87E-ITX only has SATA 6-ports onboard.
- CPU: Intel Haswell i7-4770K + things learned about Haswell K
- Haswell does not support older SandForce SSD 12xx/15xx controllers; http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?111964-Vertex-2-Agility-2-and-Haswell
- K lacks vPro/TXT/VT-d/SIPP/IOMMU support; http://www.anandtech.com/show/7001/intels-haswell-quadcore-desktop-processor-skus
- K overclocks to 4.0Ghz with stock Intel cooler, however runs way hotter than Ivy Bridge. apparently no matter which low cost cooler you use, 100c temps are expected with a compact case.
- arctic silver thermal paste did not improve temps whatsoever. yes i followed best practices applying thermal paste
ლ(́◉◞౪◟◉‵ლ)i've upgraded fans and CPU cooler to Noctua, experimented with flow directions... nothing i can do to keep the CPU overclocked w/o Thermal Throttle kicking in. even w/o overclock the case runs hot. - ended up assigning 6-cores (3 of the 4 real-cores) to my Linux guest that executes handbrake and it dropped the temps slightly
- 2 x 8GB RAM G.SKILL Ares 1866Mhz
- 1 x HighPoint RocketRAID 622 controller. eSATA to SansDigital 4 x 2TB JBOD = RAID5
- 3 x 4TB HDD Seagate ST4000DM000 SATA 6Gb/s w/ Windows Storage Spaces
- 2 x (open) 3.5" SATA HD bays
- 1 x 256GB SDD ADATA MLC SATA 6Gb/s
- Lian-Li PC-Q25B bottom plate supports additional 2.5/3.5" mounts
- Q25 supports full ATX power supplies and Lian-Li claims depth = 180 mm = 7.08 inches. but this can't be possible. maybe remove HD rack/backplane?
- SF55F-G = 5.52 inches
- fully modular cables allow plenty of space
- (did not use) short-cable kit; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812162010