Extreme Media Server

I’m always interested to hear about people’s “extreme” projects, whether it be an extreme media server or some interesting computer mod. The home theater does not need to be relegated to a dry or boring niche of nothing but HD televisions, HTPC’s, and Onkyo audio receivers. Media has be stored somewhere and with the growing forms of content and the increasing quality, both audio and visual, this is requiring exponential amounts of storage. I have detailed the progress of my media server on the My Projects page, but after reading about this “extreme media server” I am left with a bit of server envy. This guy’s project has me beginning to rethink my own server build. Don has detailed his server project over at his blog Extreme Media Servers where he has reached 90TB of storage on a measly 200watts! He has tested up to 16 concurrent HD streams from this single server over a gigabit network and listed out all the parts and steps he has taken to build this beast of a media server.

As I mentioned, reading over his project left me with server envy and sparked my interest in building a similar media server for my own home theater. Don mentions using a “modified 4U rackmount case” for his server. It turns out that he was able to obtain a copy of the servers that Backblaze developed for their online backup service’s datacenters. Backblaze was generous enough to open these cases up for production and sale to the public via the company Protocase. You can find details on the development of this case at Backblaze’s blog.

Backblaze Storage Pod Components

In search of information regarding the purchase of these cases from the Protocase website, we are left with very little of anything. The only mention of these storage pods is a small add on the right side of the page telling you to contact them. In the interest of saving everyone time, I have already emailed them to get some pricing on the cases themselves and any help with tracking down the port multipliers used for the backplane. The response I received from Lisa at Protocase is posted below for anyone looking to pick one up. They aren’t the cheapest cases around, but are comparable in price to many of the mainstream SuperMicro cases commonly used for similar large storage server projects. Protocase is even kind enough to offer some of the harder to find requirements for building a media server based on one of these Backblaze Storage Pods; such as the port multipliers for the backplane and anti-vibration hard drive sleeves. Lisa also details pricing on available customizations such as custom colors or silkscreening.

“Thank you for enquiring about the 4u rackmount enclosure for the “Backblaze 67 Terabyte Storage Pod”, as published on Backblaze’s blog. We are pleased that BackBlaze has chosen us to build this enclosure for them, and also allowed us to offer this as a product to those who wish to build storage pods. I am pleased to provide the general quotation and ordering information below. Should you have any additional questions please email or call (my coordinates are at the bottom of this email).

Product: Standard Backblaze Storage Pod Enclosure, as detailed in the solidworks CAD drawings published by BackBlaze at https://www.backblaze.com/files/backblaze-storage-pod-3d-design.zip, color: Fire red (smooth semi gloss), Standard BackBlaze Silkscreen

Price:

Quantity	Price
1 – 4	$872
5 – 9	$812
10 – 19	$782
20+	$758

Minor Customizations are available for the following additional cost:

• Custom Color from Protocase powdercoat color list (to view, go to http://www.protocase.com/products/mcf.php#, choose ‘powdercoat’ from left menu): flat setup charge of $135 per order.
• Fully custom colors: contact us
• custom silkscreening, customer-supplied artwork: $40 setup fee, plus screen production fee of $30 per color per side

As we are a fully custom enclosure manufacturer, we can accommodate any further customization that you may require, and will quote on a custom basis. Please contact me should you wish to explore this option.

Ordering Information:

• Lead Time: ship in 2-3 days (may be increased for larger quantities or further customization)
• Shipping and applicable taxes are extra. If you would like a shipping quote as well, please supply a valid courier delivery address including phone number. Our default shipping is DHL Air but we also use UPS and FedEx.
• Prices in US dollars
• Terms: Credit Card for 1st order, net 30 terms available to repeat customers on approved credit.

I also wanted to inform you that we have been getting many requests to supply some of the harder to purchase components for the Backblaze Pod Enclosures.

As a result of these numerous requests we have decided to offer the following components at an additional cost:

• Port Multiplier Backplanes [CFI-B53PM 5 Port Backplane SiI3726] (9 required per Backblaze pod, selling price $499.95 per set of 9)
• HD Anti-Vibration Sleeves [Aero Rubber Co. 3.0 x .500 inch EPDM 0.03” Wall] (45 required per Backplaze pod, selling price $45.00 per set of 45)

All prices are in [USD]

The lead time for these items may range from ‘in stock, ship right away’ to 10 days*.

Finally, note that we are offering these for your convenience only, and we will be pleased to sell enclosure only should you choose to go that route.

Please contact me by phone or email if you wish to place an order.

Sincerely,

Lisa”

Don did an awesome job on his extreme media server and has sparked many ideas for continuing my own home theater projects. What sorts of “extreme” projects have you come up with for your HTPC’s and Home Theaters?