Hello fellow data hoarders!
I want to share a little story that made me smile.
It was three weeks ago when I received a mail from my TrueNAS machine, telling me that one of my 3 TB WD Red's (my setup is at the bottom) was dying. That server had been running 24/7 since 2012 when I started my homelab, migrating from external HDDs to a proper (Free)NAS setup with redundancy, ECC and all the next level enterprise-grade stuff. It was housed in a NZXT Source 210 in the beginning, which was already a blessing to work with, and the best I could afford at 40€.
Of course I ran Plex on the same machine and of course it was disgusting. The motherboard alone cost almost as much as my notebook, so that server better do everything I've always wanted to do at the same time all the time. I only started to use the box exclusively as a file server when I retired my notebook and put Proxmox on there. How lucky that was, because the knowledge and familiarity I gained landed me more than one job position.
Anyways, it was 2018, I was earning 4 digits and wanted to treat myself. A case that's almost 100€?! Unbelievable! But the internet said it was the best in build quality that you could get and data hoarders celebrated it as tailored to their needs. So I ordered a Fractal Design Define R5 and god, I still get goosebumps remembering the case migration.
From then on, drive replacements were not a chore anymore. I could toollessly open that beautiful heavy-duty box of metal, appreciate the sight that I experienced, slide out the drive with the correct SN, of course have the cables easily slide out with it thanks to the nice cable management options, switch and slide it back in. I would be lying, though, if I didn't admit that I'd caress and de-dust the interior every time that happened.
But back to the actual story: I replaced the defunct WD Red as usual and remembered that I've had >80% used pool capacity for some time now. I procrastinated fixing that, because I still don't have the moneys to add storage capacity in the form of 2.5" SATA SSD's or even PCIe-M.2 adapters and NVMe drives. But I do have a box of decommissioned HDDs that survived a harsh burn-in from my last job position and enough free SATA ports. Just the drive slots are all used.
In the last 2 years I helped two very good friends of mine configure and build new PCs. For both, we started looking at case options, features, manufacturers and both asked for my favorite brand. You can guess it, I said Fractal Design is neither cheap, nor light, nor fancy. But it's nice to work with, silent, has dust filters and you can actually feel that you paid an extra buck. One got a Pop (I was shocked how close their "cheap and colorful" line comes to the Define experience), the other got a Define Mini C. Both are very happy with their choice and the latter even upgraded to a North later on, the one with the wood, passing on his old Porsche of a case to his mom.
Anyways, one evening we were sitting in Teamspeak playing some Mechabellum and I lamented about Fractal Design offering replacement parts, but not anymore for my age-old Define R5. My friends said "you talk so positively about that manufacturer, why not just ask them?". I wouldn't have ever thought of that myself, don't ask me why. I went to the contact form and asked if they could help me source that part that they seemingly don't manufacture or sell anymore, as I couldn't even find it on the whole of eBay Europe.
I received a reply within 7 hours and 8 days later opened a package containing a 3x 3.5" HDD cage for my ancient Define R5. It's already doing its job but I'll want to move the cage to where the bottom fan is in my next maintenance window:
https://preview.redd.it/3ieu8q029idd1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=bffa435a3fc0009c4f1249ce319a6b0e05e8914a
I never expected anything to come out of this and I'm still overwhelmed that they actually read my inquiry, reached out to me and took the time to help me solve my problem. They're one of the few companies where such an exchange is still possible. And I wanted to share that story with you. Thanks for reading.
Setup
Case: Fractal Design Define R5
Mainboard: Supermicro X10SL7-F
CPU: Intel Pentium G3220
RAM: 4x Samsung 8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ECC (on Supermicro's compatibility list)
OS: TrueNAS
ZFS pool 1: 6x 3 TB RAIDz2 (used to be only WD Red EFRX, the last used and next 3 spares are HGST Ultrastar 7K4000 SAS 3 TB)
ZFS pool 2: 2x 18 TB RAID1 (Seagate Exos 18 TB X18)
ZFS pool 3 (new): 2x 1 TB RAID1 (miscellaneous HDDs)
Also new: 1 internal 3.5" slot for a hot spare
