Advatronix Cirrus 1200: a Storage Server Under Your Desk
by Johan De Gelas on June 6, 2014 5:00 AM ESTMore Internals
When you look at the interior from the right side, you'll notice a large fan sucking air over one of the disk modules.
The focus on keeping the drive bays cool gets even more obvious when we take a look at the rear of the Advatronix Cirrus 1200. There are two large, robust 120mm fans that suck the hot air out of the drive bays.
The redundant PSUs are very easy to replace and hot-pluggable.
We tested the redundant PSUs to verify a single PSU can handle the entire load and experienced no problems. At least in the area of PSU redundancy, then, the Cirrus 1200 is server grade.
To sum things up, the Cirrus 1200 has several server grade features such redundant PSUs and hot-pluggable, easy to access drive bays, and it's not too difficult to service. However, it is also a lot like a desktop, as the CPU needs a fan that is hard to reach, and you need to use a screwdriver quite a bit to replace the fans. Also, the cabling inside must be treated with care, as it is easy to damage or pull out cables by accident. Advatronix still has some work to do before they truly can call the Cirrus "a data center in a box".
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JohanAnandtech - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - link
The last point is where you make a reasoning error. Most enterprises just do not want to build their own fileserver, otherwise there would be not NAS market.sciencegey - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link
I was using the last point as an example of what a SOHO could do, which this storage server is targeted at.tential - Saturday, June 7, 2014 - link
Why couldn't they just sell the case by itself.....I don't need a 4500 system, I need a decent case like that.
Aikouka - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link
Yeah, I was hoping this was actually just a server case review. =(AdvatronixSystems - Saturday, September 27, 2014 - link
We do sell the case by itself! :)Please contact sales@advatronix.com if you're interested.
watersb - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - link
Thanks for reviewing this. Very interested in storage servers. But at these price points, I'm still in "build-your-own" territory.YouInspireMe - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - link
I have truly enjoy reading and have learned so much observing the high level exchange of knowledge here on this site I wonder if you could offer a little insight to a less knowledgeable fan of this sight. Other than it being headless and having lower power consumption what are the advantages/differences between a standard server and dedicated PC with sharing on a local network.JohanAnandtech - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link
Thanks. Another advantage is the build-in BMC which allows you to do remote management (remote power on, remote console). The rest is rather obvious: very little time is needed to replace PSU and the disks. I would definitely like the latter in my desktop :-).CalaverasGrande - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link
this looks like a server from the 90's except with a powder coat finish! So it must be good?RoboKaren - Wednesday, June 11, 2014 - link
Why not look at the BackBlaze StoragePod 4.0 derived commercial product, the Storinator: http://www.45drives.com/products/If I had $5k to spend on storage, I'd give it a serious look.