Author Topic: Home Server Build (Read 3971 times)

shmithers · « **on:** Sun, 20 November 2011, 18:57:58 »

Finally taking the plunge, just checking you you friends to see if I am making any mistakes or could be making better hardware choices with this build:

PSU: Seasonic X760
MOBO: Supermicro X9SCM
RAM: Kingston KVR1333D3E9S/4GHB
CPU: Intel Core i3 2100
SSD: Intel 320 Series GEN3 40GB
CASE: Norco RPC-4220
CABLES: Norco C-SFF8087-D SFF-8087 to SFF8087 Internal Multilane SAS Cable
CARDS: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 Marvell 6480 8 Channel SAS/SATA RAID PCI-E Card
HDDS: Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB
OS: Windows Server 2008 R2

All software RAID 6

Thoughts or suggestions?

pitashen · « **Reply #1 on:** Sun, 20 November 2011, 19:04:16 »

my only problem is that you are about to spend a lot for a ridiculously priced HDD.

shmithers · « **Reply #2 on:** Sun, 20 November 2011, 19:07:08 »

Haha, who says I don't already have a bunch of those HDDs and am going to wait until the HDD shortage debacle is over before buying more?

shmithers · « **Reply #3 on:** Sun, 20 November 2011, 19:20:57 »

And what exactly should I put on this 120Gb SSD? - Wait I just looked at minimum requirements for Server 2008 R2 - 32 GB? Ok so maybe more like an 80Gb drive would be good. This would be a file server only. Unless I'm really dumb I don't understand the need for more space than the OS and some minimal apps.

Oh, and I forgot to add memory, hmm looking into this right now

IvanIvanovich · « **Reply #4 on:** Sun, 20 November 2011, 19:36:52 »

File server only? Pentium G620 and H67 desktop motherboard would be more than adequate. If you're going to buy a raid card, you might as well get one that is hardware raid with it's own xor and memory. Otherwise they aren't usually any better than the controller on the motherboard. Any particular reason for Windows Server over a BSD or Linux OS?

shmithers · « **Reply #5 on:** Sun, 20 November 2011, 19:46:37 »

Lysol: I'm trying to accomplish this build for under $1300 Not including HDDs. All of the hardware raid cards I've seen are $1000+ I'd love to do hardware raid but I think it will be out of my budget unless I don't know of such a hardware raid for 20+hdds on the cheap.

Windows Server is because I'm lazy and still don't feel comfortable enough with Linux for a server. Maybe it is easier than I thought but LVM + Samba + general Linux learning seems like it will take a lot of time to learn.

Soarer · « **Reply #6 on:** Sun, 20 November 2011, 19:51:22 »

As long as it can keep up with a gigabit network, there's no need for more! Why the SSD?

I haven't examined onboard network adapters for a while - are they all equally quick these days?

IvanIvanovich · « **Reply #7 on:** Sun, 20 November 2011, 20:13:48 »

I see. Well this card, is more expensive, but does 12 drives a card and has hardware and cache memory. It's one of the better entry level hardware cards that supports 6. If it wasn't for wanting 6 support there would be some cheaper choices. By buying a G620 and H67 motherboard instead you could easily shift the money saved on cpu and motherboard to the raid card.

alaricljs · « **Reply #8 on:** Sun, 20 November 2011, 20:32:50 »

Quote from: lysol;456431

I see. Well this card, is more expensive, but does 12 drives a card and has hardware and cache memory. It's one of the better entry level hardware cards that supports 6. If it wasn't for wanting 6 support there would be some cheaper choices. By buying a G620 and H67 motherboard instead you could easily shift the money saved on cpu and motherboard to the raid card.

3x the expense for 1.5x the drive channels, not really worth it when he's running a pure fileserver. I don't know how well Windows will hack it, but Linux does just fine with it's own caching and software RAID. Might throw more RAM at it tho, seeing as it's nice and cheap.

I wouldn't do hardware RAID on a home server because the cards are so expensive. What if the card fails? You going to be able to get a direct replacement in a reasonable amount of time?

shmithers · « **Reply #9 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 00:41:59 »

Thank you all for your suggestions! Wish me luck with my build

Brian8bit · « **Reply #10 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 09:35:36 »

How much data do you have that you need a 20 bay rack? The whole lot seems to be completely excessive for a "file server"

alaricljs · « **Reply #11 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 09:40:23 »

At ~$100 each for a 5 bay hotswap insert (goes into 3x 5.25 space) the Norco case is well worth the investment if you're interested in being able to upgrade the storage or deal with failed disks without down time.

Brian8bit · « **Reply #12 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 09:48:00 »

Not debating it's value. More it's need... How much porn does one have to torrent to make use of a 20 bay rack? Even with RAID. I must admit, I would find it difficult to fill a 10 bay Fractal if I ripped my entire DVD collection to digital formats.

alaricljs · « **Reply #13 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 09:57:13 »

My argument wasn't about the number of bays, but the cost. Just the 5 bay hotswap (no case to put it in) is $100. Then you need a case to fit it in. As soon as you want more than 5 bays you're right in the middle of the Norco price so why not get it? If you want any reasonable RAID then you're likely to be sitting at more than 5 spindles so there it is...

Brian8bit · « **Reply #14 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 10:13:32 »

I suppose the benefit of the hot swap cages is ease of use. Personally I've gotten along fine with just yanking the SATA cable out of the drive followed by the power cable. Reverse the process to install the drive. Saves a fortune.

alaricljs · « **Reply #15 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 11:18:41 »

That assumes the idea that the sides of the system are easily accessible and you don't have it packed like sardines. My time is worth more than the hassle of doing that every time I need to fiddle with the drives in my server. Also, every time you open a system (especially when it's live) you run the risk of breaking things.

shrap · « **Reply #16 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 12:53:55 »

Why not just get an NAS? What are a "real" server's benefits?

alaricljs · « **Reply #17 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 12:59:22 »

Being able to saturate your gigabit network. Being able to stream to multiple destinations without it choking. I don't know how the current NAS boxes are, but it was cheaper for me to build a server to get the needed bandwidth when I was in the market. This was of course back when home NAS was first starting.

Nighted · « **Reply #18 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 13:32:04 »

PSU is nice but WAY more than you need to run a raid array of platter drives. You could save some money on something with a lot less wattage.

alaricljs · « **Reply #19 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 15:01:27 »

For comparison, I've run 11 IDE spindles on a 500w Fortron. Didn't even need to stagger start.

rvrebel · « **Reply #20 on:** Tue, 22 November 2011, 18:52:26 »

I'm using one of HP's microservers for home (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859105905) -- which was $280 on sale 6 months ago.

Small footprint, low power consumption, ECC RAM, and currently running Windows Home Server 2011. The controller only supports RAID 0/1 and there's always software RAID... Since it has a PCI slot you can also add a controller card (HP Smart Array Controller) for more RAID options and that runs around $200 I believe. I also have access to Server 2008 but unless you need those features I think you're better off scaling back to WHS. It's built off the same platform and comes with some more "home friendly" features.

Currently runs Web server, FTP, Minecraft Server, Servio (for Movies), backup for all pc's/notebooks (including a Mac w/ timemachine!).

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Author Topic: Home Server Build (Read 3971 times)