File Server Specs

Nice, you picked good parts, but your missing a power supply, I recommend the Antec Earthwatts EA-380 and can be had for under $50. Also what operating system are you going to run? Also you will get damn good speeds with that Areca card.
 
I wouldn't go with that Xigmatek PSU just yet. The only thing known about it is that it's CWT made. If you really want that Xigmatek PSU, I'd wait a week or two for HardOCP's review of it. However, if you can't wait, I recommend getting this known quality PSU instead:
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU - $98

Also note that that for just $75 more than the Aerocool case and Supermicro hotswap bay, you can get a case with 20(!) hotswap bays:
NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case - $290

That should definitely give you a ton of expansion options. Though I recommend getting these Seagate drives since they don't have TLER problems like some WD drives do and they do have a 5 year warranty:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $90
 
Have you given any thought to WHS? I built a similar system recently but skipped on the raid card, just used 6 onboard ports on the Gigabyte board that I got. I've been extremely pleased with it.
 
I wouldn't go with that Xigmatek PSU just yet. The only thing known about it is that it's CWT made. If you really want that Xigmatek PSU, I'd wait a week or two for HardOCP's review of it. However, if you can't wait, I recommend getting this known quality PSU instead:
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU - $98

Also note that that for just $75 more than the Aerocool case and Supermicro hotswap bay, you can get a case with 20(!) hotswap bays:
NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case - $290

That should definitely give you a ton of expansion options. Though I recommend getting these Seagate drives since they don't have TLER problems like some WD drives do and they do have a 5 year warranty:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $90


Agreed.
 
I would agree with mmartinx and say take a look at WHS, some of the storage greats like Ockie and such seem to really like it. I run it at home and couldnt be happier. The ease that all the machines in my house are backed up is amazing.
 
I would agree with mmartinx and say take a look at WHS, some of the storage greats like Ockie and such seem to really like it. I run it at home and couldnt be happier. The ease that all the machines in my house are backed up is amazing.

I would also recomend WHS for the home user.
 
Assuming that rackmount cases == the fail, are there any better cases for massive storage than the aerocool? Keeping in mind I would rather not spend 300-400 $ for a LL cube.

 
Assuming that rackmount cases == the fail, are there any better cases for massive storage than the aerocool? Keeping in mind I would rather not spend 300-400 $ for a LL cube.


Antec 1200 or the Stacker.

But really, why wouldn't you want a rackmount case for less than any tower solution with hotswap that you can come up with... much less rackmount.
 
tower case + hotswap units will end up costing a lot more then norco 4020, for the $$$ the norco case is awesome solution.
 
Mostly because I have no where I can put a rack mount. In an apt. and I already have 5 boxen in my (small) office. I can squeeze a full tower somewhere, rack mount I can't even put on it's side.

On the 1200, if I remember correctly from your thread ockie I would have to bang out the flangs to make the 5x3 units fit, correct?

EDIT: How hot would the rack mount run, assuming ambient between 80F - 95F?

 
Well, that really depends on how much the OP plans on expanding. I mean, currently the RAID card only supports 8 drives. If the OP doesn't plan on getting more than his current case will allow, why spend more if you won't use it?
 
Mostly because I have no where I can put a rack mount. In an apt. and I already have 5 boxen in my (small) office. I can squeeze a full tower somewhere, rack mount I can't even put on it's side.

On the 1200, if I remember correctly from your thread ockie I would have to bang out the flangs to make the 5x3 units fit, correct?

EDIT: How hot would the rack mount run, assuming ambient between 80F - 95F?


You can put a rackmount on it's side and the norco will sit just fine on the ground on it's side. I placed mine on their sides to store them (as I do also at work). The norco has removable rack brackets so you can actually take those ears off the case and it will sit flat on the ground on its side.

Yes, with the 1200 and 5in3 units you will need to hammer or bend down the flanges. 3in2 units and other lower density units allows for the spacing of the flanges, just not 5in3's.
 
You can put a rackmount on it's side and the norco will sit just fine on the ground on it's side. I placed mine on their sides to store them (as I do also at work). The norco has removable rack brackets so you can actually take those ears off the case and it will sit flat on the ground on its side.

Yes, with the 1200 and 5in3 units you will need to hammer or bend down the flanges. 3in2 units and other lower density units allows for the spacing of the flanges, just not 5in3's.
It might be worth it for me... But not until I've maxed out my current DAS storage, not to mention quit spending money on folding hardware.

 
arc-1222 is a sas card and I know from personal experience that they don't like certain desktop models hdds like the seagate AS series drives. I would check with areca to see if whatever hdds you plan on using are compatible before you buy the card.
 
arc-1222 is a sas card and I know from personal experience that they don't like certain desktop models hdds like the seagate AS series drives. I would check with areca to see if whatever hdds you plan on using are compatible before you buy the card.

I am pretty sure that the 1222 will work ok with regular SATA drives and that its the ARC-1680i (very similar card) which is primarily just for SAS drives. I actually originally contacted areca's support about the ARC-1680i (low profile) card and they said it was primarily for SAS and could work with enterprise SATA drives with a firmware upgrade and they recommended for SATA to go to the arc-1222. If you look here:

http://www.areca.us/products/pcietosas01.htm

It pretty much says SAS or SATA throughout the entire page which is much different from the 1680i's page.
 
I am pretty sure that the 1222 will work ok with regular SATA drives and that its the ARC-1680i (very similar card) which is primarily just for SAS drives. I actually originally contacted areca's support about the ARC-1680i (low profile) card and they said it was primarily for SAS and could work with enterprise SATA drives with a firmware upgrade and they recommended for SATA to go to the arc-1222. If you look here:

http://www.areca.us/products/pcietosas01.htm

It pretty much says SAS or SATA throughout the entire page which is much different from the 1680i's page.

It uses same intel sas processor (IOP348) so most likely same issues as it's big brother the 1680. I actually have arc1222 sitting in a shelf it's going into my new gaming pc with sas drives but I'll slap it on the test bench and see what it does with some wd6400aaks and seagate drives.
 
It uses same intel sas processor (IOP348) so most likely same issues as it's big brother the 1680. I actually have arc1222 sitting in a shelf it's going into my new gaming pc with sas drives but I'll slap it on the test bench and see what it does with some wd6400aaks and seagate drives.
I'd be interested in hearing the results of this test! I just put an order in for an ARC-1220 yesterday to use with six Seagate 1TB SATA drives (ST31000340AS) in RAID 5. If the ARC-1222 will work with the *AS series drives, I'd be interested in upgrading to the ARC-1222 if it's worth the performance difference between the two (any idea how noticeable it is)?
 
I'll try to start the tests today, my 1680 would work fine for initialization but disks would start timing out during oce or rlm. I'll have to init 3 disk raid 5 and then do 2-3 oce/rlm so it will take a day or 2 to post results.
As far as speed I compared 1680ix-24 and 1280ML and the 1680 is about 2 x faster at init, oce, rlm etc.
 
I think the difference between the ARC-1220 and 1222 would be huge. The arc 1222 has the iop348 processor and the ARC-1220 has the io333 (I believe). I know the IOP-341 which is in my arc-1231ML totally pwns the ARC-1220 everything I have seen so I think there would be a huge difference. My ARCL 1231ML tops out at around 830 MB/sec read and 650 write in raid5, the ARC-1220 tops out at around 350 MB/sec read and 250 MB/sec write (raid5). I doubt the CPU will be the bottleneck on the ARC-1222 and it probably depends more on the bottle neck of the drives themself or the 3 gigabit link (split between 4 drives) if you are using really fast drives).
 
I'm mostly just concerned with compatiblity with my drives and motherboard. I'm not actually using the card in a server; it's my main workstation and will be used for high definition video storage. The motherboard is an EVGA (nForce) 780i, and the drives are standard 1TB Seagate desktop hard drives (ST31000340AS). I've read that the ARC-1220 has no problems with the 780i, so I'd assume the ARC-1222 shouldn't have any issues either. The only question is whether it is compatible with the Seagate *AS hard drives which axan showed some concern about. I don't mind spending the extra $40 or whatever it is if I'm getting a lot better performance.

Just have to hope eWiz will take my ARC-1220 back if I want to exchange it for the ARC-1222 ;)
 
can't really comment about the ARC-1222 but the ARC-1231ML (IOP341) card works great in my nforce650i board (also not a server) as I just use it for my personal storage. We shall seehow the ARC-1680ix-24 works when I get it. If it has problems I might have to just go to the ARC-1281ML instead, but i hope not.

I use 12x seagate (non ES) 1TB drives in my current arry which will soon be 20 of these drives with the 1680ix-24
 
can't really comment about the ARC-1222 but the ARC-1231ML (IOP341) card works great in my nforce650i board (also not a server) as I just use it for my personal storage. We shall seehow the ARC-1680ix-24 works when I get it. If it has problems I might have to just go to the ARC-1281ML instead, but i hope not.

I use 12x seagate (non ES) 1TB drives in my current arry which will soon be 20 of these drives with the 1680ix-24

Ouch. I don't know if I want to be the bearer of bad news, but there is a big known issue with the 1680 and seagate drives... currently Areca is working on it, but there is no immediate fix as of right now.
 
can't really comment about the ARC-1222 but the ARC-1231ML (IOP341) card works great in my nforce650i board (also not a server) as I just use it for my personal storage. We shall seehow the ARC-1680ix-24 works when I get it. If it has problems I might have to just go to the ARC-1281ML instead, but i hope not.

I use 12x seagate (non ES) 1TB drives in my current arry which will soon be 20 of these drives with the 1680ix-24

1680ix-24 and 20 Seagates 1TB (non ES) was my original setup, it doesn't work, the sas transport has issues with the hdd, and the drives time out during oce, rlm etc. You can see my original thread here
 
Thinking of building a file server! Doesn't need to be too fancy, but security and speed are always nice.

Basically, here is what I am currently thinking:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=9393526

Everything should be upgradable. I understand that the current capacity is not earth shattering, but I would like to be able to add more as it is needed. Any suggestions?


What is your goal for the server? A bucket for music/video/files? Run a service?
 
1680ix-24 and 20 Seagates 1TB (non ES) was my original setup, it doesn't work, the sas transport has issues with the hdd, and the drives time out during oce, rlm etc. You can see my original thread here

Do you think it could have at all had to do with the cables you used? I guess I will test things out using my 8 new 1 TB drives first before i test the new controller with my current array. Did you also try upgrading the firmware on the HD's? I know some 3ware and adaptek cards had issues with the ES.2 drives unless you upgraded their firmware.
 
1680ix-24 and 20 Seagates 1TB (non ES) was my original setup, it doesn't work, the sas transport has issues with the hdd, and the drives time out during oce, rlm etc. You can see my original thread here

and wow that setup is very similar to mine except I am using a regular board with a 8800 GTX with the raid controller. I would have to recommend against XFS though. Its performance is good but i have had file-system corruption and kernel panics on it when the volume got too fragmented and just in general have had too many issues with XFS. Also my work used these coraid servers that also used XFS and we have had nothing but problems with them (mostly related to XFS). I myself use JFS on my system and have had no issues.
 
Do you think it could have at all had to do with the cables you used? I guess I will test things out using my 8 new 1 TB drives first before i test the new controller with my current array. Did you also try upgrading the firmware on the HD's? I know some 3ware and adaptek cards had issues with the ES.2 drives unless you upgraded their firmware.
Nothing to do with cables, I'm using the same cables with my 1280ML and everything works fine. I also contacted both seagate and areca and they both aknowledged the issue with the AS drives. There is no updated firmware for the AS drives, my hdds had newest version SD15. Seagate released firmware update for the ES.2 drives but nothing for AS and when I talked to them they basically told me I'm sol and I should buy ES.2 drives.


and wow that setup is very similar to mine except I am using a regular board with a 8800 GTX with the raid controller. I would have to recommend against XFS though. Its performance is good but i have had file-system corruption and kernel panics on it when the volume got too fragmented and just in general have had too many issues with XFS. Also my work used these coraid servers that also used XFS and we have had nothing but problems with them (mostly related to XFS). I myself use JFS on my system and have had no issues.

I've been using xfs for a while and never had any issues with it. I also love that you can run it without any partitions and resizing/expanding the volumes takes 2 seconds.
 
well shit... I guess there is a good chance I will be returning that ARC-1680ix-24 or might even simply cancel my order. Sadly the ARC-1280ML seems to be almost expensive. I don't suppose another person is trying to get rid of one of those for $600-700?
 
Update on tests with arc1222 and desktop drives

Here are the results of testing 5 wd6400aaks on the Areca 1222 card.
Note TLER settings on the wd the drives have not been changed (TLER is OFF)
system-info.jpg



During the test none of the drives ever timed out, there were no errors of any kind

Next step, test some Seagate 7200.11 1tb drives
 
Next step, test some Seagate 7200.11 1tb drives
Nice. If they work with it I'm going to have to think up something creative. eWiz doesn't accept exchanges for a different item (have to return previous item + 15% restocking fee first :eek:).
 
well shit... I guess there is a good chance I will be returning that ARC-1680ix-24 or might even simply cancel my order. Sadly the ARC-1280ML seems to be almost expensive. I don't suppose another person is trying to get rid of one of those for $600-700?

I sold mine to axan. Try contacting odditory, he may have one he wants to part with.
 
Interesting enough I contacted areca and they said they were not aware of any issues with the ARC-1680ix and the 1 TB seagate AS series drives.
 
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