Low-Power RAID5 Server

[Sovereign]

Mandatory [H] questions

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Pure storage of data. Some retrieval of said data over a high-speed connection (it's possible FiOS is going to be available). This machine will be run headless.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I didn't really start off with a budget, more a "list of things I want." That ended up costing a little more than $600 on the NewEgg wishlist below, including shipping (no tax). Purchasing in the USA from NewEgg.
3) Where do you live?
Will be in Boston, MA if this is purchased at all.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Reliable RAID5 and a nice-looking (not cheapo-$20) case.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor will be borrowed for setup, then disconnected. Everything else is new.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
See above about running headless.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next month (as of May 21, 2011).
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
PCI-E and dual-core Atom (unless there's something better for a low-power server). PCI-E is a must; I don't want PCI-based RAID cards.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 obtained through MSDNAA will be used. This offers me an opportunity to learn about Windows Server; I am not going to change from Windows to *nix or anything of the sort so please don't suggest it. The biggest change would be from WinServer to Win7Pro if anything.

NewEgg Wish List Here
For those who don't want to click a link the details are as follows.

CPU/Mobo/VGA: ASRock E350M1 AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD A50M Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
RAM: 4GB basic DDR3-1066
Case: Antec New Solution NSK2480 Black/Silver 0.8mm cold-rolled steel MicroATX Desktop Computer Case 380W Power Supply
HDD: 3x Western Digital GP 2TB (already have one) in RAID5
RAID Card: HighPoint RocketRAID 2310 PCI Express x4 (x8 and x16 slot compatible) SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Controller Card
OS: WinServer 2008 R2 Datacenter (MSDNAA FTW)

The case only has 2 3.5" bays so I added a 5.25" to 3.5" converter. This is to be pure storage--if I need more space I'll get another converter, slap in another WD GP 2TB and use the online expansion utility. I have a laptop with Blu-ray if I want to watch BD; not going to use this machine for it.

What I'm looking for are ways to reduce, in this order of priority: cost-to-buy, cost-to-operate (read: electricity), heat, noise.

 

[Dangman]

NewEgg Wish List Here
For those who don't want to click a link the details are as follows.

Good thing you posted the list because your link doesn't work. Next time, make sure that it's set to "public"

CPU/Mobo/VGA: ASRock E350M1 AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD A50M Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

I don't recommend an AsRock mobo as they only have a one year warranty. I recommend any of these other mobos instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007623%20600009028%20600110408&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&CompareItemList=446|13-130-567^13-130-567-TS%2C13-131-732^13-131-732-TS%2C13-130-568^13-130-568-TS%2C13-128-468^13-128-468-TS

HDD: 3x Western Digital GP 2TB (already have one) in RAID5

Unforuntately the above Western Digital drives are unsuitable for the Windows/controller based RAID that you're going for due to the lack of TLER. When using with Windows or any sort of RAID controller (that includes both software and true hardware RAID), those drives will be either noted as degraded, not detected at all, or even kicked from the RAID array once setup. Those drives are only usuable in a RAID if you're using a non-Windows solution. So right now, you should be looking at Samsung or Hitachi drives if you want any sort of semblance of reliability with a parity based RAID array, Windows, and a card based RAID. So I recommend this:
$80 - Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

You could probably use the 2TB drive you have now as the OS drive for the server.

Case: Antec New Solution NSK2480 Black/Silver 0.8mm cold-rolled steel MicroATX Desktop Computer Case 380W Power Supply

Why that case?

RAID Card: HighPoint RocketRAID 2310 PCI Express x4 (x8 and x16 slot compatible) SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Controller Card

Do note that you have selected a software RAID controller. It does not have a XOR engine that a true hardware RAID controller will have and does not have an onboard cache. In other words, it's still gonna use the PC's CPU to do all of the parity calculations. As such, you're gonna see rather slow performance, especially in Windows, due to that CPU once you start loading a ton of data onto the server.

We're talking like 40Mb/s to 50Mb/s at best here. If you don't mind the used route, I recommend the following:
[Dell Perc 5/i Card]

If you don't mind buying used hardware with little or no warranty, you could buy a Dell Perc 5/i card off eBay for ~$100 or so plus two of these SFF-8484 to 4 x SATA Cables for ~$25. Thus, you get 8 ports and a true hardware RAID controller for around ~$125 or so. Add a battery backup unit for ~$40 and you're set in case of power outages as well up the performance. Not a bad deal considering that a new true PCI-E hardware RAID controller is around $450 for 8 ports.

EDIT: As of May 2009, it seems that you can find many Perc 5/i cards with the BBU and PCI bracket for $120 and under. Excellent price!
EDIT: As of May 2010, it seems that prices for Perc 5/i cards have jumped up to $150 without BBU and PCI bracket.
EDIT: As of May 2011, it seems that the Perc 5/i5 can be be had for about $100 with BBU but without PCI Bracket.

But those Dell Perc 5/i cards are finicky about motherboards. It will take up PCI-E x16 slot if you don't have a PCI-E x8 slot.

Read these threads for more info:
Dell Perc 5/i RAID Card: Tips and Benchmarks
Finally went to a Hardware Raid5 controller...
Dell Perc 5/i - Mainboard Compatibility List
Solution for Dell Perc 5/i for Intel Chipsets
Add 8 device SAS/SATA 256MB BBU Enterprise class RAID card to your rig for about $100 w/ PERC 5i (LSI 8480E OEMed to Dell)

 

[Sovereign]

Good thing I asked! Especially the part about the hard drives... Also, for the record, did click "Set to Public" on that list but apparently it didn't take for some reason.

Your link (to a list of recommended mobos) throws an error ("You must first designate which items to compare by clicking on the appropriate check box in the product listing.")

The Perc 5/i is very plentiful on eBay. Actually, there are many listed for under $150 that have RAM, a battery and the card. What a deal! This is why I ask [H] about these types of things. I take it the cables are necessary to connect regular SATA drives to this Perc 5/i card? Not a big deal.

That particular case only holds 2 drives, 3 with adapter. Why that case? I wanted a "HTPC" case. However, being that want != need, I'm going to rebuild the list with a cheaper case/PSU, plus those HDDs you mentioned.

Waiting to hear mobo recommendations (that work with the card, anyway). That list of mobos seems rather short (Dell Perc 5/i Mainboard compatibility list).

 

[Dangman]

Your link (to a list of recommended mobos) throws an error ("You must first designate which items to compare by clicking on the appropriate check box in the product listing.")

Weird. Well I pretty much selected all the Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte Zacate mobos under $150 in that link.

I take it the cables are necessary to connect regular SATA drives to this Perc 5/i card?

Yup.

Waiting to hear mobo recommendations (that work with the card, anyway). That list of mobos seems rather short (Dell Perc 5/i Mainboard compatibility list).

Yeah that list is fairly old. However reading through that thread, the newest mobo reported as working with the Perc 5/i was the Asus M4A89TD Pro which uses the 890GX chipset, one of the latest AMD chipsets out there now. So it does look like the Perc 5/i will work just fine with current AMD mobos.

If you want, you can can work backwards and read through that 500+ page thread on overclock.net about that card and see if anyone has reported anything newer (i.e the AMD Zacate platform or Intel's SB platform)

 

[Sovereign]

I saw something in the 2CPU thread about the PERC 6/i being "faster" and "working everywhere" (i.e. no pin-mods or mobo hunts). Do you know if this is true? Those list for ~$150 to $200 on eBay and I'd almost rather pay for the assurance that it "works anywhere" if that statement is in fact true.

 

[Dangman]

I saw something in the 2CPU thread about the PERC 6/i being "faster" and "working everywhere" (i.e. no pin-mods or mobo hunts). Do you know if this is true? Those list for ~$150 to $200 on eBay and I'd almost rather pay for the assurance that it "works anywhere" if that statement is in fact true.

I've heard/read the same thing actually. But I haven't done too much research into the Perc 6/i TBH.

 

[Sovereign]

It's just the whole not knowing which mobos work and which don't that bugs me. I don't want to play a game of either "buy this and hope it works" or "dig around looking for ancient hardware." All the mobos that are confirmed to work I saw in the thread are either old, or new and high-end.

I'm just trying to build a simple file server--I don't need a high-end mobo.