Advice for Setting up New Server

[esturk]

Hello guys. I am in the process of planning an upgrade to my home server. I'd like to get some opinions/advice before I buy too much.


Tasks for System:
Large amounts of usnet downloading.
Plenty of Quickpar / Winrar
Large amounts of HD recording via qam on MYHD-130
Moderate amount of .ts editing via Videoredo
Storage of all content ( not analog ) for HTPC
Sometimes a good amount of burn-n-return via BB online

Current System:
A64 3500 on MSI Neo4
2gb Ram
Dual Plextor 716A's
2 x 300gb Sata Maxtors w/ 16mb cache Raid0 on NF4
Generic Sata for os
All housed in 1200 series Lian Li
All house is gigabit ethernet


Shortcomings:
NEED MORE SPACE!!!! I have an absurd dvd/cd collection. In the past I've easily been able to keep up with the rate at which I put stuff on the drive. Now that I'm recording ~12 hours of HD content a week, I just can't do it anymore.


Current Plans:
I have acquired 5 of the 300gb 16mb cache Sata Maxtors. I have been thinking of making a Raid5 array. I'm going to need a new case of some form to house all this. I also will need a raid controller.




****** My plans for critique ******


------ Case ------

I originally wanted a 2100 Series Lian Li. I am not sure that I want to pay 320 for that case though. I am also not sure the single 120mm fan would cool all the drives well. I have since been looking at the various Stackers available. My requirements for a case are space, noise, and cooling. I'd like to stay within 150-300. I like the stackers because they have the bay module with the 120mm fan. This is good cooling, provided quietly. Do any of the older gen Stackers provide any cooling for PCI cards? I am a little worried that my HD tuner and Raid controller might like some air. I'm one of those paranoid people when it comes to looking after my investments. Which stacker do you guys recommend?
Are the benefits of the newest model worth the price tag? Which of the old series is liked best? Is there anything else anyone would like to suggest? I ask about the stackers because I've never owned anything from Cm. I've always had Antec, LL, or TT. I've noticed alot of folks in the threads using these to house large arrays.


------ Raid Card ------
If I am correct, I can run a 4x pcie raid controller on a x16 slot on an nf4 board. Correct?
I've been looking at the Highpoint Rocketraid 2320. I know there are better cards available. This card is definitely the top of my budget however. Does this seem like the best bet in this price range?


------ Raid Performance ------
I have almost solely ran 2 drive raid 0 arrays. I never have anything on these arrays that is that important. It may all be found again so to speak. That said, I've gotten used to the performance of Raid 0 arrays. I like being able to run quickpar/winrar/videoredo and not have to sit at the server all day waiting on io ceilings. What kind of performance can I expect with this 5-drive Raid-5 array?

I am worried about this because I have read some posts where people have claimed absolutely abysmal speeds. (read/writes - esp. writes). While I would like to have the reliability provided by the
raid-5 array, I am NOT willing to sacrifice copious amounts of performance. I simply can not wait hours to edit video and extract files. If someone can give ballpark read/write speeds to expect that'd be great.



------ Inquiry Summary ------
Since I have often been frustrated to read a post and not have any clue how to respond, I'll summarize.

1. I need a QUIET case with GOOD cooling (drives and maybe PCI cards) that will house all the drives. What's suggested?

2. Raid-5 SATA 6+ ports. Performance required ~ $200-300. What's suggested?

3. Given suggested card and 5 drive raid 5 (no swap), what kind of avg. read/write speeds to expect?





Thanks for taking the time to read. Save me some grief and share your experience.

 

[Ockie]

1. I need a QUIET case with GOOD cooling (drives and maybe PCI cards) that will house all the drives. What's suggested?

Stacker 101, you do have space for a fan to be mounted on the side of the case that will cool your board and cards down, if you need additional cooling you can put a blowhole in there or put a slot cooler in place.

2. Raid-5 SATA 6+ ports. Performance required ~ $200-300. What's suggested?

Highpoint 2220 (I think thats the name, PCIE, 8 Ports, RAID5). For price. About 200 bucks.

If you want die hard performance, go with 3ware.. be prepared to spend upwards of 600+ for a card alone.

3. Given suggested card and 5 drive raid 5 (no swap), what kind of avg. read/write speeds to expect?

Good performance, everything depends such as your drives, system specs, software, os, etc.

 

[Rocco123]

Couple questions. Do you care about the size of the case? Coolermaster makes a fine case, even their cheapo $50 cases are nice. Just make sure that no matter what case you get, you have good front to back airflow through those HDs. Maxtors tend to get warmer than others.

Some advice about the card. Spend a hundred bucks more and you get an Areca:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816131003

I've heard only great things about this line/brand of cards. For 400 bucks, you get hardware RAID 5/6, 128 MB cache, and greatly increased speeds over the el-cheapo $200 sw RAID cards.

If speed and reliability is what you want, it's well worth the extra 100 clams.

As far as the exact speed, I'm not totally sure on that. Mage can probably provide you with better results, but from what I understand, file copies will run at about the 100-130 MB/sec (RAID 5). If you choose a cheaper card, you're always going lose some speed.

 

[unhappy_mage]

Well, what he ^ said, pretty much. The Stacker > * for big drive arrays, it's my destiny one of these days, and the Highpoint 2220 (or 2320 if you have a pci-express slot - I assume that's the case) is fast and cheap.

As for 3ware > *... not so much. I'm not a big fan of their 9550 series, but that's just me; they're well-supported, take marginally less CPU, and are marginally faster than the Highpoint. Areca would be my recommendation for maximum speed.

So what's performance really like? Look at this page, in the Raid 5 comparison section. This is my favorite review of raid controllers... ever, and though it's showing its age a bit here (the 1820 is used, which is the older brother of the 2220/2320 series; the 9550 wasn't out yet) it still drives the point home - in a properly configured system (which isn't hard to get) you can get some incredible write speeds out of this sucker However, notice the CPU usage; the third graph is the one you want to look at here. Do the math; the CPU is completely pegged by writing at ~350 MB/s. I don't mean this to scare you; they're using a single processor at 1.4 gHz, you've got a 2.2. This shouldn't be too much of an issue. If it does, you can always get an x2 and one core can handle the processing load while the other does the raid 5 work. I don't think this will be a terrible limitation; most things that you've described doing with the array are either completely disk-bound (quickpar) or completely CPU-bound (transcoding video, winrar). I don't know what videoredo is.

 

[esturk]

First of all . . . thanks alot guys.

Thanks for the assurances on the stacker. I'll order one up today. I dont' mind how big it is at all.


Mage:
That controller roundup IS quite good. Videoredo is just frame-by-frame mpeg editor used to cut commercials and what not from ts files.


On the controller:

I certainly understand that for a little more there is always something better.

On the controller . . . Is the rocketraid controller software based raid 5? They don't seem to say here so I'm guessing it is.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816115026


On the newegg reviews ( I usually put a grain of salt into these) the folks say about the hp rocketraid:

" Slow running 500gb 3 drive RAID5 array with a hotspare, doesn't pass the 80mb/s barrier."

"This controller is Just a little faster then a single drive or a typical motherboard raid 0 array. In a 4x 300GB Raid 5 array it barely beat a single 74GB Raptor. "

Those both sound pretty discouraging. My current 2 drive raid0 array is faster than this.
Would you guys say something is amiss?


Referring to the third plot on this page:
http://tweakers.net/reviews/557/19

It seems that a while back the distance between these two brands is quite substantial as more disks are added. Is this differential really indicative of todays controllers with my 5 drives?

If so, I suppose all I have to ask is: Is that fan on the Areca loud?



Thanks again guys!

 

[unhappy_mage]

Videoredo is almost certainly disk-bound, then.

The newegg reviews need more salt. Saying it's equivalent to both a single drive and a raid-0 array doesn't exactly inspire confidence in that reviewer. And just barely beating a raptor is pretty good, too.

You might want to look at those graphs again - you want the third one down, it's the raid 5 one. Highpoint and Broadcom are on top, and Areca's under them. In other words, while the Areca is faster in the general case (running desktop apps from the array and so forth) the Highpoint simply has higher STR. Most of your apps are STR-based rather than small random-access based. So the Highpoint is a good match for you.

The highpoint is software raid, but it's still faster than the others in STR; the CPU of a real computer has a lot more power than an IOP at 400 or 600 mHz. Not that that's really the limiting factor in most of these cases, but still a factor.

I hear the fan on the Areca is actually pretty loud. But you could attach a different fan, or attach a chipset cooler to the chip instead of the default cooling.

 

[esturk]

You are correct on the graphs.

I was a little hasty.

I think I might just get the HP and save the money for more disks later. Those numbers are pretty impressive. I'm not too worried about the cpu doing some work. It's mostly a file server, so the cpu is pretty free.


Do you guys know of any problems with sticking one of these PCIE controllers in the second PCIE slot on a SLI board?

 

[unhappy_mage]

No; in fact I have heard lots of positive reports. One user had problems recently, but got them resolved and it's now working fine.

 

[esturk]

Great.

Thanks alot for the assurances mage.

I bought a stacker, some 4-in-3 modules for it, and the 2320.

I'll start working on it when it comes in.

Thanks again.