Budget Fileserver Build

B

black0ut

Gawd
Joined
Aug 5, 2008
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616
Ok, I'd like to build a new fileserver with completely new components. I only need a motherboard/cpu combo. I'm thinking something along the lines of a e2xxx-e4xxx (or amd equivalent).

Also, I currently have a e5200/gigabyte p35 ds3l/9600gso. I feel relegating this to fileserver status would be complete overkill (especially the discrete graphics).

I'm looking to save money not only upfront but over time (power costs) as I'll be running this fileserver for 3 yrs probably.

So my options are:

1) Just use the current build as a fileserver, as selling the old parts and buying all new, lower power draw parts wouldn't be worth it.
2) Keep the e5200, sell the video card/motherboard, and buy a motherboard with onboard graphics.
3) Sell everything, rebuild a low power draw, lower-end cpu with a motherboard with integrated graphics
4) Suggest a better option?

Also, the fileserver may be used to to host a small internal webserver, DNS server, etc., so I don't want to sacrifice too much computing power for power savings (i.e. Atom is probably too weak?)
 
On board video. Most full size atx require a video card. Matx is also usually cheaper.

Also, why have 2 pcieX1 slots and 3 pci slots if you never will use ALL of them?
 
Huh, always thought matx was more expensive... Will look into this more
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Sorry for the double post, but since I might have to make 2 file servers, what cpu should I go with for the second? Matx mobo for the second makes sense
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
regor 240 is faster than e5200 right?

might as well sell the e5200 and get a second set of the above, just so I can swap parts if anything goes bad.
 
gwarren007 said:
mobo Biostar 6150 $44
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138111
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For a filer I'd go with something with a better NIC. That's a PoS Realtek at 100mbit. I also have had enough weirdness with the nVidia chipsets that I'd not use them for any kind of 24/7 box I'm going to want to lock in a closet without a monitor. So my choice would be GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 instead. At least it's got PoS Realtek at GigE.

Though if the budget is not hugely constrained I would switch to an Intel BOXDB43LD and Celeron E3300. I don't see any reason you wouldn't be totally fine with an Atom or single-core Celeron though if you're not doing RAID5.

How many disks and what OS are you going to be running? RAID?
 
enginurd said:
What's your budget?
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No real budget, just trying to be budget conscious, as I'll probably build 2 of these.

keenan said:
For a filer I'd go with something with a better NIC. That's a PoS Realtek at 100mbit. I also have had enough weirdness with the nVidia chipsets that I'd not use them for any kind of 24/7 box I'm going to want to lock in a closet without a monitor. So my choice would be GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 instead. At least it's got PoS Realtek at GigE.

Though if the budget is not hugely constrained I would switch to an Intel BOXDB43LD and Celeron E3300. I don't see any reason you wouldn't be totally fine with an Atom or single-core Celeron though if you're not doing RAID5.

How many disks and what OS are you going to be running? RAID?
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I have PCI gigabit nics, so I won't be using the onboard. What weirdness are you talking about?

I'll be running linux (slackware or BSD) with unraid, no RAID though. I'll start out with 3 disks and upgrade to 6 or more in the future. The thing is, I might multipurpose this with a dns server, print server, and webserver. The websever is the only one is cpu dependent, and it will just be a small internal one (maybe a webgui for some other services I'm running). I've used an Atom notebook before, and it was way underpowered. I've had a webserver on a 2.4 ghz celeron, and even that was slow, so I can't imagine how slow the Atom would be.

Would the e3300 be a better buy than the 240? Always thought AMD were the budget kings. Also, that mobo is pretty pricey, so I'd have to look for another one.

I'll also probably undervolt, but not underclock, these servers.
 
AMD is the way to go, socket 775 is End Of Life (dead). I run a 7100 series mobo 24/7 running folding at home and there is no weirdness. 100% load 24/7
Just look at my sig.

 
black0ut said:
I have PCI gigabit nics, so I won't be using the onboard. What weirdness are you talking about?
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I've had issues with hard drive performance and with disks becoming unresponsive on the nForce chipsets under Linux. Generally they seem to be a little less foolproof than the Intel or AMD ones, even on Windows.

I've used an Atom notebook before, and it was way underpowered. I've had a webserver on a 2.4 ghz celeron, and even that was slow, so I can't imagine how slow the Atom would be.
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Single-core Atom is probably a little faster than your Celeron. If you're just running a web server I don't see why you'd need much CPU, but I guess it depends what apps you're planning on running on it. I used a 1.8GHz Athlon for a long time as my home web server running quite a bit of stuff and never found it slow.

Would the e3300 be a better buy than the 240? Always thought AMD were the budget kings. Also, that mobo is pretty pricey, so I'd have to look for another one.
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Performance is fairly similar, I think the 240 is a little faster, but they're close. Not sure about power consumption. Intel boards are high quality and the cost is justified by the onboard Intel NIC alone.

AMD is the way to go, socket 775 is End Of Life (dead). I run a 7100 series mobo 24/7 running folding at home and there is no weirdness. 100% load 24/7
Just look at my sig.
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LGA775 isn't end-of-life. Intel is still producing chips on the platform and will continue to do so well into 2010, possibly to 2011. For a server, especially running non-Windows, I'll take Intel any day even if I have to sacrifice a little bit of performance.
 
keenan said:
LGA775 isn't end-of-life. Intel is still producing chips on the platform and will continue to do so well into 2010, possibly to 2011. For a server, especially running non-Windows, I'll take Intel any day even if I have to sacrifice a little bit of performance.
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LGA775 is EOL in the sense that no new and different CPUs will be produced for it thats worth buying. Sure they'll keep out pumping out what they have now but more than likely there won't be any new LGA 775 CPU worth buying unless it's at a very very low price.
 
enginurd said:
what will you be using in the 3 PCI slots?
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I lied when I said 2 fileservers above :eek: ... I meant I would build another one as a pfsense firewall. Thus, the 3 pci slots will all be NICs.

I'll be keeping the fileserver as matx though.
 
black0ut said:
I lied when I said 2 fileservers above :eek: ... I meant I would build another one as a pfsense firewall. Thus, the 3 pci slots will all be NICs.
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a) You can get dual-port Intel GigE PCI-X NICs on eBay for ~$30 that work great in pfSense
b) You can get single or dual-port Intel GigE PCIe NICs that will perform better than their PCI counterparts
c) If you don't need Gig bandwidth between networks, you can use a managed switch and VLAN tagging to get many logical interfaces on a single NIC

Combine all of the above and you really don't need that many PCI slots.

For pfSense in a home setting, Intel's Atom miniITX boards with an addon Intel PCI-X dual NIC are cheap and very effective, but they can only do a couple hundred mbit. Easily enough for Internet access, but if you want to transfer a lot of data across the firewall you'll need something beefier (but your proposed solution is limited here as well - PCI bus has barely more than 1Gbit shared between all devices, so at max you'll get 500mbit throughput). If low power is important, you can't do better than an ALIX board with up to 3 NICs. Great option for pfSense.
 
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keenan said:
a) You can get dual-port Intel GigE PCI-X NICs on eBay for ~$30 that work great in pfSense
b) You can get single or dual-port Intel GigE PCIe NICs that will perform better than their PCI counterparts
c) If you don't need Gig bandwidth between networks, you can use a managed switch and VLAN tagging to get many logical interfaces on a single NIC

Combine all of the above and you really don't need that many PCI slots.

For pfSense in a home setting, Intel's Atom miniITX boards with an addon Intel PCI-X dual NIC are cheap and very effective, but they can only do a couple hundred mbit. Easily enough for Internet access, but if you want to transfer a lot of data across the firewall you'll need something beefier (but your proposed solution is limited here as well - PCI bus has barely more than 1Gbit shared between all devices, so at max you'll get 500mbit throughput). If low power is important, you can't do better than an ALIX board with up to 3 NICs. Great option for pfSense.
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Throughput on the NICs is irrelevant, because two are for WAN and one is connected to a gigabit switch which is connected to everything else, and one is for WLAN (g) which can't saturate 100mbit.

I already have 4 or so NICs, so there's no point in buying enw ones.
 
black0ut said:
Throughput on the NICs is irrelevant, because two are for WAN and one is connected to a gigabit switch which is connected to everything else, and one is for WLAN (g) which can't saturate 100mbit.
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That's what I figured.

I already have 4 or so NICs, so there's no point in buying enw ones.
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Except, of course, to use the mobo you want to use ;). NICs are cheap, I'd personally not use them as the deciding factor in choosing a motherboard. If you don't want nice Intel NICs, or are willing to buy them used, they can be had almost free. That ASUS board looks decent though. I would avoid ECS and don't have a strong opinion either way on Biostar, though I've heard they're not great. However for the price of that ASUS, I'd still go for the Intel board ;). Only 2 PCI, but the onboard NIC is usable.

But it's your choice. PCI is going away. I think your pickings will be pretty slim if you need onboard video *and* 3xPCI. Most boards with 3xPCI are ATX form factor, and almost all ATX boards don't have onboard video.

Also not sure why you want to use the same board for pfSense as for your filer, the requirements are very different.
 
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It's ok, I finalized everything I think, and am about to buy



Please point out if anything is horribly wrong with my choices.
 
keenan said:
Also not sure why you want to use the same board for pfSense as for your filer, the requirements are very different.
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I want interchangeable parts between the two for ease of use in the future, and I also run extra services on the pfsense box (only safe things like a squid proxy, etc). You're right, it's overkill, but I may decide to do something else with it the future, and this price point seems good for me.
 
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