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Build my NFS

TeeJayHoward

TeeJayHoward

Limpness Supreme
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Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
13,322
Okay. Once more, on a budget, let's work it through.

So far, I've got this -
______________________________
($120x4) - $480 - 300GB P/ATA HDDs
($020x1) - $020 - PC3200 OCZ 512MB Value Ram
($065x1) - $065 - Abit NF-7 Mobo
($070x1) - $070 - Athlon XP (Somewhere between a 2600+ and a 3200+ depending on price)
($070x1) - $070 - Antec 430W Power Supply
($040x1) - $040 - Lian-Li Ripoff All-alum case
($050x1) - $050 - PCI-based P/ATA controller
_______________________________
Total - $795 Before shipping/tax/misc
Total - $875 After everything (Guesstimate)

The server will be set up with linux on a seperate 40GB IDE drive I already own, and will be running a software RAID-5 on the 300GB's. I will be using the integrated 10/100 Ethernet on the motherboard, and a crappy AGP card I already own for setup. The card will be removed once setup is complete, and VNC/SSH is installed.

I chose IDE over S/ATA due to the killer price of the 300GB HDD right now.

The machine will be turned on 100% of the time, and will be used for storing various movie files, and for streaming said files, 1 at a time, to my main machine. Encoding on the files is about 800-1200KB/s. The proposed server will not be streaming the files approximately 12 hours a day. It will also be folding for the [H] 100% of the time.

So... Did I miss anything? Overprice anything? Do I need the 430W PSU, or can I get away with less? Would it be cheaper to buy an old IBM server off eBay or something, and modify it? I can't help but feel like the A-XP 2600+ is a bit of overkill for a machine that will be doing nothing but folding and shooting out files across my network.
 
A) No processor is overkill for folding. You should OC to crank out more WU's for the [H]orde ;)
B) Don't skimp on the PSU - get a high quality Antec TruePower, Fortron, etc. 24/7 Power-on with multiple hard drives requires a worthy PSU. Head to the PSU forum and read the stickies on what makes a solid unit. You don't have to throw down mega bucks to get a reliable one.
C) Your throughput will be pretty limited if you have 2 PATA drives on the same cable. Avoid this if possible. You may want a second controller to get around this, although admittedly your throughput requirements are not that high.
 
With DL's addendums, everything looks fine. Make sure the board boots with no video card, some don't.
 
For a situation like this, I think an Enermax PSU would be more appropriate than the Antec in that the Enermax as a rule have a much higher +12v output capacity than the Antec Truepower/smartpower line. Since the CPU will be run on the +12v in addition to the drives, that will be your main power concern. A 350w enermax would easily power that with room for more drives in the future, and cost less to boot.
Although you said you wanted to use the onboard NIC, I would seriously consider a separate NIC with a nice dedicated chip on it like a 3com 3c905-cxtx or an intel pro 100+, or an intel pro 1000 mt if you want to go gigabit. It will help the folding and keep CPU utalization down while transfering data out to the network.
 
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