Linux-based home server/NAS

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Balthazar B

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Feb 20, 2012
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Hi, all. Looking for suggestions and feedback on a system I want to build, and some parts I have in mind...

1. What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming, Photoshop (or other intensive programs), Overclocking, Web browsing, strictly HTPC/Playback, etc.

The primary use will be a home server/NAS used as a media source, and for backups. Want to run it with Linux (probably Debian flavor) and do some experimentation with BTRFS since it's almost ready for prime time. Apps might include Squeezeserver/LMS, Plex, a VPN, etc. Essentially the kind of thing one would use a Synology or QNAP for. Want to support 6 SATA devices, and for it to be as quiet as possible without letting budget go out of control.

2. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included in this budget? Is your budget flexible? Is cost a driving factor in component selection?

Budget is flexible but would like to keep under $1K.

3. Where do you live? Do you have any big B&M (brick and mortar) computer chains nearby (e.g. Microcenter, Fry's, etc)?

I have all the major outlets nearby but am comfortable with online vendors as well.

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.

Everything will be net new. Here's what I'm thinking:
Case: Lian-Li PC-Q25
Motherboard: Intel S1200KP, Supermicro X9SCV-Q , or Jetway JNF9A-Q67.
CPU: Intel i3 or i5, unless I go with the Supermicro board in which case it will be a mobile version of those processors. Would consider using an E3 Xeon with the Intel board.
CPU cooler: TBD
Fan retrofit: TBD
RAM: 8 or 16 GB via 2 DDR3 DIMMs
Disks: Seagate or Hitachi 3TB SATA, but open to other ideas. Will start out with a couple and build from there (via BTRFS dynamic storage growth). Considering a couple of smaller capacity 2.5" disks for boot volume.
PSU: One of the quieter ATX units recommended by SPCR. Lian-Li makes an extender that fits on their case for PSUs that are a bit longer than ATX spec which I'll use if necessary.
Other thoughts: The Supermicro option requires mobile chips and memory which bumps the cost up quite a bit, but the board is otherwise very attractive. The Intel board would require a SATA HBA to increase capacity. The Jetway looks almost perfect with a Q67 chipset but can't find much in the way of reviews or experience with this mainboard.


5. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. For reused parts, list brands, model #s, and, if applicable, firmware revisions.

No reuse.

6. What specific features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc. Which is more important, size of the system or having the particular feature? Make sure you indicate *required* vs. *wanted* for each feature you list.

I'd like to keep this to a mini-ITX; mATX cases are just too large. SATA capacity and Intel network is most important for Linux driver compatibility (as are other standard bits). Remote management (IPMI or AMT) would be attractive but not essential.

7. What resolution output do you need? 1080p, 720p, DVD quality, etc for HTPC or list Vertical/horizontal resolution for non-HTPC SFF rigs. Do you need multiple monitor output?

N/A; VGA will be fine for setup and occasional tweaking (if not using IPKVM)

8. Does this system need to fit into a particular space? Think entertainment center shelves, closet space, rackmount, etc.

No, just want it to be small.

9. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring? What tools do you have (Screwdrivers/Leatherman, Drill, Dremel, Metal snips, Soldering Iron, Bending Brake, CNC/Welding machines/Plasma cutter, etc...)?

I'm comfortable to a degree, though haven't done much case modding to speak of.

10. How important is the noise/silence of this sytem? HTPCs typically want to be quiet while all-out SFF gaming rigs don't care

Should be very quiet though doesn't need to be dead silent.

11. How mobile does this system need to be? Need a carrying handle or carrying straps? Is weight important (carry-on bag, etc)? Water cooling quick disconnects, etc?

N/A. Will have a semi-permanent home.

12. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? Remember that OEM copies of Win7 have issues with new motherboards

N/A; will be Linux.

13. When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Immediately, in a couple weeks, 3-5 years?

ASAP. I want to experiment with several flavors of Linux and play with BTRFS before doing a "final" build. Also want it to be around and useful for at least 3 years or so.

I've been running a WHS for a while but want to repurpose that machine as a backup NAS with Ubuntu Linux after I build this baby.

Does anyone see anything terribly wrong with the direction I'm going? All thoughts, feedback, suggestions, and anecdotes gratefully accepted! Thanks!
 
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hi there,

i'm currently in the same situation. here's my thread lol NAS BUILD

I love the Lian Li PC-Q25,

the powersupply to get for the PC-Q25 is the SilverStone ST50F-P its full modular and to finish things off I would get the shorter cables PP05
The Length of the PSU must be 140mm or less so its not touching the hdd cage

you can see the picture here -> http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1037544043&postcount=407 raiderj did an awesome job

I want the Intel Xeon E3-1260L but its pricey like 300~

I like the intel s1200kp motherboard too because it has the newer chipset c206

Going for OpenSolaris ZFS
 
Thanks for your reply. There seem to be several PSUs to choose from...one of the more interesting is this totally modular Seasonic. Spendy but very quiet and efficient. It's a little longer than the ATX standard but fortunately Lian Li makes an extender for their SFF cases that should solve that problem.

I'm leaning towards the Intel board although it comes with only 2 SATA2 and 2 SATA3 connectors. I'd need to add a PCI-E SATA/SAS HBA to support the number of drives I'll want to have in the future. Looking for suggestions on that (hint-hint). The Jetway board seems to have everything I'd want but I can't find any real reviews of it, nor anyone who's used one, and reviews of other Jetway boards are middling, with several negative reports on their BIOS (with no apparent tech support available).

Thanks also for the link to raiderj's build (his build log is a good read). He used a Q08 instead of a Q25, and interestingly Lian Li showed a sort of hybrid between the two at CES (the Q18). I like the layout of the Q25 a little better but would like to know how well it keeps things cool, particularly if it's stuffed with disks.

Also noted your interest in ZFS. I'm more interested in running Linux rather than Solaris (or FreeBSD) simply for the deeper development community and more extensive application support, and so I'm more curious about BTRFS, which shares a number of FS objectives with ZFS. It's not quite ready for prime time but is very promising and should be generally available with several Linux flavors later this year.
 
The Q25 should have no issues with cooling, especially with an efficient CPU. It has a 140mm cooling the drive bays with a top 120mm exhaust, after all.

As for the motherboard, you have ivy bridge right around the corner. Are you sure that you want to do a new system build now as opposed to waiting for the die shrink? You are around two months out.

If you can not wait, however, I would go with the Intel board. I am not a fan of Jetway support, and you will lose a lot going with a mobile-based solution in the Supermicro.

If you need SATA 3, then a controller card may end up costing you a decent chunk of change, but if you can get by with SATA 2, then I wouldn't worry. Plus, you appear to be looking into a software based solution, so you really only need JBOD. Any RAID or CPU-offloading capabilities (having an i3 or i5 is not going to lead to CPU pressure) are a non-issue, so you shouldn't be looking at anything that expensive here.

If BTRFS is anything like ZFS, you will want as much memory as your board supports. ZFS is most certainly constrained by memory more so than CPU. In fact, I don't see why you'd want anything more than an i3 unless you are looking at heavy VPN use. (In this case I would recommend a standalone VPN machine, anyway.)

Also, on the FreeBSD vs Linux front, FreeBSD actually has quite a good community out there now. Especially if you stick to the more well-known distributions such as FreeNAS. (You would want to wait for FreeNAS 8.2 or 8.3, however, for your uses.)
 
Speaking of Ivy Bridge...

IB will be nice, but a couple of things will happen when the chips are released:
  • They'll be priced really high.
  • There'll be early bugs working with current chipsets.
  • Prices on the existing generations of chips will go down.
I don't absolutely need to buy now, so your advice about waiting is worth considering. Also, Intel may improve (whether by firmware or new rev) the S1200KP. Would be nice if it supported remote management, for instance. Or someone else may come out with a better, more complete server board.

I think SATA3 is the way to go for a little more future-proofness. I see a couple of JBOD PCI-E cards that look interesting, one with both internal and external interfaces for future expansion.

Thanks for the words of wisdom!
 
I just came across something you may find interesting as you are considering a Linux based NAS.

You mentioned BTRFS as an option in place of ZFS as you did not wish to go with FreeBSD, but it looks like the ZFS Linux port is quite stable and is being used in large scale production environments.

yfrog, for example, appears to be using ZFS behind ElasticSearch (distributed full text and indexed searching written in Java) with great success. This is of February 20, so the system is in place on their site, and I think you will agree that it is quite snappy.

I am not sure if RAID-Z is in use by them or if they are using the more standard hardware RAID 10, but hopefully they will get back to me on that.
 
Not sure I'd call yfrog snappy, exactly, but it ain't bad. You've convinced me to wait a bit before indulging in my hardware project, especially with cool little babies like the E3-1220Lv2 practically around the corner. I imagine I'll play around with both ZFS as well as BTRFS before I settle on one or the other. The way I see it, though, ZFS on Linux will always be problematical and very niche, while BTRFS will attract more developers and attention until it meets and then exceeds ZFS in functionality and bugfixes. May take a year or so, but my hunch is that day isn't farther off than that.

I really want to see a mini-ITX board a bit better than the S1200KP that is a good fit for that Xeon chip but has all the remote management goodies (and maybe stuff not found on server boards today, like USB3)...not too hopeful it'll be before much later this year though.

Edit: I've visited zfsonlinux.org in the past but took a closer look and I guess it's a little disturbing that the version in development is about a year old, albeit with some RC updates along the way (the most recent a few months old), and it's difficult to tell how much actual development is going on. The bug list is pretty long with several very old ones still there. I'm getting the feeling ZFS-oriented developers may be focusing on the Illumos project, which is basically an attempt to maintain an open-source fork of OpenSolaris, since Oracle terminated it. So I'm left wondering whether ZFS/Linux or BTRFS will be the first to be production-ready, even in a home environment.
 
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1220L doesn't have a graphics processor will that still work on the s1200kp? i think the s1200kp uses the cpu gpu or i could be wrong

the portwell wade-8011 mini-itx looks pretty good comes with 6 sata ports but never heard of them before
 
I think it'd work but need to do all management remotely via SSH, etc. I'd consider putting a 1245v2 in there if I want onboard vid. TDP of 77w but probably idles pretty low and will rarely get anywhere near that high. Would guess it stays around 25-30w most of the time if that.

The Wade looks nice but it's just too expensive (>$300) compared to the competition. Really needs to be a couple other server-oriented MB candidates available. If I were willing to go mATX I'd have lots of choices, but SFF really appeals to me for this application. None of the mATX cases do much for me; they're all too large.
 
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I guess I should say that yFrog is snappy for what it is, keeping in mind the number of messages involved.

As for ZFS running on Linux, again, yFrog's implementation is definitely in production. ZFS is also pretty mature, so not too surprised about the lack of updates there. It looks like they are up to pool version 28, which means that it lacks encryption, but otherwise it is pretty up to date.

Even in the FreeBSD world, Free/TrueNAS 7/8 are running behind Oracle (Oracle has not made the newer pool releases open source yet). As it is a port and not a fork, I can understand the delay.

Also, BTRFS looks interesting. I am not trying to downplay its introduction. Looking at its current state, however, it may have had a lot of key features added recently, but it is still by no means anywhere near mature enough for a 24/7 environment. For home use though, I can see it being close.

As for mITX, the main issue is that most server boards are made for rackmount systems, and even a 1U form factor tends to favor mATX. Any mITX implementations tend to be sold as bare bones 1U bundles, or are proprietary to a certain appliance.

Those mITX boards sold standalone are often replacement boards for the bare bones bundles, or afterthoughts.

You see a lot of variety in ATX server boards in the wild for two reasons. First, workstations tend to be large, and many of the lower priced server boards make their way into these machines. Secondly, if you were to buy a rackmount or server enclosure, it is exceedingly rare to find one that can take mITX which does not also take mATX, even if all of the expansion slots are not external.

Again, mITX is generally reserved for appliances.
 
I have a question. Is there any real need for such a "beefy" PSU? I understand "beefy" would be a relative term here, but if you're running headless or using integrated graphics, 500W(or that 650W you're looking at) would be overkill I think as if the server/NAS will be idle most of the time, then it'll probably be idling around 30-35W, which you wouldn't even hit 10% of the rated 500W, which means it'll be at the relatively inefficient efficiency band of the PSU.

I'm running my NAS with 5 drives with a 330W bronze seasonic, and thats overkill already. If I could source power efficient 250W PSU, I would have gone with that instead. And this is with a planned final fully expanded NAS with 10-11 HDDs.
 
I like how the silver stone is only 140mm long and full modular but I hate how there is no power switch

Any other small psu and full modular?
 
@ghostdunks

The Silverstone is fully modular while not requiring an extender. I am not aware of any low wattage PSUs which are modular, let alone one with a short cable kit.

@balance101

Not that I know of, unfortunately.
 
You have to use a Xeon with S1200 board, at least according to Intel themselves; in which case you'll have to pick a Xeon with an onboard GPU so you won't have to lose a slot for video. Alternatively DQ67EP board will eat i3s/i5s of at least upto 65W variety (if you want to have the option of having VT-d Intel now makes a LV i5-2390T with HT that's listed at 35W, turbos to 3.5, and listed as supported for VT-d)
 
ghostdunks said:
I have a question. Is there any real need for such a "beefy" PSU? I understand "beefy" would be a relative term here, but if you're running headless or using integrated graphics, 500W(or that 650W you're looking at) would be overkill I think as if the server/NAS will be idle most of the time, then it'll probably be idling around 30-35W, which you wouldn't even hit 10% of the rated 500W, which means it'll be at the relatively inefficient efficiency band of the PSU.

I'm running my NAS with 5 drives with a 330W bronze seasonic, and thats overkill already. If I could source power efficient 250W PSU, I would have gone with that instead. And this is with a planned final fully expanded NAS with 10-11 HDDs.
Click to expand...

Would you go fanless for something like this? Or in a case this size, stuffed with HDs, is a PSU w/fan pretty much required?
 
The Q25 will have enough airflow without an actively cooled PSU, but the 330W Seasonic he describes isn't loud enough to be an issue. (My FreeNAS box is actually a Q25 with the same PSU.)

The DQ67EP is a great workstation and light server board, but this limits you to a single NIC if you wish to use a JBOD card or 4x internal drives (2x external drives) if you pick up a second NIC.
 
Hi, Tesla: Looks like the 330W Seasonic has been discontinued. The lowest power model in that series is currently 380W. Now it *is* 140mm, but non-modular. The SilverStone Strider 500W is modular, and the Seasonic and Kingwin fanless 500W PSUs are as well, but the latter two (80+ Gold and Platinum, respectively) would require that $15 PSU extender that Lian Li sells. In a case this small I especially like the idea of modular, since that will eliminate the clutter of unused cables. So I'll just have to mull over whether size or efficiency (and perhaps sonics) are more important to me. BTW, do you have pics of your build online anywhere?

Hi, Levk: I recall reading somewhere you can use an i3 if you have ECC RAM, but now I can't find that citation. But in the meantime something else has caught my eye. Yes, it will be expensive, but I could also get something like this for 2/3rds the cost. Of course the TDP of both of these is higher than 17W, but then they have onboard video (preferable with an S1200 MB).
 
Further thoughts: Since Tesla convinced me to wait a bit for the next-gen Intel chips, I stepped back and opened my mind to other possible approaches. For instance, there are a lot more MB choices in the mATX form factor, ones that provide more versatility and features. Supermicro has a few 1155 boards that support six SATA connections, IPMI, Intel NICs, etc. Intel and Tyan have others. Lots of case choices too, from the small TJ08-E up through the Fractal Mini cases. Functionally, mATX gives me more features and choices, but after mulling over the possibilities, I'm inclined back to Mini-ITX for one reason: with a case like the Q25, we're talking a small machine that can sit on my desk. When I look at mATX, we're talking under the desk, and the benefits of small size become less important. And if I'm looking at something like a Fractal Define Mini, I'm nearly to ATX size, which begs the question as to why I shouldn't choose that form factor with even more options and features. But that brings me back to earth: I really want a SFF NAS box and not a larger one. I realize that strictly speaking this violates the rule that form follows function, but I think I can get >90% of all functions -- and 100% of the crucial ones -- with SFF, and that 's (most likely) a good direction for this project.

Just some late-night thoughts...
 
Balthazar B said:
IB will be nice, but a couple of things will happen when the chips are released:
  • They'll be priced really high.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. There's a good chance that Intel will release CPUs at around the same price points as their older CPUs. That's what they've done in the past. Like the Core i5 2300, Core i5 2400, Core i5 2500, and Core i5 2500K were all released at around the same price as Intel's Core i5 750 and 760 CPUs. The Core i5 750 and Core i5 760 were released at around the same price point as the Core 2 Quad Q6600, Q8400 and Q9300 CPUs as well as the Core 2 Duo E8400 and E8500 CPUs.
Balthazar B said:
  • There'll be early bugs working with current chipsets.
Click to expand...
Fair point.
Balthazar B said:
  • Prices on the existing generations of chips will go down.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. It will take quite awhile for the price of the older CPUs to drop. And even then the price drop won't be that significant. Probably $5 to $10 on average.
Balthazar B said:
I think SATA3 is the way to go for a little more future-proofness.
Click to expand...
SATA3 or correctly SATA 6.0Gb/s really only matters if you're using SSDs. Current mechanical drives have barely just passed the SATA 1.5Gb/s limits. So it's gonna be a long time before hard drives go anywhere near the limits of SATA 3.0Gb/s. So unless you're planning on cramming a bunch of SSDs into the system, I wouldn't worry too much about SATA 6.0Gb/s.
Balthazar B said:
Further thoughts: Since Tesla convinced me to wait a bit for the next-gen Intel chips
Click to expand...

While you wait, you should really evaluate which OS and file system/RAID engine you're planning on using. If you have a spare PC somewhere, I recommend trying out the numerous options out there and see which one actually works for you. For whatever platform you decide on, make absolutely sure that it'll actually work with your planned hardware. Sometimes Linux can be a little slow in support for new hardware.
 
Thanks, Danny, good advice. I've used Linux for several years and I do know how long it can take to get drivers for particular hardware :). Have no firsthand experience with FreeBSD/FreeNAS nor with Solaris variants (though my understanding is that those distributions are often limited in terms of hardware support, perhaps more so than Linux. I'm busy scouring the usual online info sources to confirm what Debian in particular supports, since that's the branch I'm most familiar with.
 
ok so I went with the following to do the same thing:
Fractal design define mini
Asrock Z68m-usb3 (chosen mainly because it was cheap & has 6 sata ports, also is compatible with esxi/vt-d if I choose to go with it)
i5-2320
16 gig of geil ram (overkill, but I was thinking about virtualisation)
intel nic (cause I hate realtek w/ a passion and wanted something that would just work)
Seasonic 430W Bronze (SII2)

Cost of the above was approx $600 AUD

Hard drives are from my nas 1.5tb seagates x 5 + 1x 500gig seagate constellation for the OS. I am toying with getting a 3 in 2 for the top of the case/more storage.

I have chosen to run Kubuntu cause I like KDE, and have ample memory. Works a treat.


Cheap & cheerful gear, stable and definitely does the job.
 
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Ya, I had trouble finding the 330W SII2 seasonic as well in Australia. Only managed to find it while on holiday in Hong Kong, and it was cheap as chips in HK, about $35. Looks like they don't have it released in US or Aus.

In terms of cases, have you considered a Fractal Design Array? I was initially looking at that as well before settling on the R3 Define. If you wanted SFF, the Array could be an option. Also...it comes with a 300W PSU :)

Currently running ubuntu 11.04 off a usb flash drive as my OS, so I leave all my drive bays empty for HDDs. Running pretty nice right now.
 
I may have mixed the 330W up with the 380W. They are very similar with the 380W being slightly newer.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about modular power supplies as long as the PSU is low in wattage. A 380W power supply has relatively few connectors, and I was able to tie them up and get them out of the airflow path with relative ease.

It doesn't look as pretty when the side is opened as you do see cables, but they fit snugly on top of the PSU and don't affect temperatures at all.

So, modular is nice, but this is a NAS with a hot-swap cage. You are almost never going to mess with PSU cables or dissemble the box.

Unfortunately, I do not have any images of my build. Mostly because I got rid of my old camera and am waiting for Canon and/or Nikon to release their next lineup. (Hurry up!)

Hardware:

ASUS E35M1-I Deluxe
8 GB DDR3 RAM
5x 2TB 7200 Drives
Intel ET (2x RJ45) NIC
Seasonic 3xx W
Q25

This is a pure NAS with no other server functionality (I have other machines for that), hence the Zacate instead of an i3/5.

Balthazar B said:
***
BTW, do you have pics of your build online anywhere?
***
Click to expand...
 
ghostdunks said:
Ya, I had trouble finding the 330W SII2 seasonic as well in Australia. Only managed to find it while on holiday in Hong Kong, and it was cheap as chips in HK, about $35. Looks like they don't have it released in US or Aus.

In terms of cases, have you considered a Fractal Design Array? I was initially looking at that as well before settling on the R3 Define. If you wanted SFF, the Array could be an option. Also...it comes with a 300W PSU :)

Currently running ubuntu 11.04 off a usb flash drive as my OS, so I leave all my drive bays empty for HDDs. Running pretty nice right now.
Click to expand...

I've looked at the Fractal Array, but the review at SPCR was not very encouraging. And I prefer the kind of disk setup the Q25 (or TJ08-E) has, as well as the general layout.

I plan to run off a SSD, although I may try booting off USB sticks while I'm trying out different OS options.
 
levk said:
You have to use a Xeon with S1200 board, at least according to Intel themselves; in which case you'll have to pick a Xeon with an onboard GPU so you won't have to lose a slot for video. Alternatively DQ67EP board will eat i3s/i5s of at least upto 65W variety (if you want to have the option of having VT-d Intel now makes a LV i5-2390T with HT that's listed at 35W, turbos to 3.5, and listed as supported for VT-d)
Click to expand...

I know I've seen a more official reference about using i3s with the S1200KP, but this thread discusses it in a bit of detail. Seems to work and supports ECC RAM with that processor.

EDIT: I found the official word in the Intel manual on the S1200KP:

Intel® Server Board S1200KP supports the Intel® CoreTM i3 and Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 Series
processors in an LGA1155 socket. Processors are not included with the Server Board and must be
purchased separately. The processor connects to the Server Board through the LGA1155 socket.

For information on supported processors for Intel® Server Board S1200KP, go to
http://serverconfigurator.intel.com.
Click to expand...
 
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Balthazar B said:
I know I've seen a more official reference about using i3s with the S1200KP, but this thread discusses it in a bit of detail. Seems to work and supports ECC RAM with that processor.
Click to expand...
You linked the wrong thread: That thread doesn't discuss anything about ECC RAM, Core i3 CPUs, and that motherboard. It's simply about BTRFS.

Balthazar B said:
EDIT: I found the official word in the Intel manual on the S1200KP:
Click to expand...
Still doesn't mean that the Core i3 CPUs will actually enable/support the ECC features of the ECC RAM. All that says is that the Core i3 CPUs will work but does not say ECC RAM features are enabled with the Core i3 CPUs.

With that said, if you're planning on using regular RAM, no biggie about the ECC RAM.
 
Danny Bui said:
You linked the wrong thread: That thread doesn't discuss anything about ECC RAM, Core i3 CPUs, and that motherboard. It's simply about BTRFS.
Click to expand...

Sorry, had too many tabs from that site open and in a sleepy stupor copied the wrong URL. Here's the correct one.

But you're correct, this test was on a SuperMicro board with a C204 chipset, not an Intel S1200KP with the C206.

Regardless, I'm likely to opt for a Xeon E3-1265L v2 after it's released later this year so that I can run some VMs (and enjoy a lower TDP) on the server, but in the meantime use an i3-21xx. I'll be getting ECC RAM and will update this thread on whether the S1200KP-i3-ECC combination works together optimally.
 
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intelxeon1260l.jpg


Wait two months or bite now :confused:

i can get a intel xeon 1260L for about 360 included tax -.-
 
I'm going with an i3-1220t for now. The price is right. There are rumors that even the v2 Xeons will be delayed a bit, so I'm letting myself in for frustration if I wait.

A couple questions for anyone who's built a Q25 box:

- For the SATA connectors (including left-angled) available here, what is the best length and configuration?

- In case I find the stock cooler on the i3 too loud or annoying, what 1155-compatible quiet and effective cooler will fit in this case?

Thanks!
 
I will try to take exact measurements when I get home today for both, but from my research the compatible CPU cooler selection is very limited.

I believe that the best you can currently do is the Scythe (Big) Shuriken series. Noctua has another option coming out soon, but that is significantly pricier (and most likely overkill).
 
Balthazar B said:
I'm going with an i3-1220t for now. The price is right. There are rumors that even the v2 Xeons will be delayed a bit, so I'm letting myself in for frustration if I wait.

A couple questions for anyone who's built a Q25 box:

- For the SATA connectors (including left-angled) available here, what is the best length and configuration?

- In case I find the stock cooler on the i3 too loud or annoying, what 1155-compatible quiet and effective cooler will fit in this case?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

1220T ?
 
The Q25 spec calls for a maximum CPU cooler height of 80mm. I imagine the case and mainboard layout will drive the max width/diameter possible.
 
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Well, I just double-checked, and the S1200KP doesn't support VT-d either. For some reason I thought it had, but my impression was incorrect.

So it looks like there's no Mini-ITX board that will simultaneously support VT-d, ECC RAM, and Sandy Bridge processors (with the possible exception of the Wade board mentioned earlier, for which I see an online price of $426 :eek:).

ESXi 5 seems to run on the S1200KP, but in an eviscerated way.

It would appear that my choice will be between building a machine that will do everything I want (everything I want to try, at least), or one that does about 75% and has the form factor I want.

Decisions, decisions...
 
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balance101 said:
Super micro http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/QM67/X9SCV-QV4.cfm ?

It sucks s1200kp does support vt-d might just grab a cheap dual core for zfs only system or amd build onboard cpu
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Interesting/odd board but doesn't support ECC RAM and only takes mobile chips. I don't know how it would do with ESXi. That was one of the boards I was looking at when I started this thread. The other board, a Jetway, looks almost perfect in terms of spec (supports VT-d, AMT, Intel NICs, and almost certainly ECC)...but Jetway has a middling reputation for quality at best and perhaps no tech support at all.

This board, on the other hand, is almost perfect despite a lack of e-SATA or USB3. But it's mATX.
 
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