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Looking to build a file server

T

tboneDX

n00b
Joined
Aug 23, 2007
Messages
59
I'm hoping I can get a few suggestions on parts for the file server I'm planning on building. Currently I have:

1) An ATX case (6 3.5'' bays and 4 5.25'' bays).

2) A fairly generic 350W switching power supply out of my current INWIN (again, generic) case.

3) At least one WD Caviar Black 1TB hard drive.

4) 2X1GB of ddr2 667 RAM. (Super talent)

I'm planning to run Open Solaris, and the computer will act as nothing more than a network storage device. I'm looking for suggestions for a motherboard that has:
1) integrated vga if possible
2) SATA 2.0 ports
3) PCI-E x4/x16 ports for adding more SATA ports if needed (I saw this linked in another thread http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SASLP-MV8.cfm)

Since this is just a file server for no more than 6 or 7 computers, I'm thinking of going with a $40ish Celeron processor (I could be convinced to go AMD), but a cheap c2d would work if you think it's beneficial.

I'm trying to keep the build cheap, because pretty soon I'm about to surpass the specs of my desktop, and I can't let that happen.

I hope I didn't leave anything out, and thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
The AOC-SASLP-MV8 probably won't work in Solaris, at least for some time yet. Either go with the PCI-X AOC-SAT2-MV8 version or you might have to use Linux for now (and support there is reportedly not great yet either).

A Celeron is fine if this is mostly just going to be a file server. I'm running an E1400 in mine and it performs fine for my needs, easily can saturate GigE.

The board I used in my build was the Intel DG43NB which I've been quite happy with, and I feel it was good value. However, it can't support an addon RAID card well since the PCIe lanes are used for the onboard graphics as well and can't be shared; you'd have to add a PCI graphics card, and I'm not 100% sure this would work (though being Intel, I think it would). Normally I'd recommend a Supermicro server board, but on a tight budget there might not be room for that. Take a look though, some of the low-end ones are quite affordable by the time you factor in the good onboard NICs vs. adding an Intel or such.
 
If you're gonna fill up your case with 10 drives, I'd recommend replacing the PSU with a quality PSU instead since Inwin PSUs are pretty crappy:
$50 - Corsair 400CX 400W PSU
 
The specs on it fit my needs perfectly, and the price isn't too steep for what I'm getting. I'm sure I'll have better luck with this board over a pci* sata controller, but how compatible do you think this will be with Solaris or linux if I choose that route.
 
Linux compatibility will be good, it uses the older chipset that is very well supported. I'd not recommend you use the built-in fakeraid, but other than that everything will work perfectly. I don't follow Solaris much myself, but I imagine support there should be good as well, the controller supports AHCI which should work well there, and of course the Intel NIC is well supported everywhere.
 
I managed to find a refurb Intel DG33BU mobo for $60 for use in my FreeNAS. It supports basically any 800FSB LGA775 CPU, has 4x DDR2 slots, 4 SATA II ports, 12 USB ports, onboard VGA and HD Audio, 2 PCI slots, 16x/1x PCIe, and onboard Intel GbE.

Since this is basically just for remote file storage and holding PC backups, I don't really need real server-class stuff. This seemed like a pretty solid board, while saving me a decent bit of cash.
 
Your 16x PCIe slot will not work for an HBA/RAID card, so it won't scale past 4 drives very well (you'll have to use the PCI-X HBA), but it's similar to my own NAS based on an Intel G43 board and should work well.
 
keenan said:
Your 16x PCIe slot will not work for an HBA/RAID card
Click to expand...

Why is that? I haven't found anything on Google regarding this, so I'm curious. Also, there are some lower end 1x SATA cards if I just need to add a port or two. But I currently only have a single drive anyway, so I suspect it won't be an issue in the near future.
 
Well I guess it might work, but since the PCIe lanes are shared with the onboard graphics, you'll need to add a video card as well since the onboard is disabled if you plug something in there. There's no way to know for sure without trying it though, consumer boards usually aren't well tested or supported with anything other than graphics cards in the PCIe x16 slots.

It's documented in Intel's technical specification for the board:
The Intel G33 Express chipset contains two separate, mutually exclusive graphics
options. Either the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 (Intel GMA 3100) graphics
controller (contained within the 82G33 GMCH) is used, or a PCI Express x16 add-in
card can be used. When a PCI Express x16 add-in card is installed, the Intel GMA
3100 graphics controller is disabled.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the info. The board I got was DOA and was the last one they had, so I ended up getting a BLKDG45ID instead. It's got a similar 16x/1x/1x/PCI slot layout, but at least it has 6 onboard SATA ports. It looks like the G45 has the same issue, in that the NB has a single link of 16 lanes. Either onboard graphics or the 16x slot... However, this is a headless server, so maybe I can get by without any video "installed". Serial console FTW. If it does become an issue, I can convert this one to a media PC (that's how it's advertised - onboard HDMI and 7.1/SPDIF) and get a board more suited for a RAID controller.
 
Okay, I've done a bit of research, and slept on this for a few weeks, and here's what I have come up with.

Hard drives
(will be pulling a sata 200GB drive from another system for the boot drive)

PSU

Mobo

CPU

RAM
(I will be using my own 2X1GB ddr2 667)

Case
(I will be using my own fry's random brand aluminum case from 6 years ago)

Video
(random cheapo PCI card, then headless)

Please let me know what you think, and if you see anything blatantly missing, again, thanks for any help.
 
keenan said:
Well I guess it might work, but since the PCIe lanes are shared with the onboard graphics, you'll need to add a video card as well since the onboard is disabled if you plug something in there. There's no way to know for sure without trying it though, consumer boards usually aren't well tested or supported with anything other than graphics cards in the PCIe x16 slots.

It's documented in Intel's technical specification for the board:
The Intel G33 Express chipset contains two separate, mutually exclusive graphics
options. Either the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 (Intel GMA 3100) graphics
controller (contained within the 82G33 GMCH) is used, or a PCI Express x16 add-in
card can be used. When a PCI Express x16 add-in card is installed, the Intel GMA
3100 graphics controller is disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Umm, that means you can't use the onboard video for a 2nd monitor.. But I am fairly sure I have seen systems using G45 and G33 motherboards and RAID cards in the PCIe16 slot with the onboard video still working.
 
sorry about the bad link, this is the hard drive I was thinking of:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136317

While I don't need pci-E at all (I'll just be using on-board sata ports) I would like to go with an intel processor because for some reason I am convinced that it will play nicer and use less power than an AMD chip.

I'll be making a run to a local computer hardware store this weekend, so I'll see if I can find any components there. The main uncertainty I have right now is the motherboard. I've heard that Gigabyte is good in terms of compatibility (it's used in hackintoshes etc.). If I want just a basi lga775 mobo with at least 6 sata ports and not pci-E necessarily, is there anything I should look for or avoid?

As I said, I have a pretty good picture of what I should get, I just need a few more opinions.

Thanks for all of the above advise, and anything else you can offer.
 
Lazn_Work said:
Umm, that means you can't use the onboard video for a 2nd monitor.. But I am fairly sure I have seen systems using G45 and G33 motherboards and RAID cards in the PCIe16 slot with the onboard video still working.
Click to expand...

That doesn't make sense. If the lanes are used by the onboard graphics, they're used, period. PCIe doesn't make distinctions between one type of card or another. If a RAID card worked, a graphics card would work too.

What is possible is to use only some of the lanes for the onboard graphics and others for the RAID card, neither getting all 16, however this is a feature generally only available in server boards for reconfiguration between the available slots. I suppose it's possible it could work this way, but I'd be very surprised if that were the case.

Edit: Actually, I stand corrected on this. Intel uses the PCIe physical layer to connect the internal graphics hardware to the graphics output ports (VGA/DVI/HDMI etc.). If properly implemented in the BIOS, it is possible for this link to coexist with a PCIe x1 link on the PCIe slot. This is described in the datasheet, pg. 274.
 
Last edited:
tboneDX said:
While I don't need pci-E at all (I'll just be using on-board sata ports) I would like to go with an intel processor because for some reason I am convinced that it will play nicer and use less power than an AMD chip.
Click to expand...
For me the difference is more about the chipset. I've just noticed that, at least under Linux and FreeBSD, the Intel chipsets tend to 'just work' with good performance. If you're wanting to use Solaris I think this is a serious consideration. I've not had any showstopping issues with the AMD chipsets, but have had with nVidia, and performance of both seems to be lacking compared to Intel. And you don't really need CPU performance in a file server anyway...

If I want just a basi lga775 mobo with at least 6 sata ports and not pci-E necessarily, is there anything I should look for or avoid?
Click to expand...
Gigabyte and ASUS both tend to work well, though really the designs and parts used are pretty standardized. ASUS tends to use Marvell NICs, which are slightly better than the worst NIC on the market, the RTL8111 (second only to RTL8139), but they also use the Attansic ones which suck too. My suggestion would be to go with a decent (the cheapest ones use Realtek NICs) Intel branded board. They're rock solid, use high-quality Intel NICs (probably the most critical component to file server performance), have some nice touches like a header/connector map sticker (like this) that is *really* handy you can stick inside the case, and have excellent support in every OS. You lose overclocking features and maybe some other BIOS tweaking options.

Oh, also avoid the very lowest end G31/G33/G41 boards (not sure about other Intel chipsets) or any other that doesn't have an AHCI mode. IME you get significantly better performance in AHCI, plus support for hotplug. Also might be important for Solaris support.
 
keenan said:
Your 16x PCIe slot will not work for an HBA/RAID card, so it won't scale past 4 drives very well (you'll have to use the PCI-X HBA), but it's similar to my own NAS based on an Intel G43 board and should work well.
Click to expand...
Uhh, since when? I ran my RAID card in the only PCIe x16 slot a board for nearly a year. Video card was in a PCIe x1 slot and all was well. PCIe x16 slot is not reserved for video cards.
 
Blue Fox said:
Uhh, since when? I ran my RAID card in the only PCIe x16 slot a board for nearly a year. Video card was in a PCIe x1 slot and all was well. PCIe x16 slot is not reserved for video cards.
Click to expand...

*rolleyes* finish reading the thread. You had a PCIe x1 video card...

Also this is far from a sure thing. There are lots of reports of compatibility issues between RAID cards and desktop boards designed to be used with a graphics card in the PCIe x16 slot.
 
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