Low budget server build...

[steve3]

I've decided to finally buy "server" parts instead of relying on "consumer" parts because I'm thinking of moving onto Windows Server for file server and VPN for home.. At any given time 5 people watching videos and adding or deleting files.

At the moment, I'm set on building the following (consumer parts)
CPU: Intel I5-3450
Memory: 8GB Kingston
Mobo: ASRock H77 Pro4-M (cheapest board I can find with 8 SATA)
PSU: Corsair TX650 v2
RAM: Kingston 8GB Ram
^ The above comes just under $450 but I'm thinking driver issues is going to occur and running 24/7 these parts aren't going to last.

BUT I'm clueless about servers...

What I need...
CPU -
MOBO -
PSU - (I'm thinking Corsair TX650 V2)?
CASE - (What can fix 8+ hard drives?) I'm thinking if the board is ATX I can save some $ and get a full size atx instead of spending $400+ for a 4u server?
RAM - 8GB? <-- I'm thinking of going ECC route
$1000

What I have
8 x 2TB drives (SATA)
^ ^ 4 of them are in enclosures but I'm wanting to just move them all into one computer, way to much work plugging unplugging etc etc. Hopefully I want to move to RAID or ZFS....

2 X 320GB (sata)
2 x 500GB (sata)

I'm going to migrate the 320 and 500 to the 2TB drives, too many drives.



Please give me some ideas!

 

[idea]

While you're making the effort of buying "server" parts and no long relying on "consumer" parts, you may want to think about using a "server" OS and not a "consumer" OS

CPU/MOBO - LGA 1155 Xeon and Supermicro motherboard.
CASE - Just go on newegg.com and use the advanced search, tell it you want 8 internal 3.5 drives or whatever and pick one
Everything else - whatever just buy it

 

[steve3]

@idea. Are you saying I should stick with Linux?
Also heard Tyan being thrown around but they are expensive. They worth it?
@Idea - what's a good card to use to get more sata ports? The 1155 boards all top out @ 6... Budget range (~$150-$200)

 

[steve3]

Here's what I got... Any suggestions or ideas please

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230V2 - $234.90
RAM: Kingston KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G - $60.00 (16GB is 2x the cost...)
Motherboard: SUPERMICRO X9SCM-F (2.0A) - $205
Ebay: IBM ServeRAID M1015 - $150 <--- Can I get this in Canada?? It retails for like $300+ :|
Case: BitFenix Shinobi XL
PSU: Corsair TX650 - $90

Total - $740 + tax

 

[J Macker]

I bought a used IBM serveRaid M1015 card on the forum for $90 just 2 months ago. they're on ebay frequently around $90-$100.

also, I bought the NZXT Source 210 Elite for my server case with a 4-in-3 bay adapter for 3x5.25 bays -> 4x 3.5 bays. So the total bay count is 12. That cost me $50 for the case and $30 for the adapter. With the 8 sata ports on the m1015 and 6 on the motherboard, it's well suited for 12 hard drives + a loose ssd for the OS.

I wish I would have bought a cheaper lower power cpu though, as initially i was considering VMs and Linux server OSes. but then I got lazy and went with Windows Home Server 2011. it's working very well with all my Win7 machines.

 

[steve3]

@J-Macker your signature shows you went with AMD Bulldozer CPU?

 

[diizzy]

http://www.2020pc.com/_e/Motherboar...04_Chipset_Socket_H2_LGA_1155_Retail_Pack.htm
http://www.tyan.com/product_SKU_spec.aspx?ProductType=MB&pid=700&SKU=600000226

Wouldn't that be a much better deal than going for the SUPERMICRO X9SCM-F + M1015 and additionally saving a bit on cabling since its plain SATA?

As for case (unless you need hotswap)
http://www.google.com/products/cata...a=X&ei=H-MYULHVHPHR4QSByoH4BA&ved=0CHAQ8wIwAQ would be a much better case than the BitFenix?

//Danne

 

[J Macker]

@J-Macker your signature shows you went with AMD Bulldozer CPU?

here's my server thread:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1694157

yeah. Danny Bui recommended AMD setup because it has direct IOMMU for direct hardware control of RAID setup. supposedly it has better performance for VMs and a linux raid server.

Main reasons why I went with AMD: The above mobo was the cheapest mobo I could find, AMD or Intel, that had the right amount of expansion slots and supported IOMMU, a feature that you're gonna need for ESXi. IOMMU basically allows the virtual machine direct access to the hardware rather than a virtualized version of it. Having direct access means greater performance and a little less complication.

Other reasons are: The mobo would work with your current RAM and the extra cores will help out if you're planning on using a beefy storage OS.

But since I went the lazy route of WHS, it doesn't matter and I could have saved some money buying an Intel G530 or G620 chip. I think you're worried too much about the reliability of "consumer grade" parts.

I've built systems that have worked beyond their useful life (i.e., comp for parents with Pentium D-805 with an Epox motherboard was used for 7 years, no problems.)

the ibm m1015 is the best choice for a raid card though, and it gives a whopping 8 ports. even if you used a motherboard with only 4 ports, you could still use all 12 hard drives. I installed WHS to a cheap ssd because it didn't make sense to buy a $60 hdd when I could get a ssd for the same price.

I didn't mount the ssd in a bay, I just left it sitting on the bottom of the case next to the excess power cords from the psu. I think I need to get some cleaner sata power cords because the regular sata power cables from a psu have 4-5 inches of cable between each sata connector which makes it a pain.

I am super happy with the NZXT source 210 elite though. I actually just ordered another one last night. There's a promo code for 20% off for a final price of $40 free shipping. It has great cooling, it's easy to work in, it's cheap and it has a USB 3.0 port on the front.

*edit again*
I'm about ready to order some sata power cords, again it would make the cabling so much cleaner:
here's some links in case you're interested
1 sata -> 4sata http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812162011
1 molex-> 4sata amazon prime
1molex-> 3sata http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812170020

 

[sun_bean]

You don;t need server equipment to build server. You can go with consumer hardware and you should be good.

It all comes down to what is your requirements? For just Home File Server Intel Atom base server would do just fine. If not Atom fan then i would get AMD or Intel Quad Core sub $100 processor which would be more than sufficient.

You mentioned VPN you need to provide more detail about it? Because you can have Linksys VPN base router or Firewall and that would handle your VPN connections.

 

[steve3]

I'm getting tired of reading documents after docments for linux, kind of feels like Windows Server is more stupid proof.

I also need AES-NI instruction set, so CPU wise it's reallly difficult. Intel Atom's don't have it, only very specific Intel i3s have it (so I have to go up to i5s), and all amd bulldozers have it (but i'm worried of chipset support) so I'm thinking server route.

Fileserver also needs to be able to handle streaming huge files (2-4 GB) over gigabyte network so using Intel Atom might be a little slow. A Pentium D that was doing this task had huge processor usage / memory usage.

VPN wise -> very simple stuff. I was thinking of setting up L2TP so people can get to their files off site... (I'm using pfsense/openvpn right now on a separate computer / file server on a separate computer through samba). So these two will merge into one computer (this one).

@dizzy - thanks for the motherboard recommendation. Looks like that will be same price / similar price of going m1015 + supermicro
I like the case... Will try to find stock here in Canada

Thanks for the info!

 

[steve3]

I'm about to buy the Tyan S5512WGM2NR, somewhat disappointed it doesn't have USB 3.0....
Kind of scary the CPU is more powerful than my I7 rig :|

The Fractal Design Define XL is pushing $200 after tax, the online store wanted close to $20 for shipping . ><