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Low power data storage server build

M

maz1324

n00b
Joined
Aug 29, 2006
Messages
33
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Low power server for data storage, file sharing, streaming video to PS3, computer backups.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Trying to keep it around $600 but I am flexible.

3) Where do you live?
Western Pennsylvania

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.
Motherboard
CPU
RAM
Hard drives
Power supply
Possibly case, haven't decided if I will reuse a case I have
OS License

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I probably will reuse a case I have. Also, I will be temporarily borrowing a DVD-rw drive from another machine for the initial install.

6) Will you be overclocking?
No

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I will not have a monitor attached to the computer.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Roughly 1-3 months. I'm not in a big hurry.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Minimum of 4 SATA ports to allow for future expansion.
1Gbps LAN (I'm assuming this is standard these days).
Wake on Lan is preferred, but not required.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No, I will need to purchase WHS if I decide to use it over FreeNAS.

I am planning on building a low cost/low power server. I am currently considering WHS or FreeNAS, but I am currently leaning towards WHS. I don't have large data storage requirements. Right now I have 3 computers and the combined hard drive capacity between them is less than 1 TB.

I don't have specifics in mind regarding hardware.

Motherboard/CPU - Considering Gigabyte D525 mini itx http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128452
RAM - 2 or 4 GB - not sure if 4GB is needed
Hard drives - 2x2TB hard drives
Case - Doesn't really matter as it will be located out of sight.
Power supplies - Don't know much about power supplies or how many watts would be needed for it.
 
Do some research. for a Data Storage you really don't need all that much computer power for. i know there are post ware people used Atom based computers for it. the idea is that the Atom CPU is really low power but the Chip set is really high power. I personally found that my server gets used more and more as i find new things for it.

Personally this is what i would do in order of importance:
1. PSU
Reason: check reviews of a PSU that has really stable power and low failure rate. a Bad PSU may lower the life of your HDDs. also remember that HDDs consume WAY more power during spool up then when they are running. 3 watt HDD can use as much as 30 watts to spool up.

2. RAID controller (if your going to use RAID)
Reason: The on board controllers really suck. On more expensive Mother Boards the on board controller may not be that bad but on cheap boards it is. RAID 0 with 4 HDD on my Mother board had decent through put but nothing compared to my SAS controller. A good RAID controller with online expansion will save you head aches and you can change Mother boards with out worrying about your RAID.

3. Hard Drives i like Western Digital
Reason: i have Western Digital Hard drives 5+ years old with no problems i even have 1 100Gb drive over 8years old and it still working. one thing i have learned is not to by cheap HDD for my server. i have had cheap HDDs Fail in less then 6months and RMA them and so far no problems but 4TB of data loss is a pain! it takes a long time to rebuild a RAID and to restore data from back-ups.

4.CPU Quad core or Efficient
Reason: if you plan on or thinking of live Trans coding and streaming this is important. a fast Quad core CPU is really a good idea if your going to do live trans coding. if not then i would look into something efficient. an Atom might be ok. i prefer a full power CPU

5. Motherboard
Reason just get something that has what you need cheap is fine here. I use an old Abit AM2+ MB that has all the things i need the board i got used Dirt Cheap.

6. Case just something to hold how many drives you want to use

7. Memory if you use windows 4Gb would be a good idea

Software: FreeNAS a lot of people like. currently i just use windows 7. windows 7 seems to work fine and I find it easy to manage and install software i want it to do. like TVersity for live trans coding and Bittorent software. Linux will work also and is free.

Hard drive setup:
on a tight Budget i would use single drive mode with No RAID.
if you can afford the SAS RAID controller with Live expansion then RAID 5 or 6 works well

BACK-UP:
This is probably the thing almost no one does! well people not here don't do. RAID is not a back-up it is just added protection. i like backing up my data on HDDs that are not in the computer. i have a large suitcase looking thing full of foam to hold the HDDs and a hot swap bay to do the backup. seems to work well. granted my 20TB file server is around 15TB of data on it. takes about 8 2TB HDDs for me.

If you want something really cheap and just a NAS (network attached storage) check newegg.com for NAS. Drobos have really good reviews too.

hope that gets you in the right direction
here is what i did http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1556559
 
@Nerdydave

I realize that RAID is not a backup solution. This system is going to be my backup for my existing machines. I don't plan on using any RAID for this system. I will enable duplication in WHS for anything that is very important or I will have additional copy stored elsewhere.

Would I be better off buying a low end Athlon II X2 or Celeron over the Atom? As I said before, I'm trying to keep the power consumption low. If I can get additional performance for a small increase in price then may be worth it.

Roughly what wattage should I be looking for when it comes to a power supply. I realize it will depend on all the components that are added to the system. I can't see more than 5 hard drives ever being added to this system.
 
Unless this server is going to be accessed by multiple people at the same times, a more powerful cpu isn't worth it. An atom should be sufficient enough to handle the tasks.

But from what you want to do with your server, seems like a nas is more appropriate for your needs. You should check them out, as some of them are in the teens for power consumption.
 
FreeNAS works. But if all you need is a few network shares, any linux flavor should do you fine.

Ubuntu or one of the other particularly user friendly distro's can set up a share for you.

Another thought is to buy one of the higher end home NAS boxes. Not quite as geeky as roll your own, but a 2-4 bay Qnap device would meet your needs, and take very little time to get going and manage.
 
maz1324 said:
Roughly what wattage should I be looking for when it comes to a power supply. I realize it will depend on all the components that are added to the system. I can't see more than 5 hard drives ever being added to this system.
Click to expand...

A quality 400W PSU will be enough for 5 drives and a low power Athlon or Atom build:
$50 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W PSU

For WHS, 2GB of RAM is all that you need.

Case wise, I recommend this case:
$40 - Cooler Master Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 ATX Case
 
i like the server my self. when i get home tonight i will look about at performance per watt.

AMD is just cheap reason i use it. for server the CPU only comes into play when you need to convert a video on the fly. like i use TVersity well untill i find something better. i stream movies to my Ipods , Ipads, laptops, PS3 sometimes all at the same time. that is only time i ever see the CPU ever get used.

a NAS might be a lot cheaper and less of a head ache but you can do less with it.

i use my server to backup all my systems, stream movies music and photos. I backup the server when data changes only and i just backup the files.

on my server i gave up on trying to use super efficient CPU. i read a bunch of reviews and forums and it seemed like people say the ATOMs and CPUs like ATOMs do ok as a NAS but if that's the case its cheaper to buy a NAS.

to be honest your HDDs are whats going to consume most of the power. a decent dual core CPU is 65 watts if you use onboard everything you might be around 110watt but you will need watts for spool up so 400 to 450watts is probably what your looking at.

400 to 450 watts for around 2 secound rest of the time around 110watts

my server with out the HDDs idles around 75watts with the 10HDDs and lots of streaming going on it sits at 250watts i never fooled with trying to catch it spooling up so i don't know about that.
 
Efficient and powerful enough
CPU 45watts MAX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103902
MB and memory another 30 watts
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130254
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231253

Hard drives use 3 to 5watts per drive * 10 for spool up
5 drives your looking at 15 to 25 watts and probably around 150watts for spool up

normal operation for this system would probably be under 100watts and you could do some live trans coding for say watching movies on your WIFI on a couple of laptops or something no problem
also give you more control what you can do with it.
 
i really hope that helps let me know what you go with and why. i am just hoping i did not confuse you with all the info and examples.

Basically if you want cheap and easy a NAS

if you want power efficient cheap and do it your self ATOM

If you want some horse power and efficient the AMD64 setup
 
Nerdydave said:
Efficient and powerful enough
CPU 45watts MAX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103902
.
Click to expand...

I was thinking along those lines except more like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103897
dual core instead of quad core.

This is only if you decide to step up from the atom. If it's definitly just going to be a file sharing computer, an atom is fine. But if you want a little more oomph in case it might turn into something more, I've been admiring that amd 240e for a while now.

The other choice is the regular 240 (not the 'e')
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103714
, get a mobo with undervoltaging options, and hope you get a chip that undervolts well.
 
So where to start..

The Atom will be fine even with some light transcoding.. I had a d510 I used to transcode for pytivo & it did great under either FreeNas or WHS. So dont let the atom haters sway you. I only upgraded to more power when I turned my server into a SageTV server & I needed more power since It may be decoding as many as 4 HD streams from various sources as well as serving data back out to 4 TV's & torrenting at the same time.

For the OS, both are great options, but one I like better is Amahi Home Server. Basically its the *nix equivalent of WHS & I believe it even has GreyPool (the *nix equivalent of WHS's drive pooling) built in. Plus since its free you can try it & if you decide you don't like it get WHS afterwards.

Memory wise, I would get 4gb just because its dirt cheap and if you do start to do more intensive stuff on the server the extra ram will help compensate a little for a lower power CPU

For the HDD's I am a fan of Samsung. They haven't let me down yet & there fast & quiet.

For the PSU I would get the SeaSonic S12II 430B @ 60 bucks because this is the cheapest high quality PSU on the egg with 6x sata ports..

Why do you need 6x sata ports you say, Well thats how many HDD bays are in the LIAN LI PC-Q08B which is about as small as they get for having that many expansion slots, & since you said you may have 5 hdd's I cant find a smaller case with 5 bays.

For the MainBoard, that Gigabyte you linked is fine, but if the intel varient is back in stock when you order I would get it since its fanless & will have the well known intel reliability, not to mention its about 10 bucks cheaper..

Total cost of this system with 2x drives is 573 shipped from newegg..

You can cut alot of cost especially in the Case & PSU, but I figure if your going to be keeping this a while, then you might as well get high quality & have room to grow. Plus its still under budget
 
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