Media / Fileserver Questions/Concerns

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Erasmus354

[H]F Junkie
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Mar 12, 2004
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I am planning on building myself a fileserver in the next couple of months and I have a few questions before I go diving in. Primarily what this will be used for is a media/fileserver. I have just gotten into setting up MediaBrowser in Media Center and I like it a lot, it has made my media watching much more enjoyable. I am leaning towards WHS for ease of use and expandability, but I am concerned about whether the disk I/O for streaming media files to multiple clients will be a factor. Before I go any further my thoughts right now on parts:

Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP
HD Racks: COOLER MASTER STB-3T4-E3-GP 4-in-3 Device Module Hardisk Cage
Motherboard: ASUS P5QL-VM DO/CSM LGA 775 Intel B43 Micro ATX
CPU: Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W
RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W or should I get a bigger unit for the potential 12 drives I could fit at some point in the future?

For the drives I am planning on using WD 1.5TB Greenpower. I am thinking of undervolting/underclocking the CPU to reduce power consumption. One of the things I am not sure of right now is the motherboard, I want something with onboard video for reduced power consumption and noise. One of the reasons why I like WHS is I could start off small with like 2 disks (my media collection is only 400GB right now) and I could add more as I need them. Once I started adding more drives I would add in an SASLP-MV8. I just built a new desktop that set me back quite a bit so I want to keep costs down on this as much as I can.

I don't see myself using more than 3 streams at a time, most likely only 2 at a time. Will WHS and the disk pool be able to handle that ok? Is my part selection ok? I want to try and keep cost, noise, and power consumption down as much as possible. Thanks for the help in advance.
 
1) to make life simpler, id go for 520-650w hx corsair
2) amd 45w + gigabyte 740-785 chip based setup might bring better power saving options

are wds cheaper than seagates now? but maybe its just me who gets better offers on them ...

despite drive model, make sure you spindown unused datadrives for more power save ;)
 
asgards said:
1) to make life simpler, id go for 520-650w hx corsair
2) amd 45w + gigabyte 740-785 chip based setup might bring better power saving options

are wds cheaper than seagates now? but maybe its just me who gets better offers on them ...

despite drive model, make sure you spindown unused datadrives for more power save ;)
Click to expand...

I assume you are talking about the 4050e, 4450e, 4850e, and 5050e series? I had a really hard time finding those available for a reasonable price. If I do go that route is there a reason not to take something like the 8200 chipset from nVidia? The anandtech review showed that as having lower power consumption than the 780G.
 
Erasmus354 said:
I assume you are talking about the 4050e, 4450e, 4850e, and 5050e series? I had a really hard time finding those available for a reasonable price. If I do go that route is there a reason not to take something like the 8200 chipset from nVidia? The anandtech review showed that as having lower power consumption than the 780G.
Click to expand...

No reason not to get a mobo based on the 8200 chipset. The X2 240 is also a good choice in terms of power usage. However the only 45W AMD CPU available right now is the Sempron 140:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103698

Yes the Sempron should be more than enough for WHS. If my old Pentium III 866Mhz did well as a WHS server, the Sempron 140 should be even better.
Erasmus354 said:
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W or should I get a bigger unit for the potential 12 drives I could fit at some point in the future?
Click to expand...
It's not enough power, IMO, for 12 hard drives. You need a PSU with at least 33A on the +12V rail like the Corsair 450VX or this Seasonic PSU:
$70 - Seasonic SS-500ET 500W PSU

Erasmus354 said:
I don't see myself using more than 3 streams at a time, most likely only 2 at a time. Will WHS and the disk pool be able to handle that ok? Is my part selection ok?
Click to expand...

That question is a bit hard to answer according to Nitrobass24:
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1034721672&postcount=7

So if you can answer at least the first 3 points Nitrobass24 made, we can provide a better answer.
 
1. Mostly SD content, but I do have some HD content, probably not more than one HD stream at a time.

2. Currently it is all Wireless-N, but in the future I will have the server hooked up through Gigabit.

3. 3 streams at the most, normally one or two.

4. 1.5TB Greenpower is my plan for the disks right now.
 
Yea you should be fine with that, but like Danny said I would up the PSU.

As far as your streaming is concerned, it will work fine except for the HD over wifi.
Depending on your router and wifi card, distance, obstruction, etc. its going to be impossible for me to tell you. But I had a 40ft distance with 1 wall on my DIR-655 and it didnt work for 1080p content.

That said if you can get wired by all means do it.
 
nitrobass24 & Danny Bui -

Curious - the Corsair 400CX has 30A on the 12V rail. Can you show me some math as to why that's insufficient? I'm thinking ...

30A / 12 drives = 2.5A per drive. x12VDC = 30W per drive. Those green drives couldn't possible consume that much during spin-up, right?

Granted the 12V rails is shared among more things than just the HDD's. Anyone have some links to measured spin-up for popular HDDs?

Thanks-
 
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Jay_S said:
nitrobass24 & Danny Bui -

Curious - the Corsair 400CX has 30A on the 12V rail. Can you show me some math as to why that's insufficient? I'm thinking ...

30A / 12 drives = 2.5A per drive. x12VDC = 30W per drive. Those green drives couldn't possible consume that much during spin-up, right?

Granted the 12V rails is shared among more things than just the HDD's. Anyone have some links to measured spin-up for popular HDDs?

Thanks-
Click to expand...
Going from the specs of the Seagate 7200.12 1TB HDD:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/desktops/barracuda_hard_drives/barracuda_7200.12/

2A max startup. So assuming that the WD Green has the same startup (WD never lists their startup power) that's 12 x 2A = 24A or 288W on the +12V rail being used. That's 72W leftover for the CPU, mobo, fans, CD burner, etc at startup. Too low and/or too close for comfort. I'd still recommend a larger PSU.

And as a secondary backup source, I'm using Corsair's PSU finder. For the GPU I used the X1300/X1500/X1600 cards since they are extremely low power and should be a good approximation of an additional storage controller(s). According to the Corsair PSU finder, a C2D, the X1300/X1500/X1600 card, and 12 hard drivees requires at least a 450W PSU with 33A on the +12V rail.
 
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Jay_S said:
Yeah wow, that's too close for comfort.

WD actually lists it in their datasheet: http://products.wdc.com/library/specsheet/eng/2879-701229.pdf
Under "12 VDC (A Peak)"

WD10EADS = 1.759A = 21.1W peak
WD15EADS = 1.759A = 21.1W peak
WD10EADS = 1.671A = 20.1W peak

So, a little less than the Seagates but still way more than I imagined.
Click to expand...

Ahh missed that. Wow, pretty close to the Seagate. Yeah, I'd still recommend going with a bigger PSU just in case. Besides, more than likely not all of the 12 drives will be a Green drive so a little headroom doesn't hurt.
 
Also, a bigger power supply will run quieter and cooler due to a lesser load.
 
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