Need help building a home server

[runev]

Need help building my home server

Greetings,

I'm trying to figure out which components to buy for my new home server, or if i should even buy a server which has already been assembled. But since I'm the kind of guy who buys new hardware every third-fourth year, i could use some advice.

This server will be running Debian GNU/Linux, so hardware compatability with linux in the latest kernel is a must. It'll also contain four disks in total. One is a 150 GB wd raptor x system disk, on which /, /boot, /var, /usr, swap etc is. The other three will be a Raid 5 Array, consisting of 3x500GB wd disks. This will be my /home partition. The reason i wan't to use a raid for this, is because this is where my schoolwork, source codes and other important data i just cannot afford to loose is. When idle, i might just use it for Folding@Home.

What i want help with, for now, is rather the choice of hardware, since I'm the poor-student kind of person, who buys new hardware once every three or four years. I've setup a template, so here goes:

Case: Chieftec WH-01 Miniserver or Chieftec BH-01 Midi Tower
Mainboard: Asus P5K or Asus P5KR
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0GHz
Memory: Crucial BallistiX PC6400 DDR2 2048MB CL4 800Mhz (2x1024MB) or Crucial BallistiX PC8500 DDR2 1024MB CL5 1000 Mhz (1x1024)
S-ATA Raid Controller: ?

There's a few choices I'm not sure about here. These are the selection of mainboard, memory and especially raid controller. This is where i want your comments

1.) Could i have chosen a better mainboard, as i pretty much just found the cheapest one i thought would be 'okay'. If so, it should atleast support 1333FSB and have P35 chipset.

3.) For servers, should i rather buy some one gig of quick PC8500 CL5 memory, or just stick to two gigs of PC6400 CL4? Any suggestions?

2.) Which raid controller should i choose if I'm planing on just one raid 5 array, with three 500gb disks? Or should i rather look for a mainboard like the Asus P5KR with Intel Matrix RAID Technolgy?

That's about all i can think of for now, but keep in mind, I'm a student, which equals poor, so keep it cheap please, so that i can enjoy a nice dinner every now and then even after i buy this thing!

Cheeers!

 

[engiNURD]

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0GHz
Memory: Crucial BallistiX PC6400 DDR2 2048MB CL4 800Mhz (2x1024MB) or Crucial BallistiX PC8500 DDR2 1024MB CL5 1000 Mhz (1x1024)

3.) For servers, should i rather buy some one gig of quick PC8500 CL5 memory, or just stick to two gigs of PC6400 CL4? Any suggestions?

For a real server, you should get ECC memory. But thats besides the point.

My point is, with an E4400, you don't need DDR2-1066, nor even DDR2-800. However, since DDR2-667 prices are similar to DDR2-800, go for whichever is cheaper. You won't notice the difference between CL4 and CL5 unless you're running benchmarks, so don't pay a huge price premium for lower latency.

Formulas for Intel platform @ 1:1 settings: (base FSB speed is SDR, or single data rate)
(CPU Multiplier) x [Base FSB speed] = CPU Clock speed
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed (DDR: double data rate)
4 x [Base FSB speed] = Effective FSB speed (QDR: quad data rate)

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is, for the most part, useless. All you need is a 1:1 config. Here's some possible clock speeds (as always with OC'ing, YMMV):

E4400: 10 × 200 = 2.0Ghz, DDR2-400 << STOCK speeds
E4400: 10 × 266 = 2.6Ghz, DDR2-533 << Easy OC
E4400: 10 × 333 = 3.3Ghz, DDR2-667 << Great OC