Please review my file server build

E

eatpills

n00b
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
4
Hi,

I will be putting together a new file server and was hoping that some of you could review for completeness, quality and for any "gotchas" that I haven't noticed (e.g. incompatible parts, parts that I still need). Here's my plan for now, subject to change of course:

NZXT Source 210 S210-001 Black “Aluminum Brush / Plastic” ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811146075
- eight internal 3.5 inch bays
- three external 5.25 inch bays for 5-in-3 expansion

ASRock H87M Pro4 LGA 1150 Intel H87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813157384
- getting a uATX board because of the smaller mid tower case
- six SATA ports
- boards with over six SATA ports are more expensive (probably more value in using PCI-E SATA cards in the future)

SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817151124
- rave reviews about SeaSonic
- modular with six SATA power connectors
- will need molex -> SATA power adapters in the future

Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell 3.0GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646G3220
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819116950

SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820147247
- acting as a boot drive for Windows Server 2008 R2 running FlexRaid (tRAID)
- already have numerous 3TB drives (WD Reds, Seagates, etc) for RAID6

G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820231416


Accessories:
Coboc Model SC-SATA3-18-LL-BK 18" SATA III 6Gb/s Data Cable w/Latch,Black
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16812422652

BYTECC BRACKET-125 HDD/SSD Metal Mounting Kit
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817994159
- don't believe the case supports 2.5 inch drive mounting
- SSD doesn't come with bracket either

MASSCOOL FD12025B1L3/4 120mm Case Cooling Fan
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835150073
- getting a few of these as heat == drive failures

Thanks for looking! :)
 
I'm guessing you're in Canada?

Well spend the extra $5 for the NZXT Source 210 Elite since it comes with an extra 140mm fan and a USB 3.0 front panel port. Totally worth the extra $5.
 
Dangman said:
I'm guessing you're in Canada?

Well spend the extra $5 for the NZXT Source 210 Elite since it comes with an extra 140mm fan and a USB 3.0 front panel port. Totally worth the extra $5.
Click to expand...

agree with this, otherwise seems legit
 
As Skillz said in your other thread, you might want to go for the FM2 platform if number of drive support is key. I recommend this MSI motherboard since it has 8 SATA ports and is of good quality:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130663&ignorebbr=1

But you will take a hit in single threaded CPU performance. I would recommend the A10-5800K since the extra two cores may come in handy later on.
 
eatpills said:
Hi,

Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell 3.0GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646G3220
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819116950

SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820147247
- acting as a boot drive for Windows Server 2008 R2 running FlexRaid (tRAID)
- already have numerous 3TB drives (WD Reds, Seagates, etc) for RAID6

G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820231416


Accessories:
Coboc Model SC-SATA3-18-LL-BK 18" SATA III 6Gb/s Data Cable w/Latch,Black
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16812422652

BYTECC BRACKET-125 HDD/SSD Metal Mounting Kit
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817994159
- don't believe the case supports 2.5 inch drive mounting
- SSD doesn't come with bracket either

MASSCOOL FD12025B1L3/4 120mm Case Cooling Fan
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835150073
- getting a few of these as heat == drive failures

Thanks for looking! :)
Click to expand...

This should be great!!! I
 
Dangman said:
The CPU is fine. However, the motherboard isn't a solid choice when compared to the more popular MSI motherboard I recommended.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the suggestion :) However, I noticed that the MSI motherboard is full size ATX rather than my preferred uATX form factor. Given that I've chosen a mid tower case, I feel that there are space savings/manageability benefits with a smaller motherboard.

With the above said, here are my current part choices. Would appreciate any criticism and a quick review for missing/incompatible parts, etc :)

Thanks!

NZXT Source 210 Elite Black Steel with painted interior ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ Black Front Trim
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146078

GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XM-D3H FM2+ / FM2 AMD A88X (Bolton D4) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128659

SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply ...
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151124

AMD A8-5600K Trinity 3.6GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD ...
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113281

RAM: cheapest name brand DDR3 that I can find (sales are constantly changing)

Boot HDD: WD Velociraptor or WB Black depending on availability and pricing
- after some thoughts, I feel that there isn't a lot of value in adding an SSD to a file server
 
eatpills said:
Thank you for the suggestion :) However, I noticed that the MSI motherboard is full size ATX rather than my preferred uATX form factor. Given that I've chosen a mid tower case, I feel that there are space savings/manageability benefits with a smaller motherboard.
Click to expand...
There really isn't. It's not like you're cramming in video cards into this file server. I mean unless you have really really fat hands or wear thick gloves for whatever reason or are extremely uncomfortable with working with a PC, there's enough clearance between the bottom of the motherboard tray and the PSU to hook up the audio, USB, and frontpanel cables rather easily. Not to mention that the location of the SATA ports on both the Gigabyte and MSI motherboard are almost in the same place with the MSI SATA ports being just one slot higher. Plus both motherboards have the same length of 9.6", which is actually slightly larger than the 9.2" of the Biostar seen in this picture of the NZXT Source 210 Elite functioning as a file server:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1037682684&postcount=1354

Does it honestly look like that much usable space is being saved?
eatpills said:
Boot HDD: WD Velociraptor or WB Black depending on availability and pricing
- after some thoughts, I feel that there isn't a lot of value in adding an SSD to a file server
Click to expand...
There isn't much value in adding a WD VRaptor or a WD Black drive to a file server either.
 
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