Rate my under $500 fileserver

L

LostFor

n00b
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
28
Hi all
I got a problem I need to build a fileserver for under $500.
I have a case CM 690, I also have the first 2 drives to go in there an 40 gig ide drive and a 160 gig sata II drive. For the rest of system I am thinking about the following:

Intel DG31PR Motherboard CPU Bundle - Intel Core 2 Duo E4700
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3981911&CatId=2406

for ram: Corsair XMS2 DHX 2048MB Dual Channel PC6400 DDR2 800MHz
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3089875&sku=C13-6076.

Power: ThermalTake PurePower 500-Watt PSU
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2932371&CatId=1079

No clue what cpu cooler to use so any help there would be great. Also how would this system work do I need something diffrent any help over all would be great.
 
Use a stock Intel cooler, it's fine for a file server. Size the PSU for how many drives you eventually plan to have in it. Any cheap ram is fine. Mobo has 4 sata slots, might be able to find something with more you think you'll need them.
 
Ditch the PSU. The only good Thermaltake PSUs are part of their Toughpower and Purepower RX lines. In addition, you can get a SIGNIFICANTLY better PSU for the same price:
Antec Earthwatts 500W PSU - $60

Also that RAM is a bit overpriced at $60. Like [LYL]Homer has said, any cheap set of DDR2 RAM will be fine.

Since that's OEM CPU that doesn't come with a HSF, I recommend getting this HSF:
Xigmatek HDT-S963 92mm Rifle HSF - $25

However for a file server, I recommend going this route:
AMD Athlon64 X2 4600+ CPU - $57
Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 AMD 740G mATX AMD Motherboard - $60
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 RAM - $45
Antec Earthwatts 500W PSU - $60
----
Total: $222 plus tax and shipping.

Just $12 more than that TigerDirect Intel bundle but you get a CPU, mobo, RAM and PSU for that amount. The X2 4600+ is a bit overkill for a file server but it's an excellent deal on a dual-core CPU. And you never know when you might need that extra performance. The motherboard also comes with 6 SATA ports.
 
I also am thinking that the 2GB of ram is is too much as well. If looking to shave costs...$20 is $20.

Also...I would recommend spendign 3 more dollars and going to the 65 nm stuff. Less power is less power. And on a machine that is running 24/7...that will add up to dollars and life.

As for the PSU...too much power unfortunately. It might even land up costing your more to run it (lack of efficiency at lower power usage). The average HDD might PEAK @ 30W. The average MB/CPU combo you are looking at might peak @ 100W (this means like running 100% on the CPU..doubt this will ever happen). Therefore if you figure someting like 5-6 drives. This is 300W total, PEAK. There is an earthwatts 430W for $30 AR on newegg right now. Much better chocie...

Therefore that 222 is now 222 - 50 or 172.
 
Trepidati0n said:
As for the PSU...too much power unfortunately. It might even land up costing your more to run it (lack of efficiency at lower power usage). The average HDD might PEAK @ 30W. The average MB/CPU combo you are looking at might peak @ 100W (this means like running 100% on the CPU..doubt this will ever happen). Therefore if you figure someting like 5-6 drives. .
Click to expand...

I'd say the EA500 is just right. It is 80% efficient at 20% load, which is roughly 100W or so. The server he's planning will more than likely hit that and beyond.
 
Thanks for the information I think I will stick to the $222 build it looks great and will let me do every thing I will be able to do. My only other question is what type of controller card should I get. The case I have can fit 9 hard drive so I will need a card that can controll up to 2 more sata drives
 
Well, how are you going to setup your server? Using Linux software RAID? Windows Home server setup? An actual RAID setup? Or a just a bunch individual drives?

Oh and the CM690 can fit up to 12 drives if you use a 3in2 Convertor and a 4in3 convertor.
 
My plan is to set it up using CentOS, to start with it will be just individual drives.
I did not know about the 3 in 2 convertor
I may stick to 9 drives I need a bay for a CD drive
 
Ok then, I recommend this:
Promise SATA 300 TX4 PCI 4 Port SATA II Controller Card - $60

Great Linux support and it will allow you to have up to 10 SATA drives in your system.

And before you ask, yes there are cheaper options but they use Silicon chipsets and Linux support for those chipsets is a bit sketchy. In addition, those chipsets have a performance hit with Linux.
 
Cool I think that will do, after adding a 500 gig hard drive to start it with my price comes to less then 400 which is great
 
Wait, are you getting the controller now or later when you actually need it? And which 500GB drive are you going with?
 
There's no point in getting a micro atx mobod when your case can handle a full size atx mobod. I would consider looking up a different mobod. If your file server is going to be used to transfer non-demanding files, consider getting an AMD system, you could get some really good AMD cpu's for cheap, even though they won't out preform most C2D's
 
I going wait to get the card till I need it.
A friend of mine did offer me a second option
He has an older AMD 64 3400+ or AMD 64 3200+ system on a MSI K8N Neo motherboard
The problem is that it only has 2 sata ports and they are SATA 1.5 ports. It also has 2 IDE ports
So if I get the promise controller I could still get a total of 9 hard drives.
I am wondering if this would work as a File server
 
LostFor said:
I going wait to get the card till I need it.
A friend of mine did offer me a second option
He has an older AMD 64 3400+ or AMD 64 3200+ system on a MSI K8N Neo motherboard
The problem is that it only has 2 sata ports and they are SATA 1.5 ports. It also has 2 IDE ports
So if I get the promise controller I could still get a total of 9 hard drives.
I am wondering if this would work as a File server
Click to expand...

It would work just fine as a file server. If you look at my sig, you'll see that my fileserver is running even lesser hardware than that AMD. It works just fine.

However, is he giving you his old AMD rig for free or is he selling it to you?
 
I will owe him a half gallon of good local beer for it so in the end it will cost me $30
Will the promises card work with this motherboard?
 
LostFor said:
I will owe him a half gallon of good local beer for it so in the end it will cost me $30
Will the promises card work with this motherboard?
Click to expand...

What else are you getting the for that $30 besides the motherboard and CPU?

And yes that card will work.
 
Nice! Great for $30. Though which 400W PSU does he have? And how old is it? You may have to get a new PSU (like the EA500 recommended earlier) if you want to power 9 drives.
 
As far as the power supplygoes he forgets which brand it is, I will most likly pick up a new power supply but I think the 400 watt will get me started and let me set up the computer with the first couple of drives to start
 
Danny Bui
Thanks for all the help it has been great one final question can I use two of those cards in that motherboard?
If so my final set up will be 8 sata II HD most likely all WD 500 gig
and an 40 gig system drive

thanks again
 
Yes you can run two of those in the same system from what I've read so far. Though I don't recommend doing so since two of those cards will be $120 total. Kind of a bad price when you can get an 8 port card for $20 less:
SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card - $99

Or get a Dell PERC 5/i off eBay for ~$120 or so with two of these SFF-8484 to 4 x SATA Cables for $24. Thus, you get 8 ports and a true hardware RAID controller for around ~$150 or so. Not a bad deal considering that a new true hardware RAID controller is around $300 (Areca ARC-1210) for 4 ports. And it will only be $30 more than the two of those Promise cards. But those Dell Perc 5/i cards are a bit finicky about motherboards.

Read these threads:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1298815
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1301566

And yes that particular PCI-X card is backwards compatible with PCI ports. But you will need a motherboard with a spare PCI-Ex16 slot for the Dell Perc card.
 
My $0.2 from some experience with my home-brew servers:

1. Awesome deal on the beer to hardware conversion,

2. On your PSU, the thing you need to watch out for is the +12 volt rail. Depending on the vintage of the PSU and several other factors you may be fine, you may not be fine. Just add up your power draw from the mb and the drives and compare against the rating on the PSU

3. If you have some extra dough after getting the cheapness on the mb/cpu/ram/psu you may want to invest in a few good quality fans. I know this sounds rediculous, but I have had horrible problems with fans dying in home grade servers over the years. My recomendation would be to buy a good fan for whatever intake/exhaust setup you are using. A good fan will be either a panaflow hydrobearing thingy or it will be a dual ball bearing. I am currently pretty happy with the orange thermaltake fans as they have an onboard speed control thingy or you can attach a temp sensor and it will vary RPM to the temperature of the probe.

I have previously had good sucess with ADDA fans and with some "Japan Servo CO" fans I pulled from some HP servers headed to the scrap (loud as hell, but rock solid and moved some dammed air!).

I would also JUNK any fan that is smaller than 80mm. This includes vid card fans (replace with a crappy vid card that uses no fan), chipset fans (get a passive cooler for $15), and CPU fans.

If your CPU fan uses a 60mm or smaller, you can get funnel shaped adapters to mount an 80mm fan to it. I even will replace the PSU fan if it's not dual ball bearings in one of those things now (I usually use an older setup for my server so everything is out of warranty).

I have had horrible luck with the hdd coolers with little 40mm fans as well as hot swap sleds that have 40mm fans... If I use one of those things now I just pull the fan off and make certain I have enough negative pressure on the exhaust that I'm pulling enough air through the raid cage. My big raid cages on my current rig have dedicated 80mm fans so no prob there. I did swap those to dual ball bearing models :)

You don't need to spend a mint on fans, but two good dual ball bearing fans that are going to last are going to be much better than seven sleve bearing fans that will melt down.... As I said before, old servers from Compaq, HP, and Dell headed to the trash make great sources for low cost quality fans.

If you use the little 60 and 30/40mm fans they will most likely fail on you and let some component cook. Same thing for sleve bearing intake/exhaust fans. It's a complete pain in the ass to have to rebuild your server and scrounge up new parts because a cheapo fan melted down...

4. Run a good overnight memtestx86. If you can install centos you can figure out how to run memtest. I just went through a thing with some memory and it sucked. I will do a memory test on everything I build from here on out...
 
Cool thanks for all the info
The final case it is going to be using is a cool Master RC 690
All total it will have 8x120 mm fans
As soon as I get centos installed this weekend I will run memtestx86
One question I googled memtestx86 and got memtest86 they are the same right
just want to double check

thanks again
 
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