Time to upgrade hardware and OS for media server/backup from WHS v1

D

D-Wiz

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
122
*Instead of posting in existing WHS thread, I started a new thread because I have some unique challenges*

So I have been running a low-power WHS v1 box since PP2 the hardware is old and WHS is outdated. So I would like to upgrade. Case, PSU and drives will be reused. Need new mobo, CPU and RAM.

Problem is I live in Japan and getting a Supermicro board (or other server grade gear) is stupidly expensive (50% or more markup from US price), if available. Basically it's all B2B and consumer's buying server grade equipment is not well catered to. For example, the i3 Lenovo TS140 is like US$1000, the Xeon 4C/8T closer to 2K. Budget is about $500

So that means consumer mobo's, which means no ECC. However I am tired of bit-rot, both in my Tv Shows/Movies (half of which I left in storage so can't re-rip) and my photo's (DSLR - so RAWs). Also I buy hard drives as they are needed/on sale so it is all a mix(I have a mix of Reds/Greens and Seagates all differents sizes). My chassis is maxed (14 drives - 28TB) for space so any new drives will need to replace older smaller drives.

What I want:

-Should be able to transcode at least two Plex streams.
-centralized easy backups for 2 Win10 PC's
-Easy maintenance (prefer it to be more appliance, less something to tinker with)
-cheap running cost (24/7 except summer (A/C weather)I keep it off as much as possible)
-No bit-rot
-some form of pooled storage
-Ability to easily add/remove storage from pool
-1 HDD failure's worth of redundancy (1 drive loss = no data loss, toss it and replace it)

I run Windows boxes so prefer windows solutions and I also already have a Server 2012 R2 license.

Thanks in advance
 
 
ToddW2 - Shipping is also expensive (Spend $50 to send my GTX680 for example), also RMA'ing a dead anything back to the states would make it way more expensive

diizzy, those are all C222 chipsets, 3rd gen. I refuse to pay the same price as current generation for something 3 years old.
 
Please enlighten us what you expect to get then, a Greenlow based motherboard is more than half of your budget anywhere in the world.
To be honest I'm not sure what you think things cost even in the US.
 
For example http://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Mi...TF8&qid=1452935951&sr=1-3&keywords=supermicro

Supermicro X11 SAE, Amazon.com cost $215 -> in Japan 40,000Y (~$340)

So I was thinking of a mobo (Z170 or C23X) around the 200-250 area plus a $130 i3-6100 and 16gb RAM (ECC with C236) for $100. Well within budget and doable in the US.

I was hoping people might know of either:
A) Consumer motherboard with ECC that I might be able to find here.
or
B) A setup that eliminates bit-rot that does not rely on ECC

I have heard suggested StableBit Drivepool plus scanner, SnapRaid, and Storage Spaces. But not sure what would work best for my criteria. I think maybe because I have heard of all solutions being both the best thing ever and the worst thing ever. I have even read this of FreeNAS and ZFS. Basically I have done too much research and have straight messed up the information in my head.

I apologize for sounding crazy and again thank everyone who can help me.
 
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There's the ASRock series of boards. If you get a socketed board, you can combine with a low-end Xeon and ECC RAM. The Avoton boards might not meet your CPU needs.
 
D-Wiz said:
I was hoping people might know of either:
A) Consumer motherboard with ECC that I might be able to find here.
or
B) A setup that eliminates bit-rot that does not rely on ECC
Click to expand...

A
Consumer mainboards do not support ECC.
For ECC you need motherboard and CPU support so you should look for a board with serverchipsets (chipset starts with C..) - maybe older 1150 boards are cheaper.

B
Bitrot is a storage not a RAM problem. It means that data on storage can flip by chance. To fight against you need checksums, best at a filesystem level like with ZFS.
You can also do at a backup level like with snapraid but this does not protect new data between backups as they can be affected by bitrot what means that the next snap may contain corrupted data with correct checksums.
 
_Gea said:
A
Consumer mainboards do not support ECC.
For ECC you need motherboard and CPU support so you should look for a board with serverchipsets (chipset starts with C..) - maybe older 1150 boards are cheaper.
Click to expand...

I keep seeing annoucements about support for Xeons by Gigabyte/MSI etc. just assumed (insert proverb) that they would support ECC.

_Gea said:
B
Bitrot is a storage not a RAM problem. It means that data on storage can flip by chance. To fight against you need checksums, best at a filesystem level like with ZFS.
You can also do at a backup level like with snapraid but this does not protect new data between backups as they can be affected by bitrot what means that the next snap may contain corrupted data with correct checksums.
Click to expand...

Ok, guess I've been listening to the FreeNAS/ZFS devout too much. Then again using FreeNAS/ZFS was never an option for one simple reason, it doesn't allow the drives to spin down. Power is expensive here since the nuclear plants got turned off.

Thanks so much for clearing that up. Looks like I'm probably going to go with a Asus Z170M/Core i3 6100/16GB DDR4 (Corsair seems well priced here) for my new file server.
As for the OS, Windows Server 2012 R2 (bit overkill, but it's free - student license) running SnapRaid and DrivePool.
 
That's quite not following your requirements but oh well...
Data corruption can however be a RAM issue as data may be corrupted in RAM before its written.
 
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