WHS Build

A

Angus

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 28, 2005
Messages
116
Hello, i am thinking about building a new WHS server, and i thought i'd post here to see if anyone has any comments/replacements/suggestions.

Thanks!

Mobo - Intel s3210shlx - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121345&Tpk=S3210SHLX

CPU - E8500 Core Duo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036&cm_re=e8500-_-19-115-036-_-Product

Case - Norco 4224 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219038&Tpk=norco 4224

Ram 4 GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134881&Tpk=KVR800D2E5/2GI

Power Supply - Corsair 750 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139016&Tpk=ax750



Hard drives i still have enough, was planning on useing my WD green's on the mobo port as hopefully they will work there withough tler issues, and i have some 3ware boards that are pci-x and will keep server up my hitachi's.

Eventually i may upgrade to pci-e controllers but right now speed seems to be fine on the older drives...

So i think that covers most of the major parts...

What can i improve?

Thanks!
 
Now this is just me. But for that price of that cpu you could get a lower cost cpu and mobo all together.

I have been running my server on a e3300 for almost 3 yr now without a problem streaming via and other tasks. Only paid around $40 for it back then.

Your edging close to half a grand with that cpu and mobo. You could buy more hdd's for Whs too.

Just me though. Im sure you know better how you want to spend you cash..

have a good one!
 
Are those the parts you already have? Or are those the parts you're planning on buying?

If planning on buying, ditch the CPU, mobo and RAM as they are horrible choices for the money nowadays:
$130 - Intel Core i3-550 CPU
$280 - Supermicro X8SI6-F
$51 - Kingston 2 x 2GB ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 RAM
---
Total: $461 plus tax and shipping

Note:
- Faster clock for clock than the E8500
- Twice as much RAM
- Capability to support 14 hard drives right off the bat and greater expansion options.
 
Why does it seem like many more people on this forum have chosen the SUPERMICRO X8SIL-F-O vs the SuperMicro X9SCM-F which has 2 SAS ports built in and negates the need for a seperate raid controller?
 
You mean any reason other than the fact that the X9SCM-F only exists as a pre-launch spec sheet and any delivery date is currently on hold by Supermicro pending resolution of the Cougar Point design issue?
 
@yankees9920: You mean that the X9SCM-F will have 2 SATAIII ports! According to Supermicro's specs, the X9SCM-F will NOT have any SAS ports! I wish it had the SAS2008 on board, that would have been awesome as a server board, similar to the X8SI6-F (same SM MB Danny Bui suggested above)!
 
PigLover said:
You mean any reason other than the fact that the X9SCM-F only exists as a pre-launch spec sheet and any delivery date is currently on hold by Supermicro pending resolution of the Cougar Point design issue?
Click to expand...

^- It is accurate to say you cannot get one. I tried on Friday ahead of the E3-1220 review.

@ OP, LGA 1156 now, LGA 1155 in a bit. Way more power efficient, support new features, and etc. No reason to purchase any LGA 775 hardware unless it is a replacement part.
 
What I really meant to ask was the comparison between the
Supermicro X8SIL-F-O which seems very popular on [H] and the
Supermicro X8SI6-F which has 2 SAS built in.

To me the X8SI6-F seems like a dynamite server board because you just add in a HP SAS Expander and you have a ton of ports.
 
yankees9920 said:
What I really meant to ask was the comparison between the
Supermicro X8SIL-F-O which seems very popular on [H] and the
Supermicro X8SI6-F which has 2 SAS built in.

To me the X8SI6-F seems like a dynamite server board because you just add in a HP SAS Expander and you have a ton of ports.
Click to expand...

Completely agree. If you plan to use an LSI2008-based SAS controller anyway this is by far the least expensive way to get one. The whole board costs about the same as the LSI 9211-8i, so in effect you get the MB 'free' (well, ok, 'no extra charge').

The only difference that might matter to some is the MB form factor - microATX for the X8SIL vs full ATX for the X8SI6. In some builds that could be a deal killer.
 
Ok.. thanks for all the Info, so i think i will look into the X8SI6-F as that looks like a nice board..

Now the problem seems to be its out of stock almost everywhere..

If i move to use the HP expander at a future date. Can i just plug in the expander to the drives i had withough issues?

IE use it for the 8 sata drives now, and then later plug it into the expander and then back into those 8 drives? Whs would just see those drives once again like normal?
 
@Angus: Correct. You can add the HP SAS expander at a later date and add additional drives. Just make sure you keep the same order (may not be as important to WHS, but for RAID sets, this is important!).
 
Long time view, first time poster.
Greetings .
This is information for the windows Home Server builders out there. This is VERY small if you are going to use the server for more than just WHS
You will need a couple of things to get this all to work
1) Your WHS install Disk
2) A bootable Partition Manager (I use Paragon Partition Manager running in BartPE).


Installing WHS happens in three distinct steps.
1) You boot from the WHS install media. This is where it asks you questions about “Clean Install” and warns you that it will delete ALL attached HDD’s, etc.
2) After a reboot there is a short install that looks very DOS based (no GUI). There is a progress bar showing the status of file copies.
3) Another reboot and then back to a GUI install.

We need to make our changes between steps 2 and 3. Therefore, start your install, but when the machine reboots and begins the non-GUI file copy, eject your WHS install media and replace it with your bootable Partition Manager disk. When the machine reboots you should find a 20GB partition and the rest of the disk as unallocated. 20GB is the default that WHS creates for the SYS drive. This is the partition you want to resize. I grew it to 50 GB. Since the rest of the disk is unallocated, the growth took seconds. Once completed, replace your bootable partition manager disk with the original WHS install disk and again reboot the machine.

If all went as planned you should see the machine boot into the Windows GUI and begin all the things needed to complete the WHS install.

Also try looking at this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998143
Spec’s
HDD Interface: Four 2.5" SAS / SATA / SSD
HDD Thickness Height: up to 15 mm ( w/ HDD Tray Cover off )
HDD Capacity: up to 1 TB (HDD x1), 4 TB (HDD x4)
RAID Levels: 0, 1, 5, 10
Transfer Rate: up to 6 Gbps (Max) for SAS & 3 Gbps (Max) for SATA I / II / SSD
Power Connector: 15-pin Serial ATA (x1)
OS Compatible: Linux, Macintosh, Windows 7 / 2008 / Vista / 2003 / XP / 2000
Cooling Fan: 40 x 20 mm (x2) / Speed: 2500±15% RPM / Noise Level: 18.00 dBA
LED Indicators: Hard Drive Status Indicator for each individual 2.5" HDD Tray
Security Lock: Built-In for each 2.5" HDD Tray
Material: Aluminum & ABS Plastic
Dimension: 5.75 (W) x 6.89 (D) x 1.65 (H) inches
Weight: 1.74 lbs.
 
So just anonther questionm with the onboard SAS controller, can the cards be run in just jbod pass thru mode? Or must some sort of raid be enabled?

Because i have several WD green drives which i cannot enable tler on, and i do not want them dropping all the time.

As long as i can run them in straight sata mode that would be great.

Thanks!
 
Has anyone run non TLER enabled drives off the onboard SAS controller?
 
Angus said:
So just anonther questionm with the onboard SAS controller, can the cards be run in just jbod pass thru mode? Or must some sort of raid be enabled?

Because i have several WD green drives which i cannot enable tler on, and i do not want them dropping all the time.

As long as i can run them in straight sata mode that would be great.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

No RAID needs to be enabled. They show up as regular drives
 
yankees9920 said:
What I really meant to ask was the comparison between the
Supermicro X8SIL-F-O which seems very popular on [H] and the
Supermicro X8SI6-F which has 2 SAS built in.

To me the X8SI6-F seems like a dynamite server board because you just add in a HP SAS Expander and you have a ton of ports.
Click to expand...

Supermicro X8SI6-F Review. I also have one of the X8SIL-F.
 
Ok.. so now that my mobo issues is more or less solved.. next question is OS drive.. how imporetant is OS drive speed? Can i use a 2.5 laptop drive for os, the reason is i want to mount it internally, so as to leave the 24 bays for storage drives,,

I was looking at the 7200 RPM WD black drives the 2.5 laptop ones...

Thanks!
 
Angus said:
Ok.. so now that my mobo issues is more or less solved.. next question is OS drive.. how imporetant is OS drive speed? Can i use a 2.5 laptop drive for os, the reason is i want to mount it internally, so as to leave the 24 bays for storage drives,,

I was looking at the 7200 RPM WD black drives the 2.5 laptop ones...

Thanks!
Click to expand...

For WHS? Not that important.
 
Danny Bui said:
Are those the parts you already have? Or are those the parts you're planning on buying?

If planning on buying, ditch the CPU, mobo and RAM as they are horrible choices for the money nowadays:
$130 - Intel Core i3-550 CPU
$280 - Supermicro X8SI6-F
$51 - Kingston 2 x 2GB ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 RAM
---
Total: $461 plus tax and shipping

Note:
- Faster clock for clock than the E8500
- Twice as much RAM
- Capability to support 14 hard drives right off the bat and greater expansion options.
Click to expand...

I am confused as to the use of ECC RAM.
I didn't think that the i3 550 CPU supported ECC RAM?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top