Home Server/NAS build

TheDoc · 02-09-2014 5:11pm

Interesting thread, I'm putting a build together myself with the below.

Western Digital 3 TB Red £95.47
Corsair CMX4GX3M2B1600C9 XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz CL9 Performance Desktop Memory Kit £35.90
ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ Motherboard (Socket FM2+, AMD A88X, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Mini ITX, 1x PCI Express 3.0 x16, A-Style) £70.85
AMD A4 5300 CPU (3.4GHZ, 1MB Cache, 2 Core, HD7480D, Socket FM2, 65W, Retail Boxed) £27.95
LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x SATA Half Height Internal DVDRW Drive - Black £12.58
Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Unit £29.99

€360 total including shipping. I also need to add a Case which I have picked out on another site for €40.

Any thoughts on the above? I'm trying to keep the price down. I had a 500GB HD in there for £40 but figured I'm getting more bang for my buck if I lob in the extra €100.

Main purpose of the machine is media playback, and also to oeprate as a downloading machine (replacing a laptop).

I've a NAS that I use to store my media, so I'm somewhat torn on the size of the HDD in this machine, against the cost.

TheDoc · 02-09-2014 5:20pm

@ED E

Are you finding scan to be a bit cheaper then amazon or ?

Johnboy1951 · 02-09-2014 5:34pm

TheDoc wrote: »

Interesting thread, I'm putting a build together myself with the below.

<snip>

Any thoughts on the above? I'm trying to keep the price down. I had a 500GB HD in there for £40 but figured I'm getting more bang for my buck if I lob in the extra €100.

Main purpose of the machine is media playback, and also to oeprate as a downloading machine (replacing a laptop).

I've a NAS that I use to store my media, so I'm somewhat torn on the size of the HDD in this machine, against the cost.

If you have a NAS for storage do you really need storage in the media player?
Could it not download direct to the NAS?

ED E · 02-09-2014 6:01pm

TheDoc wrote: »

@ED E

Are you finding scan to be a bit cheaper then amazon or ?

Common stuff is usually cheapest on amazon, more unique stuff can be crazy there though. In the case of the avaton board its a lot cheaper, thus the ordering from 3 places.

TheDoc · 02-09-2014 6:34pm

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

If you have a NAS for storage do you really need storage in the media player?
Could it not download direct to the NAS?

That's what I do at the moment AI yeah. Probably will go 500gb to save a few quid noe I think of it.

NAS has 1TB drive in it with slots i have never filled. I manage my media and delete stuff so never come close to full .

Serephucus · 02-09-2014 7:27pm

Could also go with a cheap 30GB SSD or something, might be an option.

Also, if you're looking for something cheap, just to play media, a NUC might be something to look at too. Works out at around €400 for an i3/4GB/60GB SSD, AFAIK.

TheDoc · 02-09-2014 8:08pm

Serephucus wrote: »

Could also go with a cheap 30GB SSD or something, might be an option.

Also, if you're looking for something cheap, just to play media, a NUC might be something to look at too. Works out at around €400 for an i3/4GB/60GB SSD, AFAIK.

Had a look at NUCs and not really sold on them tbh. Anything I saw was expensive for bare bones sets that needed another few parts taking the price a bit too much.

Not overly interested in SSD since its pointless for a HTPC. Would prefer a bigger sotrsge HDD.

Think I'll drop down to 500GB and then hopefully can make some second hand sales and pull the trigger on this

ED E · 03-09-2014 1:25am

Checked and 3 fans included, so cooling sorted. 6x headers to run them and ramp em down to like 30%. 2xMolex for power, grand. Sata power free for SSD, check. No need for peripherals thanks to the IPMI

If I'm doing anything stupid please shout, will order this later on today otherwise.

ED E · 03-09-2014 3:03pm

Done. Unfortunately while I was making my mind up the mobo went out of stock with the case and PSU already awaiting a restock. Could be a few weeks I suspect, but thats alright. Will post pics when its built.

Big props to Serephucus and everyone else for the help.

Serephucus · 22-09-2014 3:18pm

Can't wait to see the results of this. I have an SFX PSU ordered for mine, and I'll be grabbing the case and motherboard when they come back in stock. Should have money for them by later this week. (waiting on RMA refund)

ED E · 22-09-2014 7:53pm

Funny you should post today, this arrived this morning

Serephucus · 22-09-2014 7:55pm

Nice!!

Actually, could you do me a favour at some point throughout the build? Have a look and see if the rear bays in the DS380 can take 15mm drives. Something I'm curious about.

ED E · 22-09-2014 10:00pm

Top slot has about 10mm, rest are probably about 13-14mm, 15 might work but I suspect itd be very tight.

She wasnt POSTing (but did have IPMI), turns out Id populated the wrong DIMM as the markings are quite misleading. Up and running now, but I made another moronic mistake and used the wrong disk image, 08 not 08R2 *DOH*. Fans seem nice and quiet, hopefully I can dial em back all the way to 700/800rpm.

My god IPMI is sexy though.

VenomIreland · 22-09-2014 10:08pm

ED E wrote: »

My god IPMI is sexy though.

What can it be used for?

Also, NZBDrone > Sickbeard :cool:

Serephucus · 22-09-2014 10:12pm

IPMI is used to access the machine remotely, through an ethernet port, but you can use it even when the machine is off.

Very jelly.

VenomIreland · 22-09-2014 10:13pm

Serephucus wrote: »

IPMI is used to access the machine remotely, through an ethernet port, but you can use it even when the machine is off.

Very jelly.

That sounds damn nice, kinda makes me want to rebuild my budget media server, but my wallet says no.

ED E · 22-09-2014 10:22pm

Thats me installing the OS from another room, with only two cables connected to the actual machine itself. Rather convenient. My other server that I have for educational purposes requires me to grab a 19" monitor, power for said monitor, kb and mouse and fiddle at the back of it to get them all connected just to change a bios setting. IPMI allows me to sit back and sip coffee and perform any action I could need

Serephucus · 22-09-2014 10:25pm

*ahem*

You bastard.

How is it to log in to the machine in the first place? Can you have a single-click type thing, or do you have to junk about with passwords or anything like that?

ED E · 22-09-2014 10:34pm

Probably 5 seconds to open a tab, open the login page and login. Then you wait 3 seconds, hit on launch, it prompts a session file download, chrome blocks it, you go to all downloads, confirm you want the harmful file twice, open it and then wait about another 4 seconds to connect. All in about 30 seconds Id say. Probably less.

Wossack · 22-09-2014 11:21pm

yea, once you go IPMI, you never go back

it has a separate ethernet port and IP address, which you just pop in a browser, and the IPMI board serves up the required plugin etc. Means it can be 100% headless, no need to worry about hooking a monitor up to it, if it drops off the network etc

Serephucus · 22-09-2014 11:24pm

Can't wait to get me one of those.

ED E · 23-09-2014 2:11pm

Testing out the flexraid setup and becoming familiar. Pretty happy with that IO.

Serephucus · 23-09-2014 2:29pm

That must be writing to all disks in the pool, which isn't going to be happening under ordinary circumstances, but it's nice to know the theoretical maximum at least.

Edit: ****, apparently this is what mine gets. 4x4TB drives at the moment. Frankly I haven't a clue what this is measuring. My drives are only rated for around 140MB/s as far as I remember.

ED E · 24-09-2014 12:23am

First off, if anyone spots a 24port desktop GigE switch going cheap please let me know. Current cabling is turning into a kip.

Issues I've had:

Fan control: There is none. Stock fans are DC and the headers are PWM. 1100-1200rpm. Might try slow them to 800 with resistors.
Building: She's very tight, managing the cables in front of the fan is tricky
IPMI: Can be slightly finicky the odd time. #Java

Box is up and running for now, its a little louder than it needs to be but I dont anticipate us using that room for a month or two at least. Even running Prime95 it only hits 39*C!! Could probably disconnect the fans and it'd be fine.

The mobo came with 6x Black sata cables, some L end some straight. I'd ordered 8x 30cm ones with the SSD and opted to use them as they left less spare cable getting in the way(enough of that from the PSU, USB3 and front audio).

Their labels look like the front of a school copy book, so I just printed some rough labels. Software will manage what drive is what and I can just pull them to check my own indexes on the drives themselves.

Flexraid is pretty cool. Got my email notifs set up and I played with pulling a drive. Didnt rebuild as I didnt have a spare 3TB to use but I know where to look now, may do it with an extra 1TB drive to test it but it seems pretty robust. I'm gonna script bootup so that flex is given a chance to get going before all the other services boot and try and hammer the storage pool.

Pretty happy overall. Now to resist the urge to by more disk and another 3x8GB DIMMs :P

EDIT: Forgot. PSU fan doesnt spin up. Ever. Not even boot. Theres low draw and then theres Avoton.

vibe666 · 24-09-2014 12:32am

ED E wrote: »

First off, if anyone spots a 24port desktop GigE switch going cheap please let me know. Current cabling is turning into a kip.

I got the 18 port version of the TP-Link gigabit switch recently, doing very well so far and pretty cheap compared to the competition.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003UWRYBI/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

TheDoc · 24-09-2014 7:12pm

Keeping a close eye here, pulled the trigger on my HTPC today :O

ED E · 25-09-2014 10:18am

ED E · 26-09-2014 3:40pm

Got ghost free with my last SSD and the crucial this time came with True Image. Great, can use that for imaging off drives with the hot swap bays, really handy. Nope. Cant install it on Server08.

@Serephucus have you seen an update fail before? I want to know the formatting the email gets if theres a problem so I can filter it that I dont miss it.

Serephucus · 26-09-2014 3:45pm

It says something along the lines of [UPDATE] FAILURE, as far as I remember.

ED E · 29-09-2014 6:54pm

I formatted a drive and then got it to verify, then restored it successfully in a few mins (for 54GB used). Flexraid, does exactly what it says on the tin, and now Ill update my filters to make sure I see any failures. Gonna buy it now, well worth it.

PS: You did see the pics btw? Not "like whoring" but the fact that only vibe thanked it an nobody commented(probably as it was just before a new page) caught my eye.

Serephucus · 30-09-2014 11:15am

Nicely done.

I did yes, just didn't really have anything to add. How were all the SATA cables to route? I've been debating getting a batch of Silverstone's slim SATA cables, but bloody hell they're expensive.

Serephucus · 07-10-2014 9:18pm

Finally got my server to the point where most things are up and running satisfactorily. Only things I have left are BitTorrent Sync, and a Space Engineers server or two via Windows VM (here's hoping a Linux version of that damn game shows up soon.)

Anyway, pics! (Figured I'd post in here rather than OT as it's basically the same build as ED)

ASRock C2750D4I in all its glory:

Silverstone's DS380 next:

The server it has replaced (i3 3220, ASRock H61, Fractal Arc Mini, and a few bits. For sale now too.

)

Cable management with motherboard in. Actually quite happy with this:

With drives... Not so much.

In its final resting place:

Only thing I really have to do is at some point pull the drive cage back out so I can stick 7V resistors on the fans, as the motherboard's fan settings seem to do nothing.

ED E · 08-10-2014 10:22am

Short SATA cables ftw

The headers can only do PWM but the case comes with voltage only fans so theres no control. I'm gonna order some fan speed reducers too to bring mine down to 600-700rpm or so, 1100-1200 is excessive for the TDP.

I havent fully migrated yet, I've been resorting my data and clearing out old stuff I dont need anymore before I start the big move. Also running a couple testing VMs on it, think I'll be getting more ram soon :rolleyes:

Serephucus · 08-10-2014 10:44am

Are you having any network problems? 'Cause my connection keep dropping out every now and then, can't figure out why. Usually only for a few minutes, about twice an hour, but it's pretty annoying. I have both NICs in use, one bridged to a vNIC for the VMs.

Also, something that makes life easier if you ever have to migrate you array: Name your drives (in Windows) according to FlexRAID. DRU1, PPU1, etc. Makes things much easier, rather than having a bunch of New Volumes everywhere. :P

ED E · 08-10-2014 10:48am

Im using both NICS unteamed and the BMC port too. All seem to stay up. Having issues with the box its replacing not being able to connect to it(windowze being dumb I suspect) but other than that it stays up fine.

When I move the VPN over I'll know pretty quickly as any drops will kill my connectivity.

will56 · 09-10-2014 9:01am

Would a Rasberry Pi B+ be sufficient for someone looking to set up their first NAS ?
NAS is going to be for Photo's, Docs and movies. I have a .5tb drive at the moment and I'm picking up a 1tb shortly.

Not looking to spend a load on this as its my first NAS and I want to see how much I use it and play around before investing heavily

Johnboy1951 · 09-10-2014 9:39am

will56 wrote: »

Would a Rasberry Pi B+ be sufficient for someone looking to set up their first NAS ?
NAS is going to be for Photo's, Docs and movies. I have a .5tb drive at the moment and I'm picking up a 1tb shortly.

Not looking to spend a load on this as its my first NAS and I want to see how much I use it and play around before investing heavily

I would be more inclined to use something like this
http://www.dabs.ie/products/gigabyte-brix-gb-bxbt-2807-ultra-compact-mini-pc-celeron-n2807-9MH0.html?q=barebones&src=16

Yes it works out about twice the price of a Pi ..... but you have many more options with OS and use as well as being more powerful.

But in answer to your question ..... yes the Pi should be well capable of doing what you describe, but you might find it limiting in the long run.

will56 · 09-10-2014 9:44am

Thanks for the reply.
I already have an Android Mini PC set up for playback and viewing photos etc. Would a mini PC be a bit overkill then ? Or would it be better for consolidating it all into one unit ?

ED E · 09-10-2014 11:29am

My router currently hosts a network share if thats all you need. Its very low intensity but IO can be a little low. A dedicated Pi should get decent throughput and be very eco friendly.

will56 · 09-10-2014 11:32am

NEtwork shae will be the primary use, but considering Couchpotato etc for torrent

Serephucus · 09-10-2014 12:36pm

A Pi would definitely be suitable, though it would be running Linux, and I'm not sure how un/comfortable you are with setting network shares up from there, etc.

will56 · 09-10-2014 12:43pm

Never ran it before but I'm willing to learn.
That's why I was thinking the PI cause it won't break the bank if I can't figure it all out.

I assume most of the online tutorials would be enough to get me up and running

vibe666 · 09-10-2014 8:48pm

just be aware of the limitations of the Pi.

as far as i remember, both the usb and nic share the same bandwidth (which isn't great to begin with), so performance streaming/copying files to/from the storage is going to be fairly poor and a definite bottleneck. also don't think the NIC on the Pi is even gigabit?

also, you'll need a drive that can be powered separately as the 5V going into the Pi isn't going to be enough to power most usb hdd's from the usb port alone.

i'm sure there's more i've forgotten, but i looked into it a couple of years ago and very quickly decided not to, although it's possible some of the bottlenecks have been worked around since then?

Johnboy1951 · 09-10-2014 8:59pm

vibe666 wrote: »

just be aware of the limitations of the Pi.

as far as i remember, both the usb and nic share the same bandwidth (which isn't great to begin with), so performance streaming/copying files to/from the storage is going to be fairly poor and a definite bottleneck. also don't think the NIC on the Pi is even gigabit?

also, you'll need a drive that can be powered separately as the 5V going into the Pi isn't going to be enough to power most usb hdd's from the usb port alone.

i'm sure there's more i've forgotten, but i looked into it a couple of years ago and very quickly decided not to, although it's possible some of the bottlenecks have been worked around since then?

I have two R-Pi boards .... both B and one a +

I reckon it cost close to €100 for one of them by the time I had suitable SD card and case & PSU etc included.

They are capable little machines .... but yes have limitations which might or might not worry someone depending on their intended use.

These days I favour the small form factor x86 devices.

Yes they are dearer, but offer so much more versatility that I believe they are worth the extra over the Pi.

BTW .... both my R-Pi devices are in use and doing what I expect of them

will56 · 10-10-2014 9:06am

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I have two R-Pi boards .... both B and one a +

I reckon it cost close to €100 for one of them by the time I had suitable SD card and case & PSU etc included.

They are capable little machines .... but yes have limitations which might or might not worry someone depending on their intended use.

These days I favour the small form factor x86 devices.

Yes they are dearer, but offer so much more versatility that I believe they are worth the extra over the Pi.

BTW .... both my R-Pi devices are in use and doing what I expect of them

Right, I thought a bit more about what my needs would be.

Need something that can be left on 24/7 for torrents/couchpotato etc
Can used for saving photos/ docs from laptop
Can either stream over home wi-fi to android tv box
Not likely to need access from outside the home as my broadband connection is not great. If efibre was ebing rolled out to my area I would invest more in the unit

I already have the android tv box
Powered USB hub
Spare router
Spare SD/microSD and USB drives

Johnboy1951 · 10-10-2014 9:43am

Need something that can be left on 24/7 for torrents/couchpotato etc

The next consideration, IMO, then would be what is your preferred software, and is it available for the Pi.
For my own use I have settled on Openelec which is graphical by design.

As, by your description, you will not need to interface graphically with the device ..... use ssh/whatever .... the graphical 'response' I mentioned earlier should not be a problem.

ED E · 12-10-2014 11:53pm

Not what I wanted to see....

Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][VERIFY] [B]FAILURE[/B]
 	06:43
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][UPDATE] SUCCESS
 	05:34
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][VERIFY] [B]FAILURE[/B]
 	11 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][UPDATE] SUCCESS
 	11 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][VERIFY] SUCCESS
 	10 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][UPDATE] SUCCESS
 	10 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][VERIFY] SUCCESS
 	9 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][UPDATE] SUCCESS
 	9 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][VERIFY] SUCCESS
 	8 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][UPDATE] SUCCESS
 	8 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][VERIFY] SUCCESS
 	7 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][UPDATE] SUCCESS
 	7 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][VERIFY] SUCCESS
 	6 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][UPDATE] SUCCESS
 	6 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][VERIFY] SUCCESS
 	5 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][UPDATE] SUCCESS
 	5 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][VERIFY] SUCCESS
 	4 Oct
Not starred	
me
[StoragePool][UPDATE] SUCCESS
 	4 Oct

Serephucus · 12-10-2014 11:57pm

The Verify can fail if you've written data to the pool after an update. Did you have a download or a media library going in the background or something? Has happened to me occasionally before, didn't lose anything. You should get a listing in the log of what files failed the verification.

ED E · 13-10-2014 12:59am

Looks like some files might have changed since the update. They shouldnt have changed at that time though, so I'll have to see if something is up elsewhere to prompt those writes.

Otherwise she's running pretty well. Others in the house are delighted with the performance of plex vs the previous DLNA server.

ED E · 13-10-2014 7:15pm

Files that arent changing are failing the validate. Updates fine. Quick validate is fine. Validate fails.

Tried a few times. Each time a different file, or two, fails. Wonder if I've got a dud drive.

Home Server/NAS build

Comments