Building a server

joetoad

Item|Price
4GB G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€23.08
Intel Celeron G540 Box, LGA1155|€35.50
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.12
ASRock H61M-VG3, Sockel 1155, mATX|€38.84
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€46.10
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€194.63

Anywhere else I can cut costs? Have a 250gb hard drive and would that power supply handle a few 3TB hard drives when I add them down the line. Have a couple of raspberry Pi's and plan on using them for XBMC. I know there's cheaper options available but I like the idea of the server

PogMoThoin

Server for what?

If you're looking for low power I'd opt for Intel Atom, either that or spend an extra tenner and get a proper Pentium cpu.

joetoad

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Server for what?

If you're looking for low power I'd opt for Intel Atom, either that or spend an extra tenner and get a proper Pentium cpu.

updated first post, mainly running xbmc on raspberry pi pocket computers to three televisions and map server hard drive. Also just a desktop.

Those portable hard drives are junk and plan on setting up raid

Serephucus

Exactly how are you going to be running the hard drives? I ask because I have a very similar server to you at the moment (G550, H61, 8GB) running two 2TB drives, and two 3TB drives, in JBOD, doing nightly backups. The long and short of it is I'll be completely revamping it at some point to a 3570K/Z77 type build, so I can run unRAID or ZFS, as JBOD is just a bit too slow.

TL;DR - The build you have is fine for JBOD, but if you're going to be looking at any sort of RAID, odds are you'll need a different spec, and you'll also want to nail down exactly what you'll be doing with it, and what type of RAID you want to run.

joetoad

I'm thinking of running raid 5, its just really to have access to all my files over my home network via a mapped drive using a simple switch, having proper backup of files in case a hard drive fails which has happened me numerous times.

It will be connected to three raspbery Pi's around my house running Xbox Media Centre and also a desktop computer for my work. I'm planning on running ethernet cables through the house connected to a switch which I currently have.

gctest50

Maybe not what you're looking for but this sorta yoke has

six connectors for hard disks

KVM-over-IP

three ethernet ports

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182251

Serephucus

If you're running RAID 5, you'll want a dedicated controller, which can cost a couple of hundred Euro, depending on what you're looking at, because onboard RAID 5 will most-likely be very slow. Your reads will be quick, but your writes will be very slow, because it'll use the CPU (a pretty crap Celeron) to perform the parity calculations.

If you want to use inexpensive hardware, and want stuff backed up, I'd go with RAID 10.

joetoad

Serephucus wrote: »

If you're running RAID 5, you'll want a dedicated controller, which can cost a couple of hundred Euro, depending on what you're looking at, because onboard RAID 5 will most-likely be very slow. Your reads will be quick, but your writes will be very slow, because it'll use the CPU (a pretty crap Celeron) to perform the parity calculations.

If you want to use inexpensive hardware, and want stuff backed up, I'd go with RAID 10.

Would one of the 6 or 8 core AMD processors help this?

PogMoThoin

joetoad wrote: »

Would one of the 6 or 8 core AMD processors help this?

Whoa, that's a massive jump from a Celeron

Serephucus

Probably, but then you're down the route of software vs. hardware RAID. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and it's something I suggest you thoroughly research. I've been looking at stuff on and off for months, and I still know nothing. :P

joetoad

yea from researching Raid 10 it seems like the fastest option but uses up a lot of space as it duplicates the data. I'll do more research. Someone just mentioned this to me but only takes two hard drives

gctest50

joetoad wrote: »

Would one of the 6 or 8 core AMD processors help this?

That'd be a better road to go down anyway maybe ?

You could then use it for converting videos you bought at a good rate of knots

The celeron might take until next christmas to do a few

You could have a low spec pc and remote into "a desktop" running on it.

Hook it up to a few thermostats etc and get it to graph house temperatures and control heating accurately ?

That board only has 4xSATA, I would get a board with at least 6, if you're planning on running unRAID or Flexraid or something similar you'll find 4 very limiting. And good add-on cards are a ballache.

On the flip-side, if you are absolutely sure you only need 4 sata ports then that case is a waste of space.

If it's literally just serving movies to XBMC clients then RAID 5 is overkill. A non-striped array with a parity drive is more suited for media storage. Hence the popularity of unraid, flexraid etc.

Capt'n Midnight

Serephucus wrote: »

Probably, but then you're down the route of software vs. hardware RAID. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and it's something I suggest you thoroughly research. I've been looking at stuff on and off for months, and I still know nothing. :P

In this price range use software mirroring unless you have very good reasons not to.

Unless you have a serious controller ie. RAID 6 or RAID 10 your data is toast if a drive fails during rebuild so no real advantage in RAID 5.

Software mirroring means you don't have search for a replacement controller


Avoid cheap fake RAID that uses special motherboard drivers, it's the worst of both worlds.

Serephucus

Probably, yes. I'd say his best choice is something like FlexRAID, using snapshot 5 or 6. Not very resource hungry, and pretty much gives the best of both worlds.

Also, RAID 10 would hardly be resource intensive, would it? If RAID 0 and RAID 1 aren't, then surely...

uberpixie

RAID is no good to ya if you don't have backups....

Personally: skip RAID, get x2 3TB hard drives and do a backup copy from the first drive to the second drive once a week. Less to go wrong.


Surprised no one has suggested a HP Microserver: http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=MME9437MRG

A couple of people here have one and have found them to be good, myself included. Takes x4 hard drives out of the box, x5 if you skip putting in a DVD drive and x6 if you get a bay adapter and fit x2 harddrives in the 5 1/2" bay.

It is small and quiet and makes a good file server.

Worth considering depending on your needs and how much CPU power you need etc...

PogMoThoin

I was going to suggest it, but its more than double the original budget with drives. I have one, highly recommend it. HP often do a cashback offer on their website, I got 120 off mine
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/me/en/sm/WF06a/15351-15351-4237916-4237917-4237917-4248009.html?dnr=1

joetoad

I Think I'm going to get two of these and put them in the desktop and set up a weekly backup of data and have enable file sharing over the network. Bloody two portable 2TB hard drives failed on me in 6 months so wanted a proper setup. After reading eveyones comments here I see that I don't really need a server. Thanks for the help.I Have the ethernet cables routed to each device and have two Raspberry Pi picking up my files for XBMC.

Serephucus

If you can swing it, I'd go with two of these instead. They're designed for home server storage, and come with a longer warranty.