February 25, 201115 yr My educated and completely unsupportable guess is around $250, based on the fact it is the slowest Sandy Bridge Xeon, but taking into consideration it's Low Power designation.
February 25, 201115 yr Yowsa!! Ok, I'll be sticking to my el cheapo Sempron 140 or another slow offering from Intel.
February 25, 201115 yr Yowsa!! Ok, I'll be sticking to my el cheapo Sempron 140 or another slow offering from Intel. Thus my saying... It's a lot of overkill that many on here would disagree with on the basis of cost and unnecessary complexity, but hey, it's my server.
February 25, 201115 yr Author Looking again at Supermicro, they have a couple boards with the LGA 1155 socket. The C7P67 in full ATX form factor with Realtek Ethernet and 8 SATA ports. They also have the C7Q67 in Micro ATX form with Intel NICs and 6 SATA ports. Looks like the C7P67 might be shipping now but both motherboards are still listed as coming soon on the Supermicro site. I don't know if these boards were impacted by the Core iSeries 3Gbps SATA problem or not. ... Decisions, decisions.... To add to your list of options, Supermicro has some new Xeon 1155 (Socket H2) boards coming out that have IPMI, dual Intel nics, 6 SATA ports (some have 2x SATA 6 ports and 4x SATA II) and 4 PCIe slots. This is the series I've been waiting for. I'm planning on changing my X7SPA-F out with the X9SCM-F and a Xeon 1220L. While the Atom does everything very well for file serving, it will lag when adding all the other things to the system. SM has held back on releasing those boards while the Cougar Point issue is resolved, but the Xeons aren't available yet either. I tend to lean towards Xeon solutions so I can use ECC memory, and the 1220L has a TDP of 20W, which is just stupid low. It's a lot of overkill that many on here would disagree with on the basis of cost and unnecessary complexity, but hey, it's my server. Sounds wicked cool but I don't personally want to spend that much. Let us know how your build turns out.
February 25, 201115 yr I actually just built a server similar to the one you're thinking about. Why exactly isn't the Q08 recommended? I thought it would be a fantastic case. Either how, I ended up using a ZOTAC G43ITX-A-E LGA mobo with a E3400 processor from microcenter ($40). I don't think it can get any cheaper than that. I picked up that processor simply because it was the cheapest. The mobo has onboard video, 5xSATA slots, 1xPCI-E 2.0 16x, and uses DDR2 (took 2 sticks from my current machine and just stuck it in this one, 4GB total). Does anyone know if the PCI-E 2.0 16x can take a AOC-SASLP-MV8? If it could, it would be awesome for future expansion. The only problem with this board is that it's only got 5 SATA ports, but the $80 you save going with this combo over a i3/zotac combo can be put towards the AOC-SASLP-MV8. Search this forum and you'll find reasons why people don't like the Q08. I still think it's a decent case option although I'm not looking that the Antec Three Hundred. It's big yes, but it seems to be built well and it's only about $60. There's room for a lot of drives in that case. I searched and couldn't find anything wrong with the Q08 except maybe that it doesn't allow for hotswap bays which I'm not particularly a fan of when they're on a tower case in the first place. Besides that, I couldn't find anything else about them. They're built solid, typical Lian Li construction, unlike many other cases that don't fit properly. The only qualm I have about this case is it cramps the SATA cables since the HDD are side mounted. If people really want a case with space for a 3 in 2 drive cage, the Lian Li PC-A04 would be nice also. I was actually debating between the two, but the Q08 is slightly smaller. I might switch to the A04 in the future when I add more HDDs. Nutshell: Q08 holds 7 disks/ A04 holds 10 disks.
February 25, 201115 yr It is a bad idea to unlock cores or overclock a cpu in a server. Reliability is far more important than speed. You need to troublesoot your forum signature's spelling.
February 25, 201115 yr ^^ 20w TDP on a SERVER processor?! :eek: That's just awesome! I don't worry too much about getting the lowest possible power draw because I don't run my unRAID servers 24/7. I run a much lower-powered single-drive NAS 24/7 and then use the unRAID servers when I need to -- when transferring new data to them or watching a film. My 24/7 NAS pulls 10W. At the wall. That includes the motherboard, CPU, fan, PSU and a 7200rpm hard drive. And it still draws 10W while downloading from usenet at 20mbps, even while simultaneously unraring and serving video. Beat that!
February 25, 201115 yr ^^ Do you manually power on/off the unRAID servers or do you use some sort of script?
February 25, 201115 yr ^^ Do you manually power on/off the unRAID servers or do you use some sort of script? RF switches! http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=8470.msg82142#msg82142
February 25, 201115 yr It is a bad idea to unlock cores or overclock a cpu in a server. Reliability is far more important than speed. You need to troublesoot your forum signature's spelling. Haha, thanks. Can't believe I went so long without noticing that.
February 26, 201115 yr ...let me add some more confusion - sorry, options, to your scenarios The atom will run fanless if needed and with low power --- when idle as well as under load The i3 has an IGP on chip....is this needed?...an i3 will be as low power as the atom when idle A real server with low TDP, low power when idle like an i3 and even more headroom is a XEON L3426 (matches the SM-X8SIL-F perfectly) The actual 1155 Sandy Bridge Chipsets have a problem...hold your breath until at least April, they say
February 27, 201115 yr The actual 1155 Sandy Bridge Chipsets have a problem...hold your breath until at least April, they say My main PC is crawling now, I've been on an e2160 and super slow 40gb boot drive for ages now. I'm thinking about using the e2160 in the server on an XBMC box, but I can't do anything until I upgrade the main PC.
February 27, 201115 yr Author ...let me add some more confusion - sorry, options, to your scenarios The atom will run fanless if needed and with low power --- when idle as well as under load The i3 has an IGP on chip....is this needed?...an i3 will be as low power as the atom when idle A real server with low TDP, low power when idle like an i3 and even more headroom is a XEON L3426 (matches the SM-X8SIL-F perfectly) The actual 1155 Sandy Bridge Chipsets have a problem...hold your breath until at least April, they say Thanks Ford. Fanless is a plus although I'm sure there are plenty of good heatsink fan combos for an i3 that will both run quiet and won't break the bank. Integrated graphics is, of course, questionable for a server build. An unRAID or any other type of home server should be able to run headless. Sure it's nice to have a display for troubleshooting but it's not absolutely needed. Xeon processors like the L3426 you mentioned and the 1220L that aiden mentioned earlier sound great but they are out of range for my budget. Though I didn't set a specific budget for this project I don't feel comfortable spending in the neighborhood of $300 just for the CPU. I want a quality build but I'm not expecting something with five 9's uptime. I'll avoid brands like Zotac (sorry Zotac fans) but I'm okay running a system without things like ECC RAM for example. I'm leaning towards an i3 based system over the Atom now, for that extra oompf. The trade off in power consumption is minimal as everyone has pointed out. The extra performance on tap is nice should I need it. I have been thinking about putting together a home server for awhile now and low power consumption and quietness are still two important build criteria for me. To that end, I think it would be best to wait for a Sandy Bridge i3 processor and motherboard. It's another two months out but I'm okay with that.
February 27, 201115 yr Integrated graphics is, of course, questionable for a server build. An unRAID or any other type of home server should be able to run headless. Sure it's nice to have a display for troubleshooting but it's not absolutely needed. ...a SM board with IPMI comes with a separate graphics card (Matrox g200w, nothing special but good for remote KVM over IP with 1280x1024x16). That said, the integrated IGP of an i3 will remain unused in such a setup. I want a quality build but I'm not expecting something with five 9's uptime. I'll avoid brands like Zotac (sorry Zotac fans) but I'm okay running a system without things like ECC RAM for example. I'm leaning towards an i3 based system over the Atom now, for that extra oompf. The trade off in power consumption is minimal as everyone has pointed out. The extra performance on tap is nice should I need it. I have been thinking about putting together a home server for awhile now and low power consumption and quietness are still two important build criteria for me. To that end, I think it would be best to wait for a Sandy Bridge i3 processor and motherboard. It's another two months out but I'm okay with that. ...just a remark: with a server board, like the X8SIL-F, even an i3 must run with ECC unbuffered/unregistered memory, see here I'd make double sure to pick the right parts with a 1155 and SM board.
February 27, 201115 yr Is ECC RAM recommended for an unRAID server? It has no bearing on unRAID's performance, and most people don't bother since it's more expensive. ECC corrects single bit memory errors and detects double bit errors. With Xeon processors however, you have to use ECC memory.
February 27, 201115 yr ECC corrects single bit memory errors and detects double bit errors. Is this beneficial?
February 27, 201115 yr ECC corrects single bit memory errors and detects double bit errors. Is this beneficial? Well, yes, if you have a memory error it will be self-correcting. Non-ECC memory must rely on the OS to handle memory errors. In the case of Windows this usually means an unprompted reboot. Just keep in mind memory errors are exceedingly rare.
February 27, 201115 yr Well, yes, if you have a memory error it will be self-correcting. Non-ECC memory must rely on the OS to handle memory errors. In the case of Windows this usually means an unprompted reboot. Just keep in mind memory errors are exceedingly rare. Ok. How does unRAID deal with memory errors?
February 27, 201115 yr Ok. How does unRAID deal with memory errors? No idea. Hehehe, I was half expecting that
March 18, 201115 yr Author So I'm still thinking about my unRAID build. Now I'm looking at the HP Microserver. I discovered what "preclearing" means. Can someone point me to more information on "Level 1" "Level 2" testing? In other words, what does that mean?
March 18, 201115 yr http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hardware_Compatibility#An_explanation_of_what_the_.22Tested_Level.22_column_means An explanation of what the "Tested Level" column means * The first level should require at least 3 drives (limit of free license), should have successfully computed parity, and should have successfully checked parity. A syslog should be posted to make sure there are no nasties that might point to compatibility issues. (The syslog will also document parity check performance). * The second level should be a user with at least 6 drives (limit of Plus license) that has run for a month without a power down, had a successful parity check at the beginning and end of the month. A syslog should be posted here for that period. During this period at least 10% of the array size should be copied to and from the array. * The third level would be a user that has had 13+ drives (including a cache disk), that has run for two months without a power down, has successfully parity checked at least 3 times (start, middle, end) and has posted a good syslog for that period. During this period at least 15% of array size should be copied to and from the array. The syslog(s) will provide some evidence of good functionality, and running the parity checks will establish good habits going forward. Those looking to make purchase decisions will have more to go on than a casual statement of "it works perfect." When verification is received that a given board has passed the outlined level a check mark (?) will be added and a link back to the thread as proof of the completion.
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