dlewis23 Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 I'm going to be building my first UnRaid server in the next week that will be used as a storage server for one of my websites. I will be doing a 2U 9 drive build so let me know what you think about the hardware so far. Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147156 Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888 Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131619 Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134785 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030 Hard Drives: 9 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148681 SATA Expansion Cards: 2 - http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10407&cs_id=1040702&p_id=2667&seq=1&format=2 Since this will be in a production environment I will be running 4.7 and if all goes well I will be building a clone in problem 2 months from when this one goes live.
gisxer Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 i'm no expert but i've done a ton of searching this forum to put a parts list of my own together. and i didn't go with that MB i believe the MB is problematic. see http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14068.msg133150#msg133150 and http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12550.msg119209#msg119209 it's the 'LE' version, something with the onboard NIC.
Johnm Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 I do not think that Power Supply will fit into that case. 2U Cases are not very tall inside. in addition. you usually need a PS that sucks in the front and exausts out the back, not the top or bottom. You might have to search newegg for 2U power supply. Also, tha power supply has 2x 12v rails. that might not cut it. 1/2 the usable power might be going to the GPU plugs that you are not using. look for a single rail. I would consider spending the exta $150 and getting a norco (or other case with hotswaps) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219040 to save you from pounding your head against a wall swapping out dead drives burried deep inside that puppy. also. those PCI sata controllers will be a massive bottleneck. I would not put more then 2 drives on the entire PCI bus if that was my only choice. For a nine drive build, I would get a SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCIe (or an ebay IBM rebranded LSI card for 5.x) controller. that can take up to 8 drives. EDIT. i just noticed you picked seagate 2TB drives. those tend too run a little warm. you might want to look at samsung F4's or Hitachi drives. I'd hate to cook a drive in that tight quarter case. as i am unfamiliar with it, I am not sure how good the cooling is.
ProfQ Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 Hi, You've received some very good feedback up to now. I use the LE Motherboard in my tower, as well as your proposed Seagate drives. Thus, my two cents- Although this Asus LE MB has worked very well, it has a couple of significant drawbacks for an UnRAID system-mainly it does not support AHCI,, only IDE, and the NIC is made by Atheros. Atheros NIC drivers are notoriously problematic in unRAID. You'll have to install an Intel NIC or similar. The AHCI can be worked around, but I'd suggest you avoid the hassle and extra cost of buying a new NIC ($40 or so extra). Get a different MB. About the power supply-on size your intended case manual states : "Design using ATX power supply". So you should be OK with a rather compact single rail PSU. I agree the one you proposed is not the best choice, You should go with a single rail PSU. Possible choices are Corsair TX, an Antec Neo, or a Roswell Green, for example. Also, on controller cards, I agree that a Supermicro SAS_LP-MV8 PCIe might be your best choice. You need to avoid the bottlenecks associated with using the PCI for this, and the Supermicro has room to grow. I am running 4 Seagates like the ones you're proposing, alongside 4 Hitachi Coolspins, and in my case the hitachis tend to run a few degrees hotter. I could recommend either one-the ST2000 or the Hitachi HDD. But agree the hitachis seem to be more reliable overall.
dlewis23 Posted August 31, 2011 Author Posted August 31, 2011 I do not think that Power Supply will fit into that case. 2U Cases are not very tall inside. in addition. you usually need a PS that sucks in the front and exausts out the back, not the top or bottom. You might have to search newegg for 2U power supply. That case fits a standard power supply, that was a requirement. Since I will not have physical access to the server if the PSU was to die I need to have the ability for it to be swapped out quickly, it can be a problem trying to find a 2U PSU sometimes on the quick. I would consider spending the exta $150 and getting a norco (or other case with hotswaps) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219040 to save you from pounding your head against a wall swapping out dead drives burried deep inside that puppy. I wanted to go with that case to start but with the cost of the drives its out of the budget and since I would have to buy a 2U PSU it would make it even more out of the budget. EDIT. i just noticed you picked seagate 2TB drives. those tend too run a little warm. you might want to look at samsung F4's or Hitachi drives. I'd hate to cook a drive in that tight quarter case. as i am unfamiliar with it, I am not sure how good the cooling is. I'm using 4 of the same Seagate drives in a small Netgear has I have right now and they run really cool. I'm not really worried about heat. There are plenty of fans in the case and the DC were it will be going is kept really cool. Edit: Not sure how I copied the wrong link, but I had the wrong PSU there. This is one of the ones I was thinking of going with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030
Johnm Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 I do not think that Power Supply will fit into that case. 2U Cases are not very tall inside. in addition. you usually need a PS that sucks in the front and exhausts out the back, not the top or bottom. You might have to search newegg for 2U power supply. That case fits a standard power supply, that was a requirement. Since I will not have physical access to the server if the PSU was to die I need to have the ability for it to be swapped out quickly, it can be a problem trying to find a 2U PSU sometimes on the quick. I understand that. I build/repair servers for a living. industry standard for 2U = 3.5" outside height. most modern power supplies are about 3.4" tall and have switched to a 120mm fan mounted on the top or bottom from the back mounted fans to make them quieter.... If the fan is mounted on top or on the bottom of the CPU, it will be petty much touching the inside top or bottom of the server chassis. the fan will be spinning but will not be sucking air into the PSU. It will effectively be passive cooled in a chassis the has a ton of heat sources. depending on the power draw and and the PSU, you might get away with it. but i would think its lifespan would be greatly reduced. usually a 2u power supply (non redundant that is), is just a normal PSU but has a fan on the back. Basically, an old school PSU. When that says standard PSU, they meant the mounting bracket. redundant PSU brackets are square and a little larger. The seagate drives themselves are fine. they are just the warmest of all the 2TB sold. the Samsungs tend to be the coolest. i run several myself. as i said, i am not familiar with that case and its cooling. white box server chassis can be a nightmare or a godsend. it is hit or miss. In high consolidation. every degree helps prolong server life. I am just trying to keep you from burning out you server. [ I would consider spending the exta $150 and getting a norco (or other case with hotswaps) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219040 to save you from pounding your head against a wall swapping out dead drives burried deep inside that puppy. I wanted to go with that case to start but with the cost of the drives its out of the budget and since I would have to buy a 2U PSU it would make it even more out of the budget. yeah, it is not cheap but i was pointing it out as an option. something to consider: This atom board is certified with unRAID and will run any other server OS if you decide to go with another product later. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182243 It might be slightly out of the price range, but an excellent option. it can run 8Gigs ram even though it is listed at 4gigs. the IPMI feature will be nice if you do rack it. with a supermicro card, You can run up to 14 drives off of it. (there is one open box right now on newegg for $130) PS. Budgets suck..!
dlewis23 Posted September 1, 2011 Author Posted September 1, 2011 PS. Budgets suck..! Yes they do... I have revised the setup a bit. I used the mono from Raj's 9 drive prototype. So this is my new list. Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147156 Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138283 Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888 Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134785 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030 Hard Drives: 9x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148681 SATA Expansion Cards: 1x http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10407&cs_id=1040702&p_id=2530&seq=1&format=2 and 2x http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10407&cs_id=1040702&p_id=959&seq=1&format=2 Will just use the PCIe 1x card in the 16x slot on the board to get me over the 9 SATA ports I need. This puts me just under $300 for the hardware with out the drives. Then its $630 for the drives
technojunkie Posted September 1, 2011 Posted September 1, 2011 You're still going to oversaturate your pci bus. I would expect that since you're building this as a trial you want to give it the best chance at being useful, but those 2 pci slots share bandwidth and can only pass 133 MB/s total. 2 of the drives you selected will blow that away, 4 will just slow things down even further. However, if performance isn't a big concern to you, then don't worry about it. I know you're trying to keep the budget down, but you're spending ~$35 on the 3 controllers, while a IBM BR10i can be found for less than $60. the 8 drives on th pci-express card will not saturate the bus and will run at the top performance of the drives. Alternatively the SASLP-MV8 can be found for ~$100 and is compatible with 4.7 stable.
dlewis23 Posted September 1, 2011 Author Posted September 1, 2011 I did some looking around and I'm thinking of going with the ASRock 880GM-LE board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157199 And then will go with 2 of the PCI-Express raid cards. The more I look at how much performance I really do need. Going with 4 drives on just PCI could be a problem.
p1lot Posted September 1, 2011 Posted September 1, 2011 I've built a server as well with the ASRock 880GM-LE and a Supermicro SASLP-MV8 recently and it is rock stable, I can only recommend this combination.
lionelhutz Posted September 2, 2011 Posted September 2, 2011 The case is fine. The PS mounts with the fan up and there is a grill in the top cover to allow the fan to suck-in air to cool the PS. It won't be the easiest to service the drives, but it will work for what you want. I would recommend you look at buying some of the Hitatchi 3T drives. If you only have 9 drive spots then you have no more storage when they are used. Just buy as many as you can afford and add more in the future as the budget allows. At the very least, find a $69 or possibly a $59 drive deal if you do buy 2T drives. $79 is too pricy for that drive. Overall, your newest selections look to be pretty good. You will have to find shorter brackets for those SATA cards though. Peter
dlewis23 Posted September 2, 2011 Author Posted September 2, 2011 The case is fine. The PS mounts with the fan up and there is a grill in the top cover to allow the fan to suck-in air to cool the PS. It won't be the easiest to service the drives, but it will work for what you want. I would recommend you look at buying some of the Hitatchi 3T drives. If you only have 9 drive spots then you have no more storage when they are used. Just buy as many as you can afford and add more in the future as the budget allows. At the very least, find a $69 or possibly a $59 drive deal if you do buy 2T drives. $79 is too pricy for that drive. Overall, your newest selections look to be pretty good. You will have to find shorter brackets for those SATA cards though. Peter I would like to go with 3TB drives but since this is going in a production environment I need reliability and I can't be messing around with betas so I have to go with 4.7. Since I won't have physical access to the server it needs to be kind of a setup and leave it alone type of thing. The drives I'm getting for $69, $59 would be awesome but I haven't found that deal yet.
Juvey67 Posted September 2, 2011 Posted September 2, 2011 If you haven't purchased this case yet. It looks like it is going to be a newEgg Shellshocker today at 3 PST, 6 EST. Might be able to save a few bucks on it. http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=ShellShocker-_-20-220-558-_-09022011_1
dlewis23 Posted September 2, 2011 Author Posted September 2, 2011 Well it figures. I ordered my parts this morning and a few hours later the case I picked out dropped in price from $79.99 to $59.99 with free shipping. But typical Newegg, they credited me the difference when I called.
Beer40oz Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 Nice server... hey the PCIe sata cards you have look much different then your link above. http://uploadingit.com/file/tykzkqw0hzfbvrzx/IMGP8392.JPG witch ones did you buy? link? Oh and btw thanx for your help.... here is my server. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=110014
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.