Finally finished my server build last night ...

[Billped]

After three months of waffling, another month of hunting for the right parts, then a week of looking for time to build the server once I had the parts sitting around ... it is finished and it works.

 

I had several issues, so I thought I would document each of them to help the next person who goes through the process.

 

Background: I have built a lot of computers, but none recently.  Fortunately, not much has changed.  Unfortunately, one of the items that hasn't changed is the paucity of guidance for putting the parts together.

 

Hardware: Antec P180 case, UltraXfinity 600W power supply, Asus P5B-E mobo, Intel PentiumD 820 dualcore, 1GB of matched Corsair memory, five Seagate 7200.10 300GB SATA/300 hard drives (in 7200.9 boxes - gotta love part substitution!), eVGA nVidia 7600GT (way overkill) graphics card, and a Corsair 1GB USB memory card.  Total cost sans harddrives was about $500 (includes $200 savings in rebates).,  The 300GB drives cost me $75 each so I have a good quality 1.5GB box for under $900 (that includes Cali tax and shipping) + the UnRaid software itself.

 

Issues:

 

* PS barely fit in the case, had to squeeze it in, cabling was a PITA as the P180 has the PS in the bottom yet the four-prong 12V connector is at the top, so I had to do some ugly "over the top" cabling - I may try to find an extender cable so I can run it more more elegantly.  Since this particular PS comes with SLI PCI-e power yet I didn't need any, I had to tuck those power leads out of the way.  The newer component-style cabling PSs would have been great.  I would have gotten one but this $80 PS cost me $10.

 

* Little parts.  The gear came with perhaps 300 parts, from screws, to grommets, to cables, etc.  Nothing in the documentation gives you much clarity about which parts are for what, so a bit of sleuthing is required.  Sometimes merely counting them indicates to you where they go.  Of course, many of the parts aren't needed so don't be to surprised to have left over parts.

 

* Mobo.  I initially forgot to plug in the four-prong 12V so the system powered up for about one second, then shut down - doh!  It also uses a GigeE chip that is not supported by 3.0.  I knew that, but forgot, and sure enough I had no network connectivity when I was done.  Upgraded to 4.0 and it worked like a champ.

 

* TIP!  Plug in the small cables first (i.e. power switch, USB, hard drive light, ...) then the bigger power cables.  Lastly, plug in the SATA (or PATA) cables.

 

* I didn't install a DVD drive but probably will.  I would like to be able to update the BIOS, for example.  I will also buy a case temp guage to give me a bit more piece of mind.  Both are cheap components - the DVD I can probably steal from one of my older machines.

 

* Getting the USB stick to work was not fun.  I tried just about everything (rebooting many dozens of times) and finally got it to work by setting it as a FDD device rather than HD.

 

* I installed the basic version of UnRaid so only three drives are recognized.  Big brother will be purchased this week.  Not sure of whether I will go for 6 or 12, but will likely go for the 12.

 

* Format/parity went well, running at about 55MB/sec at the outside and getting down to the mid-30s on the inside (of course, that is non-LAN limited so it is measuring the speed of the drives, bus, and software).  Writing to the system on my existing 100Mb network (Cisco-discount GigE switch is forthcoming) was about 9MB/sec (6GB file), outstanding since that is close to the theoretical maximum.

 

* During parity, drives were 38-42C and settled down to about 35C when idling.  The P180 case has an internal lower-chamber fan in addition to two blow-holes in the front/back but no hardcore harddrive-specific cooling like an icy-dock.  Messing around with the fan speeds had minimal impact on the drive temps.  Based on looking at the CPU and mobo temps in the BIOS, not much influence there either - even after letting it run for 20-30 minutes.  At "high", the fans can be fairly loud so I will probably keep them at "medium" for now.

 

* TIP!  At various points in the build, I got frustrated.  Whether it was misplacing a part or not being able to figure out how to properly route the cabling, the best thing to do is STOP, take a break, and come back.

 

Now it is time to put more files up on the server.  Part of what I need to do is figure out my front-ends and formats.  I originally was going to go with ISOs (for the wired home theater) and DivX (for wireless to PCs), but I think now IFO and DivX is better.  Thoughts?

 

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

 

Additional info:

 

* Cooling.  Now that I have had more time to play with the server, I found that I will definitely need to add an optional fan.  The P180 comes with three standard fans: two are exit fans from the top and top-rear.  They are fine.  There is also an internal fan making cool fresh air come in over the lower drive cage - that is goodness and those drives are nice and cool.  In the upper drive cage, however, there is no such fan though there is a spot to add one (120mm).  That drive, even though it isn't being used at the moment, is 5C warmer than the other two (I can only see three of my five drives because I am still on Basic).  I will get a fan tomorrow.  Cooler drives means longer lasting drives.  Keep in mind that more fans often means quieter, not louder, because you can run the fans more slowly when they are positioned properly.  Rather than having one internal fan running on "medium", I will have two running on "low".  Fans are cheap, just make sure you get a quiet one - they all say they are quiet, but most companies lie.  I will probably get another Antec Tricool since that is what the others are - not silent, but it will be guaranteed to fit properly.  The fan will set me back about $10 and as many minutes to install it.

 

 

[RockDawg]

Congrats!  I hop it runs smooth and stable for ya.

[Billped]

damn,, now I want to build one from scratch,, just for the sake of it :-). I guess HTPC, servers and networks is the new "trains, slotcars and stamps".

 

Please add in some of your experince into the WIKI, especially on the MOBO side. I bet some other soul will be having the exact same problems soon.

/Rene

 

 

Hehe - I had an HO train when younger (OK, I still have it but it hasn't been used in 20 years) and had a stamp collection.  I always wanted, but never received, slotcars.

 

Once I get more hours on the server I will updated the wiki.  Thanks for the reminder.

 

 

Bill

[Billped]

Cooling update:

 

I bought a fourth fan, another Antec Tricool (a pleasantly geeky clear plastic with neon lighting, as opposed to the more sedate OE black fans).  Installation turned out to be another PITA.

 

Antec provides a fan carrier that you remove, install the fan on, then reinsert.  Easy sounding, but once you get the fan mounted on the carrier it is no longer able to be inserted into the tab slots because the drive cage rails (the ones the drive cage mounts into, not the drive rails inside the cage) get in the way of tilting it far back enough.

 

No problem, I will just skip the fan carrier and bolt it in.  Bummer, that doesn't work because now the fan filter tabs rub against the fan blades.  I briefly thought about either leaving out the filter or dremeling the tabs, but thought better of it.

 

I decide to do it right and remove the drive cage rails, but my screwdriver doesn't fit in the tiny space so I am off to the hardware store to find a small right angle screwdriver.  First place doesn't know what I am talking about.  Second place (Sears) also has no idea what I am talking about, but fortunately their inventory is more complete than their knowledge of said inventory and I found one.

 

Get back, disassemble, install fan, reassemble, and set all four fans to their lowest setting, it all zipped back up, and power it up.  Now the previously ~5C hotter drive is running a bit cooler than the other drives which makes sense because that drive is by itself in the cage, rather than the other cage with four drives.

 

Running video on drive1 and audio on drive2 for 30 minutes with temps in the 35-37C range on a day that is quite warm (and we have no AC) so the ambient temp is probably 25-27C.  I did the same earlier (and cooler) in the day with temps of 34-36C for two of the drives and 41-42C for the other one.  I don't mind hotter drives when doing parity, but for every day reads/writes I really want them to be nice and cool.

 

On a completely separate topic: I will eventually go with more than the six 3.5" drives my case holds.  There is an additional four 5.25" spots and an externally accessible 3.5".  I will use one of the four 5.25" spots for this tremendously fashionable Zalman device http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/sharka-computers_1950_1174526 and for the other three spots I will get a bay converter, either from SilverStone or Lian-Li so I can get four more 3.5" drives in there.  They are $30-$40 and come with their own dedicated 120mm fan.

 

 

Bill