Making a NAS Server

[Metier9]

If it's going to be a server, and it's only going to be running a 775 Celeron-D, a discrete graphics card is probably overkill. If you're getting a RAID controller, then the onboard RAID is probably irrelevant also. I'd consider a board with integrated video, like http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=48V9. Saves a few quid. Specs: http://www.intel.com/products/mother...65RY/index.htm

Had a look at the board, but could not see a PCI-X 4 slot :S. You do have a point about the CPU though, any suggestions? I want to keep the price low, also i will end up running 8 - 12 SATA drives in RAID configs. Had a look at the Pentium D 2.8.. nice price.

You may want to buy another controller - or depends how confident you are with the controller you are going to buy. The problem may arise when the card goes belly up and you need the data - your drives are fine but your RAID interface isn't. You probably need the exact same card or you maybe lucky and find one that is 'backward' compatible.

Thats one reason if performance is not the ultimate criteria to use software raid - you can save some money and buy a bettwer spec CPU.

Ive read about the problem of if the controller dies a horrible death.

But how much of a CPU do i need to run 8 - 12 SATA drives in raid configs using software RAID, at the moment 4 * 320, and will add somewhere between 4 * 320 - 500GB HDs later.

[aidanjt]

Boards with PCI-X are silly expensive. You can get a dirt cheap PCIe board and a PCIe RAID card can be had for just a few quid more.

I second nichomach's suggestion on motherboard. Onboard video is perfect for servers, plus that PCIe x16 slot would be perfect for a PCIe x4 RAID card.

If you get a real hardware raid controller, CPU usage will be next to nothing, basically a P2 chip could easily handle the workload, so the cheapest chip you can find for the motherboard really. Arcea RAID controllers cost more than Highpoint, but they are silly powerful, very flexible and work with just about any serious operating system you can think of. Plus opensource linux drivers, so no initrd crap.

[Metier9]

Boards with PCI-X are silly expensive. You can get a dirt cheap PCIe board and a PCIe RAID card can be had for just a few quid more.

I second nichomach's suggestion on motherboard. Onboard video is perfect for servers, plus that PCIe x16 slot would be perfect for a PCIe x4 RAID card.

If you get a real hardware raid controller, CPU usage will be next to nothing, basically a P2 chip could easily handle the workload, so the cheapest chip you can find for the motherboard really. Arcea RAID controllers cost more than Highpoint, but they are silly powerful, very flexible and work with just about any serious operating system you can think of. Plus opensource linux drivers, so no initrd crap.

The highpoint supports opensource as well and 2003 . Had a look at arcea but my budget is too small for a 8 port one. im looking at a £700 budget for the whole thing and i need everything hehe.

edit: Forget this bit hehe

[nichomach]

According to Highpoint, the RocketRAID 2320 is a PCI-E X4 card, but it IS compatible with an X16 slot, as per http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr2320.htm.

RocketRAID 2320 Highlights
PCI-e x4 (x8 and x16 slot compatible)
8 Channel PCI-e x4 to SATA II RAID Controller
Support up to 8 SATA II and SATA I Hard Drives
RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD
Supports Windows, Winx64, Windows Vista, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X

[Metier9]

Cheers for that

I suppose i should tell scan about the 'typo':
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Specification
Host Side Interface PCI Express X4 (X8 slot compatible)
Device Interface
Serial ATA
.....
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[aidanjt]

The highpoint supports opensource as well and 2003 . Had a look at arcea but my budget is too small for a 8 port one. im looking at a £700 budget for the whole thing and i need everything hehe.

edit: Forget this bit hehe

Yeah, the highpoint isn't a bad piece of hardware, although their 'opensource' support is a little loose, however you can patch the kernel and compile it in, it just wont show up in vanilla kernels. You could do much worse thou!

[Metier9]

Yeah, the highpoint isn't a bad piece of hardware, although their 'opensource' support is a little loose, however you can patch the kernel and compile it in, it just wont show up in vanilla kernels. You could do much worse thou!

Should be fun.. not ever really used linux... , but i guess you want me to use gentoo Which i think i will, but is still the same fun process to get gentoo to install on to SATA? .

[aidanjt]

Gentoo probably wouldn't be the best to get you started off, you could probably give a manual install a shot in vmware/virtual pc if you wanted, though Ubuntu server might be a bit easier. If you're still interested in giving it a shot Gentoo has a channel on irc.freenode.net, I'm usually there. I haven't tried building a raid module on the LiveCD before, but it's probably doable.

[Metier9]

NZXT Zero Aluminum BLACK Full Tower Case w/o PSU

Asus P5GZ-MX, i945GZ, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/400MHz, SATA II, uATX, On Board VGA

430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU Silent ATX2.0 *New Version RoHS

Intel Pentium D, 915, Socket 775, Presler Core, 2x2.8 GHz, 2x 2MB Cache, Retail,

320 Gb Seagate ST3320620AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ

1Gb Corsair Value Select DDR PC3200 (400), 184 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 3-3-3-8

[Metier9]

LN16632
Asus P5GZ-MX, i945GZ, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/400MHz, SATA II, uATX, On Board VGA £36.89 £43.35

LN11602
430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU Silent ATX2.0 *New Version RoHS £38.69 £45.46

LN15108
Intel Pentium D, 915, Socket 775, Presler Core, 2x2.8 GHz, 2x 2MB Cache, Retail, £54.59 £64.14

LN14162
320 Gb Seagate ST3320620AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ £54.20 £63.69

LN8282
Akasa Eclipse-62 Midi Tower Case - Hi-End w/o PSU £69.94 £82.18

LN11094
1Gb Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15 £46.53 £54.67

LN12286
Scythe Ninja Plus Fanless HeatPipe Cooler S775/S478/S754/S939/940 c/w 120mm Quiet Fan £25.06 £29.45

£398 without delivery and as quiet as possible

[arthurleung]

May be you should just forget the RAID thing and get 2x500G without RAID?

I would also consider going for AM2 Sempron / X2 which have far lower power usage than a Pentium D

NO DON'T GET THE ECLIPSE!!!
It is not really for a storage server. 4 disks and the vibrational noise will overwhelm your PSU/CPU fan noise.

Get an Antec P180 instead. On the cheap side I heard good thing about Akaza Zen.

Ninja Plus is a bit overkill I would say. If you do go down the AMD route, use an Arctic Cooling heatsink. Cheap and cheerful. You could also "mod it" to give it a quiet 12cm fan

[directhex]

Boards with PCI-X are silly expensive. You can get a dirt cheap PCIe board and a PCIe RAID card can be had for just a few quid more.

I second nichomach's suggestion on motherboard. Onboard video is perfect for servers, plus that PCIe x16 slot would be perfect for a PCIe x4 RAID card.

If you get a real hardware raid controller, CPU usage will be next to nothing, basically a P2 chip could easily handle the workload, so the cheapest chip you can find for the motherboard really. Arcea RAID controllers cost more than Highpoint, but they are silly powerful, very flexible and work with just about any serious operating system you can think of. Plus opensource linux drivers, so no initrd crap.

an affordable pci-x option like the p5wdg2 (sub-£200) has a tonne of onboard sata ports for software raid (e.g. md), or will take pci-e or pci-x controllers, and also supports ECC memory which any server should be using

[Steve B]

why not just get something like this and get a Highpoint raid card?

aidan - take note, theres 2 PCI-X slots on there

[aidanjt]

Steve B: nice board, pitty he's already put the order in.

arthurleung: my friend has the same case, no noticeable vibration noise.

[directhex]

don't waste money on highpoint unless you really want to run windows (which means windows server if you want more than a couple of users, which means more money than box itself)

on a completely unrelated note, anyone want a couple of rocketraids i have spare?

[Metier9]

I ordered it already.. i still dont trust ebay for computer stuff....

Im sticking, Gentoo, Windows Server 2003, Suse linux 10 and maybe RedHat its a storage / learning box.

edit:

lol on a side note, my order wasnt accepted stupid bank hasnt changed my address yet lol

edit 2:

It will have 9 HD in total, one connected to the MB for the OS's and 8 Connected to the raid controller in RAID 5 settings...

edit 3:

the cpu is a little high + some other bits, but there is nothing wrong in future proofing somethings