Budget Home Server Build

[jim]

My Atom server is really beginning to show its age at the moment, the software I have installed is almost inoperable on it. I need something with a lot more CPU grunt, so what's the best solution?

I'm not even remotely up to speed on Intel and AMD platforms at the moment.

I need something definitively budget-esque, but with far more CPU power, so I'm thinking along the lines of a socket FM2 uATX, with 6*SATA3 ports and RAID10 support, plus a cheapy FM2 quad-core. I would like a Mini-ITX, but they seem thin on the ground at the moment, and 6 ports might be a big ask.

Is that the best option?

Also, any ideas on a case? I'm happy to sacrifice the 5.25 bays, just want something as small as possible.

[Agent]

Socket FM2 is where it's at currently for small home servers / HTPC IMO. The 5700 has brilliant idle power draw and it's not bad under load either, along with a reasonable GPU for a server for those times you might be using Youtube or anything else that can use acceleration.

There is a couple of Mini-ITX boards around, but you're limited on choice yes.

[scaryjim]

Hmmm, having a quick peruse I think you've got a few options:

According to wikipedia if you want SATA 3 and RAID 10 you're looking at the A75 and A85X chipsets for APUs, or SB850/SB950 for an AM3+ platform. As far as I can see there are no Intel consumer chipsets that support more than 2 SATA 3. So if 6 SATA 3 is a must then it's AMD, and probably A75/A85X (unless you can find one of the rare 880G/SB850 motherboards with an AM3+ socket - they do exist if you hunt ).

However, I've got to ask - what do you think you'll need 6 SATA 3 ports for? Unless you're planning to raid a whole load of SSDs together, SATA 3 is going to be wasted on your storage array. If you want to boot off an SSD then run a large storage array on HDDs, a cheapish H77 motherboard should do the job (2x SATA 3 + 4x SATA 2) e.g. this MSI, add a low-power dual core Celeron, 4GB RAM for < £20, and you've spent ~ £110 on a very capable, low-power, storage server.

EDIT: as Agent says, if it'll be doing anything that a decent GPU can be used for FM2 may be a better option, but from what you said in the OP it sounds like it's just going to be a storage server?

[jim]

Hmmm, having a quick peruse I think you've got a few options:

According to wikipedia if you want SATA 3 and RAID 10 you're looking at the A75 and A85X chipsets for APUs, or SB850/SB950 for an AM3+ platform. As far as I can see there are no Intel consumer chipsets that support more than 2 SATA 3. So if 6 SATA 3 is a must then it's AMD, and probably A75/A85X (unless you can find one of the rare 880G/SB850 motherboards with an AM3+ socket - they do exist if you hunt ).

However, I've got to ask - what do you think you'll need 6 SATA 3 ports for? Unless you're planning to raid a whole load of SSDs together, SATA 3 is going to be wasted on your storage array. If you want to boot off an SSD then run a large storage array on HDDs, a cheapish H77 motherboard should do the job (2x SATA 3 + 4x SATA 2) e.g. this MSI, add a low-power dual core Celeron, 4GB RAM for < £20, and you've spent ~ £110 on a very capable, low-power, storage server.

EDIT: as Agent says, if it'll be doing anything that a decent GPU can be used for FM2 may be a better option, but from what you said in the OP it sounds like it's just going to be a storage server?

Good point, I don't. I'm so used to it these days, it kind of rolls off the tongue. I'm definitely looking for a quad, but no GPU of any note required. Do you reckon the H77 option is still the better with a quad?

I've not used onboard RAID arrays in years, but I presume they'll utilise the built-in and add-on chip SATA ports together.

[scaryjim]

Do you reckon the H77 option is still the better with a quad?

Not a cat in hell's chance You'd need an i3 minimum to get 4 threads out of an Intel platform, so you're be spending upwards of £100 just on the CPU. AMD can give you quads on any of AM3, FM1 and FM2 for £75 or less.

But again, why a quad? What software are you using that's so incredibly thread intensive? I'd be amazed if an entry level desktop dual-core couldn't manage what you need...

I've not used onboard RAID arrays in years, but I presume they'll utilise the built-in and add-on chip SATA ports together.

I doubt it, but none of the boards I've recommended have add-on chips They all run off the chipset. I suspect Intel's boards can only RAID the 4 SATA 2s or 2 SATA 3s toegther though, rather than a combination. That shouldn't matter for RAID10, as you'll need an even number of drives so you'd be looking at 4 max - if you want to use 5 drives in the RAID array then you'll need RAID 5 support which means A85X or an AM3 platform with SBx50, or an Intel chipset with Rapid Storage Technology (appears to be the Z75, and any recent chipset ending in 7!).

[jim]

Not a cat in hell's chance You'd need an i3 minimum to get 4 threads out of an Intel platform, so you're be spending upwards of £100 just on the CPU. AMD can give you quads on any of AM3, FM1 and FM2 for £75 or less.

But again, why a quad? What software are you using that's so incredibly thread intensive? I'd be amazed if an entry level desktop dual-core couldn't manage what you need...

The main one is backup encryption - it pushes the Atom right to the edge and then punts it over just for good measure. Then on top of that I'm running two pieces of synchronisation software, streaming media through 2 separate server applications, and I would hope to use it in the future to play around with domains, dhcp and so on... thinking about it, that probably means virtualisation as well.

I doubt it, but none of the boards I've recommended have add-on chips They all run off the chipset. I suspect Intel's boards can only RAID the 4 SATA 2s or 2 SATA 3s toegther though, rather than a combination. That shouldn't matter for RAID10, as you'll need an even number of drives so you'd be looking at 4 max - if you want to use 5 drives in the RAID array then you'll need RAID 5 support which means A85X or an AM3 platform with SBx50, or an Intel chipset with Rapid Storage Technology (appears to be the Z75, and any recent chipset ending in 7!).

Ah, I'd though Intel were still using the add-ons. Shows how out of touch I am

I'm intending to put 6 drives in RAID10, aiming for 8TB.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This A85X motherboard is around £60 and has 8 SATA3.0 ports:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...vi-d-hdmi-matx

It is out of stock ATM. If you need a graphics card get this AMD A8:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-65w-retail

If not get this FM2 Athlon II X4:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...che-65w-retail

[scaryjim]

I'm intending to put 6 drives in RAID10, aiming for 8TB.

That would need 4x 3TB drives and 2x 2TB drives remember RAID10 halves your storage capacity. Also it'd mean having your OS on your data array, and although that's not a huge issue AFAIK, it's not the "normal" way of doing things. I assumed you'd be going for a boot SSD (or small HDD) and then having a more modest 4 disk storage array for ~ 4TB. You could do 5x 2TB drives in RAID5 plus a separate boot disk on an AMD A85X or higher end AM3+ board. Or you could separate boot from storage by booting off a USB drive and get all 6 ports available for storage. I'm really not sure whether you can build arrays on the Intel chipsets across more than 4 ports though, someone with better google-fu than me will have to research that one

This A85X motherboard is around £60 and has 8 SATA3.0 ports

Now that's pretty damn impressive - wonder if anyone's going to get it in stock...

EDIT: Hmmm, airetech apparently have 30 in stock. No idea what they're like as an etailer though....

[jim]

That would need 4x 3TB drives and 2x 2TB drives remember RAID10 halves your storage capacity.

My intention was 6x3TB, given that I'll lose around 1TB thanks to S.I. units (these numbers start to get a bit ridiculous!), it would work out as approximately 8TB.

Also it'd mean having your OS on your data array, and although that's not a huge issue AFAIK, it's not the "normal" way of doing things. I assumed you'd be going for a boot SSD (or small HDD) and then having a more modest 4 disk storage array for ~ 4TB. You could do 5x 2TB drives in RAID5 plus a separate boot disk on an AMD A85X or higher end AM3+ board. Or you could separate boot from storage by booting off a USB drive and get all 6 ports available for storage. I'm really not sure whether you can build arrays on the Intel chipsets across more than 4 ports though, someone with better google-fu than me will have to research that one

That thought did cross my mind, but I couldn't see any particular problem. Certainly it's the solution that HP Servers default to (my only prior experience of servers), i.e. RAID 10 with OS installation on the same drives. Mind you, with CAT's suggestion, that problem is instantly solved. I could use a boot SSD or perhaps a couple of laptop drives in RAID1.

FWIW, the mobo is in stock at Scan now.

[scaryjim]

My intention was 6x3TB, given that I'll lose around 1TB thanks to S.I. units

That's a lot of ... erm ... storage

Hmmm, just had a quick google, didn't realise you could pick up 3TB HDDs for ~ £100 nowadays - that's not bad at all. Still, why stop there?

But yeah, if you can find an 8 port board based on A85X kicking around 6 drives for storage plus a couple of 2.5" in RAID1 for the OS would be a good way to get a nice large fault-tolerant NAS going. That's a lot of backup to do though...

tbh, the concept of needing 8TB of fault tolerant storage at home is just alien to me - I think our entire house has no more than 3TB of storage in it all told, possibly a lot less - and that's spread over 4 - 5 machines plus spare drives!

EDIT: As far as case goes, if you're going to have up to 8 HDDs in it how about sticking something like this bay adapter in a normal mid-tower...? You could even think about a small ATX case, which would give you more options for the mobo...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Now that's pretty damn impressive - wonder if anyone's going to get it in stock...

EDIT: Hmmm, airetech apparently have 30 in stock. No idea what they're like as an etailer though....

Its in stock now:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...vi-d-hdmi-matx

[Agent]

Its in stock now:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...vi-d-hdmi-matx

Nice board, but 8pin ATX on the 12V. Hopefully it'll work with just a 4 pin - I've seen a few boards which don't. Most small PSUs (like Pico) don't have the 8 pin connectors

[peterb]

I'm running a 1.2GHz Via processor with 2 sata 2 drives in software RAID1. Gives perfectly acceptable performance as a fileserver, webserver and mail server. Admittedly the traffic is quite low, even for the webserver, but you don't need a lot of grunt for most homeserver applications. Oh yes, forgot, it has a music streamer server on it too. Power consumption is about 50 Watts.

[DanceswithUnix]

Nice board, but 8pin ATX on the 12V. Hopefully it'll work with just a 4 pin - I've seen a few boards which don't. Most small PSUs (like Pico) don't have the 8 pin connectors

Not got that particular board, but my A75 Gigabyte FM2 board is running fine with a 4 pin 12V connector (I thought that PSU had 4+4... it doesn't).

No mention in the manual that I could find that 4 pins was OK, but looked on the underside of the board and you can see the pins are just soldered together in 2 lines for 12v/0v. Thinking about it, I can't imagine why a board like this would require 8 pins to supply CPU power when my 140W AM2+ motherboard is happy with 4.

[Agent]

That's useful to know, thanks
I've defo had boards which need a 8-pin, which in a lot of cases means a £2 adaptor off Amazon .

If your Gigabyte FM2 is like that, then I'd have little doubt this one was to. Cheers!