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I want to build a server to use with FreeNAS and just haven't done much of this so looking for advice on parts. I currently have a motherboard thats socket A with an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ that I could use. The problem with that is I would have to get a SATA Raid card separately and it would be PCI which would kind of be a waste of SATA if I understand it correctly as PCI just doesn't allow enough bandwidth especially if I'm running 6 hard drives off it. How quiet the system is is not important at all as it's going in my laundry room. I'd like to only spend maybe 300 at the most not including the hard drives. If I don't use the stuff I have right now then I need new motherboard cpu and what not. Motherboard should have onboard video as it just doesn't matter.
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Well was trying to win an older Dell dual xeon server on ebay but lost that one....might try for another as I have several in my watch list. Almost won a Xeon 5140 dual 2.33ghz cpu normally goes for 479.99 but it was at 50 bucks and I almost won for 85 but someone outbid me at last few seconds and didn't have time to rebid. -
The thing is, even if your drives are on a bus fast enough to reach their full potential, you're still bandwidth-limited by the network. Even at wire speed (which you'll get 80% of at best), Gigabit Ethernet is only 125MB per second, and that's without the overhead of whatever protocols are needed. The PCI bus is 133MB per second. Now there are other factors beside bandwidth that gives PCI Express an advantage over PCI, but they don't always translate into a real-word performance advantage, so I wouldn't dismiss PCI altogether.Originally posted by Dougie085Santino
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.Comment
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Yeah my network is 108Mbps surely not as fast as gigabit. Honestly as long as it can serve my TV HD movies and my Computers music at the same time then I'll be happy.Comment
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Kind of would like to just get something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=110249206796 and then get a SATA card to add on to it.Comment
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Does the motherboard you use have to support ECC Registered RAM?Comment
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Ok I won this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=110249206796
Only 102.50
And the seller is local so they are going to let me just pick it up and pay cash! So I think that was a great deal. Dual Xeon 2.2ghz with 3gb's of ram. Right now it has 3 18gb scsi drives but I'll add a SATA raid card and put in 3 640gb drives and the 500 gb drive I have now. Raid 5 config of course. I want to get a raid card that has 6-8 inputs so I can add hard drives later rather then swapping out the ones that will be in there. I think this should be quite adequate for my media server.
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Nice looking server. You may be able to sell the SCSI drives and recoup a few bucks. Though the SCSI RAID would make for a nice system drive.Originally posted by Dougie085Ok I won this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=110249206796
Only 102.50 And the seller is local so they are going to let me just pick it up and pay cash! So I think that was a great deal. Dual Xeon 2.2ghz with 3gb's of ram. Right now it has 3 18gb scsi drives but I'll add a SATA raid card and put in 3 640gb drives and the 500 gb drive I have now. Raid 5 config of course. I want to get a raid card that has 6-8 inputs so I can add hard drives later rather then swapping out the ones that will be in there. I think this should be quite adequate for my media server.Santino
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.Comment
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Yeah I was thinking about just using them for the OS and what not. I found an Adaptec 16 port SATA 64bit PCI-X card for 115 on ebay. Probably just grab that I can do 4 drives for now and as I see drives on sale just add to it.Comment
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I was thinking about how to convert the SCSI hotswap bays to SATA and what not. I was thinking maybe I'd remove the SCSI hotswap PCB from the back and make a PCB with SATA hotswap connections in the back that would bolt in place and just plugs on the other side for the connections to the Raid card. That way I could still have full use of the hotswap bays. It shouldn't be that hard either.Comment
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Nice, that server should easily be able to stream the media files for you at the same time.
I'd also look into Raid 5 + 0, gives you the redunancy along with the performance. Course you need more drives, but that's the way to do it for HD content.
But it looks like you got yourself a really good base to start with.Digital Audio makes me Happy.
-DanComment
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Yeah I just took delivery and its quite large. I guess there is a 2.4ghz cpu and a 2.2ghz...which I'm a bit confused by because I thought they had to be matched. I have to give him a call and let him know I'm missing a gig of ram as well I'm sure he'll send me some as he has tons. Other then that all looks good although I haven't powered it up yet. It has 2 redundant 730watt power supplies so its definitely a beast. I'm not sure how I'll put SATA drives in it though... I might need to have a separate chassis for hard drives or something.Comment
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I'm not sure the Adaptec Card I'm looking at does Raid 5+0. I'm guessing thats Raid 5 with Striping. Honestly its going to be hard enough for the network to keep up with the speed of the hard drives as is so I'm not completely sure thats going to be needed.Comment
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That's why you go Gigabit! :PDigital Audio makes me Happy.
-DanComment
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Even then gigabit can only do something like close to 300mb/s I don't think I REALLY need that. Would be nice sure but at that point I'm running into limitations using PCI SATA cards and what not. Also I don't own this place so don't want to run ethernet all over. When I buy a house I plan on it though and just saving wireless for laptops and what not.Comment
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Well this is what I've decided to do for the hard drives. I don't think I really want to mod the inside of the server as most of the things I could do would either hurt airflow or kill off scsi hot swapping. So I decided to get a Par-Metal enclosure that is 3.5" tall and then drill a bunch of mounting holes in the top and bottom of the chassis along the front so that I can mount 16 hard drives in it. And then put a 250ish watt PSU in it and work up some DATA LED's for the front panel and a bunch of SATA connectors for the back panel. I think this will work rather good. Then with my 16 port SATA Raid controller I'll just get 8 of these PCI expansion slot adapters that will hook up and make the regular SATA ports ESATA ports. So this chassis will mount right below my server and provide plenty of extra hard drive spots. I looked for a chassis that already exists and they cost a minimum of 570 bucks it seems and are hot swappable which is nice but I can't spend that kind of money
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