# New Server Build Advice



## Kreij (Apr 13, 2010)

I'm looking at putting together a server.
Any thoughts on what I have here are appreciated. 

Xclio 777 Full Tower Case
Antec CP-1000W Power Supply
Asus Z8NA-D6C Dual Socket XEON Motherboard
Intel XEON E5520 Quad Processors (2)
Intel BXSTS100A CPU Cooler (2)
Corsair 4GB DDR3 RAM for Tylersburg Platform (2)
HighPoint 2680 8-Port RAID Controller
HighPoint INT-MS-1M4S-8087 to 4 SATA fan-out cable (2)
Seagate 7200.12 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (8)
Artic Silver Ceramique Thermal Compound
Crucial CT64M225 2.5” 64GB SSD

Drives will be configured in RAID1 Pairs.

Current cost is about $2700 before tax/shipping.


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## Fourstaff (Apr 13, 2010)

Server for?


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## xrealm20 (Apr 13, 2010)

Agreed with four - what are you going to be using this new server build for?


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## Kreij (Apr 13, 2010)

Will be used as a file server.


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## Disparia (Apr 13, 2010)

I built one with a single E5520 (and Adaptec 5805 with 8 WD RE3) and could easily push 400MB/s+ through the quad-port gigabit NIC. This box also handled half a dozen VM's. Only reason for the 2P board was future upgrades when phasing out older servers and adding more VM's to it.

For pure serving, save money and look at the 1P Xeons and boards. IIRC you can find some with an 8-port controller onboard, either LSI or Marvell.


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## Disparia (Apr 13, 2010)

At first glance (always read the manual before purchase), I'd be all over this: http://www.supermicro.com/xeon_3400/Motherboard/X8SIE.cfm?IPMI=Y&TYP=SAS

LSI 2008 8-port controller, dual-port Intel NIC, KVM over LAN (with dedicated NIC), and support for the 45w L3426 Xeon


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## Kreij (Apr 13, 2010)

Jizzler said:


> For pure serving, save money and look at the 1P Xeons and boards.



It's for our network at work. The words "overkill" and "over-engineered" have no meaning to me.


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## Fourstaff (Apr 13, 2010)

Have you seen Mussel's server? Also, have you considered 1tb hard drives? They seem to offer better bang for buck the last time I checked. Also, is all that processing power needed? I have the feeling that you are going to build teh ultimate server using other people's (company's) money.


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## Kreij (Apr 13, 2010)

I have looked at 1TB HDDs. They are about $100 while the 500GBs are a little over $50. Not so much better bftb. I also do not need that much space. I do, however, want the redundancy, so 2 x 500 in RAID1 is half the price of 2 x 1TB.

I want to basically consolidate 4 servers into one, which is why I opted for the 2 x CPUs. I also may want to run a low traffic instance of SQL Server on it also. I'm not sure yet.

You are right, it is the company's money. However, it is a family owned company (actually two companies). _Our_ family. So I do not spend foolishly. To buy a pre-built like this would be well over $6000.
I also like to over-engineer things so that the network and systems will last for years for their needs.

Also I should add I am trying to keep this around the $3K mark.


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## Easy Rhino (Apr 13, 2010)

if this is for a home file server and you don't care about spending lots of money (because you most definitely are going overkill for a home file server) then i would recommend going with an 80+ gold psu made by either corsair or seasonic.


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## Kreij (Apr 13, 2010)

Read post above yours ER


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## Easy Rhino (Apr 13, 2010)

oh for a network at work. for some reason i thought you indicated a home file server  

anyway, if you want long term value then most definitely get an 80+ psu by corsair or seasonic. it will save on the electricity costs and be extremely reliable. what OS are you running on this?


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## Fourstaff (Apr 13, 2010)

Kreij said:


> I have looked at 1TB HDDs. They are about $100 while the 500GBs are a little over $50. Not so much better bftb. I also do not need that much space. I do, however, want the redundancy, so 2 x 500 in RAID1 is half the price of 2 x 1TB.



Over this side, 1TB HDDs are only about £20 more than 500GBs, hence the suggestion.


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## Kreij (Apr 13, 2010)

Either Sever 2003 or 2008. Depends on how motivated I get. Currently use all 2003 servers.
The PSU I listed is 80+ certified. Is it not a good brand?
I thought Antec made good power supplies?


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## Fourstaff (Apr 13, 2010)

Kreij said:


> I thought Antec made good power supplies?



Good, certainly. Very good, I am not too sure.


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## ktr (Apr 13, 2010)

You could look in to a case with redundant power supplies if having a fail safe is important.


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## Kreij (Apr 13, 2010)

Thanks for the PSU suggestions. I'll do some more googling on PSU.

@KTR : That is not as critical. Besides the RAID1, the data will be backed-up and archived. I can replace a PSU in about 5 minutes. Thanks for the suggestion though.


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## Easy Rhino (Apr 13, 2010)

Kreij said:


> Either Sever 2003 or 2008. Depends on how motivated I get. Currently use all 2003 servers.
> The PSU I listed is 80+ certified. Is it not a good brand?
> I thought Antec made good power supplies?



i am running server 2003 as well and it is stable. i dont like the interface and i hate the windows file system but eh...you can't win them all. i will be switching it over in the future to fedora 13 when they are done their beta testing. 

antec is fine but honestly seasonic and corsair are the PSU kings, especially at 80+ certified. i have them both and they are silent and powerful. i have never had any issues and i have not seen my electric bill go up even when folding.


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## Kreij (Apr 13, 2010)

How are the OCZ's? They have an 80 PLUS GOLD 1000w supply.


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## Easy Rhino (Apr 13, 2010)

Kreij said:


> How are the OCZ's? They have an 80 PLUS GOLD 1000w supply.



they are ok. solid brand, but not to the caliber of seasonic or corsair.

also dont be fooled. an 800 watt seasonic 80+ will give you A LOT more power than a 1000 mid range brand.


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## jellyrole (Apr 13, 2010)

OCZ is good as well, never had one fail on me.


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## Disparia (Apr 14, 2010)

Kreij said:


> It's for our network at work. The words "overkill" and "over-engineered" have no meaning to me.



They usually don't for me as well, but I like to be somewhat within scope  (and I used to have a boss that threw money at IT)

I still like my 1P box idea, get two if you were running a domain. A couple $1500 1P boxes? Oh, would be nice:






Cute little server with oh so much power, I'm feeling all tingly...

At my new job I'm managing a couple Mac OSX servers so I dream about the day when I can replace them with boxes like the above


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## Disparia (Apr 16, 2010)

Updates!?

Regardless of which way you go with this, we'll be needing pics


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## Kreij (Apr 16, 2010)

I'll be happy to supply pics. Still waiting for approval.


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## Kreij (Oct 12, 2010)

I finally got this server build approved.

Minor modifications to inital config. Here's my final picks.

Xclio 777 Full Tower Case Antec 1200 Full Tower
Antec CP-1000W Power Supply Corsair Professional AX850 PSU (80+ Gold)
Asus Z8NA-D6C Dual Socket XEON Motherboard
Intel XEON E5520 Quad Core Processor (x2)
Intel BXSTS100A Active CPU Cooler (x2)
Corsair 4GB DDR3 RAM for Tylersburg Platform Crucial 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 (10600) (x2)
HighPoint 2680 8-Port RAID Controller HighPoint 4320 SAS/SATA 8-Port RAID Controller
HighPoint INT-MS-1M4S-8087 to 4 SATA fan-out cable (x2)
Seagate 7200.12 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Seagate SV35.5 500GB SATA 3.0GB/s Hard Drive (x8)
Artic Silver Ceramique Thermal Compound
Crucial CT64M225 2.5” 64GB SSD Dropped in favor of more RAM.

This will replace 6 existing low-use servers/workstations.


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## Fourstaff (Oct 12, 2010)

Kreij said:


> This will replace 6 existing low-use servers/workstations.



Useless advice, but please do not forget that a dead mobo will screw your entire raid, so keep a backup somewhere else.


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## Easy Rhino (Oct 12, 2010)

Fourstaff said:


> Useless advice, but please do not forget that a dead mobo will screw your entire raid, so keep a backup somewhere else.



are you sure? he has a raid card.


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## Fourstaff (Oct 12, 2010)

Easy Rhino said:


> are you sure? he has a raid card.



Ok fine, maybe a power surge which caused his entire array to be fried. Anyways, I see that as putting too many eggs into one basket. I have an uncle who practically lost all his data due to a fire, and consequently lost a load of business. The downtime costed him a fortune.


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## Mindweaver (Oct 12, 2010)

Not to beat a dead horse.. but why not go with a server psu? The more redundant the better. I would get something like this over the corsair any day for a server.. but not for my home rig. Don't get me wrong the corsair is nice... I have a few.. hehehe but let say your psu goes out and takes more? The redundant one you can switch out the bad psu and replace it with out ever turning the server off.. Just my 2 cents...  Either way good luck on the new build!


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## Easy Rhino (Oct 12, 2010)

Fourstaff said:


> Ok fine, maybe a power surge which caused his entire array to be fried. Anyways, I see that as putting too many eggs into one basket. I have an uncle who practically lost all his data due to a fire, and consequently lost a load of business. The downtime costed him a fortune.



oh yea, i agree. always good to have backup hardware. i think he already has a data backup plan tho.


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## Kreij (Oct 13, 2010)

Here is my cunning plan ... CUNNING I say. lol

I will keep the most capable old server for rundandancy, but offline. Add a few HDs for more storage (and keep it loaded with the previus days backup) and it can take over in the event of catastrophic new server failure as the data will be backed up off the main server. I will be a lot slower, but doable.

I do not particularly like to have a lot of spare hardware laying around as it tends to become obsolete rather quickly in the event of no failures. Yes, I've pondered the risk assessment and the potential downtime, and it falls within the acceptable levels as set forth by the company owner. He says no more than 24 hrs downtime is acceptable for mission critical functionality. Any two-bit IT hack can guarantee that, and I find 24 hrs pathetic, so I have determine that I can ensure no more than 4 hrs using my cunning plan (an can likely pull it off in less than 1 hr). Personal pride, work ethics ... you know.

Anyway, since I am able to build a server to replace 6 other machines at less than half the cost of a less-capable, pre-built server, I think he will continue to fund my ... ahem ... IT adventures.


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