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GodAtum

GodAtum

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I'm currently speccing out a home SAN solution :) Just an average power server for backups across fibre. Looking to build a 2U rack server but not sure how loud they are? Also i was aiming to get a 6U rack but none of the ones I found are deep enough to support this case.

This is what I have so far:
  • X-Case RM 206
  • Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
  • AMD Bulldozer FX-6100
  • 8GB 1333MHz RAM
  • 128GB Crucial M4
  • WD Black 2TB x 6
  • Antec HCP-750
  • VS1 9U rack
  • Mellanox MHEA28-XT
  • Dell PERC 5i

What do you guys think?

I'm going to follow the excellent guides:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18442377
http://davidhunt.ie/wp/?p=232
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/05...erc-6i-integrated-bios-configuration-utility/
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/...n-fibre-channel-san-for-less-than-1000-part-1
http://greg.porter.name/wiki/HowTo:Openfiler#Using_Openfiler_for_iSCSI
http://www.servethehome.com/lowcost-mellanox-mhea28xtc-10gbps-infiniband-performance-ubuntu-1204/
http://www.linuxforu.com/2011/08/storage-management-using-openfiler-part-1/
http://www.overclock.net/t/359025/perc-5-i-raid-card-tips-and-benchmarks
 
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Shad said:
If you're going to be shoving a bunch of disks in it, go with a 4u. It also makes component shopping easier (full height expansion cards, desktop/consumer CPU coolers, ATX PSU, etc). I got the 400/10 from them recently and it will take 13 drives, which for me is going to be 8 on the RAID controller and 4 on the mainboard. Only JBOD for me at the moment.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendations, I'm looking forward to tackling this project too! An few reviewers have said to swap the stock fans with quieter ones on the 400/10. Do you think its loud? I'll be locating it in the spare room which functions as an office so i dont want it to be too loud. My PC atm (see sig) is just right.

bods said:
2U servers can be really loud. Have you considered where you will locate this?

I am intrigued as to what you will do with a home SAN as opposed to using a NAS with CIFS, NFS and iSCSI...
Click to expand...

The NAS boxes I looked at "only" have 1GB ethernet, eSATA or USB3 which are too slow :p I'm going to run a fiber cable from this to my main PC to get fast file transfers :) Also going to be used as a media streaming server. But I am worried about the sound level though.
 
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Shad said:
Well it's all relative really ;)

Sat next to a 2u Poweredge 2950, it's whisper quiet! But next to my workstation, yeah it's loud. It has good airflow though, and the loud fans are the rear 80mm ones, the front 120mms aren't that bad. You could very easily make it as quiet as a regular desktop machine without sacrificing a huge amount of air flow, IMO.
Click to expand...

I just watched the review had noticed you had to remove the front fans to fit in the hot-swap caddies. Wouldnt that make the airflow worse?

Onto the software, either freeNAS or Openfiler?
 
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Ah right thanks for the explanation :)

What OS/software are you using to run your setup?

What you have said on the other thread about IOMMU is really hard to find out! There is no documentation saying if the Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 and AMD Bulldozer FX-6100 support it! Plus I forgot about having to add a GPU bah!

This post is quite interesting:
Well, in the end i given up on idea of AMD/Bulldozer. Why ?

Power hungry (it uses more power than any of Sandy Bridge Xeon E3 or Core i5/i7).
Doesn't have IGP, so it will become even more power hungry because of the need for additional graphics card. Even the most low power card adds at least another 10-15W to power consumption.
Hunting down an actual motherboard which really supports IOMMU is like searching for needle in haystack. Sure, CPU supports it, chipset supports it, but does the board and BIOS support it ? That is not 100% in all cases, even with AMD 900 series chipsets.
Lower performance.
I HATE the AMD cooler mounts.


Sure, i could have built an FX-6100 + SABERTOOTH 990FX combo for ~290 euros compared to ~420 euros for the Xeon E3-1235 + P8B WS combo, but at cost of lower performance, higher power consumption and no 100% guarantee that IOMMU will actually work.

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=2965518
Click to expand...
 
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The problem is I want to buy a motherboard bundle off another popular computing site which has a 5 year warranty and they only sell 990FX. According to Wikipedia the 990FX motherboards have IOMMU support: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_chipsets

And the Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 has a setting in the BIOS to enable it according to the manual. I guess I'll have to just see.

Just reading a review of the Sabertooth 990FX (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/08/08/asus-sabertooth-990fx-review/5) ad noticed the SATA performace outclasses any of the other mbb. Might try to get that instead if my budget stretches!
 
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An update: I've refined my specs to:

  • Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 @ 3.40GHz
  • Noctua NH-U12P-SE2
  • Asus P8Z77 WS
  • 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair XMS3
  • 850W Corsair HX Series
  • OCZ Technology 256GB Vertex 4
  • WD 2TB Red WD20EFRX x 8
  • Samsung SSUNG/SH-222BB/BEBE

Just waiting on various quotes for a pre-built system!

I've got my Xcase 400/10, the PERC 6 card, the 2 Mellanox MHEA28-XT cards, a 30m fibre cable and an Asus N66 router :)

Here is a rough network diagram I drew up to give you a better understanding of my setup:
http://sdrv.ms/Y7x0Ex
 
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RimBlock said:
Ok, just a few comments...

RB
Click to expand...

I've changed the Xeon to an i5 3570 as no Xeons are in stock from various online companies.

I need a board with 3 PCI 16/8 slots (RAID, Infiniband controller and GPU).

Need a PSU that supports enough SATA and PCI connections.

Want an SSD for quiet operation, I'll be putting multiple OSes of Windows and Linux.
 
Took the plunge and ordered everything! Opted for a pre-built bundle because of the warranty and had a few changes because of stock levels.

  • Intel i5 3570
  • Noctua NH-U12P-SE2
  • Gigabyte G1 Sniper 3
  • 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair XMS3
  • Corsair 1050 HX Series
  • OCZ 256GB Agility 3
  • WD 2TB Red WD20EFRX x 4
  • Samsung SSUNG/SH-222BB/BEBE
 
RimBlock said:
Two companies selling from one of the biggest UK online stores currently have them in stock. They're about 30 quid more than the i5 though but you do get hyperthreading (4 cores, 8 threads) plus the other Xeon benefits.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I needed finance for this and there was only one retailer which did this but does not have Xeon's in stock.

RimBlock said:
The Supermicro chassis mentioned has SATA, Molex and PCI power connectors on its PSU.
Click to expand...

I would need about 10 SATA connections(8 HDD, 1 DVD and 1 esata).
 
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