Home server

R088ieS86 · 14 Dec 2011 at 08:14

How do the hdd cages connect to the mobo? One cable for each drive or one larger cable for the entire cage?

For the ICYbox:

One cable for each drive. (SAS or SATA if your wondering why there is 10

)

most SFF boards only come with around 4 SATA ports on them so you will need a board with a decent amount of PCIe slots for expansion cards.

DaxInside · 14 Dec 2011 at 09:45

Thanks Robbie. Do you know if thats how all cages work? Im just wondering if I should look at other models. The Icybox is quite expensive.

DaxInside · 14 Dec 2011 at 10:56

Will I be able to fit a full sized mobo in behind those cages? The case I want to use is a mid tower. Im not sure how ill be able to get all those drives plugged in without 2 PCIe slots.

DaxInside · 14 Dec 2011 at 14:32

Would this mobo fit in a mid tower with HDD cages in?
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 Express Socket 1155 Motherboard

Its got 8 SATA ports which is great. Would I need any on board graphics for a server?

R088ieS86 · 14 Dec 2011 at 14:47

for setup it is handy to have onboard graphics, even though eventually I'm guessing it will just sit on the network and you will use remote accesss to view it.

The motherboard will not encroach on the HDD cages unless they are flat against the bottom of the case, which case did you decide on?

DaxInside · 14 Dec 2011 at 18:02

R088ieS86 said:
for setup it is handy to have onboard graphics, even though eventually I'm guessing it will just sit on the network and you will use remote accesss to view it.

The motherboard will not encroach on the HDD cages unless they are flat against the bottom of the case, which case did you decide on?

The Cooler Master Centurion 590 I think. It ticks all the right boxes. I might try to add some sound proofing stuff in there after its all done.

Am I right in thinking the z68 chipset mobo's have onboard graphics?

DaxInside · 14 Dec 2011 at 18:38

I was thinking of using an i3 2120T and Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 mobo because it has 8 SATA ports. I was looking at a review of it and it mentions the ssd cache drive which can be used to greatly increase HDD performance. Would this be the case for a server as well?

sypher365 · 14 Dec 2011 at 18:59

DaxInside said:
How do the hdd cages connect to the mobo? One cable for each drive or one larger cable for the entire cage?

Inside the Wesena eHDD Storage Case there is a controller card/board that each HD connects to then one connection from the controller card to your mobo or card with multiplexed eSATA connection.

DaxInside · 14 Dec 2011 at 19:31

sypher365 said:
Inside the Wesena eHDD Storage Case there is a controller card/board that each HD connects to then one connection from the controller card to your mobo or card with multiplexed eSATA connection.

Is that the same thing as an mSATA connection?

sypher365 · 14 Dec 2011 at 20:34

DaxInside said:
Is that the same thing as an mSATA connection?

No expert in sata ports so taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

Mini-SATA, which is distinct from the micro connector, was announced by the Serial ATA International Organization on September 21, 2009.[29] Applications include netbooks and other devices that require a smaller solid-state drive. The connector is similar in appearance to a PCI Express Mini Card interface,[30] but is electrically incompatible.

Also saw this in the wiki which may be more useful info

SATA uses a point-to-point architecture. The physical connection between a controller and a storage device is not shared among other controllers and storage devices. SATA defines multipliers, which allows a single SATA controller to drive multiple storage devices. The multiplier performs the function of a hub; the controller and each storage device is connected to the hub.

So guessing most newer boards with external esata connections should suport it (I'm sure someone with more knowledge on esata can correct me) but take look at the manual not sure if that will clear it up anymore.

jaf2212 · 14 Dec 2011 at 23:30

DaxInside said:
Thanks Robbie. Do you know if thats how all cages work? Im just wondering if I should look at other models. The Icybox is quite expensive.

Have a look at the xcase drive convertors as these are a lot cheaper

DaxInside · 15 Dec 2011 at 09:21

jaf2212 said:
Have a look at the xcase drive convertors as these are a lot cheaper

They look good. One reviewer said they hit the mobo in mid tower cases though. That could be a problem unless i can find a small mobo with 8 sata ports.

jaf2212 · 15 Dec 2011 at 13:55

DaxInside said:
They look good. One reviewer said they hit the mobo in mid tower cases though. That could be a problem unless i can find a small mobo with 8 sata ports.

I wasn't sure, just saw then the other week when looking for something

Demon · 15 Dec 2011 at 14:26

DaxInside said:
They are a bargain but I need far more space. Ive already filled my Drobo FS which has 5 x 2Tb drives in it.

You just stack another one on top..

For £130 (with cashback), they are phenominally good for file servers.. a full 5 drives with WS2008 on idle is under 30W too.. Assuming the cashback deals are still on, it's hardly anymore then the 5 ICY Dock enclosures, and thats for a full server..

But I sense you would just rather build your own..

My advice, get some decent Hardware RAID cards if you want to have good performing and flexible RAID 5 or similar, all the software solutions are quite limiting, especially if you want to use the server to run other services..

I went from a 12 bay server using lots of eSata to expand to 20 bays to the microservers, and it's been much less hassle.. I have 2 stacked at the moment, I'll get a third when 10 bays runs out..

Of course, everyone's needs are different.. the issue I had was that getting any performance out of 12-20 drives was a nightmare, if you use the usual software RAID style SATA cards, they underperform and aren't very flexible for expansion in most cases.. or I ended up trying UnRaid and other alternatives (FreeNAS etc), all where a pain to get going and things like FreeNAS had many issues, with upgrades often requiring full RAID set rebuiliding as they changed the file system to newer incompatible versions.. Not to mention if I wanted some simple download abilities, installing was just problematic to the point of hardly being able to do anything more then basic file serving...

DaxInside · 15 Dec 2011 at 15:39

You're right, ive got the itch to build a nice server

I was thinking of going for unraid or WHS but to be honest ive not read into either very much yet. Ill probably go with whichever gives me the better performance.

The only other activities id use the server for are printer sharing and downloading torrents. I would have thought all OS can provide those?

Ive had a look at several cards so far but I don't really know what im looking at. Can I use raid 5 with WHS if the card has it?

DaxInside · 15 Dec 2011 at 15:40

I found this mobo, micro ATX with 8 sata ports. Nice.

Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 Motherboard

DaxInside · 19 Dec 2011 at 09:54

How do these components look?

Case £96.99
Zalman MS1000-HS1

Mobo £120.82
Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 Motherboard

CPU £100.44
Intel Core i3-2120T 2.6GHz

RAM £25.00
4-8Gb Value 1333MHz

PSU £47.99
XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply [P1-650X-NLG9]

SATA card £84.32
Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8, 8-Port SAS/SATA Card

Startech 5.25 inch Tray-Less SATA Hot-Swap Bay

HDD Cages 3 x £59.99
X-Case 5 Drive Storage Kit - fits in 3 x 5.25 Bays

replacement fans for cages
3 x Sharkoon 1000 Golf Ball 80MM Ultra Quiet 8.9 dB(A) Case Fan - 11.4 CFM

Cables 2 x £21.58
CBL-M8OCF-06M M8 to Discrete 3Ware - multi lane M8 to discrete SATA Fanout cable 0.6 meters

7 x £1.07
45cm Scan RB-481 SATA III 6Gbps Internal Cable

Im a bit concerned the i3 might be too much or too little. Id also like to find a different small mobo with 8 sata ports as the gigabyte mobo's have trouble with unraid apparently.