My new home server!

[BoredMatt]

I've just finished building and installing a home server that's replacing my TranquilPC BBS2 (nothing wrong with it, just no more space for hard drives).

The courier showed up at about 2pm with the following order from OcUK:

• Fractal Design Define XL Full Tower Case - Black Pearl
• Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail
• Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard
• OCZ StealthXStream 2 500W Power Supply
• Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
• Gainward GeForce 8400GS "SILENT" 512MB DDR2 PCI-Express Graphics Card
• A few SATA data and power cables

It was quite a hefty amount of stuff; I felt like I'd won a competition:

I started by looking at the case, and was immediately extremely annoyed (see here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18278357) as the case was broken. So after organising a replacement to be sent out tomorrow, I got on with building the system into a boring old case.

This is the first PC I've built from scratch, and I was very pleased with how smooth the process was/how few parts exploded at me. I eventually got the system working, installed my choice of OS (which was relatively trouble-free), plonked my big concatenated drives into it, and voila.

A high capacity machine with a processor that is now powerful enough to transcode video and do other tasks that the my previous, Intel Atom-based machine cried at.

I'd post some nice pictures, but there's not a lot in the boring case, so perhaps tomorrow when I get the new case.

 

[BoredMatt]

That's a pain with the faulty case, hopefully the new on tomorrow should be fine

Def post some pics up when your up and running.

How come you opted for 530 range and not the new SB range.

I like new things, so thought about a sandy bridge setup, but when it actually came to buying the parts, the price was less (I got a b grade motherboard which brought the cost down a fair bit) and I figured that I really don't need the better parts just for the sake of it.

All I need in a home server is plenty of space for drives, and a little more oomph. The 1.6GHz Atom box I had was great apart from the inability to stream (& transcode) video, and the fact it had 0 space left. Twas one of these:

The other big factor, was the older stuff had more community support to help me install the OS.

But yeah, I'll definitely post some pictures tomorrow!

 

[BoredMatt]

Thats a bigass case for a server. but no doubt you like the HDD cage lay outs?

Lets see some pics of it now its built then

Yup, a friend got the Fractal R3, and I thought it was great, so went for the most space possible. It'll fill up eventually.

 

[BoredMatt]

Any particular reason why you got a separate GPU? The mobo has on-board?

Yes, I was annoyed that I had to get that, but er.. the OS I installed doesn't support the onboard graphics. Not sure how much more I can say really

 

[BoredMatt]

I was going to post some pictures today, but alas, OcUK were understaffed yesterday and so the new case wasn't sent out until today. There will definitely be pics tomorrow though.

The thing is, I've just realised how quiet this system is going to be. It's currently sitting on a table about 2 metres in front of me, both side panels are off of the case, and it's fairly quiet. That's with 5 hdds and 4 fans.

With the fractal case (and the sound deadening material) this thing should be even quieter than the little mini itx box I had before.

 

[BoredMatt]

I got the new case yesterday, put everything in, but realised the 12v power cable wouldn't reach from where the PSU is at the bottom of the case. I got an extension in the post today (that didn't fit the socket, but with a connector from an old PSU I managed to hack one together).

So now it's all done:

It's still a bit messy inside; I'm waiting on a couple of cables so I can properly neaten it up.

 

[BoredMatt]

wow, BIG case!

Yeees... Is a bit. It's nice not being limited like I was with the last case I had, but it does seem a tad on the large side. Still, once it's full of drives, I'll be glad of the space.

There would be a couple more in there already, but I'm trying to source a compatible sata controller.

 

[BoredMatt]

I had the same problem with the power cables not reaching, I'd originally wanted to route them round the back of the case, but that was not to be.

Should flip the hard drives though, so the cables are hidden and tidy round the back!

I was going to do that....and for the life of me, I can't remember why I didn't. Seemed to be a good reason for it at the time.

 

[BoredMatt]

Don't like the look of the IDE cable - so messy! no Sata DVD drive?
Yeah, flip the HDDs so it looks tidy, if you can be bothered. Pull the Sata and front pannel cables tight as well.

Looks good mate, worth the wait!! I Really like the case actually. Might look into it

Yeah, I probably will flip them.

The IDE was just for OS installation really. It won't be there permanently, but I've been trying a few OS variations. But I agree, very ugly. Although, I did replace the old IDE cable with that one (which was brand new, and believe it or not, looks better than the one that came out).

(Edit: Besides, I've used all 5 SATA ports anyway)

Thanks! It's a really nice case. Now that I have one that isn't broken, I'm very glad I went for it. It's the little things as much as anything; it came with a fan controller and loads of screws and cable ties.

Looks nice. Can't wait to see your case when you've done some proper cable management.

Cheers! Aside from the IDE cable (which won't be there), I don't like the fan cables. You'd think a company who makes a huge case like this, and who also makes the fans, would do some fans with longer cables??

Probably just get extensions for them. I got a power extension so I could route it round the back, but it was slightly too short

 

[BoredMatt]

I got a job offer today, so to celebrate, I've ordered a load of cables to neaten this up, and a couple of other bits, the most interesting of which are:

- eSATA x2 + SATA x2 PCI Express CARD SiL3132 Chipset
- Startech 2.5 inch SATA Removable Hard Drive Bay for PC Expansion Slot

What would people recommend for making this lot neater?

Cables ordered (snore..):

2 x NZXT 20cm Molex to 3 x SATA Premium Sleeved Cable (because they're neater, and are white)
1 x Black ATX12V extender
1 x Black 24 pin ATX Extender
1 x 90cm Black molex extender (for the fans & controller - I want to close the door in the case and route the power round the back)
1 x 15cm right angled black SATA data cable (to connect the raid card to the 2.5" enclosure)

Does anyone know where you can get long-ish white SATA data cables? I can only find 30cm ones that are over £5 each :S

 

[BoredMatt]

Really good looking home server build. How much storage are you intending to have? Will you be mirroring the storage? So like 5+2TB disks for storage and 5+2TB disks for mirroring? Also, what controllers are you planning on using? I've seen a lot of cheap PCI ones, but only for two ports. Once you get up to 4 ports + the price skyrockets.

And if you plan on doing a lot of disk swapping leave them orientated as they are now Otherwise you'll need to pull both sides of the case off every time you want to replace a disk.

Thanks!

I'm considering starting to mirror it all. It's currently only one big concatenated drive (software RAID). I'm not sure if it will be possible to do this easily, but as I'm about to start a new job, I should enough to splash out on enough big drives.

The controller I just ordered (see the list above) uses a silicon image 3132 chip. The only other choice I had was something with the sil3124 (drivers specific to the OS I'm using).

The card I ordered (sil3132) only has 2 internal SATA ports (plus 2 esatas, but that doesn't matter) and was about £15. PCIe.

The other one I was looking at (sil3124) has 4 ports, but is about £38, and only PCI. I wasn't too keen on the lower speed of PCI, and decided on the cheaper card.

The plus side to the cheaper card, is that is supports the sil3726 port multiplier.

And yes, drives are likely to be shuffled around fairly regularly. I might try them the other way, but I've ordered white sata power cables and some white sleeving, so it should look pretty good, even with the cables facing forwards.

 

[BoredMatt]

I'd be thinking of RAID 5, RAID 1 will be horribly inefficient.

I'm going to see if I could get RAID5 working on this system, but unless I wanted to format my existing drives, I have to continue using software RAID, or buy enough new drives to RAID, and then copy everything over.