New server build

wildest_jjk

wildest_jjk

wildest_jjk

Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2011
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Hey,

I want to build a better alternative to the microserver. The problem is I'm not too sure where to start.

It needs to be quiet with low power consumption, yet powerful. It will have to handle 1080 streaming. Ideally I would like it to have at least 4 hard drive bays and possibly a raid controller card (not definite).

Any help will be greatly appreciated :)

Thanks!
 
Are you bothered about size? Because I'd be tempted to ditch small form factor and gain the extra cooling (quieter) and flexibility.

What's your budget? Are you trying to beat the price too, or spend a little more for extra performance?
 
Thanks for the response. I'm not bothered about small form factor so it's fine.

I'm happy to spend a bit more. The microserver is about £180 I think after cashback. So something like £250 if possible?

Thanks :)
 
Ok so not including case here are some parts that I have found:

CPU: Intel Core i3 3220T 2.80GHz - 35W MAX TDP
RAM: Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 Memory @ 1.5V
PSU: CIT 650w Power supply GOLD 12cm 24pin sata model 650U
MOBO: Asus P8H61-MX R2.0

This comes to about £220.

Was thinking of maybe getting something of the 1.35V RAM, but I'm not sure how much difference it would actually make to power consumption. It will probably increase the price as well.

What do you guys think?

Thanks :)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £71.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-D3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £69.95
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB SATA GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1500DL003) £59.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1866C10DC) £59.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
Total : £348.95 (includes shipping : £11.75).



tis alittle over your budget, power consumption is a good thing to watch out for but ultimatly it must do the job you want it for without question :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £59.99
Total : £69.89 (includes shipping : £8.25).



cheaper mobo but just as good
 
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The Microserver could be had for £87 delivered after cashback, but is about £220 without. I don't know if that makes a difference to your approach. Note that it also comes with a 250GB system drive: that doesn't matter if you're replacing all the drives, but may matter if you now have to buy a system drive too.

Ram doesn't make much difference to power consumption, a few watts at most: £3.30 a year by my reckoning (2.5W*24hrs*365 days/1000w per kw*£0.15 per unit). You're saving about 10% of that... or £0.33 per year...even assuming that you're running at full power all the time. Don't bother.

Your rig doesn't look bad for £220, it should have a decent amount of power: power consumption in general will be a fair amount up on the Microserver, though.
 
You don't really need the i3 tbh, my home server runs along super on a ivybridge G1610 celeron.

Power will be up on a custom build but at idle I doubt it would be more than 10-20w difference
 
Thanks for both of the responses.

scotsdragon said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £71.99
1 x Gigabyte 970A-D3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £69.95
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB SATA GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1500DL003) £59.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1866C10DC) £59.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
Total : £348.95 (includes shipping : £11.75).



tis alittle over your budget, power consumption is a good thing to watch out for but ultimatly it must do the job you want it for without question :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £59.99
Total : £69.89 (includes shipping : £8.25).



cheaper mobo but just as good
Click to expand...

This looks pretty powerful but is probably a bit high on the power side of things to be honest. I haven't really looked at AMD either though to be fair.

Audigex said:
The Microserver could be had for £87 delivered after cashback, but is about £220 without. I don't know if that makes a difference to your approach. Note that it also comes with a 250GB system drive: that doesn't matter if you're replacing all the drives, but may matter if you now have to buy a system drive too.

Ram doesn't make much difference to power consumption, a few watts at most: £3.30 a year by my reckoning (2.5W*24hrs*365 days/1000w per kw*£0.15 per unit). You're saving about 10% of that... or £0.33 per year...even assuming that you're running at full power all the time. Don't bother.

Your rig doesn't look bad for £220, it should have a decent amount of power: power consumption in general will be a fair amount up on the Microserver, though.
Click to expand...

Where is the microserver for £87? I might have to rethink for a start if that's the price.

I thought that would be the case with only slightly lower power RAM so would probably stick with 1.5V.

How much higher do you think the power consumption would be? Anything I can do to change that? Without going to mini-ITX.

Thanks again guys :)
 
 
wildest_jjk said:
Thanks for both of the responses.



This looks pretty powerful but is probably a bit high on the power side of things to be honest. I haven't really looked at AMD either though to be fair.



Where is the microserver for £87? I might have to rethink for a start if that's the price.

I thought that would be the case with only slightly lower power RAM so would probably stick with 1.5V.

How much higher do you think the power consumption would be? Anything I can do to change that? Without going to mini-ITX.

Thanks again guys :)
Click to expand...

I managed to pick up an N40L for £100 after cashback.. not sure what they're at now
 
Mrjobby said:
You don't really need the i3 tbh, my home server runs along super on a ivybridge G1610 celeron.

Power will be up on a custom build but at idle I doubt it would be more than 10-20w difference
Click to expand...

Ok thanks for that I might not consider an i3 then. It needs to handle everything though and I think the most demanding will be 1080.

Ethermaster said:
Just an idea,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £68.99
1 x Intel Pentium G860 3.00GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x Gigabyte H61M-USB3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £42.95
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x Cooler Master Elite 344 Micro ATX Case - Black/Silver £32.99
Total : £308.95 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...

That's a much better price, I should probably have said I do not need hard drives. Well I don't need to include them in the budget anyway.

What would that be like on power?

Thanks :)
 
Your hdd's will be drinking most of your juice, a normal day day home build like this will be quite quite you could upgrade the cooler if the stock one is to loud.
 
So I have been thinking more about parts. For the processor I was thinking I would definitely go with the i3-3220T due to the reduced power consumption.

Then when I was looking into the other suggestions G860/G1610 I came across the G2020. This to me seems the best sacrifice in terms of a bit extra power consumption but better performance than the other G processors.

What do you guys think about that?

In terms of the motherboard is it worth looking for lower powered ones? Or is this kind of pointless?

Thanks for all the help.
 
My server box running Windows Server 2012 Essentials is based on mini ITX Asus P8HZ77-I motherboard (6 SATA ports) with an i3-3220T CPU with 8GB RAM.

Hard drives are 2 x 250GB WD Black on a J Micron HW RAID for OS, 3 x 2TB WD Green for storage, 1 x 3TB WD Green for Backup.

All powered by a PICO 160W pulling 30-35W from the wall when idle <85W when running Prime 95. Reckon I could have got away with a PICO 120. :D
 
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