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!
 
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 :)
 
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 :)
 
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 :)
 
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.
 
Thanks for the response. I am only wanting to have 4 hard drives really. It's mostly acting as a data store, similar to a 4 bay NAS.

I'm not sure if mini-ITX is worth it though in comparison to micro-ATX for power consumption.
 
Ok so I think I have decided that I am just going to stick with mATX as I do not think mini-ITX provides much of an improvement in terms of power consumption.

The parts I have found so far are as follows:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI B75MA-P45 Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £53.99 (This was because the previous motherboards did not have enough SATA ports. I am planning on having at least 5 hard drives installed.)
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99 (From what I can see this is pretty good and one of the cheapest options.)
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £32.99 (I wanted to reduce the price with this compared to the previous ones. I'm not sure how good this is though.)
Total : £122.96 (includes shipping : FREE).



As well as this I am considering the Intel G2020 which is not currently sold by overclockers. This retails at about £50.

Finally the case has been quite a problem. I still cannot decide whether or not I should go with a rack mountable case. The choices I am down to now are:

  • Antec 300 (Obviously well known and has a good reputation.)
  • CiT Vantage Gaming Case - £30 (A friend has this and it's pretty quiet.)
  • Hopefully this isn't against the rules as I don't think they are a competitor. But I have found the PlinkUSA 4U Intelligent Green Saving 3x5.25"+ 8x3.5" + 1x2.5"HDD Bays Chassis. This looks awesome but I would need to get it from America which would cost about £85 overall. The problem with rackmount cases is that I am not really aware of any particularly quiet ones as this is not really their purpose.
What are peoples thoughts?

Thanks :)
 
Ok so the final parts list were:
  • Antec 300 Three Hundred Case Black
  • Intel Pentium Dual Core G2120 3.10GHz S1155 3MB
  • XFX 450W ProSeries 80Plus Bronze Core Edition Full Wired PSU
  • Gigabyte B75M-D3V S1155 Intel B75 DDR3 mATX
  • Crucial 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz Ballistix Sport
One thing that I haven't included, though I'm hoping isn't necessary is a CPU cooler. Is this needed for a server? It is going to be on 24/7.

Thanks :)
 
Thanks again.

It's more the space on the motherboard that I am worried about though! As it's only m-ATX it can't block any of the RAM slots as it only has 2!

Can anyone confirm this will be fine as well?
 
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