Please check my server spec list

rofle · 8 Jan 2013 at 08:44

Looking at building a new unRAID server and this is my spec list. I was going to go with an AMD CPU but I can't find an AM3 board that has 2 PCI-E ports for the SAS cards, and VGA output.

CPU: Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz
MOBO: Asus P8H61-MX
RAM: Crucial 2GB PC3-10600 DDR3 x2
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M
CARD(S): Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card
HDD: 4x WD 3TB Green (for the moment.. more added over time until all bays are full)

As for the case, I'm stuck between the Antec 1200 with 4 added 5-in-3 drive bays, or the Norco RPC-4220 or RPC-4224. The rackmount case would make things a lot easier I think, but they're overall more expensive to get here in the UK, even with the added cost of the drive bays for the Antec 1200.

rofle · 8 Jan 2013 at 13:43

zakblood said:
looks like a good spec, plenty of storage but for me i'd add a bit more ram maybe, depending on what your doing etc

using WHS?

I'll be using unRAID. It really doesn't need much RAM to function well, 4GB is the maximum it currently supports so there's no point in going for any more.

JonJ678 said:
You're missing ECC memory. Otherwise the spec will suffice, home servers aren't exactly under heavy load. Difficult to see the benefit to the card over onboard sata ports. (edit: checked the price. Appears to be £80, give or take. Pretty sure that's not going to offer any advantage over the onboard ports. Buy a motherboard with more sata ports instead)

Rackmount - you're not trusting 9TB of company data to a budget server without a backup, right?

I'm going for the cards for the same reason I'm going for a case which has a lot of bays, or at least a lot of room for adding extra bays. For expansion. I will only be using 4 drives at first, but after a while this will be expanded a lot. There should be 20 drives in total when I'm done.

It's not company data, and yes I will have at least a partial backup of the most important data, on another server which is currently running WHS, however I will probably change this to unRAID when the main server it set up.

rofle · 8 Jan 2013 at 19:45

Also by rackmount do you mean yes, that's the better option?

rofle · 9 Jan 2013 at 11:00

I've read about the M1015s but I haven't been able to find any that are so significantly cheaper than the Supermicro cards to the point where the saving would warrant the extra hassle for the IBM cards.

I've gone for the rackmount case. I don't have a rack currently but I may look at getting a small one in the future. I got a 24-bay rackmount for roughly the same price it would have cost for the Antec 1200 + drive cages.