Server specing

coops1992

coops1992

coops1992

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Joined
5 Jun 2011
Posts
218
Location
London
Hello.

Looking for a very cheep build. I need a bundle for under £100. All I need is motherboard ram CPU and heat sink have everything else.

The kit needs inboard graphics and be able to run 64bit of of windows home server 2011
 
It's a Used product; it was bought by someone but returned to OcUK. There is nothing wrong with it though, fully working products (or you can return it if faulty).
 
The model ABOVE that Athlon compared with the model BELOW that Pentium. (closest comparison I could find).

255 vs G620 rather than 250 vs G630

So the difference will be slightly greater between the two chips mentioned above than in this benchmark comparison.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/121?vs=406

Also the Pentium spec is more futureproofed, has a better motherboard, twice the RAM which also runs at a faster speed, though the motherboard sparx has selected will only utilise the RAM at 1333MHz, not at its rated speed of 1600MHz. The Athlon's have been completely phased out now, I would never even consider buying one, and I am baffled as to why OcUK still have this bundle. My guess is that they are trying to get rid of old stock.

Still well worth the extra £20, but I would spend another £10 atop that to get a motherboard that can utilise the maximum rated speed of the RAM, and there is better RAM around for the same price as shown below. Also the motherboards in the spec's below are not customer return boards and so will come in the original box with ALL of the accessories. Some B Grade motherboards are missing things you would ordinarily want like the I.O plate.

My contribution.

AMD Spec:

CPU performs on par with or slightly ahead of the G630 for processing, and is far better for graphical tasks because of the far superior onboard graphics (though this may be of no interest to you of course). It does this while consuming the same amount of power as the G630.
RAM is of a far better brand than TeamGroup. Corsair are one of the best component manufacturers in the world, and the timings are tighter too.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD540KOKHJBOX) £53.99
1 x ASRock FM2A55M-DGS AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
Total : £134.87 (includes shipping : £8.25).



Or for the Intel route:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Pentium G630 2.70GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £49.99
1 x Asus P8H61-MX USB 3.0 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - OEM ** £39.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
Total : £130.46 (includes shipping : £8.75).



The same G630 recommended earlier, but this time with a better brand of memory, and a motherboard that can actually utilise the full 1600MHz and not limit it to 1333MHz.

In my opinion, worth the extra £10 over Sparx's spec.

Personally if it were me, I would buy the AMD spec in this instance, because I believe it offers the best price to performance ratio.

Though I would ordinarily fight Intel's corner, in this price range you can't ignore Trinity.
 
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Sparx said:
This is the best I think you'll find.. Unless you get used from the MM.
Click to expand...

I disagree Sparx, the motherboard cannot utilise the 1600MHz rated speed of the RAM you have chosen, it will limit it to 1333MHz.

Furthermore the board is a B grade one, these boards are well known for having accessories such as the IO plate missing, they also have less warranty.

Also the RAM you have selected is not the best 1600MHz RAM available in that price range, the XMS3 1600MHz is the same price and offers far tighter timings (9,9,9 as opposed to a lazy 11,11,11). Corsair are also a well known and well trusted brand, whereas TeamGroup are a new kid on the block, and all the while there are alternatives for the same price, I wouldn't touch them.

There is also the option for Trinity as I have shown above, which in this price group may be a better option as it offers more all round performance while using the same wattage as the G630.

:)
 
acme15 said:
I disagree Sparx, the motherboard cannot utilise the 1600MHz rated speed of the RAM you have chosen, it will limit it to 1333MHz.

Furthermore the board is a B grade one, these boards are well known for having accessories such as the IO plate missing, they also have less warranty.

Also the RAM you have selected is not the best 1600MHz RAM available in that price range, the XMS3 1600MHz is the same price and offers far tighter timings (9,9,9 as opposed to a lazy 11,11,11). Corsair are also a well known and well trusted brand, whereas TeamGroup are a new kid on the block, and all the while there are alternatives for the same price, I wouldn't touch them.

There is also the option for Trinity as I have shown above, which in this price group may be a better option as it offers more all round performance while using the same wattage as the G630.

:)
Click to expand...

- I've just bought 2 of those B Grade boards yesterday for some budget rigs; both came with I/O plates, hence I suggested it for a budget build.
- The RAM is still cheaper and he won't notice a real world difference.
- It's a budget build, I've used TeamGroup kits as well for builds, nothing wrong with them.
- Your Trinity build is a good spec and a viable option, I just showed him an Intel spec on a budget.

:)
 
Sparx said:
- I've just bought 2 of those B Grade boards yesterday for some budget rigs; both came with I/O plates, hence I suggested it for a budget build.
- The RAM is still cheaper and he won't notice a real world difference.
- It's a budget build, I've used TeamGroup kits as well for builds, nothing wrong with them.
- Your Trinity build is a good spec and a viable option, I just showed him an Intel spec on a budget.

:)
Click to expand...

The RAM is the same price as the Corsair though, and the corsair is still better :p

Fair points though :)
 
Gigabyte H61MA-D2V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £42.98
Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £32.99
Avexir Blitz Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD3U13330902G-2GW) £14.99
Sub Total : £75.80
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £16.91
Total : £101.46

Not as fast as the other builds, but this is almost on budget and importantly all in stock. :)

The Mobo does have USB 3 which could be useful.
 
Thanks for all the specs! Lots of food for thought.

Bearing in mind it's a back room rig that will have 6 2TB data drives in it And running windows home server 2011 graphics isn't important.

For this application what spec would best suit it? 10/100/1000 Ethernet is a must obviously but which spec would give me the fastest transfer speeds?
 
I have a sata card sitting in a draw at the moment so that's not a problem. Which of the specs would be fastest and best suited for what I need?
 
The fastest is a very close toss up between the Trinity spec, and the second Pentium spec (the one in my post that Sparx and I were discussing). I honestly don't think you will notice a performance difference between the two unless you run graphical applications at any point, in which case the Trinity setup is better. Though I know you said you wont, hence why I said they would be about the same as far as you are concerned.

The Pentium spec would allow for you to upgrade the CPU to a Sandybridge or Ivybridge i3, i5 or even i7 in the future should you need to, it also supports USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0, and supports a maximum of 16GB of RAM. It also has 6 SATA ports (two SATA 6gb/s, four SATA 3gb/s) http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61MX_USB3/#specifications

The Trinity spec does not support SATA 6gb/s, USB 3.0 or PCI-E 3.0, and you cannot upgrade the CPU anywhere near as far. (the highest you can go is the A10 which is on par with the i3) however it does still have 6 SATA connectors and can support up to 32gb of RAM (despite having only 2 RAM slots, and 16GB DDR3 modules are difficult to buy and are obscenely expensive at about £180 per stick) http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/FM2A55M-DGS/?cat=Specifications

Overall I would take the Pentium spec in my earlier post.
 
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This board has 8 SATA connectors http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-087-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2307

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock B75M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Intel Pentium G630 2.70GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £49.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
Total : £142.87 (includes shipping : £8.25).



However it does translate as an extra tenner.
This board is more aimed at budget gamers, so it may be slight overkill, especially as you have a SATA card already. BUT it does have EIGHT SATA connectors, which could prove handy :p
 
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Is this machine going to be primarily a file-server? Just sitting there, as network attached storage, needing to have quick transfer rates but not much else? Just plentiful SATA ports, a gigabit ethernet socket, and enough power to buzz along controlling hard drives?

If so you could go with something a-lot cheaper.

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock H61M-GS Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro Motherboard £38.99
1 x Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £32.99
1 x Avexir Blitz Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD3U13330902G-2GW) £14.99
Total : £97.46 (includes shipping : £8.75).



for example.

The board does have only 4 SATA ports, but as you said, you have a SATA card.

Or for the sake of £45 you could go with the bundle in my previous post, and get a stronger CPU, twice as much RAM and a motherboard with more expandability and upgrade-ability, on a newer chipset, with 8 SATA ports, including 2 SATA 6gb/s ports.
 
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the rigg will be sitting in the utility room file serving with WHS2011.

I have this processor at the moment

http://ark.intel.com/products/27249/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E6400-2M-Cache-2_13-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB

I also have 2 sticks of 2GB RAM ... Corsair XMS2-6400 Main Memory DDR2 2 GB CL5 240 DIMM

The motherboard they use to be on only has 2 sata connections and my PCI sata card only has 2 and i need 6 in total so i just need a new motherboard if i can find one compatable with the RAM and CPU. Same budget

Would any of the mentioned motherboards be compatable?
The processor was £140 when i got it and seams a waste.
 
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