Building a home server need a case

[fatboy95]

I currently have collected several items to build a server (FreeNAS, UnRaid, or WHS) still have to decide on what OS I will use.. but what I do have is a Intel M/B 12x13 (dual xeon 3.0CPU's) and currently x2 raid cards (support x8 drives each)... the big thing is I have x6 ICY Dock 3x3.5" in 2x5.25" SAS/SATA bays to install HDD's.

I am looking for a case that will support all x6 ICY Dock similar to the one in this story from ICY Dock.. sent a message to them asking but no response as of yet.. but trying to keep the case under $200.00 if possible.

http://www.icydock.com/icy_tip/icy_tip_FreeNAS_unRAID_WHS_icy_dock_module.html

Thanks for the help.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I currently have collected several items to build a server (FreeNAS, UnRaid, or WHS) still have to decide on what OS I will use.. but what I do have is a Intel M/B 12x13 (dual xeon 3.0CPU's) and currently x2 raid cards (support x8 drives each)... the big thing is I have x6 ICY Dock 3x3.5" in 2x5.25" SAS/SATA bays to install HDD's.

I am looking for a case that will support all x6 ICY Dock similar to the one in this story from ICY Dock.. sent a message to them asking but no response as of yet.. but trying to keep the case under $200.00 if possible.

http://www.icydock.com/icy_tip/icy_tip_FreeNAS_unRAID_WHS_icy_dock_module.html

Thanks for the help.

I wouldn't discourage you in the least on this. I'm just a bit flabbergasted at the ambitiousness of it all. I've had a server of one type or another since 2000, and the practice was to pick the oldest but problem-free computer and configure it as I could. Originally, I'd just collect all my old (but still working) HDDs and configure them as JBOD.

Then, I bought my first (IDE) RAID controller and had something like four drives in RAID5. [I think there was nothing wrong with the motherboard (512MB RAM, though) -- And I have to see if I ever recycled it.] Then, I had a spare LGA_775 with E8400 and set it up under WHS "VAil" v.1. That was great, but I never fully explored its capability before I chose migrating to WHS 2011.

I don't need RAID5. With the Stablebit Drivepool plug-in, you get selective file duplication; you can unhinge any drive from the pool or add another drive to it as desired. The system backs up drive images of all the household workstatiions daily -- backup is incremental after the first one, so it doesn't take a lot of time. the Axonet Lights-Out add-in manages the sleep states for all machines in the house -- waking them up for backup and putting them back to sleep when finished. I can archive DVR media files and stream them all over the house.

So for me, all I need is a $90 case with room for maybe five or six 1TB drives, a 60GB SSD for boot-system, and a couple hot-swap bays and caddies.

 

[jaedaliu]

Seems like any case with 4 of 5.25" external bays should work. But I have no experience with that hardware, so I can't be sure.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Seems like any case with 4 of 5.25" external bays should work. But I have no experience with that hardware, so I can't be sure.

Well, it's a worthy question to explore. On the one hand, you may want a home server for backup and shared storage. On the other, you may want to build one as a web server. Either way, it begs another question: "How much stuff are you going to store there? Are you hosting e-mail accounts for subscribers -- offering storage to the public?"

The OP's post spurred me to look into my own foreseeable needs. My WHS currently resides in a HAF 922 case. Storage is now only 3TB in a pool of 3 1TB HDDs. I'm going to add a fourth shortly, after I clone the boot-system HDD to a 60GB SSD. I've got room in there for maybe another four HDDs. And I can take my time by replacing each 1TB HDD with a 2TB drive until the system contains 8TB. For what?! Media? Movies? The Library of Congress converted to PDF? I think I could get the Library of Congress stored on a couple TB's.

So then, you want to weigh in the balance -- storage volume, duplication or replication, ease of backup and power consumption. You could find 3TB drives using the same amount of power to replace my 1TB'ers. As long as the OS duplicates the data as I choose, that's also good, but I want drives that have 5-year warranties and good prospects for longevity.

If you have five or so computer users in the household, you don't need a server-farm, you don't need super-fast RAID arrays, and you don't want to expand power-consumption.

If the OP is going to build the system with dual Xeon's on a special server motherboard, he either has some serious purpose involving lots of traffic in mind, or he's just fortunate enough to have those parts. But nobody in the house here complains about speed or access with my C2D Conroe server box.

A balance, I'd say . .

 

[jaedaliu]

Well, it's a worthy question to explore. On the one hand, you may want a home server for backup and shared storage. On the other, you may want to build one as a web server. Either way, it begs another question: "How much stuff are you going to store there? Are you hosting e-mail accounts for subscribers -- offering storage to the public?"

The OP's post spurred me to look into my own foreseeable needs. My WHS currently resides in a HAF 922 case. Storage is now only 3TB in a pool of 3 1TB HDDs. I'm going to add a fourth shortly, after I clone the boot-system HDD to a 60GB SSD. I've got room in there for maybe another four HDDs. And I can take my time by replacing each 1TB HDD with a 2TB drive until the system contains 8TB. For what?! Media? Movies? The Library of Congress converted to PDF? I think I could get the Library of Congress stored on a couple TB's.

So then, you want to weigh in the balance -- storage volume, duplication or replication, ease of backup and power consumption. You could find 3TB drives using the same amount of power to replace my 1TB'ers. As long as the OS duplicates the data as I choose, that's also good, but I want drives that have 5-year warranties and good prospects for longevity.

If you have five or so computer users in the household, you don't need a server-farm, you don't need super-fast RAID arrays, and you don't want to expand power-consumption.

If the OP is going to build the system with dual Xeon's on a special server motherboard, he either has some serious purpose involving lots of traffic in mind, or he's just fortunate enough to have those parts. But nobody in the house here complains about speed or access with my C2D Conroe server box.

A balance, I'd say . .

I think you're overthinking the question.

He wants a case that will fit his hot swappable drive bays, which total 4 5.25" slots. The questions you're coming up with are a completely different discussion.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I think you're overthinking the question.

He wants a case that will fit his hot swappable drive bays, which total 4 5.25" slots. The questions you're coming up with are a completely different discussion.

Good point and I stand corrected. All business-class servers have all their drives in hot-swap bays. I can put four such bays in my HAF and still have one left for an optical drive or USB hub.

But on a lot of cases these days, while you don't get "hot-swap" for physical ease, you can set the drive plugs in the BIOS for hot-swap so that you can dismount and unplug the drive -- I think! I supposed I'd be a bit antsy for removing the SATA power cable, but then, that's what you do with a dismounted hot-swap caddy.

If it needs hot-swap hardware that doesn't come with the case, I could imagine a cost of another $100. And -- I love my hot-swap bays and caddies -- got 'em in all my systems! But how useful they are depends on how frequently you play musical chairs with the disks, or encounter failure requiring on-the-fly replacement. And that depends on the number of users, their access and the punishment they dole out to the storage system.

But that's my opinion, and the OP may make choices about his server that are different from mine. And I said that at the beginning.