• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Looking to build a small home server

T

thetuna

Member
Hi all, I had good luck with your recommendations a few years back on a gaming pc and am looking for advice on a home server.

To fill out the list...

1. What YOUR PC will be used for.
Hosting files and small personal projects for <10 users.
Connected via gigabit ethernet.
Nothing mission critical that can't see downtime.

2. What YOUR budget is.
I just dropped 1000 on hard drives and my credit card is a bit sore.
Something like a $1000 raid card is out of the question but I don't want to cheap out on the rest of the parts if there is a justification.
That said, I don't know what this should cost at all, $700 for the rest of the parts?

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
CT, USA; newegg, amazon, etc.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference.
Typically prefer Intel/nvidia.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
6x HGST Deskstar NAS 4TB

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
This will be running 24/7, so low power consumption would be nice.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
None.
Might eventually use it as a media center, but not in the immediate future.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Now.

X. Do you need to purchase any software?
Hopefully not.

I want to use this case: Silverstone DS380B because I think it looks nice 🙂
That would limit me to an ITX mobo, so if it has to go, it has to go 🙁

The 6 hard drives will be in raid6, or something similar.

What do you guys suggest?
 
Well, if you have drives and a case, all you need otherwise is a RAM/Mobo?CPU combo and a PSU. (And something to boot from.)

This would work for what you have:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9yq88d

If you wanted to fill the last to HDD bays, you'd need a SATA card though.

Add a thumb drive to boot FreeNAS or the Linux Distro of your choice.

There are other server-oriented ITX boards with dual NICs, but they don't always have as many SATA ports and they're more expensive. It's touchy.

What's your backup-the-server plan?
 
Last edited:
Fractal Design Node 304 or the Lian Li Q-25B seem like they might be a fine choice for a case also. They're $50-60 cheaper and have 6x 3.5'' bays, and then you could throw FreeNAS on a USB stick.
 
I'd think maybe something like this:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dtZCZL
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dtZCZL/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor ($127.49 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PERFORMANCE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.00 @ Amazon)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial V4 32GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($39.95 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill Line Glow ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $450.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-22 21:13 EDT-0400

Low power i3, 16GB of RAM (some NAS solutions can benefit by lots of RAM), and a 80+ PSU with 8 SATA connectors with a case that can handle all of your drives. In addition, a very small SSD to load some sort of NAS OS (some recommend USB here, but for $40 and a storage solution that everything accesses, I'd much prefer a drive built for such use and not a USB drive designed for random use.
 
Thanks dave, this is kind of an impulsive thing, I didn't even realize the new chipsets had 6 sata ports!

I like the dual (triple?) NICs on these Gigabyte boards; although I don't know what it would take to get them to play together, having completely different manufacturers.
Is there any reason at all to spend the extra $20 between H97 and Z97, since I have no need for overclocking?

Essence_of_War, the case isn't a rational decision, I just like how it looks 🙂


As for backups, I won't have anything I'd cry over on this box.
I'll try to keep everything backed up on my current hodgepodge of drives (20+TB ranging over 7 years), but if I'm honest with myself that will probably end up happening less than monthly.
 
mvbighead said:
I'd think maybe something like this:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dtZCZL
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dtZCZL/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor ($127.49 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PERFORMANCE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.00 @ Amazon)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial V4 32GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($39.95 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill Line Glow ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $450.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-22 21:13 EDT-0400

Low power i3, 16GB of RAM (some NAS solutions can benefit by lots of RAM), and a 80+ PSU with 8 SATA connectors with a case that can handle all of your drives. In addition, a very small SSD to load some sort of NAS OS (some recommend USB here, but for $40 and a storage solution that everything accesses, I'd much prefer a drive built for such use and not a USB drive designed for random use.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, wondering about the necessity for the SSD and a 550W PSU. Also, if OP is considering FreeNAS, I would recommend ECC memory which would move you to an AMD AM3+ based system or server grade hardware. FreeNAS without ECC memory can (and at some point, will) perpetuate memory errors onto your stored files.

In reality, though, if OP is just wanting it to store and serve files across a home network, then something like unRAID would be a perfect solution and would use less power than a ZFS or hardware RAID setup. If you end up that route, then 16GB of memory is about 14GB more than he'll need. In fact, the dual core i3 is overkill for an unRAID setup.

OP may even want to consider a Windows based system running FlexRAID or SnapRAID.
 
smitbret said:
Hmmmm, wondering about the necessity for the SSD and a 550W PSU. Also, if OP is considering FreeNAS, I would recommend ECC memory which would move you to an AMD AM3+ based system or server grade hardware. FreeNAS without ECC memory can (and at some point, will) perpetuate memory errors onto your stored files.
Click to expand...

So will any other storage system. It's not like ZFS is more vulnerable to data being corrupted in memory than another filesystem (I know we've discussed this in the past in great depth).
 
Here's what I'd build for $700:

Core i3 4150 $117 AP
GA-H97N-WIFI $98 AR - 6 SATA ports built-in, can add a PCIe SATA controller later when you want to expand
G.Skill DDR3 1600 8GB $77 - single DIMM for later upgrade
HDD $0 - already bought
Seasonic 350W SFX $45 - plenty of power for drives
DS380B $150 - because you like it
Total: $487

That's a powerful little box that can serve all your drives with room for expansion. If you're running a *nix based solution, you can easily set it up to boot from a USB drive.
 
mfenn said:
So will any other storage system. It's not like ZFS is more vulnerable to data being corrupted in memory than another filesystem (I know we've discussed this in the past in great depth).
Click to expand...

Without digging in, and I haven't read into this in awhile, I thought that there were some unique features in ZFS that caused a memory error to be compounded on the storage array if it wasn't caught and corrected.
 
smitbret said:
Without digging in, and I haven't read into this in awhile, I thought that there were some unique features in ZFS that caused a memory error to be compounded on the storage array if it wasn't caught and corrected.
Click to expand...

You're probably thinking of this post. The scenario described there relies on an incredible confluence of low-probability events:

- A memory bit is "stuck" for a long period of time (seconds) without completely crashing the system.
- The storage system reads/writes data from the same data blocks into that physical memory location

However, what the poster doesn't mention is that the two events above will trash data in any filesystem, parity or no.
 
mfenn said:
You're probably thinking of this post. The scenario described there relies on an incredible confluence of low-probability events:

- A memory bit is "stuck" for a long period of time (seconds) without completely crashing the system.
- The storage system reads/writes data from the same data blocks into that physical memory location

However, what the poster doesn't mention is that the two events above will trash data in any filesystem, parity or no.
Click to expand...

Yep, that might not be the article I read, but that seems to be the issue that I remember researching.

I just hate the idea that I could have spent $10 more and gotten ECC memory and eliminated the issue altogether. Granted ECC memory will have a much greater purpose in an enterprise system where millions and millions of writed will occur in a short period of time but why take the chance?
 
smitbret said:
Yep, that might not be the article I read, but that seems to be the issue that I remember researching.

I just hate the idea that I could have spent $10 more and gotten ECC memory and eliminated the issue altogether. Granted ECC memory will have a much greater purpose in an enterprise system where millions and millions of writed will occur in a short period of time but why take the chance?
Click to expand...

I actually just discovered that the i3 4150 supports ECC. So then you just need a chipset with the appropriate ECC support.

This Tyan S5533GM2NR-LE (C222 chipset) is a Mini-ITX 1150 board with ECC support for $160. You can then pick up an 8GB stick of DDR3 1600 ECC (unbuffered only) like this Kingston for $93. That adds $78 to my build, but still fits nicely within the OPs budget should he want to go that route.
 
Thanks for the input!
After a bit of reading, I've decided I want to go with FreeNAS and ECC ram.

I got the mobo & 16GB of the ram you recommended, mfenn.

As well as an i3-4160 for $120, and this 450W Silverstone PSU.
It's pretty expensive, but the seasonic PSUs look like they don't actually comply with the SFX form factor.

I'll update once I get all the parts together 🙂
 
thetuna said:
Thanks for the input!
After a bit of reading, I've decided I want to go with FreeNAS and ECC ram.

I got the mobo & 16GB of the ram you recommended, mfenn.

As well as an i3-4160 for $120, and this 450W Silverstone PSU.
It's pretty expensive, but the seasonic PSUs look like they don't actually comply with the SFX form factor.

I'll update once I get all the parts together 🙂
Click to expand...

Excellent choice. For just a few bucks, ECC can provide great piece of mind.
 
thetuna said:
Thanks for the input!
After a bit of reading, I've decided I want to go with FreeNAS and ECC ram.

I got the mobo & 16GB of the ram you recommended, mfenn.

As well as an i3-4160 for $120, and this 450W Silverstone PSU.
It's pretty expensive, but the seasonic PSUs look like they don't actually comply with the SFX form factor.

I'll update once I get all the parts together 🙂
Click to expand...

I think that I'd avoid the i3 4160 if possible since it's a Haswell Refresh, and server boards tend to be low volume parts. Therefore, the board might not have a new enough BIOS to run the 4160 out of the box.
 
Isn't the i3-4150 Haswell Refresh as well?

Tyan's website is fairly ambiguous, simply stating: "Supported CPU Series Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3 & 4th Gen. Core i3 series processors".

There's also a BIOS update from April stating: "support HSW-R CPU".
 
thetuna said:
Isn't the i3-4150 Haswell Refresh as well?

Tyan's website is fairly ambiguous, simply stating: "Supported CPU Series Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3 & 4th Gen. Core i3 series processors".

There's also a BIOS update from April stating: "support HSW-R CPU".
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm sure with a BIOS update it will support all Haswell Refresh CPUs, but the question is what is supported out of the box. The i3 4150 is an SR1P* instead of an SR1N*, so I think you're right that it is Refresh as well.
 
Avoid ECC ram. You simply don't need it. Having all the ECC ram won't stop data from being messed up when hard drive or raid is at fault. Hardrive and raid failure is pretty much the only thing contributing to corruptions.
 
imaheadcase said:
Avoid ECC ram. You simply don't need it. Having all the ECC ram won't stop data from being messed up when hard drive or raid is at fault. Hardrive and raid failure is pretty much the only thing contributing to corruptions.
Click to expand...

This is a very ignorant statement. You obviously have no idea the purpose for ECC RAM. It has nothing to do with hardware failure.
 
imaheadcase said:
Avoid ECC ram. You simply don't need it. Having all the ECC ram won't stop data from being messed up when hard drive or raid is at fault. Hardrive and raid failure is pretty much the only thing contributing to corruptions.
Click to expand...

This is absolutely wrong in the case of ZFS. When used with ZFS's block checksumming features, ECC memory provides a totally protected and verified path for the data. If the data is corrupted on disk, then ZFS will correct it. The correction happens even without ECC RAM, which is why you can usually do without it, but having ECC RAM gives you a higher level of protection.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top