Hi, I'm trying to build a server computer for a small/mid-sized business, but I don't know which components I should focus my cash in. Could anyone give me a list of which parts are most important? Or maybe a list of recommended parts/companies?
Most important components in a server?
- Thread starter lilxkrn
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Harddrives die the most in servers so buy the best possible, other then that you will need speed so multiple CPUs or atleast a dual core one, RAM and multiple HDs
- May 13, 2003
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Absolutely true. Nothing like having hds fail because there isn't enough power. And nothing hurts more than a RAID 5 array going down and losing all of your data because of the PSU(s).
Well depends on the type of server you are making but I'd say get yourself at least LGA2011 server motherboard with 2 XEON CPU's, 250GB Registered RAM, RAID card, 3x 3TB highperformance Hard disks and 1x 240g SSD.
That should solve 3 issues that servers might run into if not taken notice in planing stage speed, storage space and stability.
What components you need to invest depends on what kind of server you are running.
If you aren't sure what kind of PC you need then it might be just cheaper to rent a server rather than building one yourself.
Buy something with a warranty from Dell or HP. Which components you get depends on how mission critical the system is. Redundant power supplies, RAID configurations, RAM that can utilize hot spares can all be added to a system to make it more resilient.
Hope you buy a real blade server and not a pc case looking server.
Here is a very good example of a very tiny server room:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQyUnsN4EAg
You can get pretty decent used server racks for under $800
Here is a very good example of a very tiny server room:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQyUnsN4EAg
You can get pretty decent used server racks for under $800
dave_the_nerd
Lifer
- Feb 25, 2011
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If you're building a server for somebody else, and have to ask about which components are important, you should probably be buying an HP/Dell/Lenovo server instead.
Because in 2 years 11 months when the thing lights itself on fire and destroys their data, backups, and the building, guess who has two thumbs and isn't liable?
::does his "this guy" happy dance::
Anyway, if you're dead set on building it yourself for some reason (protip: you don't save any money) you want:
Xeon CPUs
ECC RAM
Dual PSUs
Power Filter/UPS
Networking is important, like corky said, but it depends on the system - I'd worry more about expensive Intel NICs on a file server than I would on an email server.
re: what Tsuwamono said, hard drives are a funny thing - if you have a big population, it's sometimes cheaper to buy crappy ones and accept the higher failure rate (depending on how much money you save on individual drives.) For a small population (<10), I'd buy whichever brands/models won the last BackBlaze population study - it might be a few bucks more, but with any luck, you won't have any failures for the life of the server.
Because in 2 years 11 months when the thing lights itself on fire and destroys their data, backups, and the building, guess who has two thumbs and isn't liable?
::does his "this guy" happy dance::
Anyway, if you're dead set on building it yourself for some reason (protip: you don't save any money) you want:
Xeon CPUs
ECC RAM
Dual PSUs
Power Filter/UPS
Networking is important, like corky said, but it depends on the system - I'd worry more about expensive Intel NICs on a file server than I would on an email server.
re: what Tsuwamono said, hard drives are a funny thing - if you have a big population, it's sometimes cheaper to buy crappy ones and accept the higher failure rate (depending on how much money you save on individual drives.) For a small population (<10), I'd buy whichever brands/models won the last BackBlaze population study - it might be a few bucks more, but with any luck, you won't have any failures for the life of the server.
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Case with good airflow. Harddrives can be damaged simply because they are too close together and they are heating up. Anandtech wrote an article a while back about building a server built using only SSD's. Most people probably cant afford that.
One other most important factor is having a system to back up your server. Whatever can go wrong, will!
Of course drives are nice but server software or OS often recommend lots of RAM. The more RAM you can utilize the less swapping of data gets done on the hard drives.
A lot of this depends what you are using your server for the number of users you expect accessing it at any one time and what kind of peak load you will expect compared to the average low load. For instance at a community college peak load might be during.
At the college we use an application for the database and an SQL SERVER.
One other most important factor is having a system to back up your server. Whatever can go wrong, will!
Of course drives are nice but server software or OS often recommend lots of RAM. The more RAM you can utilize the less swapping of data gets done on the hard drives.
A lot of this depends what you are using your server for the number of users you expect accessing it at any one time and what kind of peak load you will expect compared to the average low load. For instance at a community college peak load might be during.
At the college we use an application for the database and an SQL SERVER.
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