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WHS build

VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
I was originally going to build a file server using XP, using a ThermalTake Armor, and five 3-in-2 adaptors, for a total of 15 HDs, plus a boot drive. I was planning on using a motherboard that had five PCI slots, and four PCI PNY S-cure 5-port SATA RAID cards.

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82e16811133154
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186146

Then, I found out about the Norco 4020 case, which has 20 hot-swap HD bays in the front of it. So I bought one, for $300 off of Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=norco%204020

That case turned out to be so huge, I don't have anywhere to put it in my apt. And the bag of very asst screws, without any assembly directions was a bit intimidating. So I put off building my storage server.

I had also purchased five 500GB 7200.11 drives, and six 750GB 7200.11 drives, some 1.5-2 years ago. I got a really good deal on them then, so good that prices today match what I paid for them back then.

I finally broke out the five 500GB HDs, upgraded the firmware on each one, and put them into an Antec 300 case that houses my Q6600 @ 3.6. I also hooked up one of my S-Cure raid cards. Well, those raid cards are rather inflexible. It appears that they don't support array sizes over 2TB, so I am limited to using them with 500GB HDs. They don't support splitting the total physical disk array into multiple logical volumes either.

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16816110002

I was thinking of going with a bunch of 2TB Hitachi 7200RPM drives, Microcenter has them for $150 now. So I would have to get a different HD controller.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0315534

I've decided to go with a Chieftec Dragon full tower as the case, at least it stands up on it's own on the floor, rather than the 4U case that is the Norco 4020. If I use two of the 3-in-2 units, then I can fit six HDs in the upper four 5.25" bays, and fit six more HDs in the lower two 3-drive removable bays. So that's 12 total 2TB drives, or 24TB in total. Not too shabby.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811160027

So the remaining question is, which controller cards to use.

I already own two of these Syba 4-port PCI SATA controller cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815124020

I was thinking of using these 8-port PCI-X cards, which work in PCI slots, allegedly.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815121009

If I were to use the Norco case, then I would get two of the 8-port cards and then use the onboard mobo ports for the rest. But if I use the Dragon case, then I only need 12 SATA ports. I was thinking about using this AM3 mobo.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128419

It has four PCI slots, and is otherwise very modern, sporting AM3, USB3, and SATA3. It also has 8 SATA ports.

So if I use that mobo, then I could use my two PCI 4-port SATA cards, and I would be all set. I could also use the IDE port for a couple of DVD burners.
 
Really scary using 8 port cards and limiting them to 133MB/s PCI bandwidth. Figure 8x 7200.11's will do 800MB/s+ if not bus limited.

If you have to buy a motherboard, make sure it has a PCIe slot or two. Just to play around I bought an Intel H55 mATX board today ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-394-_-Product ) just to play around with. Onboard GPU (planned pairing with a i3 530 for $99 at microcenter), onboard intel gigabit lan, and a PCIe slot!

With that PCIe slot, you can use a real raid controller, and still add a x1 Intel NIC's if you want more throughput from the server alongside a x1 TV tuner.

On cards, with WHS you don't really need to have RAID. Adding a raid 5/6 array is doable, but is harder to maintain, and you really want to be running an Areca/Adaptec/LSI based card, with battery backup if you try it. If you really want an 8 port Supermicro card, try the AOC-USASLP-L8I which is a PCIe SAS card and isn't much more. Motherboard SATA + that card will give you 12+ ports.

Either way, get something PCIe for your controller, PCI is dying and some of the faster spindle drives can transfer over 133MB/s max.
 
pjkenned said:
If you really want an 8 port Supermicro card, try the AOC-USASLP-L8I which is a PCIe SAS card and isn't much more. Motherboard SATA + that card will give you 12+ ports.
Click to expand...

What's "UIO"? Because that's a UIO form-factor. The interface is PCI-E, but it looks like the connector is offset some inches, doesn't look like it would fit into a standard PCI-E slot.

Edit: Is it better for a WHS, that's going to remain powered-on all the time, to be low-power, or to have CPU power?
 
Last edited:
Hey Larry, I was poking around Newegg last night for another WHS question on another forum, what do you think about this case instead of the Chieftec?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147125

It's a Rosewill, but 9 5.25" bays...use the 5-in-3 adapters and you could fit 15 drives! Or more likely, maybe a couple 5-in-3's, a 3-in-2, and a DVD drive for 13. It's cheaper, and has better cooling (a top, rear and front 120mm fans).

As far as CPU power, what are you planning on doing with this thing? If it's just gonna be a file server/backup machine you won't need much--especially with hardware controllers. If you will do more with it then go for more, I have a 45W dual-core AMD in mine, it idles under 50W with a 640GB Blue and 1TB Green. But it has a little oomph if I ever need it.
Have you considered virtualizing the WHS? Seems like an interesting way to go with the pass through abilities of some of the modern virtualizing solutions, and gives you freedom to put any other server installs or experiments on the same machine. I'm considering trying it this summer.
 
VirtualLarry said:
What's "UIO"? Because that's a UIO form-factor. The interface is PCI-E, but it looks like the connector is offset some inches, doesn't look like it would fit into a standard PCI-E slot.
Click to expand...

UIO is electrically PCI-E, but a "custom" form factor for Supermicro's servers. The components are just on the "wrong" side of the card, so it'll work fine, but you might have to mess with the retention bracket.

If you don't need RAID, I'd suggest looking at the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8. It'll run 8 drives as a normal, non-RAID SAS adapter. It's PCI-E as well, and runs around $100. Basically, the newer, PCI-E version of the Supermicro PCI-X card that you linked earlier. The other thing to consider is that you'll need forward breakout SFF-8087 to SATA cables for either that or the USASLP-L8I, in order to hook them up to regular SATA drives. I think newegg carries some Norco ones for $10-15 each.
 
notposting said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147125

It's a Rosewill, but 9 5.25" bays...use the 5-in-3 adapters and you could fit 15 drives! Or more likely, maybe a couple 5-in-3's, a 3-in-2, and a DVD drive for 13. It's cheaper, and has better cooling (a top, rear and front 120mm fans).
Click to expand...

The description was lifted from a different case. If you look carefully at the pictures of that case, it only has a single rear 120-mm exhaust fan.

While it's true that you could fit 15 drives, using 5-in-3s... considering the price of the 5-in-3s, it's almost cheaper to go with a server case like the Norco 4020. At least that was my original thinking.

And I think that the Chieftec has more drive bays, actually. It has six 5.25, and six 3.5, and two more exposed floppy bays. If you used 5-in-3s, you could get ten drives in the upper bays, and six more drives in the lower bays.

Since I already have five 3-in-2s, and a 4-in-3 unit, I'll probably use those. I'm debating whether or not I need a DVD drive on the server. Can you burn DVDs on a server? Would you want to?
 
ZetaEpyon said:
you don't need RAID, I'd suggest looking at the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8. It'll run 8 drives as a normal, non-RAID SAS adapter. It's PCI-E as well, and runs around $100. Basically, the newer, PCI-E version of the Supermicro PCI-X card that you linked earlier. The other thing to consider is that you'll need forward breakout SFF-8087 to SATA cables for either that or the USASLP-L8I, in order to hook them up to regular SATA drives. I think newegg carries some Norco ones for $10-15 each.
Click to expand...

Great catch. UIO is basically an upside down PCIe x8 card (so components are on the wrong side). It was late and I thought of the wrong part number.AOC-SASLP-MV8 is the one you want.

On the power consumption thing, low idle power is important, but the thing that will be painful is having to upgrade the hardware a few months down the road when you decide you want to transcode or something like that.
 
Well, I'm sure you *could* burn DVDs on a server...why you would want to is a nother story. Having a DVD drive (though an external USB should be fine) is ideal for installation purposes though.

Do you still have the Norco? It really looks like a better solution to tuck away somewhere. For true nerdly impressiveness get yourself a cabinet to put it in. Also, check the pics again on that Rosewill 😀 One top fan with the plug hanging down and you can just see the molex power plug from the front fan also 😉

I've started looking into Hyper-V and ESXi, hardware compatibility is really the key and it would be a lot easier I think to get it running from the initial setup rather than changing an operational setup from physical to virtual.
 
notposting said:
I've started looking into Hyper-V and ESXi, hardware compatibility is really the key and it would be a lot easier I think to get it running from the initial setup rather than changing an operational setup from physical to virtual.
Click to expand...

So the new WHS I decided that I wanted an Asus P6T7 WS Supercomputer motherboard for (knew I'd need slots for PCIe raid cards, expanders, a quad port NIC, and 1-2 GPU's). I popped in the ESXi CD and it didn't like the RealTek onboard NIC's, and didn't like something else, I'm guessing either the onboard "SAS controller" or something. I promptly popped the CD out and fired up R2/ Hyper-V... everything worked without a problem. Since I wanted to have each VM have at least one NIC + a management NIC I really wanted to have the use of the Realtek onboard ones.

And on the Big 30+ Drive WHS... it has become a total project. I'm switching from 2x Adaptec 31605's to HP SAS Expanders (one for each 4U Chassis) + either an Adaptec 5805 or Areca 1680LP... so I'm basically running 4+ raid controllers at any given time now. Fun stuff though. I'll post more pics, along with my small WHS project (i3 530 based) this weekend.
 
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