Modified 8-15-2013
Mini-Me Test-Run Storage Server:ITEM | BRAND | MODEL | PRICE | STORE |
Motherboard | SuperMicro | X10SAE (ATX form factor) | $216 | === |
CPU | Intel | Xeon E3-1245V3 (BX80646E31245V3) | $289 | Newegg |
RAM | Kingston | 32GB (4x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1600 Server Memory DRx4 Intel (KVR16R11D4K4/32I) | $347 | Newegg |
NIC | Intel | Networking Card Ethernet Server Adapter I340 Quad Port PCI Express Copper 1Gb (E1G44HTBLK) | $250 | Newegg |
Case | Cooler Master | Storm Stryker | $169.99 | Newegg |
Power Supply | === | === | $=== | === |
OS | FreeNAS | v9.1 | $0! | === |
Note: HBA Card or SAS expanders or anything like that is not necessary because the motherboard can already support 8 SATA3 drives, and I don't plan on having more than that in this tower.**HARD DRIVE | BRAND | MODEL | CAPACITY | RPM | CACHE | INTERFACE | QUANTITY |
#1-4 | HGST | Deskstar | 4TB | 7200 | 64MB | SATA 3 | x4 |
Storage Server:ITEM | BRAND | MODEL | PRICE | STORE |
Motherboard | SuperMicro | === | $=== | === |
CPU | === | === | $=== | === |
RAM | === | === | $=== | === |
Graphics Card | === | === | $=== | === |
Case | Cooler Master | Storm Stryker | $169.99 | Newegg |
Power Supply | === | === | $=== | === |
OS | FreeNAS | v9.1 | $0! | === |
HBA card | IBM | m1015 | $110 | ServerSupply |
SAS-to-SATA cable (SFF-8087) | (N/A) | 1m, forward breakout cable | $10 | Monoprice |
***HARD DRIVE | BRAND | MODEL | CAPACITY | RPM | CACHE | INTERFACE | QUANTITY |
#1-4 | Western Digital | Black Caviar | 2TB | 7200 | 32MB | SATA 3 | x4 |
#5-6 | HGST | Deskstar | 2TB | 7200 | 64MB | SATA 3 | x2 |
#7-8 | HGST | Deskstar | 3TB | 7200 | 64MB | SATA 3 | x2 |
#9-12 | HGST | Deskstar | 4TB | 7200 | 64MB | SATA 3 | x4 |
#13 | HGST | Deskstar | 2TB | 7200 | 32MB | SATA 2 | x1 |
OK, folks, I know I've done this before and I'm doing it again. But this time I think I'm REALLY going to do it. I'm going to build my massive (and I do mean that literally, see below) server. I've collected about a year or two of notes, and while I have not figured everything out yet, a little more back and forth here and I'll be ready to go.
First, here are the related threads so far:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=20801.0
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=32359.0
And my first request that built my rock-solid desktop:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=16186.0
Eventually, I'll add a table of the parts and everything here. The primary goal is to hold a lot of drives, over 20 of them. The rest of the decisions will basically be built around that one. I didn't want to go through the standard server rack route because the noise that results in cramming all those drives into a tight space. The other thing I want to accomplish is that I want this to be the only computer in the house (other than laptops and tablets), so it will be in one room, and the rest of the house will be wired with ethernet/etc. I haven't figured all that out yet, but that's the goal. In the rooms, I just want monitors and keyboards/mice, but the computing is being done on this machine.
OK, here's what I have so far:
I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the
MASSIVE Caselabs TX10-V case ($800). I like how people there say it will be the "last case they ever buy". I like that. I love the room it offers.
I can't decide on a motherboard yet. I want a physically large motherboard with lots of PCI slots. But I also want as many USB 3.0 slots as possible, and esata if possible. I know I have to figure out which of those SAS expander or whatever cards to get because of all the drives (I have lots of notes, just have to sort through them). But I mention the USB 3.0 and esata because I like those and they seem to be rare. Also, I probably don't have to worry about this, but recently I experienced problems transferring 4TB drives between computers because one of them required a "intel rapid storage technology" (I'm guessing it was before the large drives were common) and because I didn't have it installed, it sort of corrupted the drive, and I had to do a chkdsk and recover all that stuff. I don't want to deal with that. I don't want anything to happen to the drive when I plug it in to stuff. I've experienced similar issues with a third-party USB 3.0 PCI controller I just got. I don't like it, it worries me.
Please discuss! Talking through all these things really helps me.