RAID Server

[BoomerSoonerOKU]

Hello, all.

I've decided to set up a raid server (raid 5). This server is mainly for home use and as a small ftp server for family and friends to have an area for backups. This will be my first time using raid so it is sure to be a learning experience. I would appreciate it if you all would go over my parts list and make sure I'm not missing anything and see if you have any recommendations on making it better. Thanks in advance!

Optical - LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R SATA

Hard Drives - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB x 4

Case - COOLER MASTER Elite ATX Mid Tower

Mobo - ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX

Controller - HighPoint RocketRAID 2310 SATA II Controller Card RAID 0/1/5/10 JBOD

PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W

CPU - Intel Celeron E1400 Allendale 2.0GHz 512KB L2 Cache

RAM - CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

Hard Drive (For OS) - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB

I'll be trying to set this up on Ubuntu at first. Depending on the frustration level, I might have to add XP 64 to this list. I'll also be using a 7600GT 512MB card I have laying around for the video.

Any and all comments are welcome.

[tomtoon]

You don't want such a crappy CPU as that.
I recommend this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117165 $179.99

That one is server designed.

That crappy celeron you picked out is NOT

[BoomerSoonerOKU]

Originally Posted by tomtoon You don't want such a crappy CPU as that. I recommend this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117165 $179.99 That one is server designed. That crappy celeron you picked out is NOT

You are saying I need that much processing power even with a (mostly) hardware driven raid controller?

I understand that the celeron will slow down the process of creating the array and in the event of rebuilding it, but other than that I wouldn't think it would affect the server other than that.

[tomtoon]

Yes basically.
Maybe not as powerful, but that celeron is crap for a server.

[glc]

That Celeron is plenty good. Tom, your comments are out of line. Do *YOU* have any personal experience building a fileserver? I didn't think so.

I would like to make some recommendations from the standpoint of having built several RAID 5 servers. I would use more server-centric components.

1. Get a server motherboard. This one runs XP 64 beautifully, no driver issues whatsoever.
ASUS P5BV-C LGA 775 Intel 3200 ATX Server Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131242

2. Spend the bucks and get an Adaptec controller. Stick it in the PCI-Ex16 slot and use the onboard video.
Adaptec 2251800-R PCIe x4 SATA / SAS 3405 KIT Controller Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816103085

3. Seagate drives are a very dangerous thing to buy right now. They are in the middle of a firmware disaster. The one you chose for the OS is okay though - it's the .11's and the ES2's that are affected.
Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136313

Save some money and get some DDR2-533 or 667 if it's any cheaper.

That power supply is overkill. You don't need 650 watts. 400 will do the job just fine, just stick with a quality brand. If it doesn't have enough SATA connectors, adapters are fine off the molexes.

XP 64 works very nicely setting up the array in GPT.

[tomtoon]

Well sorry GLC I stand corrected...

I thought servers needed to be a bit more powerful to be a servers thats all.

[BoomerSoonerOKU]

Originally Posted by glc That Celeron is plenty good. Tom, your comments are out of line. Do *YOU* have any personal experience building a fileserver? I didn't think so. I would like to make some recommendations from the standpoint of having built several RAID 5 servers. I would use more server-centric components. 1. Get a server motherboard. This one runs XP 64 beautifully, no driver issues whatsoever. ASUS P5BV-C LGA 775 Intel 3200 ATX Server Motherboard - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131242 2. Spend the bucks and get an Adaptec controller. Stick it in the PCI-Ex16 slot and use the onboard video. Adaptec 2251800-R PCIe x4 SATA / SAS 3405 KIT Controller Card - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816103085 3. Seagate drives are a very dangerous thing to buy right now. They are in the middle of a firmware disaster. The one you chose for the OS is okay though - it's the .11's and the ES2's that are affected. Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136313 Save some money and get some DDR2-533 or 667 if it's any cheaper. That power supply is overkill. You don't need 650 watts. 400 will do the job just fine, just stick with a quality brand. If it doesn't have enough SATA connectors, adapters are fine off the molexes. XP 64 works very nicely setting up the array in GPT.

Thanks a ton, glc. I've taken your advice on the mobo and controller. I was trying to save a bit on the controller, but I guess that controller is one of the main points of the rig and I shouldn't be a scrooge.

Also, thanks for the info on the PSU. I wasn't sure how much juice all of those disks spinning was going to eat. I'll just go back with the trusty 450W Corsair unit I've used in some of my other builds.

As for the drives I had read about the firmware issues. I'm probably going to be getting these parts in stages (buy the ones with rebates now ) so I'll leave the disks for the array until last. Hopefully the firmware will be sorted by then.

Just as an aside, have you had any experience using this controller, or any for that matter, under linux? I dual boot on my main rig, so I'm somewhat familiar with it. I might still try to get this running with linux first.

Oh, and the RAM is for my main rig. I'm going to pull some old out of it and replace it with what I'm ordering and use that for the server. Can't beat 4 gigs for 26 bucks.

[Dark Nova]

Well if you do want to save few bucks, you could always go with a software raid, Thats what i'm running on my fileserver with Win2k3. I don't know what will be the reaction of it when a drive fail but so far so good

Also I suggest to split the OS HDD in half and ghost it

[glc]

I'm suggesting you get RAID-duty hard drives. Seagate has the ES2, but those have firmware issues too. I have never tried using Linux with an Adaptec, but it looks like it's well supported.

http://ask.adaptec.com/scripts/adapt...?p_faqid=15058

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/_common/linux

Now - back to the processor. Nothing wrong with the Celeron, but there was just a price reduction on the E5200. That makes this a very attractive alternative.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116072

[BoomerSoonerOKU]

Dark Nova,

I had thought about software raid but I deal with a lot of large RAW images that will be stored on this server and I'd like to get the best performance I can without breaking the bank. As far as the ghosting, that is a great idea and something I hadn't even thought of.

glc,

Great find on the processor! I'll definitely spend an extra 15 bucks to upgrade to that. I'm going to go ahead and order the main components and wait a bit on the controller and disks for the array. It will give me time to save a bit more money and to make a decision on the drives.


Thanks for all the advice, guys. This is why I love this forum.

[glc]

It's always easier spending someone else's money, but if you are going to hold off on the drives and controller, consider this:

Think about getting an 8 drive controller instead of a 4 drive controller. This will give you room for both future expansion and a hotspare.

If you want to ghost the OS drive, I'd recommend ghosting it to an external which you can put away.

[BoomerSoonerOKU]

Just wanted to update this to let you all know how it went. I watched the Seagate fiasco thinking it would eventually get ironed out. Well, as far as I know they are STILL having problems with their 1.5TB drives so I decided to save myself a lot of headaches and went with the 1TB WD drives. They've been running great and I'm really glad I went with WD at this time. That 4TB gives me 2.7TB usable under RAID 5.

I did some research on the adaptec RAID controller and I didn't see a lot of usage with Linux. So, after a lot of reading I went with a 3Ware 9650SE controller.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816116042

It worked right out of the box under Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. The server has been up and running for a couple of weeks now with absolutely no problems whatsoever.

I want to thank you guys again for all of the suggestions. Hopefully this will help anyone looking to set up a linux based server at a decent price.

Final Build List:

RAM - 4GB Corsair DDR2 800

OS HD - 80 GB Seagate

Optical - Lite-ON DVD Burner

CPU - Intel E5200

Case - Cooler Master Elite

Mobo - Asus P5BV-C

PSU - Corsair CPMSU-450VX 450W

RAID Controller - 3ware 9650SE-4LPML

Array HD's - 4 x Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB

Total Price: $1,421.88