Hardware Analysis - Time for a new fileserver

Re: Time for a new fileserver

Beavis Khan — 2007-12-13T16:04:06-05:00

lmao...tur-bo, tur-bo, tur-bo!

Re: Time for a new fileserver

DublinGunner — 2007-12-13T15:53:55-05:00

It does!!!!!

Re: Time for a new fileserver

Beavis Khan — 2007-12-13T15:37:50-05:00

DublinGunner said:

I've an AMD 486 DX4-100 (it will do 120!!! via jumpers..) and a Socket 7 mobo at home if you want it

Only if it has a turbo mode!

Re: Time for a new fileserver

DublinGunner — 2007-12-13T15:13:03-05:00

I've an AMD 486 DX4-100 (it will do 120!!! via jumpers..) and a Socket 7 mobo at home if you want it

Re: Time for a new fileserver

Beavis Khan — 2007-12-13T13:06:34-05:00

Rory Witham said:

To save your self some cash, I would have gone for windows XP 64

I already have the 2003 Server license. So no big deal there.

You could have gone for a AMD3700, 2G RAM, a 4MB graphics card, 2 2port RAID cards

Cost to upgrade to a dual core and 4GB RAM = ~$57 - well worth it in my opinion. The motherboard has onboard video, and onboard RAID should I want to use it.

I would have gone for 500 gig HDD's they're cheaper and you could have had more storage, I would have gone hot swap disc on the front and software back up/mirroring to them.

500GB disk ~= $105
750GB disk ~= $149

Cheaper, yes; better deal, no.

G. G. said:

Hey Beavis......

I got a spare PII-450 system that will do fine as a file server if you want a challenge.... Bonus is that it still works... lol..

Thanks GG...you're far too kind...I've got one sitting in my parts bin too - you want mine, you could make a "supercomputing" cluster out of old P-2s

Re: Time for a new fileserver

G. G. — 2007-12-13T01:58:34-05:00

Hey Beavis......

I got a spare PII-450 system that will do fine as a file server if you want a challenge.... Bonus is that it still works... lol..

Re: Time for a new fileserver

Rory Witham — 2007-12-13T01:36:38-05:00

It think youve gone all gamer on the server.

Way more than what you need. basically if your file serving your need a good NB a fair processor and around 2Gig of RAM.

To save your self some cash, I would have gone for windows XP 64 Bit that is built on the 2003 platform or Vista which is also fine. and then put a virtual server on that, trust me you can load on extras from a 2003 RC disc..

You could have gone for a AMD3700, 2G RAM, a 4MB graphics card, 2 2port RAID cards

I would have gone for 500 gig HDD's they're cheaper and you could have had more storage, I would have gone hot swap disc on the front and software back up/mirroring to them.

I would run the Xampp package on each server as it has everything you need.

Re: Time for a new fileserver

SiB — 2007-12-13T01:05:00-05:00

Is this all necessary, I'm still running a 666Mhz fileserver with 64mb ram. It hosts a website, vent (similar to teamspeak which it also hosted on par) and acts as a fileserver im sure if I reconfigured it, it would be perfect for multiple site hosting, all it needs is abit of ram.

So maybe it would be better off upgrading your current server?

Re: Time for a new fileserver

Beavis Khan — 2007-12-12T12:56:38-05:00

Thanks for the replies all. I placed the order yesterday afternoon well after 12:00 PST, didn't pay the rush processing charge, but still had a tracking # from Newegg in my mailbox this morning. I <3 Newegg!

A_Pickle said:

Question: Why the server motherboard? I mean, I'd think a standard consumer-end motherboard would do just fine for file serving... no?

Sure, in fact my current fileserver is an Asus A7N8X based machine. One reason for the server board was to get ECC memory support. The memory itself is so cheap these days it seemed like it was worth spending a little extra on the mobo, especially with 4GB. The other reason is to (hopefully) increase general reliability. The twin of my current fileserver (aka my wife's machine) is starting to die on me...seems like it may have some bulging cap issues. Hoping to minimize the chances of such things down the road by going with the Tyan.

FWIW, the main difference between cat 5e and cat 6 is typically at what length they'll do gigE. If you're just running cables within the same room, cat 5e should be plenty. If you want to get the full ~100m run at gigE, you'd better have cat 6.

bot said:

yap my setup is a little over the top but has a lot of expanding options and is penryn upgradeable. also offers different options for dedicated raid cards, if he ever decides to go that route. i have 2 silimage raid5 pci-x cards and i am much happier with them then with the intel matrix storage raid. in any raid setup 0,1,5. stability and speed

Thanks for the reply bot. The quad and even the Conroe are definitely overkill for my purposes, though. With this board I get ECC as mentioned, but also expandability to drop in a PCIe raid card down the road if I need. Seems like PCI-X is more or less on the decline these days, and I don't have an existing PCI-X cards that I need to keep around anyway - so lack of PCI-X doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

Parts should be here on Friday, but probably won't get around to the actual build until after christmas...i'll let you all know how it goes!

Re: Time for a new fileserver

BoT — 2007-12-12T08:36:49-05:00

cat 5e (350mhz) can do 1 gig as well but cat 6 (500mhz) is shielded better and is less prone to interference.

yap my setup is a little over the top but has a lot of expanding options and is penryn
upgradeable. also offers different options for dedicated raid cards, if he ever decides to go
that route. i have 2 silimage raid5 pci-x cards and i am much happier with them then with the intel matrix storage raid. in any raid setup 0,1,5. stability and speed

also it's only 100-150 bucks price difference from his original purposal if he would go with
the e6550. same price with an allandale.

edit: also you can use a pci-x nic to get more net performance and thepci-e for dedicated raid

Re: Time for a new fileserver

A_Pickle — 2007-12-12T06:53:27-05:00

Question: Why the server motherboard? I mean, I'd think a standard consumer-end motherboard would do just fine for file serving... no?

And... since I'm thinking of building a cheap file/DHCP/dedicated game server myself, Cat 6 is the stuff that can do 1.0 Gbps, right?

Re: Time for a new fileserver

FingerMeElmo87 — 2007-12-12T05:25:22-05:00

bot said:

i would go with this
mobo:
ASUS P5K WS LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $214.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131185

cpu:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail - $279.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

or

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail - $174.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115030

i think this would be a little over the top for a file server

Re: Time for a new fileserver

Gerritt — 2007-12-12T04:44:02-05:00

On a file server, or for that fact most servers, you don't need any major GPU implementatoins.
So, on a server, an imbedded GPU is good, as long as you have enough ram to give up to 256M to the GPU.
This should allow 1024x768 at the highest color implementatoins.

Gerritt

Re: Time for a new fileserver

BoT — 2007-12-11T20:30:37-05:00

Re: Time for a new fileserver

Beavis Khan — 2007-12-11T19:50:33-05:00

Meats of Evil said:

Cheap ass video cards:

Thanks Meats....I actually switched the mobo to one with onboard video for configuration purposes. It'll be running headless once set up anyhow.