Raptor_Jesus

Hey guys.

Well, it's come time to replace my aging linux server, dubbed Greedo. (200mhz dell pentium w/ 64mb of ram 2x500 gig HDDs, donated by my school 2 years ago). It's obviously, way too old to be functional now. When trying to run torrents, and compile programs, it takes SUCH a long time now. It's time for a replacement. I am doing this on a budget, so I chose AMD over Intel for the first time in a long time. Here's my specs and links

4x1 TB WD Green. (Yeah Green, I know. But they are cheaper, and use less power. Once RAIDED in RAID 10, I think it will be okay.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136317

Antec 300 Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129042

Gigabyte Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-342-_-Product

Corsair 400w (PSU calc showed I would only pull ~160 watts. I am not doing OCing)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139008

2x1gb Gskill Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231098

AMD Athlon II X2 240
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688

This will be used as a Linux storage server, and will handle centralized backups, and run other services such as DHCP, etc. Will be using Linux Software RAID.

Tell me what you guys think. +Rep to those who help

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PCCstudent

I have many of the same components in my server, P/S,Anthlon X2 250,ASUS M4A78T-E(onboard video) 4gb ram,don't have my RAID going yet. One thing I can say is my 4U server runs at 39C and thats even after I added 3x92 fans and the Phenom fan on the CPU.The X2 is a 65W CPU. and the Phenom is a 125W CPU.

My watercooled 955BE runs at 40/43 and thats overclocked at 100% at 3.9 for hours on end.

I don't like the temp on my server.

Raptor_Jesus

Well I will be using an Antec 300 and several 120mm fans. I do not think temps will be a problem here But thanks for your input. Others?

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skatingrocker17

You could probably get 4gb of ram for the price. And you might want gigabit ethernet too but that can always be added later.

Raptor_Jesus

I shall look into it. I may go even cheaper on the memory. It doesn't have to be spectacular, as it's probably going to be running linux command line.

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firestormcomputers

You have a RAID card right, because that motherboard (I use it in my folding machine) does not have 4 SATA ports (only 2). And buy 4 GB of RAM for good measure, 2 GB is pushing it nowadays.

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Raptor_Jesus

Ahh fire. Sorry. I copied the wrong link. Edited OP.

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Raiden911

B

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Raptor_Jesus

Haha, what?

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MalVeauX

RaptorJesus,

I have a very similar gigabyte board (a bit newer, but same basic structure: MA785GM-US2H) with a Regor 245. I am using several WD Green TB drives as well as a humble 320g blue 7200 as the server's own little slice so that my OS is separate from my data drives. I am using that Corsair 400w PSU too. I have a DVD/CD optical. 2gigs DDR2 800 in there. Safe to say, since we're using nearly the same HDD's and CPU, RAM, PSU, etc, that I can tell you something that you will be very happy about:

The system sits around 80watts to 100watts during use (not during idle!). Where I live (FL), this is about $2 a month (I rounded up, a lot) in energy cost for `always on, 24/7'. The 65w CPU, very, very low power green drives, and the solid efficiency of the Corsair is awesome. Very inexpensive server to run. I have a wattage meter, so I've tested and did over-night logs on most of my hardware. So giving you a real wattage use, not some online calc. It doesn't break 115watts even at boot up (when the drives spin up). So rest assured, those greens are well worth it. Another note, I run Windows Server 2008 on the Regor 245 and 2gigs of RAM. You do NOT need more RAM at all, especially on Linux, for a home server. Less ram = less energy use/heat. So you're golden.

By the way, performance on green drives are fantastic. They're not 7200rpm, but you know what? It doesn't matter. You're transfering data at best over gigabit LAN, yes? I do too. Transfer speeds of 70+ MB/s for common usage for me. And testing big file transfers (like 6gig files, as I backup DVD ISO's), I keep sustained rates in the 40's MB/s. These drives can keep up. Mine are not in RAID. So believe me, Greens are MORE than capable. In fact, in RAID as you mentioned, these Greens will saturate a gigabit line (which is about 128 MB/s, which is potential maximum, you're lucky to get half that sustained depending on cables, distance, etc). What I'm getting at, is that the black 7200rpm drives with their better `performance' are not actually going to do anything special over gigabit networking compared to a green drive. And access time is not a problem either if you're using real a real server OS (which you are).

So, be happy with your greens. And be happy with the Regor and Corsair. They will treat you very well. I can also vouch, heat will not be an issue with basic air flow in that setup. It's low power, low heat, and very, very quiet (if I hold my breath, I can sometimes hear the case fan, ... but not the PSU fan, that thing is silent, the drives are silent).

One final thing:

1TB WD Green - $85
2TB WD Green - $210

It's a $40 difference. It adds up if you get two, in costing $80 more than buying 4 separate drives. But, you have a way smaller foot print, less SATA/PSU cable usage so you can expand as you need to, and they will draw less power than twice the number of drives. Just a thought if you build up lots of data (I know I do, so foot print matters to me).

Enjoy the build, it'll do great!

Very best,