File Server noob needs help picking hardware

I would like to see what the wattage used is after putting this on a Kill-A-Watt meter.

From my experience the CPU has not been much of an issue these days (at least with core 2 family) vs what type and how many drives are in a system.

Plus having a quality power supply with active PFC.

The day I dropped an active PFC power supply in my dual XEON 3.2Ghz machine, I felt the difference in heat produced and it was a measurable difference with the kill-a-watt meter.

I think it dropped down to 120watts on idle

2 XEONS @ 3.2Ghz, 4 10,000 RPM scsi drives.

My current AB9 PRO clocked down to 1.6ghz with 9 Drives pulls about 160 watts and up to 200 watts while doing a parity check.

However the biggest I've seen in CPU power usage have been while testing the expensive mobile processors.

My ITX machines get down to 30-40 watts while idle.

Great work.. I love the experiments!

Now grab a kill-a-watt LOL!!!

http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html

Here's my centurion with the removables.

it's a spiffy case.

Nice case! 

Kill-A-Watt meter is top of my to-buy list.  I missed a good deal a few months back.  I should have bit then.  Looking today I found this bargain.

http://www.consumerdepot.com/products.asp?id=P4400R&referer=google

Only problem is its sold out. 

I'm very curious to see what this server draws.

I just figured out I can reduce some more voltages in the BIOS below stock.  I dropped vtt down from 1.2v to 0.97v, and the clock generator down from 800mV to 700mV.  The board didn't like any less voltage on the MCH, though.

Currently retesting stability...so far it's looking good.

Question, can you post a parts list of the build you eventually decided on? Thanks!

Question, can you post a parts list of the build you eventually decided on? Thanks!

Sure!

I got the MSI Neo3-F P43 board open box for $60 + s/h  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130185R

The E5200 for $85 shipped  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072

I got a Cooler Master Hyper 212 off another forum for $20 shipped.  I don't think I need this, though.  The stock cooler works fine for the volts I'm running.

4GB of DDR2-1000 CAS5 RAM for $48 shipped AR  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227280

The Cooler Master Centurion 590 $65 shipped http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Cooler-Master-Centurion-590-Black-RC-590-KKN1-GP_W0QQitemZ170265667384QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item170265667384&_trkparms=72%3A1205|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I got 4 of these Yate Loon fans from Petra's, but it appears they are Out of Stock now.  http://www.petrastechshop.com/12yalod1cafa.html  There is mention of some Cooler Master fans above in this thread.

I got a cheap ATI XL 8MB PCI gfx card for $8 shipped on eBay.  I may have not even needed this, though.

And I also got a gigabit router to make sure I get good transfer speeds.

I reused my Silverstone 560W Zeus single 38A rail PSU from my other PC, and also am reusing 4 WD 640GB HDDs (the fast ones) for storage.

Oh, and I reused some leftover 3-3 HDD cages from a couple Antec 900 builds I did in the past for other folks.

Coolermaster 120MM fans

COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP 120mm Case Fan - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103052

They are not the best, but they are not the worst either. Cheap 4 pack and worked well enough for my purposes.

I also use these for the top fans on my centurion.

VANTEC VDK-120 120MM Fan Vibration Dampener Kit - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999211

I got the MSI Neo3-F P43 board open box for $60 + s/h  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130185R

 

The E5200 for $85 shipped  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072

Cool. So I guess this motherboard is looking to be a good successor (price and number of SATA-ports-wise) to the Abit AB9 Pro (which is now more expensive at $100). I wanted a Wolfdale-compatible board, and so far, the AB9 Pro doesn't seem to be it. Have you checked if all SATA ports on the MSI board are recognized by unRAID?

I've been wary of buying open box items from Newegg. What did yours ship with? Any accessories missing (e.g. backplate)?

I currently have the Jmicron disabled, but I'd think it'd be compatible given that Jmicron is supported afaik.

What would be the best way to test it?

It's funny you asked about the backplate...that was the ONLY missing item.  For the price difference I can live w/o it.

I currently have the Jmicron disabled, but I'd think it'd be compatible given that Jmicron is supported afaik.

 

What would be the best way to test it?

Lol, the only way I can think of to test is to enable the controller and plug-in a SATA drive.

  How do you do that?

Joking!

I'm still on the trial version, so I don't know if a 4th drive will be picked up or not...not sure how it works in that respect.  And I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to move one of the existing drives to a new port.

I'll try enabling the controller and plugging in a 4th drive tonight and see if I can see it in the web interface.

The JMB controller is well supported, including AHCI and Port Multiplier support.  Once enabled, you should be able to see the JMB controller in your syslog, and the additional ports.  If you attach a drive, you will see (in the syslog) the kernel pick it up and assign a device ID (sda or higher).  You should also see it on the Devices tab in a dropdown box, if the array is stopped.  With the trial version, you won't be able to add a fourth drive, but you will be able to see it, and if you unassign another drive, then you can assign it too.

Jmicron works fine on this board. 

I've heard of instability w/ unRAID.  How does that happen, and how do you recognize it?

So far I haven't had any issues, but I'd like to be able to report if this is a good board to use for others.

Update!

System is still running great. I have 4 640GB WD's, and a 250GB IDE cache drive. I've moved about 100 or so DVD's across. They play fine in Vista Media Center.

I've got all the fans running on 5v, and the HDDs are all reporting 21-22*C in this 68*F room.

I got a Kill A Watt Meter today!

I'll let the pics speak for themselves...I was very impressed!

All 5 drives spun-up:

All drives spun down:

What kind of transfer rates are you getting on this box?

IOMETER or HDTACH?

What is the cheapest dollar wise Motherboard that has two PCI-X 64 Bit slots, and two PCI-E 8X or more slots, 1 pci slot, and that unraid will support it?

Of course the PCI-E slots should not only be for video, but should be able to accept two raid controllers for future growth.

This way I can go either way Supermicro PCI-X card for sata, and if unraid supports the supermicro pci-e uio card, then great.

I had a look at "ASUS P5E WS Professional and M2N32  WS Professional"

I have lots of drives, and I am itching to build my next box, as my old one is no longer stable (8 years of good service).

BTW, how hard is it to install unraid on top of an existing linux distro.

This is what I want to do:

Linux server, running unriad, vmware-xp-pro so I can use newsleecher for my downloads (no linux super search version of it), but it can run under wine apparently, also do my dd decrypter and dvd shrink work.

I don't know this for a fact, but I would think the chances are nil, finding a board with "two PCI-X 64 Bit slots, and two PCI-E 8X or more slots".  You are asking for a board with server capabilities AND high graphics capabilities (since that is currently by far the primary reason for multiple PCIe 8X and 16X slots), and the targeted user and usage is very different.  I expect to see more boards with multiple high lane PCI Express slots, for RAID usage, but NOT with PCI-X slots!

BTW, how hard is it to install unraid on top of an existing linux distro.

You have a lot of reading ahead of you.  See the Installing unRAID on a full Slackware distro wiki page, and the Building a custom kernel page, especially the links section at the bottom of that page.

I don't know this for a fact, but I would think the chances are nil, finding a board with "two PCI-X 64 Bit slots, and two PCI-E 8X or more slots".  You are asking for a board with server capabilities AND high graphics capabilities

Not quite so nil, but surely a server class board. Supermicro has one or two with these qualifications as does ASUS, Expect to opay between $250 and $399

This is one of the boards I'm considering for my unRAID upgrade:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151172

I do believe that's also the cheapest board that will meet your requirements without getting refurb or open-box items. Whether it will work in unRAID or not is still unknown since I don't think anyone's tested it yet, but I'm kinda hopeful it will.

This is one of the boards I'm considering for my unRAID upgrade:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151172

 

I do believe that's also the cheapest board that will meet your requirements without getting refurb or open-box items. Whether it will work in unRAID or not is still unknown since I don't think anyone's tested it yet, but I'm kinda hopeful it will.

I've been eyeing up that board myself. It has everything I need.

If you get it, let us know!