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<blockquote data-quote="milhouse" data-source="post: 227423" data-attributes="member: 26653"><p>I've gone ahead and ordered the parts for a new server for the basement, and thought I'd detail it all here. Had a hard time researching all these pieces, so I wanted the pulled together in one spot in case it'll actually help someone else some day.</p><p></p><p><strong>Why a new server?</strong></p><p>My current setup is</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">HTPC in living room</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">HTPC in bedroom</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mediaserve in basement</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mediaserve2 in basement</li> </ul><p></p><p>Each media server is an older Dell minitower with an 80GB system drive, and 4*500GB SATA drives on a cheap SATA controller card. The 4 500GB drives are in RAID5 configuration (software, Windows 2003 server). One server is full, the second is about halfway. The main driver for the new setup is that I am out of space for additional hard drives. I am several months out from needing them, but want to be ready so I don't have to buy the system AND the drives at once.</p><p></p><p>My options, then, were to add a THIRD computer to act as a server, or buy a new one, move the 8 500GB drives into it, and make sure I've got room to grow. I went with the second option. Not for power savings so much as sanity. I hate periodically logging in to each server to make sure the drives are good, updates are installed, etc.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>How to build one big enough to grow, when I've already got 8 storage drives?</strong></p><p>After a fair amount of research, I settled on a Cooler Master Stacker STC-T01-UWK for the case. This monster has ELEVEN 5.25 bays down the front. If I remove the power/reset/ports in the top bay, I can stretch it to TWELVE.</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119039" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119039</a></p><p></p><p>To get the most hard drive space crammed into the 12 bays, I am using four 5-in-3 SATA backplanes. In the Stacker feedback on newegg, someelse had already done this, so I know they'll fit. This gives space for TWENTY hot swap drives in one case. Nice.</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405</a></p><p></p><p>The hard part of planning for 20 hard drives is the controller. A hardware raid controller with this many ports costs a FORTUNE. And I wanted software raid, anyway. (If the RAID controller dies, I have to get another one exactly like the first. Too risky for me.) I found an 8-port SATA controller for PCI-X that should do the trick - and be faster than the cheap Rosewill 4-port PCI ones, too. So two of these cards:</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009</a></p><p></p><p>PCI-X is a little hard to find. Let alone two ports. So I had to go to a server-class motherboard. 2 PCI-X slots, and 6 SATA ports. That gives me 22 ports for 20 drives.</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131134" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131134</a></p><p></p><p>This motherboard also drove my decision for an Opteron and ECC memory. 2.5 GHz dual core (that I will probably under-clock to save power) and 2GB of ECC memory.</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105018" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105018</a></p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134113" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134113</a></p><p></p><p>I figure that as long as I am using a server-class setup, I'd go with RAID 1 (mirroring) for the system drives. So 2 160GB drives for that.</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075</a></p><p></p><p>And finally, two 500W power supplies. The case has room for two, and to be blunt, 2 smaller power supplies is a lot cheaper than one big one.</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171018" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171018</a></p><p></p><p></p><p>When all is said and done, I'll have room for 20 drives, 10 already in the case. All ready for 10 more, set up for power and controllers. Won't even have to open the case when I upgrade. (At that time, I'll buy either 8 * 500 or 4 * 1000, copy all the data over to the new array, and re-build my current 8 into one array instead of two.)</p><p></p><p>Will posts pictures of the build process. The delivery guy starts delivery Thursday, and will hopefully have it all here by the weekend. Fun!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="milhouse, post: 227423, member: 26653"] I've gone ahead and ordered the parts for a new server for the basement, and thought I'd detail it all here. Had a hard time researching all these pieces, so I wanted the pulled together in one spot in case it'll actually help someone else some day. [B]Why a new server?[/B] My current setup is [LIST] [*]HTPC in living room [*]HTPC in bedroom [*]Mediaserve in basement [*]Mediaserve2 in basement [/LIST] Each media server is an older Dell minitower with an 80GB system drive, and 4*500GB SATA drives on a cheap SATA controller card. The 4 500GB drives are in RAID5 configuration (software, Windows 2003 server). One server is full, the second is about halfway. The main driver for the new setup is that I am out of space for additional hard drives. I am several months out from needing them, but want to be ready so I don't have to buy the system AND the drives at once. My options, then, were to add a THIRD computer to act as a server, or buy a new one, move the 8 500GB drives into it, and make sure I've got room to grow. I went with the second option. Not for power savings so much as sanity. I hate periodically logging in to each server to make sure the drives are good, updates are installed, etc. [B]How to build one big enough to grow, when I've already got 8 storage drives?[/B] After a fair amount of research, I settled on a Cooler Master Stacker STC-T01-UWK for the case. This monster has ELEVEN 5.25 bays down the front. If I remove the power/reset/ports in the top bay, I can stretch it to TWELVE. [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119039"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119039[/URL] To get the most hard drive space crammed into the 12 bays, I am using four 5-in-3 SATA backplanes. In the Stacker feedback on newegg, someelse had already done this, so I know they'll fit. This gives space for TWENTY hot swap drives in one case. Nice. [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405[/URL] The hard part of planning for 20 hard drives is the controller. A hardware raid controller with this many ports costs a FORTUNE. And I wanted software raid, anyway. (If the RAID controller dies, I have to get another one exactly like the first. Too risky for me.) I found an 8-port SATA controller for PCI-X that should do the trick - and be faster than the cheap Rosewill 4-port PCI ones, too. So two of these cards: [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009[/URL] PCI-X is a little hard to find. Let alone two ports. So I had to go to a server-class motherboard. 2 PCI-X slots, and 6 SATA ports. That gives me 22 ports for 20 drives. [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131134"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131134[/URL] This motherboard also drove my decision for an Opteron and ECC memory. 2.5 GHz dual core (that I will probably under-clock to save power) and 2GB of ECC memory. [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105018"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105018[/URL] [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134113"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134113[/URL] I figure that as long as I am using a server-class setup, I'd go with RAID 1 (mirroring) for the system drives. So 2 160GB drives for that. [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075[/URL] And finally, two 500W power supplies. The case has room for two, and to be blunt, 2 smaller power supplies is a lot cheaper than one big one. [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171018"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171018[/URL] When all is said and done, I'll have room for 20 drives, 10 already in the case. All ready for 10 more, set up for power and controllers. Won't even have to open the case when I upgrade. (At that time, I'll buy either 8 * 500 or 4 * 1000, copy all the data over to the new array, and re-build my current 8 into one array instead of two.) Will posts pictures of the build process. The delivery guy starts delivery Thursday, and will hopefully have it all here by the weekend. Fun! [/QUOTE]
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