bilding a plain old server...

[samcat]

Well, I’m not at all sure where to put this post but since it’s a work in progress…
Moderators feel free to move this wherever you feel appropriate.


I’m building a smallish server for my mums work (yah! money!) and this is my preliminary build. I just want to make sure I’m not doing something stupid compatibility wise. I would greatly appreciate it if you could spare the time to check it over. This will be my first server bild and I want to prefect it before submitting my proposal.


server

Redundant PSU 400w (339.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817147018

Case (139.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129020

HDD 750Gb. x2 (479.9)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148134

RAID controller (109.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102085

Mother board (269.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131173

CPU 2.4 core2duo (224.90)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115003

Ram 2 gig kit x2 (4 gigs) (251.9)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134113

sata dvd burners x2 (77.9)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151141

Floppy drive (6.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821152005
------------------
1901.79 USD

[Luke122]

Looks good so far.. why 2 dvd burners?

[Bucko]

What OS are you going to use?

[slytherock]

Looks good so far.. why 2 dvd burners?

Why even one? it's a server... Take an external one they can use everywhere else...

[samcat]

1) I think they're going to use unix

2) about the dvd drives, good point, it is after all only a server. thanks.:)

[Luke122]

I find that I use the ones on our servers all the time... burn off backups or files here and there... for the price, it's worth having at least one. :D

[lorddarkwolf]

If you haven't already bought the stuff you might want to check out pricewatch to save some money. I've found some good deals there myself.

[temmink]

Make sure that those hard drives are the most cost effective; dollars per gigabyte. I would assume that drives of that size are probably more expensive per gigabyte than smaller drives, the sweet spot at least here in Australia seems to be around the 300 gigabyte mark.

[Bucko]

I just paid AU$185 for a Samsung 500GB HDD.

[simon275]

How you gonna plug a screen into this to do the installation?

Also where did you get the drive from Bucko?

Also if they are using unix then they will be most likely using a linux distro so check if the raid controller will work with the linux distros they are using.

[Bucko]

Also where did you get the drive from Bucko?

Gee-Whizz Computers. They are a small local store with a couple of great guys who know their stuff. It's worth the 45 minute round trip to go there rather than the stores that are closer.

[stewart123]

I hate to be the stupid new guy, but I am only a help desk person and working towards learning more and more about the world of electronics (reason I am here), but could someone explain to me what is the purpose of having that raid controller card when he has several sata connections on the board. Can then not be setup for raid?

Thanks,
Stewart

P.S. I just bought a dremel and have been reviewing some of the guides you folks have here. The wheels are turning for my first mod. Thanks for the great stuff!

[Airbozo]

The Promise Raid controller card takes the load off of the cpu and (I think with that model) the raid setup is completely transparent to the OS. Meaning that linux will see a hard drive, NOT a raid setup. The Raid management will be done _before_ the system loads the os.

There is _some_ monitoring software for those cards that runs under linux/unix. The software will notify you (email, pager, screen alert) in the event of any errors (correctable or not) on the disks, or even a disk failure. Check the Promise site for the correct updates as the linux bits usually do not ship with the card.

[SgtM]

I hate to be the stupid new guy, but I am only a help desk person and working towards learning more and more about the world of electronics (reason I am here), but could someone explain to me what is the purpose of having that raid controller card when he has several sata connections on the board. Can then not be setup for raid?

Thanks,
Stewart

P.S. I just bought a dremel and have been reviewing some of the guides you folks have here. The wheels are turning for my first mod. Thanks for the great stuff!

Welcome Aboard Stewart! I think Airbozo explained RAID rather well, but the board may not come equipped with onboard RAID, hence the reason for the card. Be advised, I didn't check the specs on it to see if it was or not.

[nil8]

750gb drives are still expensive. If you dropped down to 500gb drives, you can get 4 and run a decent raid 5 solution with more space.

Like sgtm said, not all sata buses are raid compliant. Basically, some motherboards have raid onboard, some do not.

[jdbnsn]

If you want a very in-depth explaination of RAID systems, this website is an excellent resource.

http://www.acnc.com/04_00.html

[stewart123]

If you want a very in-depth explaination of RAID systems, this website is an excellent resource.

http://www.acnc.com/04_00.html

Thank you very much. That helps out quite a bit.