A 'server pc' build suggestions

[Jev96]

Hi guys, I have my own office and my PC is currently the 'server pc' running the online network that everyone uses to access. Now this things like old as anything, covered in dust, old cpu, old motherboard, still has ribbon cables in it which should tell you something. I also do work on this PC too but it has a heck of a lot of client data which is important, and was thinking of running 2 1tb drives in raid 1 for reliability, now we do backups every single evening anyway, but what if something were to happen to that drive. Just wanting to know a pretty high end build suggestion on what to get. Thanks guys

[dadasmithywinkle]

Hi guys, I have my own office and my PC is currently the 'server pc' running the online network that everyone uses to access. Now this things like old as anything, covered in dust, old cpu, old motherboard, still has ribbon cables in it which should tell you something. I also do work on this PC too but it has a heck of a lot of client data which is important, and was thinking of running 2 1tb drives in raid 1 for reliability, now we do backups every single evening anyway, but what if something were to happen to that drive. Just wanting to know a pretty high end build suggestion on what to get. Thanks guys

Price? And in the UK, right?

[Thony]

Price? And in the UK, right?

Pretty high end sounds good. U could probably give £1500-2000 suggestion if he doesmt respond soon.

[dadasmithywinkle]

Hi guys, I have my own office and my PC is currently the 'server pc' running the online network that everyone uses to access. Now this things like old as anything, covered in dust, old cpu, old motherboard, still has ribbon cables in it which should tell you something. I also do work on this PC too but it has a heck of a lot of client data which is important, and was thinking of running 2 1tb drives in raid 1 for reliability, now we do backups every single evening anyway, but what if something were to happen to that drive. Just wanting to know a pretty high end build suggestion on what to get. Thanks guys

Here's what I came up with. The 960 and the SSD can left out if need be, and the case is a personal choice. I included 4x4TB WD Red NAS Drives so that you can set up RAID 5 with the Z97-WS' RAID Controller. This will essentially give you 12TB of useable space (the other 4TB acts as a redundant safe so that if one drive fails you still have all of your data). Here's the part list:

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BdvXZL

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BdvXZL/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1276 V3 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£280.06 @ More Computers) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£56.63 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard: Asus Z97-WS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£250.67 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£212.15 @ More Computers) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£62.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  (£179.95 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Case: Cooler Master Cosmos II (Black) ATX Full Tower Case  (£262.69 @ Amazon UK) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£141.70 @ Dabs) 

Total: £1926.60

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-28 16:07 GMT+0000

[Wilson_H]

Here's what I came up with. The 960 and the SSD can left out if need be, and the case is a personal choice. I included 4x4TB WD Red NAS Drives so that you can set up RAID 5 with the Z97-WS' RAID Controller. This will essentially give you 12TB of useable space (the other 4TB acts as a redundant safe so that if one drive fails you still have all of your data). Here's the part list:

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BdvXZL

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BdvXZL/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1276 V3 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£280.06 @ More Computers) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£56.63 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard: Asus Z97-WS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£250.67 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£212.15 @ More Computers) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£62.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  (£179.95 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Case: Cooler Master Cosmos II (Black) ATX Full Tower Case  (£262.69 @ Amazon UK) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£141.70 @ Dabs) 

Total: £1926.60

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-28 16:07 GMT+0000

This would be a decent build, except if it is still being used as the main storage for data, then he might think aboit utilising the ecc capabilities of the Xeon

[Scheer]

I'd personally go with a E5-1620 and a 2011 Supermicro board, then pickup 4GB ECC dimms from eBay for ~$15 a stick new. I'm pretty sure you can't run unbuffered ecc dimms with an E3, you have to use registered udimms and they are twice the price. Then pickup any reputable ~500w PSU, I personally recommend Seasonic, a SSD for a boot drive (preferably two to raid), and your choice of HDDs. RAM doesn't really help with simple file sharing, but I'd grab 8 or 16GB just because of how cheap it is.

 

The E5-1620 because it is cheap and powerful, and Supermicro simply because you never hear about issues with them, and I've never had any problems with them.

 

Avoid Norco cases if you want to rackmount it... I've now had two of them that don't freaking fit the rack. Not sure how it is difficult to make a rack mounted case the right size to fit a rack, but they somehow have a problem with it. The Norco SS-500 hotswap caddy, however, is extremely nice and I highly recommend it. It is noisy, so if you want to quiet it down pickup a Coolink Swif2-801 fan to put in it, it comes apart really easy to replace the fan.

 

Honestly, you should build this and put it in a corner somewhere, remote into it when you need to, but do not use it as your daily machine.

 

The build above is likely much more than you would ever need, but I think building something less than that is not worth it and you would be better off just getting something like a QNAP 4-bay NAS, sounds like it would do the job just fine for a lot less money and work.

 

Another option is picking up a used Dell/HP server from eBay. You can find 1-2 year old nice servers for $500.

 

The last method would be to buy a new Dell/HP server with a contract... This would be the proper route for a business concerned about not loosing their data. If you have the money, its worth the peace of mind and could save you a lot of hassle. If you don't need the processing power, I'd just stick with a higher end QNAP NAS.

 

 

Here's what I came up with. The 960 and the SSD can left out if need be, and the case is a personal choice. I included 4x4TB WD Red NAS Drives so that you can set up RAID 5 with the Z97-WS' RAID Controller. This will essentially give you 12TB of useable space (the other 4TB acts as a redundant safe so that if one drive fails you still have all of your data). Here's the part list:

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BdvXZL

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BdvXZL/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1276 V3 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£280.06 @ More Computers) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£56.63 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard: Asus Z97-WS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£250.67 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£212.15 @ More Computers) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£62.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£119.94 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  (£179.95 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Case: Cooler Master Cosmos II (Black) ATX Full Tower Case  (£262.69 @ Amazon UK) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£141.70 @ Dabs) 

Total: £1926.60

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-28 16:07 GMT+0000

 

 

The fancy case, Noctua cooler, GPU, and WAY overkill PSU just seem like wasted money to me. The SSD, however, I would highly recommend keeping. I'm running an E5-1620 in my home server, which is basically a 2011 version of a i7-4770, and with 7 drives I've never seen it draw more than 180 watts of AC power with a 80+ Bronze PSU, so its really only pulling about 150 watts max.

[dadasmithywinkle]

I'd personally go with a E5-1620 and a 2011 Supermicro board, then pickup 4GB ECC dimms from eBay for ~$15 a stick new. I'm pretty sure you can't run unbuffered ecc dimms with an E3, you have to use registered udimms and they are twice the price. Then pickup any reputable ~500w PSU, I personally recommend Seasonic, a SSD for a boot drive (preferably two to raid), and your choice of HDDs. RAM doesn't really help with simple file sharing, but I'd grab 8 or 16GB just because of how cheap it is.

 

The E5-1620 because it is cheap and powerful, and Supermicro simply because you never hear about issues with them, and I've never had any problems with them.

 

Avoid Norco cases if you want to rackmount it... I've now had two of them that don't freaking fit the rack. Not sure how it is difficult to make a rack mounted case the right size to fit a rack, but they somehow have a problem with it. The Norco SS-500 hotswap caddy, however, is extremely nice and I highly recommend it. It is noisy, so if you want to quiet it down pickup a Coolink Swif2-801 fan to put in it, it comes apart really easy to replace the fan.

 

Honestly, you should build this and put it in a corner somewhere, remote into it when you need to, but do not use it as your daily machine.

 

The build above is likely much more than you would ever need, but I think building something less than that is not worth it and you would be better off just getting something like a QNAP 4-bay NAS, sounds like it would do the job just fine for a lot less money and work.

 

Another option is picking up a used Dell/HP server from eBay. You can find 1-2 year old nice servers for $500.

 

The last method would be to buy a new Dell/HP server with a contract... This would be the proper route for a business concerned about not loosing their data. If you have the money, its worth the peace of mind and could save you a lot of hassle. If you don't need the processing power, I'd just stick with a higher end QNAP NAS.

 

 

The fancy case, Noctua cooler, GPU, and WAY overkill PSU just seem like wasted money to me. The SSD, however, I would highly recommend keeping. I'm running an E5-1620 in my home server, which is basically a 2011 version of a i7-4770, and with 7 drives I've never seen it draw more than 180 watts of AC power with a 80+ Bronze PSU, so its really only pulling about 150 watts max.

My parts are "overkill" yet you have a LGA-2011-based home server 

[Scheer]

My parts are "overkill" yet you have a LGA-2011-based home server 

 

Touche', but still a 1000W PSU that will never be over 20% load is unneeded and why would you need a discrete GPU for filesharing or nearly anything business related? I'm aware there are a select few instances you need the compute performance, but seeing as he is running an old computer I highly doubt this is one of those instances. OP may not be very tech savvy and by reading that think it is something he actually needs, without realizing you just meant it would be useful to throw in if he decides to do some gaming.

 

Also, for about the same performance the 2011 would be around $200 cheaper than the 1150 system. (Just comparing the price of motherboard, CPU, and RAM)

 

Side note, just realized this was in case modding, it would have better luck in new builds and planning.