LTT Storage Rankings

[PCBudgetSolutions]

That's already very old and very power inefficient for servers.

Mac stopped making servers a while back.

I would tend to agree.

[L.E.D]

That's already very old and very power inefficient for servers.

Mac stopped making servers a while back.

 

I was sad when they did, I was looking at them and I wanted one xD

[looney]

they do look awesome :P

[L.E.D]

they do look awesome :P

 

Yup

 

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://files.macbidouille.com/mbv2/news/200704/IMG_0399.jpg&imgrefurl=http://lists.apple.com/archives/fed-talk/2011/Nov/msg00060.html&h=1600&w=2560&sz=886&tbnid=RyxBzHuzttHKgM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=144&zoom=1&usg=__h7DacSH_Eppi1LhI4BugpdhlpbI=&docid=yT8HPePYWNd0DM&sa=X&ei=4A7kUfOIHJP_4AOenYGYBw&ved=0CHYQ9QEwBg&dur=285

[AidanJMessenger]

Hardware
CASE: Crappy old case that was free. I don't see it so it's not important :D
PSU: The one that came with the case. (I know, I know).
MB: Asus P8H61-M LX R2.0
CPU: Intel Pentium G2020
HS: Stock intel heatsink, however from a 3570k so it has a copper core. Gets great temps.
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston DDR3 1333
HDD 1: 250GB Boot Drive
HDD 2: 2x1TB Seagate Drives. Raid 0 for fantastic performance.
HDD 3: 1x 3TB Seagate drive. Everything from the raid 0 is copied over to here sort of like a Home made raid 10. However this way even if the computer dies, all my data on the 3TB drive just looks like a regular drive and not a broken raid array.
 
Software and Configuration:
My server is running Windows Server 2012 standard which I get for free from dreamspark. This server runs active directory, dns and dhcp roles, so that computers can logon anywhere and get all their stuff (with roaming profiles and folder redirection). Also does basic file sharing too. I also run plex which transcodes media on the fly to my apple tv and LG tv in the lounge. Also iPads  iPhones etc. (Yes, that little pentium can handle trancoding 1080P video on the fly!). I couldn't bare building an entire server to run some basic OS that just file shared. So I learnt all about windows server and the things it could do. Pretty cool for a 17 year old to be able to do all this stuff :) 
 
Usage:
Used to store movies, tv shows data etc. Transocde on the fly. Hold all user data. Manage DHCP and DNS. Active directory with roaming profiles and folder redirection so all windows pc's can logon and have the users stuff as if it was local. Constantly adding new roles as I develop needs or want to play. 
 
Backup:
The only backup is of the raid 0 array and boot drive to the 3Tb drive. So data looks like regular data, so the computer could die and all data can still be accessed and recovered.

 

Additional Info:

The RAID 0 also has a 1Gb ram drive cache, which acts like a write buffer. So I get extremely fast writes and it slowly flushes data to the raid over time. Not a huge benefit right now, but once 10GBPS networking becomes mainstream it will be great :D Also the boot disk has a ram cache too but without the write buffer, so it just speeds up the server's snappiness. Didn't want to put an SSD in there. 

This build is basically a very cheap build, yet super snappy and capable. It always astounds me that people put such high end specs in servers that don't even do 10% of the things mine can do....

Sorry for the lack of photos, it isn't exactly pretty and it's hard to access.

 

[RandomNOOB]

Bathroom server anyone?

 

[L.E.D]

Bathroom server anyone?

 

lal.PNG

 

I'd take it, It is better then mine.

[MG2R]

Additional Info:

The RAID 0 also has a 1Gb ram drive cache, which acts like a write buffer. So I get extremely fast writes and it slowly flushes data to the raid over time. Not a huge benefit right now, but once 10GBPS networking becomes mainstream it will be great :D Also the boot disk has a ram cache too but without the write buffer, so it just speeds up the server's snappiness. Didn't want to put an SSD in there. 

This build is basically a very cheap build, yet super snappy and capable. It always astounds me that people put such high end specs in servers that don't even do 10% of the things mine can do....

Sorry for the lack of photos, it isn't exactly pretty and it's hard to access.

That's very nice! Might be researching that later on :)

The RAM cache for the boot drive shouldn't be necessary, Windows should be caching everything by default.

 

Nice system, but Y U NO pics? :p

[AidanJMessenger]

That's very nice! Might be researching that later on

The RAM cache for the boot drive shouldn't be necessary, Windows should be caching everything by default.

 

Nice system, but Y U NO pics? :P

It actually improves the performance a lot with the ram cache. Does it slightly different to windows' version. Look up fancycache. And no pics because it looks HORRIBLE. Ghetto drill holes in the front for the front fan. and it's already ugly as it is. And it's impossible to try and access to get photos of so I can't be bothered :D When the server goes down, EVERYTHING goes down, so unplugging it for a couple quick photos isn't really legible haha. 

[MrSmoke]

Hardware
CASE: Norcotek RPC4224
PSU: Antec Basiq 550w
MB: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4P
CPU: Intel Q9400
RAM: 2GB DDR2
RAID CARD 1: IBM BR10i

RAID CARD 2: IBM BR10i
RAID CARD 3: Supermicro USAS2
HDD Group 1: 4x Toshiba 3TB

HDD Group 2: 6x SAMSUNG HD204UI 2TB + 2x Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB

 
Software and Configuration:

Ubuntu 11.04 with mdadm for raids and xfs as file systems.

 

4x 3TB RAID5 (/dev/md127)

8x 2TB RAID6 + 2TB hot spare (/dev/md2).

 

Total (Not including temp hdd and OS) = 9TB + 12 TB = 21TB

 

Bonded onboard Realtek nics (in Round Robin mode). I have a few dual port Intel NICs but I dont have any spare PCIe lanes :(

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on/dev/md127            8.2T  5.4T  2.9T  65% /media/md1/dev/md2               11T  8.8T  2.2T  81% /media/md2

Usage:
Storing files (Tv, Movies, Backups, dump folders)

Also acts as a NAS storage for ESXi datastore (using NFS).

 

Backup:
Backups are for the weak
 

Additional info:

• Will be replacing the mobo, ram, cpu, psu soon with something like: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SLH-F.cfm  and probably a i3 CPU.
• The top 3 backplanes are not original since the old ones liked to drop drives hence the miniSAS to 4SATA connectors (Norco didnt have any of the miniSAS backplanes anymore)
• I have a 45RU Rack that this use to sit in, but temporary living arrangements currently so no room for it.

 
Photo's:

Taken from my el cheapo phone.

 

 

 

Needs a good clean

[MrSmoke]

Disk benchmarks are always good as well. Only dd for now but I might add up some bonnie results.

 

If you dont know how to read dd, top is write, bottom is read. ~5GB file

 

 

/dev/md2 (8x 2TB RAID6)

dd bs=1M count=5000 if=/dev/zero of=test1 conv=fdatasync5242880000 bytes (5.2 GB) copied, 12.8832 s, 407 MB/sdd bs=1M if=test1 of=/dev/null5242880000 bytes (5.2 GB) copied, 9.07039 s, 578 MB/s

/dev/md127 (4x3TB RAID5)

dd bs=1M count=5000 if=/dev/zero of=test1 conv=fdatasync5242880000 bytes (5.2 GB) copied, 18.442 s, 284 MB/sdd bs=1M if=test1 of=/dev/null5242880000 bytes (5.2 GB) copied, 12.6637 s, 414 MB/s

[MG2R]

Hardware

MB: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4P

 

 

Needs a good clean

 

Oh, I used to have the EXTREME variant of that mobo! Loved that board :D

 

You need some serious cable management!

[looney]

MrSmoke, on 22 Jul 2013 - 4:17 PM, said:

Hardware

CASE: Norcotek RPC4224

PSU: Antec Basiq 550w

MB: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4P

CPU: Intel Q9400

RAM: 2GB DDR2

RAID CARD 1: IBM BR10i

RAID CARD 2: IBM BR10i

RAID CARD 3: Supermicro USAS2

HDD Group 1: 4x Toshiba 3TB

HDD Group 2: 6x SAMSUNG HD204UI 2TB + 2x Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB

very nice build, with the counting system were using you get to 28TB (i believe)

we count all data drives and parity drives using advertised space. so 4x 3tb and 8x 2tb = 28tb

[Samdb]

Man, I can't wait to set up my own server in the future.

[MG2R]

Man, I can't wait to set up my own server in the future.

Definitely worth the time/money! Be sure to post build logs and the like!

 

Any idea on what you are going to build? (storage config, OS, system parts)

[Samdb]

Definitely worth the time/money! Be sure to post build logs and the like!

 

Any idea on what you are going to build? (storage config, OS, system parts)

I've put together a server here. As for the OS and storage config I'm currently unsure.

[MG2R]

I've put together a server here. As for the OS and storage config I'm currently unsure.

Looks nice!

 

Might I suggest going with a Celeron G1610 or G1620 instead of the G540? G540 is expected to be discontinued in Q3 of this year, the newer processors will have a higher IPC (instructions per clock) and should generally speaking be more efficient. They don't cost that much more either ;)

 

Also, are you planning on doing specific calculations on the machine? You could save a few bucks and go with 1333 or even 1066 MHz RAM. You could save even more bucks and go with only two gigs (or even one gig) of RAM if the server is purely to be used as a storage server. The amount of RAM is also dependant on the OS you're going to use.

 

For comparison: my home data/web server is running Debian without a GUI and is using 140MB or RAM. My VPS I rent runs a web server, bittorrent sync and a mail server equipped with anti-spam and anti-virus. That machine is using 382MB of RAM. So if you go with a Linux distro, one or two gigs of should be enough, unless you are planning on running memory intensive applications on it. For Windows, you better stick with 4 gigs.

[Samdb]

Looks nice!

 

Might I suggest going with a Celeron G1610 or G1620 instead of the G540? G540 is expected to be discontinued in Q3 of this year, the newer processors will have a higher IPC (instructions per clock) and should generally speaking be more efficient. They don't cost that much more either ;)

 

Also, are you planning on doing specific calculations on the machine? You could save a few bucks and go with 1333 or even 1066 MHz RAM. You could save even more bucks and go with only two gigs (or even one gig) of RAM if the server is purely to be used as a storage server. The amount of RAM is also dependant on the OS you're going to use.

 

For comparison: my home data/web server is running Debian without a GUI and is using 140MB or RAM. My VPS I rent runs a web server, bittorrent sync and a mail server equipped with anti-spam and anti-virus. That machine is using 382MB of RAM. So if you go with a Linux distro, one or two gigs of should be enough, unless you are planning on running memory intensive applications on it. For Windows, you better stick with 4 gigs.

I've been talking with Looney and he recommends have 2x4GB of RAM in case I want to upgrade in the future. I will probably end up going with a FlexRaid configuration.

[looney]

Samdb, on 28 Jul 2013 - 2:24 PM, said:

I've been talking with Looney and he recommends have 2x4GB of RAM in case I want to upgrade in the future. I will probably end up going with a FlexRaid configuration.

yes with the current ram prices you might as well go for 8GB when running windows and flexraid.

That way you will still have some nice headroom for other stuff.

also have a look at the seagate drives.

I personnaly favor those over the RED's.

[MG2R]

 you might as well go for 8GB when running windows and flexraid.

Ah, yes, when running Windows ;) That's what I said as well :p

 

Well, I was just throwing it out there. Looking forward to seeing the buiild log!

[AidanJMessenger]

I've put together a server here. As for the OS and storage config I'm currently unsure.

I Would just say that the Hyper 212 isn't really necessary. The processor runs SOOOO cool as it is (I have the better pentium G2020) and the Hyper 212 seems overkill. I was going to get one myself but am glad I didn't. I can't hear my server at all and it's right under my bed. Not to mention it's doing far more than just file sharing It's silent while 1080P transcoding too!

[Samdb]

I Would just say that the Hyper 212 isn't really necessary. The processor runs SOOOO cool as it is (I have the better pentium G2020) and the Hyper 212 seems overkill. I was going to get one myself but am glad I didn't. I can't hear my server at all and it's right under my bed. Not to mention it's doing far more than just file sharing It's silent while 1080P transcoding too!

I thought stock coolers were loud though? Or is it cool enough to spin the fan at a much lower RPM?

[looney]

I thought stock coolers were loud though? Or is it cool enough to spin the fan at a much lower RPM?

I don't know anything about the current stock coolers.

But if you want quietness then you should just go for a noctua.

[MG2R]

I thought stock coolers were loud though? Or is it cool enough to spin the fan at a much lower RPM?

The Intel stock cooler is actually not that bad at low wattage CPUs ;)

 

Considering that it is shipped with CPUs that have a TDP of over a hundred watt (couple of generations ago), it should be fairly quiet with a low wattage chip like the G1620. I'd say: go stock in the beginning. If you need  a quieter system, you can always swap the cooler out later on.

 

Not that you should listen to me,  I put an NH-D14 on my 35W TDP Pentium G465 :p

[Samdb]

I don't know anything about the current stock coolers.

But if you want quietness then you should just go for a noctua.

 

 

The Intel stock cooler is actually not that bad at low wattage CPUs ;)

 

Considering that it is shipped with CPUs that have a TDP of over a hundred watt (couple of generations ago), it should be fairly quiet with a low wattage chip like the G1620. I'd say: go stock in the beginning. If you need  a quieter system, you can always swap the cooler out later on.

 

Not that you should listen to me,  I put an NH-D14 on my 35W TDP Pentium G465 :P

I could always go with a passive cooler if I can find a decent one.