150 - 200 $ storage server

julekule · March 16, 2014

Hi i wanne build a storage server. I need to know what os to get and which parts to pick. I alredy have 4 3tb wd green hdd and a 64gb sandisk ssd all i need is the computer for 200 or less dollars

I would really like a raid card

alpenwasser · March 16, 2014

For that budget, I don't really see a way to get a RAID card, let

alone a RAID card plus the rest of the components. Besides, for

four HDDs plus one SSD, there isn't really much need for it anyway,

as long as your storage setup does not need to fulfill very high

performance requirements, the onboard ports on a decent M/B will

do the job just fine.

As for actual component choices, there are many ways to do this.

You can either go with lower-end current-gen compoents (something

like a Pentium, or maybe an i3, or something similar from AMD),

or you can try to find some used CPUs and M/B on eBay for a good

price (@Vitalius has recently done this I think, or is still

working on it, as have I with the server I'm currently working

on).

As for OS, again, many choices. FreeNAS seems to get recommended

a lot (though I haven't yet tried it myself); Vitalius could give

you more advice on that I think. Alternatively you could go with

an appropriate Linux distro, or there might be something on the

Windows front that suits the purpose (really not sure on that

one, haven't looked into Windows server-ish stuff in a long time).

It probably depends on what your storage server needs to do

(just backups/general storage, streaming, plexing, w/e else).

While I'm here, let me also summon @wpirobotbuilder and @Eric1024,

they're pretty knowledgeable in this aread AFAIK.

Vitalius · March 16, 2014

There's no purpose in having a RAID card if you use FreeNAS (and imo, you should) except for eliminating Single Points of Failure. FreeNAS handles everything a RAID card would do, better, or at the very least, just as good.

But those are only important for eliminating in a production environment (where businesses use the server regularly and can't work without it).

So you don't need a RAID card.

If I were you, I would buy 2 CPUs like these ($90 in total, I didn't buy those, but CPUs similar to those that were as cheap), this motherboard ($40), and this RAM ($80) all for around $200-$220 (no taxes/shipping). Note that that motherboard requires Fully Buffered ECC RAM. Which is slotted differently from non-buffered ECC RAM. Meaning DDR2 non-buffered ECC RAM does not fit in it. While Fully Buffered DDR2 ECC RAM does fit in it. Fully Buffered is usually labeled as FB-DIMMs.

I made that mistake and had to send my RAM back. You might want to find another motherboard that accepts non-buffered ECC RAM so that you have a larger selection to choose from (Fully Buffered RAM is somewhat rare). Though I'm not sure if you'll find cheaper ones.

Another thing: That Motherboard needs a 24-pin, an 8-pin and a 4-in CPU power connector. So 3 connectors. My 750w NZXT PSU has that many (the 8-pin is 2 4-pins for backwards compatibility from the non-modular cables, and it has an 8-pin on for the modular cables). You can always buy this if you need the extra 8-pin.

I know it's hitting slightly over your budget, but the point isn't for you to buy the parts I suggest, but for you to look at what you need and find parts accordingly that could be cheaper.

If you have any questions, let me know. Such as "Why 16GB of RAM? Why 8 CPU cores?" etc etc. To simplify my answer to those questions, FreeNAS is an enterprise level storage OS. Throwing lots of strong hardware at it makes it run a lot better.

I have a system with a Phenom X4 running at 3.2GHz with 8GB of RAM and a single 4TB HDD in it with 32GB of SSD Cache right now. My read/writes are limited to 13MB/s or so. It's slow. So terribly slow. It's my backup machine and I have over 1TB of things to backup on my main computer. This is why I'm upgrading. Because that's not enough RAM and I question if that CPU is strong enough to be running my plugins and shares.

So yeah. That's why 8 cores and 16GB (or more) of RAM.

Also, I'm not sure what you were considering doing with those four 3TB drives, but do not use Parity RAID with them. Parity RAID is RAID 5, 6, and 7. You should never use commercial drives (anything that isn't a NAS or Enterprise drive) with parity RAID. It's pointless and you waste performance and storage space for no redundancy (effectively).

You should only be going RAID 10, RAID 1, or RAID 0 with that setup. Parity RAID would just set you up for failure from the get-go.

wpirobotbuilder · March 16, 2014

Unfortunately you cannot get a RAID card with $200, unless you don't want a motherboard and CPU to go with it.

alpenwasser · March 16, 2014

Asketh, and Vitalius shall deliver.

Also, I'm not sure what you were considering doing with those four 3TB drives, but do not use Parity RAID with them. Parity RAID is RAID 5, 6, and 7. You should never use commercial drives (anything that isn't a NAS or Enterprise drive) with parity RAID. It's pointless and you waste performance and storage space for no redundancy (effectively).

Quick question: I seem to recall vaguely that at some point somebody did a pretty

good writeup on why this is the case on the forum, but I can't seem to recall

where anymore. You wouldn't happen to know where this post/thread is? Would make

it nice and convenient to have that info handy since it's a subject that comes up

comparatively frequently.

Vitalius · March 16, 2014

Asketh, and Vitalius shall deliver.

Quick question: I seem to recall vaguely that at some point somebody did a pretty

good writeup on why this is the case on the forum, but I can't seem to recall

where anymore. You wouldn't happen to know where this post/thread is? Would make

it nice and convenient to have that info handy since it's a subject that comes up

comparatively frequently.

I did at some point. I don't remember why.

goto Google

:Google Found it.