making a home server?

[JewishBacon]

not sure if this is the right subforum to put this, but im thinking of making a home server for my pc backup/minecraft needs. im thinking of a core i3, 32gb ram, some cheap mobo with a bunch of sata ports and 2x 1 TB drives in raid 1. do you have any suggestions? I've never made a server before, i would presume its very similar to building a desktop.

[Tea1337]

You will only need around 16gb of ram in this case, and just in case things get heavy, an fx-6300 would suit your needs. 

[LIGISTX]

Why 32 gigs of ram? What do you intend to use this for, beyond "backup". Also, 1 TB of space really isn't that much. After spending a bunch of money building a PC just as a server/storage solution, why not put more drives in there?

[wpirobotbuilder]

Why 32 gigs of ram? What do you intend to use this for, beyond "backup". Also, 1 TB of space really isn't that much. After spending a bunch of money building a PC just as a server/storage solution, why not put more drives in there?

He might not need more than 1TB of space.

 

 

not sure if this is the right subforum to put this, but im thinking of making a home server for my pc backup/minecraft needs. im thinking of a core i3, 32gb ram, some cheap mobo with a bunch of sata ports and 2x 1 TB drives in raid 1. do you have any suggestions? I've never made a server before, i would presume its very similar to building a desktop.

Do you want to run an actual minecraft server off of this machine? You may need a better CPU depending on how many players you allow on the map.

[JewishBacon]

Why 32 gigs of ram? What do you intend to use this for, beyond "backup". Also, 1 TB of space really isn't that much. After spending a bunch of money building a PC just as a server/storage solution, why not put more drives in there?

the 32 GB of ram is for the minecraft part. ive used 12 GB of ram and it gets pretty laggy so my thinking is that 32 GB should cover it plenty

[LIGISTX]

But I don't understand why you would go to the trouble of building a home server with 1 TB of space... unless it is going to be a dedicated minecraft server, I guess I missed that part. But then why does he want "a lot of SATA ports" if he isn't going to use them?

 

Basically any PC can be "a server" just depends what OS and programs you have running on it. If you just want to build a minecraft server, any normal desktop parts will work fine.

[JewishBacon]

He might not need more than 1TB of space.

 

 

Do you want to run an actual minecraft server off of this machine? You may need a better CPU depending on how many players you allow on the map.

what cpu would you suggest. im thinking 20-25 players max

[JewishBacon]

But I don't understand why you would go to the trouble of building a home server with 1 TB of space... unless it is going to be a dedicated minecraft server, I guess I missed that part. But then why does he want "a lot of SATA ports" if he isn't going to use them?

 

Basically any PC can be "a server" just depends what OS and programs you have running on it. If you just want to build a minecraft server, any normal desktop parts will work fine.

by a lot i mean like 6 i might expand over time, i just dont want to have to buy a new mobo if/when the time comes

[wpirobotbuilder]

what cpu would you suggest. im thinking 20-25 players max

Whatever gets you the most clockspeed. Minecraft is very much a single-threaded game, so more cores won't help.

 

Which i3 are you referring to? The 4130 is the third fastest i3 out there, and it's reasonably priced.

[MrBucket101]

the built in RAID abilities that come with most mobos these days aren't very good. You're much better off using software raid (raid-z or mdadm are good options) or hardware raid if you can afford it.

 

get WD reds if you have room in the budget for it.

 

You seem to have a good reason to get 32gb of ram, can't really dispute the logic.

 

Xeon's are great server class CPU's, any Xeon would easily handle minecraft and anything else you could throw at it. http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/cpu/#s=12,26&sort=a8&qq=1&f=34
 

The HAF Stacker looks pretty appealing to me as a server case. You could have 9 drives each in the 915r/f and another 6 drives in the 935. For a total of 24 drives, 29 if you mount 3.5" drives in the 5.25" bays. Case costs around $200, compared to the $450 you would spend on an equivalent NORCO case. Only difference would be the hot-swap drive bays. So many options

 

A cheap SAS raid card and an SAS expander should let you access up to 32 drives. you would run an SAS cable from the card to the expander, and then 4->1 SAS->Sata breakout cables to connect any additional drives. Factor this into the cost of your motherboard, often times you pay a premium for native SATA ports which you don't need. 

For starters, I think a board w/ 6 sata ports would be okay, and then if you decide later you want to step it up, you could add in the raid card or expander or both. If it were me, I would try to buy a case with a lot of 3.5" bays. That way if you do decide to add more drives, you won't need to buy a new case. I made this mistake when I first built my server. I ended up having to buy a new case a year later when I had filled up my existing array. I still have the old case collecting dust in my attic such a waste

As far as building it goes, it's just like a desktop.

[JewishBacon]

@MrBucket101 I'm thinking of this CPU https://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80637e31230v2 but won't I also need to get a gpu?

[DarrenP]

@MrBucket101 I'm thinking of this CPU https://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80637e31230v2 but won't I also need to get a gpu?

I'd suggest getting the newer Intel E3-1230V3. That processor also includes Intel HD graphics. So you wont have to worry there. I'd also suggest looking into a decent SuperMicro Board to hold all this. Do you have an overall budget? I can throw something better together for you knowing an overall budget. 

[JewishBacon]

@DarrenP my budget is about 600

[JewishBacon]

600 US that is

[JewishBacon]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/eden526/saved/4woq

This is what I have so far. If anyone can do better I'd be more than willing to look

[DarrenP]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/eden526/saved/4woq

This is what I have so far. If anyone can do better I'd be more than willing to look

Yeah... That's pretty bad... Biostar make terrible motherboards, Logysis make terrible products too. 

 

I don't think with dollar budget you're going to be able to run what you want to run. I would say though 1000 would be enough. I've tried squeezing a decent motherboard and processor plus RAM into that budget and it's near impossible. 

[MrBucket101]

I'd suggest getting the newer Intel E3-1230V3. That processor also includes Intel HD graphics. So you wont have to worry there. I'd also suggest looking into a decent SuperMicro Board to hold all this. Do you have an overall budget? I can throw something better together for you knowing an overall budget. 

the 1225v3 has the integrated graphics

 

you can tell by looking at the tdp, integrated graphics are 95w tdp, and none is 80w tdp

[DarrenP]

the 1225v3 has the integrated graphics

 

you can tell by looking at the tdp, integrated graphics are 95w tdp, and none is 80w tdp

I was trying to remember. The Sku's that end in 5 have Integrated graphics. 

[JewishBacon]

Yeah... That's pretty bad... Biostar make terrible motherboards, Logysis make terrible products too. 

 

I don't think with dollar budget you're going to be able to run what you want to run. I would say though 1000 would be enough. I've tried squeezing a decent motherboard and processor plus RAM into that budget and it's near impossible.

See, for 1000$ I could build another gaming rig and just have them back up to eachother nightly

[MrBucket101]

Yeah... That's pretty bad... Biostar make terrible motherboards, Logysis make terrible products too. 

 

I don't think with dollar budget you're going to be able to run what you want to run. I would say though 1000 would be enough. I've tried squeezing a decent motherboard and processor plus RAM into that budget and it's near impossible. 

agreed

I think you should save up your pennies a little longer and get a workstation or server class mobo. It will pair nicely with your Xeon CPU. I also think that for the time being, you should just stick with 16GB of RAM. 32GB kits seem to cost WAY more than their 16gb counter-parts. If you run linux on your new fancy server, the OS should consume less than 1gb of ram. This still would give you a nice 3-4gb buffer for additional minecraft mods. This would free up space in the budget for a better mobo, and allow you to expand down the road if you decide you can't live w/o 32GB

The P9-D line of boards from Asus looks pretty appealing to me.

 

EDIT:

See, for 1000$ I could build another gaming rig and just have them back up to eachother nightly

 

Technically all any server needs to be a "gaming" rig is a nice gpu.

 

The initial cost of a server is always going to be a bit high, you're building a 2nd rig and its hard to justify having not one, but two nice machines.  The server will need less upgrades and the hardware should last you much much longer than your gaming rig.  You dont really need high end performance from the server and as long as its working you barely notice its there. I've had a personal server going on 4 years now, and I can honestly say I value my server much much more than my gaming rig...if my house was on fire and I could only save one thing, it'd probably be my server. The data it holds is invaluable to me.

[JewishBacon]

so i spoke to some of the people in the business i know, and came across a just for me deal. 72 GB RAM and dual 5520 processors but no HDD. 600$ hmmm

[MrBucket101]

so i spoke to some of the people in the business i know, and came across a just for me deal. 72 GB RAM and dual 5520 processors but no HDD. 600$ hmmm

Dual Xeon E5520?

 

What else comes with it? or is it just the board+cpu+ram? Is it DD3 1066 ram?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-Z8PE-D18-Dual-Quad-Core-Intel-E5520-24GB-RAM-Server-Motherboard-RAID-IPKVM-/301143789990

^^for a reference of sorts

what brand of mobo is it?

[JewishBacon]

Dual Xeon E5520?

 

What else comes with it? or is it just the board+cpu+ram? Is it DD3 1066 ram?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-Z8PE-D18-Dual-Quad-Core-Intel-E5520-24GB-RAM-Server-Motherboard-RAID-IPKVM-/301143789990

^^for a reference of sorts

what brand of mobo is it?

it has a psu and a case as well. im not sure on the clock speed of the ram, and yea it is the E5520 xeon

 

specifically it is a dell c1100 server

[MrBucket101]

I would hope your buddy would give you a better deal than ebay...

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-C1100-1U-2X-XEON-QC-L5520-2-26GHZ-NO-HDD-72GB-DDR3-Tested-/261355969100

anyways, its a rack mount server, and im guessing you don't have a rack. Without a rack those xeons would run pretty hot. Rack mount chasis are notoriously loud, i mean annoyingly loud..REALLY F**KIN LOUD.

 

Plus the case only has 4 3.5" bays. If you wanted to expand you would need to get a raid card and sas expander, otherwise you're stuck to only 4 drives on that one machine.

[JewishBacon]

I would hope your buddy would give you a better deal than ebay...

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-C1100-1U-2X-XEON-QC-L5520-2-26GHZ-NO-HDD-72GB-DDR3-Tested-/261355969100

anyways, its a rack mount server, and im guessing you don't have a rack. Without a rack those xeons would run pretty hot. Rack mount chasis are notoriously loud, i mean annoyingly loud..REALLY F**KIN LOUD.

 

Plus the case only has 4 3.5" bays. If you wanted to expand you would need to get a raid card and sas expander, otherwise you're stuck to only 4 drives on that one machine.

ooh this guy....hes got some splainin' to do