First server build advice on parts.

[josh1073]

Hey so i decided to build myself a server in place of messing around with NAS with limited storage. Main uses will be pictures,movies (mainly movie streaming),random files and cracked games.

Now this is where i need a bit of help, so far i have 3 wd red 3tb hdds (i plan to add more when needed) i am planning on getting a i3 3220 and just 4gb ram now i have no clue on what motherboard to get or what raid card to get i am a little out of my comfort zone as i have never built a server before. What would be a good raid card to use that wont throttle or limit the system? What would be a good motherboard to use?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give.

Parts in mind so far.

I3 3220 or the new haswel i3

3 3TB wd red (plan to add more when needed)

4gb of standard ram.

 

[uPDATE]

 

So I took your guys advice  into concideration and ditched the raid card as the motherboard supports onboard raid, I had a looked at the parts you guys put up and spent a few more days of searching and coming up with the build below. I have since built the system and installed windows to my ssd installed all updates, but have ran into a issue where windows wont create a software raid 5 array now i researtched after i got my 3tb hdds that windows wont see a drive past 2tb from there it will format it into 2 parts  2048GB and a 750GB partition but i will just send them back and order some wd 2TB red. Now my issue is that when i set up raid in place of ahci in bios windows blue screens and fails to boot (i am guessing this is because the ssd is configured for ahci).

 

So i am guessing if i want a software raid 5 setup i will need to ditch the ssd and install windoes to the raid 5 setup but if that is so then how do people get windows on a ssd and have a bunch of hdds in raid, my goal is to have the ssd with my os and 4 2TB drives in software raid 5. Sorry if this sounds confusing i am just out my deapth but willing to lean something different.

 

 

CPU: Intel Core I3 4130.

BOOT DRIVE: Crucial M500 240Gb.

STORAGE: 4 3TB WD Red drives.

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Gryphon Z87.

CASE: fractal define mini.

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz 4GB.

PSU: CORSAIR CX500M.

NETWORK CARD: Intel something.

[Erik4boss]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£76.79 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard:  ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£32.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory:  Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£56.83 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£75.88 @ CCL Computers) 

Total: £242.49

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-02 16:32 BST+0100)

 

You can change the hard drive to something else, but this is half the price of the WD Red.

[ShadowCaptain]

Hey so i decided to build myself a server in place of messing around with NAS with limited storage. Main uses will be pictures,movies (mainly movie streaming),random files and cracked games.

Now this is where i need a bit of help, so far i have 3 wd red 3tb hdds (i plan to add more when needed) i am planning on getting a i3 3220 and just 4gb ram now i have no clue on what motherboard to get or what raid card to get i am a little out of my comfort zone as i have never built a server before. What would be a good raid card to use that wont throttle or limit the system? What would be a good motherboard to use?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give.

Parts in mind so far.

I3 3220 or the new haswel i3

3 3TB wd red (plan to add more when needed)

4gb of standard ram.

 

 

For my server I chose to go with the MSI G43 z87 board as it has really great raid support on board (0, 1, 5, and raid 10 which I use) I currently use a G3220 pentium and I have 0 issues, the i3 is a great choice though

 

Also uses their military class hardware so should be up to the task

 

it was one of the few boards that had 6 x sata 3 ports

 

http://uk.msi.com/product/mb/Z87G43.html#/?div=Basic

[Vitalius]

Well, personally, I do not believe a RAID card is a good thing for a normal consumer to get. Not that you can't. You can. I just think it's a waste of money for what you plan to use this server for. Software RAID is preferred in most cases. Hardware RAID is only needed in certain, more rare, cases. 

An i3 3220 is £79.19 at Aria. If you got the cheapest ATX motherboard that supports the i3 3220, you are around £36 short of the C2550D4I server motherboard from ASRock which has an embedded 4 core CPU. Not sure if the extra 2 cores are worth £36, but it also has a ton of other great features like multiple ethernet ports, and tons of SATA connectors. Though you probably won't need those features, they can be useful if you ever repurpose the system.

I honestly suggest that one for a normal NAS oriented server that is going to be transcoding media, if you intend to use it to stream to devices like your TV, phone, tablet, or PC.

If you don't need the extra cores and dual core would be fine for you (if you don't plan on transcoding media), then go with what Erik4boss suggested.

What OS do you plan on using? Would you like a recommendation?

Edit: @josh1073 I updated this with UK relevant info.
 

You can change the hard drive to something else, but this is half the price of the WD Red.

I'm assuming he is going with Parity RAID (Which I personally recommend against doing, but eh). If he is, he really needs to go with WD Reds or equivalent NAS/Server/Enterprise oriented drives.

[josh1073]

Well, personally, I do not believe a RAID card is a good thing for a normal consumer to get. Not that you can't. You can. I just think it's a waste of money for what you plan to use this server for. Software RAID is preferred in most cases. Hardware RAID is only needed in certain, more rare, cases. 

An i3 3220 is £79.19 at Aria. If you got the cheapest ATX motherboard that supports the i3 3220, you are around £36 short of the C2550D4I server motherboard from ASRock which has an embedded 4 core CPU. Not sure if the extra 2 cores are worth £36, but it also has a ton of other great features like multiple ethernet ports, and tons of SATA connectors. Though you probably won't need those features, they can be useful if you ever repurpose the system.

I honestly suggest that one for a normal NAS oriented server that is going to be transcoding media, if you intend to use it to stream to devices like your TV, phone, tablet, or PC.

If you don't need the extra cores and dual core would be fine for you (if you don't plan on transcoding media), then go with what Erik4boss suggested.

What OS do you plan on using? Would you like a recommendation?

Edit: @josh1073 I updated this with UK relevant info.

 

I'm assuming he is going with Parity RAID (Which I personally recommend against doing, but eh). If he is, he really needs to go with WD Reds or equivalent NAS/Server/Enterprise oriented drives.

i am planning on using windows home server 2011

[Vitalius]

i am planning on using windows home server 2011

Ah, ok. Well, if you wanted to save money, you could try Amahi. It's a file server OS aimed at being simplistic, and it's free. YMMV of course.

[d3sl91]

Well, personally, I do not believe a RAID card is a good thing for a normal consumer to get. Not that you can't. You can. I just think it's a waste of money for what you plan to use this server for. Software RAID is preferred in most cases. Hardware RAID is only needed in certain, more rare, cases. 

 

+1

 

I've been using a software raid in my NAS for over a year, with zero issues. I even have two LSI Raid cards just sitting here that I could be using, but don't feel the need to, at all. 

[josh1073]

So I took your guys advice  into concideration and ditched the raid card as the motherboard supports onboard raid, I had a looked at the parts you guys put up and spent a few more days of searching and coming up with the build below. I have since built the system and installed windows to my ssd installed all updates, but have ran into a issue where windows wont create a software raid 5 array now i researtched after i got my 3tb hdds that windows wont see a drive past 2tb from there it will format it into 2 parts  2048GB and a 750GB partition but i will just send them back and order some wd 2TB red. Now my issue is that when i set up raid in place of ahci in bios windows blue screens and fails to boot (i am guessing this is because the ssd is configured for ahci).

 

So i am guessing if i want a software raid 5 setup i will need to ditch the ssd and install windows to the raid 5 setup but if that is so then how do people get windows on a ssd and have a bunch of hdds in raid while running off onboard sata?,My goal is to have the ssd with my os and 4 2TB drives in software raid 5.