plans for a new home server before the current one finally kicks the bucket.

[manikyath]

i'm gonna start off with a quick "state of things" to explain where i'm at:

 

my current home server is an acer aspire TC-603 with an i7 4770, a GT640 with 4GB VRAM, and a whole range of other janky oem components.

when my old home server no longer sufficed this thing kinda became the "temporary solution" (because in all honesty, i've been waiting on AMD zen to build my new server...)

because OEM garbage is well.. garbage, a few modifications had to be done:

- soldered extra sata power plugs onto the mobo (yes, that's where sata power comes from)

- janky-mounted an extra fan to the front as an intake

- made a hard drive mount out of nothing but neopreen and double sided tape because nothing else fit

- some horrible, horrible cable bodges to make everything work together

 

recently both the cpu fan and gpu fan have been acting up, and i'm tired of keeping this disaster alive.

brings us to new things, and the details about my specific use case:

 

this machine does kinda triple duty for me:

- file storage (currently on a mixture of refurb drives held in with tape)

- media center, its basicly hooked up to my tv to watch livestreams / (every so often also some very slight gaming, not to the point it matters in terms of the parts)

- on and off gameserver duty, never anything public, rarely more than two players.

 

beyond that, some further requirements:

- quietness, at idle this thing should basicly be dead silent. the hard drives should be in propper antivibration mounts, etc.

- energy efficiency, because power is stupidly expensive here, with all crystal balls pointing towards an even darker future.

(there's actually a proposal on the table in belgium to raise power cost to ~ 40 cents per kwh.)

- durability & reliability, this thing will need to last an extended amount of time.

 

so.. currently the plan is along these lines:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€308.08 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D9L 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler  (€49.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Motherboard: MSI B150 PC Mate ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€87.49 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (€154.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€65.22 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€65.22 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Seagate Archive 8TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€259.94 @ Mindfactory) 
Storage: Seagate Enterprise NAS 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€179.42 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Seagate Enterprise NAS 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€179.42 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Case: Cooler Master HAF XB EVO ATX Desktop Case  (€95.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Fractal Design Newton R3 600W 80+ Platinum Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€154.31 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Total: €1599.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-13 16:22 CEST+0200

- the i7 is probably overkill, but sometimes the 4770 i have now comes in real handy, so i'll probably stick to that idea unless AMD zen can blow me away before my old server "blows me away"

- noctua cooler, i mostly went for this one because every time i'm on PCPP it draws my attention, and i just want to try it...

- i honestly have no idea what mobo would be good for my server build, all my past servers were kinda recycled builds, so i did with what i had.

- 32GB ram, WAY overkill, but i'm sure i'll use that at some point knowing my ramhogness  

(the choice will be either 1x 16GB or 2x 16GB sticks, since i want to keep the option of going the full 64GB without tossing sticks)

- boot SSD, mostly to keep things snappy, and seperate from file storage (which is currently only partially true)

- secondary SSD mostly for software that is not linux packages (i'll probably end up putting /home on there)

- 2x 3TB drives that'll be mirrored in some way for redundant data storage

- 1x 8TB archive drive as a secondary backup, one of these 3 before mentioned drives will most likely be placed in a secondary backup rig at some point to reduce points of failure

- i have even less of an idea what case to get. i really want to buy a second define R5, or transplant my main system to a define S, but i would prefer the desktop formfactor for my server.

- that newton R3 power supply.. has been on my server pcpp list since i first started making plans for a new rig, before skylake launched

so.. few questions (social experiment, mention the word "potato" in your reply if you're still reading)

- if anyone has that noctua cooler, how is it?

- are there better mobo's to get?

- should i bother with a low power gpu? it'd probably be in the same range as the GT640 i have now, since i really dont need more in this rig. i'd mostly get it for the display outputs. (if so, in all seriousness, pros / cons for either amd or nvidia with linux.)

- how terrible is that case? i've considered going fully custom, but i dont have the time or energy for that atm. should i go for a define R5 instead, and are there other options to consider?

- any other remarks for the specific parts or ideas?

 

EDIT: forgot to mention, location is offcourse belgium, and budget is *not quite* set in stone, but i'd prefer to keep it roughly around before mentioned build.

[GSTARR]

i have nothing to say about servers or potatoes sorry

[comicsansms]

You should probably get a UPS and I would stick with the i7 4770.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

You should probably get a UPS and I would stick with the i7 4770.

i already have 3 UPSes

[Matias_Chambers]

dunno why you would upgrade from a 4770 to a 6700

[manikyath]

Just now, Matias_Chambers said:

dunno why you would upgrade from a 4770 to a 6700

because the 4770 is the only thing in said system that isnt falling apart, so i may as well 

[Matias_Chambers]

10 minutes ago, manikyath said:

because the 4770 is the only thing in said system that isnt falling apart, so i may as well 

I guess you can if you don't care about spending money on it.

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, Matias_Chambers said:

I guess you can if you don't care about spending money on it.

the idea is kinda that i wanna start fresh, and honestly i'll probably end up repurposing that 4770 somewhere else in the future.

 

also, it's been running off like... "not enough" vrms for like 2 years, for all i know it got quite a hit as well from running on a mobo that only seems to have one decent choke for the cpu

[Matias_Chambers]

4 minutes ago, manikyath said:

the idea is kinda that i wanna start fresh, and honestly i'll probably end up repurposing that 4770 somewhere else in the future.

 

also, it's been running off like... "not enough" vrms for like 2 years, for all i know it got quite a hit as well from running on a mobo that only seems to have one decent choke for the cpu

Yeah I know the feeling of "wanting to start fresh"

[handymanshandle]

6 hours ago, GSTARR said:

i have nothing to say about servers or potatoes sorry

Potatoe is life though /s

 

 

[AresKrieger]

I'm going to be honest the only reason I didn't reply to your thread earlier is that I have the attention span of a puppy

 

But the case I know a little about, the build quality is really good overall but it has an unfiltered intake which can be annoying and the hot swap cables are difficult to deal with due to their stiffness

 

Oh and general cable management is quite good

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, AresKrieger said:

unfiltered intake

dont worry, got that "covered"

 

also, i'm used to finnicky cables by now, i spend most of my work days plugging in SFP+ cables

[AresKrieger]

Just now, manikyath said:

dont worry, got that "covered"

 

also, i'm used to finnicky cables by now, i spend most of my work days plugging in SFP+ cables

Well then you should be good it has excellent cable management options overall and as I said it's built well, overall most people give it a high marks, only taking off for minor things as I just mentioned

[Bleedingyamato]

I think you should look at a Gigabyte B chipset potato.  lol

 

I have a Gigabyte B85 board in my secondary desktop that seems to work pretty well.

[Xineas]

6 hours ago, manikyath said:

the idea is kinda that i wanna start fresh, and honestly i'll probably end up repurposing that 4770 somewhere else in the future.

 

also, it's been running off like... "not enough" vrms for like 2 years, for all i know it got quite a hit as well from running on a mobo that only seems to have one decent choke for the cpu

Slightly different potato, different case, different components, generally the same concept though. A little bit cheaper, but not much.

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/DKXhtJ

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€307.83 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
CPU Cooler: Scythe BIG Shuriken 2 Rev. B 45.5 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (€31.99 @ Aquatuning) 

I think it looks cool, it does a decent job cooling but it blows air down, so air also flows over the VRMs and other mobo components.
Motherboard: ASRock B150M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€82.55 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

mATX so it fits the case, otherwise not very different from the MSI board specs wise.
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (€154.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€97.93 @ Mindfactory) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€97.93 @ Mindfactory) 

Not a big fan of Crucial BX series quality wise.
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€148.50 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€148.50 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

If you're gonna mirror them anyways, might as well get 5400rpm disks, bit cheaper, 4TB instead of 3TB.
Storage: Seagate Archive 8TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€259.94 @ Mindfactory) 

Cheapest 8TB you can get, I'm sure it'll do it's job.
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (€92.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

I've heard lots of good things about this case and airflow seems to be good.
Power Supply: SeaSonic 660W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€135.84 @ Mindfactory) 

Total: €1558.79

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-14 01:03 CEST+0200

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Xineas said:

Slightly different potato, different case, different components, generally the same concept though. A little bit cheaper, but not much.

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/DKXhtJ

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€307.83 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
CPU Cooler: Scythe BIG Shuriken 2 Rev. B 45.5 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (€31.99 @ Aquatuning) 

I think it looks cool, it does a decent job cooling but it blows air down, so air also flows over the VRMs and other mobo components.
Motherboard: ASRock B150M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€82.55 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

mATX so it fits the case, otherwise not very different from the MSI board specs wise.
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (€154.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€97.93 @ Mindfactory) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€97.93 @ Mindfactory) 

Not a big fan of Crucial BX series quality wise.
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€148.50 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€148.50 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

If you're gonna mirror them anyways, might as well get 5400rpm disks, bit cheaper, 4TB instead of 3TB.
Storage: Seagate Archive 8TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€259.94 @ Mindfactory) 

Cheapest 8TB you can get, I'm sure it'll do it's job.
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (€92.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

I've heard lots of good things about this case and airflow seems to be good.
Power Supply: SeaSonic 660W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€135.84 @ Mindfactory) 

Total: €1558.79

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-14 01:03 CEST+0200

i see where you're going, but i'm unsure about a few things:

- that cpu cooler barely looks better than the stock heatsink, and i actually have one of those fans they put on there, it's not really worth a deep review, to put it at that

- i'm not a fan of µatx mobo's, i kinda tend to avoid them if possible.

- i see where you're going with the SSDs, i'll see where i take that.

- WD reds wont cut it for me unfortunately, they're just not the speed i desire. i intend to mirror them, but not trough conventional means to avoid identical writing patterns to both, potentially even migrating one of them to a seperate system. the 8TB is there in case they go seriously wrong, but i never intend to end in a situation where i lose both "hot" drives before i can make a copy to a new drive after the first failure.