Server Upgrades Time

[SuperShermanTanker]

So I have a file server I set up a few weeks ago from a old Athlon 64 X2 2.2ghz Acer Desktop that had 4gb of RAM and I set it up with a 300watt Seasonic 80+ Bronze PSU, a 1tb 7200rpm Seagate Survalance drive for storage and a 120gb  Silicon Power SSD for a boot drive.

 

 

The first upgrade I did was to modernize the machine a bit and I got a PCI Express x1 USB 3.0 card that had a gigabit eathernet port built in and I got specificly that card so I can add a SATA 3 RAID card later on which needs the larger PCI Express slot in the server as the server only has 2 PCI Express slots

 

 

For the second upgrade I got a newer DVD drive and I hooked it up to a PCI to SATA 1 card I had laying around as the machine only has 2 SATA 2 ports

 

And now for the 3rd upgrade I'm just using parts I already have laying around I'm going to upgrade the cooling and make the server a bit quieter by replacing the old fans and putting a tower cooler in the machine

 

And hopefully after I upgrade the cooling system there will be smoother airflow through the machine and it will run a bit quieter

 

Also I do want to ask does anyone have any suggestions for future upgrades as I'm kind of new with figuring out a upgrade path for a file server?

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, SuperShermanTanker said:

Also I do want to ask does anyone have any suggestions for future upgrades as I'm kind of new with figuring out a upgrade path for a file server?

Whats your goal. Cheap hba like a lsi 9207 8i would let you add more drives.

 

What OS?

 

Id also look at power consumption. Something like a intel atom or a prebuilt synology nas would be much less power hungry and faster

[JohnnyCorporalTech]

What OS are you using and are there  any other things that you plan to do with the server

[SuperShermanTanker]

8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Whats your goal. Cheap hba like a lsi 9207 8i would let you add more drives.

 

What OS?

 

Id also look at power consumption. Something like a intel atom or a prebuilt synology nas would be much less power hungry and faster

I'm currently using Windows Server 2016 that I got for free from the collage I go to and I do want to upgrade the storage in the future as well as maybe set up a raid setup as the machine has 4 drive bays and a extra 5.25 inch bay I can fit a adapter in for either a pair of 2.5 inch drives or a extra 3.5 inch HDD

 

And yes the server is a bit power hungry but after letting the Athlon 64 X2 downclock itself at idle it goes under 1ghz at idle and the server basicly idles most of the time until I either transfer some files or it does it's nightly backup to the cloud and I only am going to spend money as needed for upgrades and mantinance so I don't have a specific budget and I'm not going to buy anything really expensive for it too.

 

I do know somthing like a synology NAS would work but I don't have the budget to spend the money on one and for a cheaper price (not counting power consumption) I can use the machine I already have that still is comparable in performance to a Atom/Celron based server.

[SuperShermanTanker]

9 minutes ago, JohnnyCorporalTech said:

What OS are you using and are there  any other things that you plan to do with the server

It's just a file server and maybe also a basic personal media server in the future. Also I'm running Windows Server 2016.

[JohnnyCorporalTech]

4 minutes ago, SuperShermanTanker said:

I'm currently using Windows Server 2016 that I got for free from the collage I go to

Nice, I got the same thing. I have free unlimited access to all of Microsoft products, including Windows server 2016, Visio Professional and full licence copies of Windows 10, 8 and 7.

 

12 minutes ago, SuperShermanTanker said:

 I do want to upgrade the storage in the future as well as maybe set up a raid setup as the machine has 4 drive bays and a extra 5.25 inch bay I can fit a adapter in for either a pair of 2.5 inch drives or a extra 3.5 inch HDD

You can get some pretty cheap 5.25" to 3.5 inch adaptors on ebay

[SuperShermanTanker]

51 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Cheap hba like a lsi 9207 8i would let you add more drives.

I'll definately look into that I don't know about SAS drives though how are they in terms of price and reliability?

 

25 minutes ago, JohnnyCorporalTech said:

You can get some pretty cheap 5.25" to 3.5 inch adaptors on ebay

Will look into those too maybe I can get a 5 drive raid array going eventually in the little thing or at least get a bay or two that's not blocked by the RAM and CPU cooler

 

[JohnnyCorporalTech]

10 minutes ago, SuperShermanTanker said:

I'll definately look into that I don't know about SAS drives though how are they in terms of price and reliability?

SATA drive are compatible with SAS connectors through the use of some inexpensive adapters:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Internal-Mini-SAS-SFF-8087-to-4x-SATA-7-Pin-F-Forward-Breakout-Cable-50CM-/261746252169

 

you can actually run upto 4 SATA drives per SAS connector.

[SuperShermanTanker]

15 minutes ago, JohnnyCorporalTech said:

SATA drive are compatible with SAS connectors through the use of some inexpensive adapters:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Internal-Mini-SAS-SFF-8087-to-4x-SATA-7-Pin-F-Forward-Breakout-Cable-50CM-/261746252169

 

you can actually run upto 4 SATA drives per SAS connector.

Good to know I'll definately take a look into that

[SuperShermanTanker]

Server is all upgraded to the new cooling system