Several Questions Regarding Servers

[CaesarRoman]

Hello everyone,

 

This is my first post on LinusTechTips and I am looking forward to meeting everyone. I have several questions regarding servers and NASes, mostly hardware related (a few software too). This will be a lengthy post, so you don't have to answer all my questions (you are more than welcome to), but answering any one of my questions will be of great assistance to me.

 

I am going to build a server for a small organization. It will run Ubuntu Server and will probably service up to 7 users maximum. As of now, it will only be fully operational 1-2 months out of the year (this number could go up in future years) so I don't consider ZFS file systems or RAID to be worth the money (especially since we can just run backups). It will be handled as a NAS, cloud server (Nextcloud), FTP server (using openSSH) and other things we could utilize in the future (potential render server?)

 

Here is my current parts list, but I have a few questions on how money could be saved:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: Asus PRIME B350-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($98.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($114.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($93.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($139.99 @ B&H) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GT 710 2GB Video Card  ($39.99 @ Jet) 
Case: Corsair 100R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($53.99 @ Amazon) 
Other: Ryzen 5 1600 ($219.00)
Total: $810.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-01 13:41 EDT-0400

 

The reason I went with a Ryzen 5 1600 instead of a Xeon is because it way more cost-effective and I get greater price to performance for the CPU I am targeting. A few questions regarding my parts choices:

 

1. Which AM4 motherboard supports ECC RAM? I know that Ryzen has full support for ECC memory, but I have not been able to find any boards that support ECC. I put the PRIME B350 in there as a placeholder. Are there any B350 motherboards that support ECC? (I do not necessarily want to get an X370 motherboard, as I will not utilize any features like multi-GPU.) In addition, which type of ECC RAM should I use, or does it really not matter? (i.e. unregistered / registered ECC RAM.) If there are motherboards that support ECC RAM for Ryzen, PCPartPicker is not listing it.

 

2. Is the Samsung 850 EVO a good / reliable SSD to be used in this server environment? I know it is mostly command line, etc. but I'd like to put the operating system on an SSD for faster boot / response times. If it really does not make that much of a difference I may consider removing it.

 

3. Is the WD Red 4TB a good choice as an HDD? I know a lot of people say this is the best NAS drive out there, but one of my friends is recommending I go with Seagate instead, saying they are much more reliable. However, I do not have enough trust built up in Seagate to use it in a server environment (despite that I use a Seagate drive in my own computer)

 

4. What GPU should I use? I heard Ryzen does not have an integrated graphics card which means I have to use a dedicated GPU. Is the EVGA GT 710 good, or is there anything else better I can get for a cheaper price? (Or am I mistaken and Ryzen / the motherboard does have it's own built in GPU?)

 

5. What power supply should I go with? I originally chose an EVGA G2, but then realized it was overkill. Is an 80+ Bronze good enough for a server environment? I know it doesn't have to have super high wattages, but I also want something that will be reliable and not fail on me. I have heard positive things about Seasonic and Silverstone, but I am not familiar enough with their PSU lineup to choose one of them (hence why I went with Corsair). 

 

6. What would be a nice case? I chose the Corsair 100R ATX as a placeholder. I would prefer windowless, as if I get the ECC RAM the green sticks would match up horribly with the motherboard, and I am not trying to RGB the build.

 

7. Is RAID 1 really worth it over just running traditional backups on the server?

 

Also, on a side note, what software would you guys use for a personal cloud / NAS setup? Would you go with Nextcloud and Samba or would you go with something else? I would use FreeNAS, but I am more familiar with Ubuntu Server and don't need all the features FreeNAS has. 

 

Thank you for your time.

 

EDIT: To clarify, the SSD is just to host the OS and programs, all of the reading and writing files and the disk multiple users will have access to is the HDD.

[LienusLateTips]

1. I don't think Ryzen 7 even supports ECC.

2. YES GET A SSD FOR SERVER

3. Seagates fail more for me, IDK about other models

4. Are you using it just as a display adapter? Then get a R5 230 or HD 5450 for $50. Otherwise no.

5. Get a good PSU. I would recommend a SeaSonic G Series. They are good for the price (550W 80+ Gold for $65 US)

6. Corsair 100R has window. Go with a very cheap case if you want no window. Maybe the VIVO V00 for $34

7. Yes

[TheCherryKing]

AMD Ryzen processors do not support ECC memory. You should only use enterprise-grade SSDs in a server because the consumer-grade SSDs have less write cycles. SAS enterprise-grade hard drives would benefit your build because the SCSI command set is better optimized for multiple users accessing the drive at the same time.

[Electronics Wizardy]

22 minutes ago, CaesarRoman said:

The reason I went with a Ryzen 5 1600 instead of a Xeon is because it way more cost-effective and I get greater price to performance for the CPU I am targeting. A few questions regarding my parts choices:

Id stay away from them for a few months as there are still lots of bugs and your basically beta testing them. Id probably get a cheaper, lowerpower(no gpu needed) and more stable lga 1151 xeon(look at a e3 1225 v5/6 or 1245 or 1230 if you board has a gpu built in(many server ones do).

 

 

What is this server doing

 

 

1. No offical support for ecc, but you don't really need it

 

2. What are you doing with your server? if this is a nas mostly, id just boot it from some usb stick(raid them if you are picky). SSD won't really make it much faster if you aren't hitting it with io's

 

3.Hdd wise, raid is nice to have, id probably get a second one, then since yo have 2, just get cheap drives and use raid to fix issues(id use btrfs raid 1)

 

4. Doesn't matter, cheapest on amazon/newegg, but id get something like a e3 1225 with a igpu

 

5. Id get a seasonic 360w 80+gold

 

6.

 

If this is for a business, id just go to dell and get a t130 and spec it up, there gonna to remove the hassles and have support if something goes wrong. Also, your not on the line if something goes wrong.

 

 

[TheCherryKing]

A lot of the server motherboards have built in graphics with a VGA port.

[Taylor Dettling]

On 4/1/2017 at 2:38 PM, TheCherryKing said:

A lot of the server motherboards have built in graphics with a VGA port.

Ryzen is not a server CPU so there will not be any motherboards that he can find that have on-board graphics.

[faytleingod11]

Where is this info that ryzen doesn't support ecc coming from? If you look at the press releases, or at the motherboards that are available (I know specifically from Asus) It states pretty clearly that ecc is supported.

 

From amd ama

 

[seagate_surfer]

On 4/1/2017 at 11:52 AM, CaesarRoman said:

3. Is the WD Red 4TB a good choice as an HDD? I know a lot of people say this is the best NAS drive out there, but one of my friends is recommending I go with Seagate instead, saying they are much more reliable. However, I do not have enough trust built up in Seagate to use it in a server environment (despite that I use a Seagate drive in my own computer)

Hi, CaesarRoman. Thank you for your consideration of Seagate drives. Our engineering team is always working to make better products, so if you do go with Seagate and have any questions please feel free to reach out!

[paddy-stone]

To answer one of your questions, the motherboard I am currently using (ASrock AB350M) supports ECC memory, although I cannot personally confirm this as I don't have any DDR4 ECC ram to currently test it.

 

- AMD Ryzen series CPUs support DDR4 3200+(OC)/2933(OC)/2667/2400/2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory

*

 

Source: http://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/AB350M Pro4/index.asp#Specification

 

I'm sure that other board manufacturers are the same too.

[Jarsky]

Just curious - for what you're after, why not just pickup a used server like a Dell R710? 

 

If you find one with the 3.5" sleds like this one then thats 2 x 6C/12T CPU's (24 Threads total) with 64GB RAM, remote management, quad Gbit nic, etc... for ~$400 + an SSD and a couple of new WD 4TB's in a RAID1 mirror - it will still be cheaper and much better than a new custom built Ryzen.