Noob server build questions:

[Matt1309]

Hi I'm new to the forum so apologies if this is in the wrong section. Let me know if it should be else where. 

 

What I want:

File sharing (samba, afp, ftp) fast but affordable (so gigabit but not 10)

torrent downloader (running in a virtual machine with a VPN).

virtual machine capabilities for general messing around with new OS's and server OS's

The odd game server (wow emulators)

NVR for simple POE home security system.

HTPC 4k capable (no need to game) to stream locally stored content as well as stream. 

 

 

Current potential plans:

1. All in one server running Debian. 4x2TB HDD as NAS raid 5, another HDD for NVR, and a boot SSD. A long HDMI cable to another room to the TV with kodi running.

2. A NAS (likely freenas) and seperate HTPC (likely debian) with one of them running the virtual machine for torrent downloading over VPN and also a NVR

3. Option 1 but with a raspi HTPC instead of long HDMI (can this handle 4k?). 

 

 I'm looking for a solution around £700 (excluding security camera gear). 

Here are my questions:

Which potential plan do you recommend or is there a better?

What hardware would you recommend (i3? xeon? ECC ram?)

How loud will 4x2tb HDD be? Could I put this server in a living room or would it be unbearable?

A NAS  designed HDD (WDD red) something I should get, are they worth the extra price? 

Would rack mounting be more or less expensive option?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Which potential plan do you recommend or is there a better?

Plan #1 is a good idea for something small like this, no need to complicate things.

What hardware would you recommend (i3? xeon? ECC ram?)

Used xeon system, ECC optional but cheaper than regular ram. I built a Lynnfield Xeon system with an X3440, 32gb of ECC DDR3 on a microATX motherboard (ty oztalkshw) for a grand total of 145$. Its a 4c/8t processor similar in single thread performance to an i5 2400, but with more threads.

How loud will 4x2tb HDD be? Could I put this server in a living room or would it be unbearable?

HDD's arent too loud, get a decent closed case and it wont be an issue. If it is, make sure they have airflow and then sound-proof the case. Ive done ghetto soundproofing with chopped up cushion foam and even pigpad oil spill cloths. Theyre also good for dust capture and cheap to replace every few months as they get dusty (if you have a dusty home like i USED to). Alternatively, if speed isnt an issue, get 5400rpm HDD's, theyre much quieter and cause lower vibration.

A NAS  designed HDD (WDD red) something I should get, are they worth the extra price? 

Dont buy a cheap HDD if you need something reliable, WD Gold enterprise or Red are good for NAS applications because of some weird 50/50 snakeoil and potentially legitimate hardware NAS compatibility firmware. WD gold is plain and simple the best you could buy for this application from a quality standpoint, if a WD Blue is the all-rounder Honda Accord of HDD's, a WD gold is a bentley. WD reds are known to be very reliable and good with raid. Pick whatever fits your budget, 4x2tb WD Golds would be pricey.

Would rack mounting be more or less expensive option?

Used rackmount, cheap if you can get the best deal on one. Locally sold rackmounts, the odd ebay listing are very good price wise for the hardware. But again for something small, a little atx/microATX system can hold the drives and hardware you need and might be cheaper.

Also note that a rackmount is going to be loud, theyre designed for single direction airflow and have high RPM, high CFM fans in the front that sound like jet turbines.

[Boomwebsearch]

8 minutes ago, Matt1309 said:

Here are my questions:

Which potential plan do you recommend or is there a better?

What hardware would you recommend (i3? xeon? ECC ram?)

How loud will 4x2tb HDD be? Could I put this server in a living room or would it be unbearable?

A NAS  designed HDD (WDD red) something I should get, are they worth the extra price? 

Would rack mounting be more or less expensive option?

 

my answers to your numbered questions:

 

1. I like your first plan the best because there is the utilization of the server for all the storage needs which would make it easier to manage your data (due to having it all in one place). I would not include the HTPC being made and have that task run on a virtual machine within your server setup. Use a HDMI cable going from the server (with the virtual machine) to your display and connect everything else needed to it. I would suggest not using an extra drive just for the NVR and allocating some storage for NVR out of your server. Make sure that your hardware is cooled well and there is sufficient airflow to the drives and computational components of the server.

 

2. I would recommend having ECC RAM although the processor could be almost anything that works with the rest of your system and has the power you need (if efficiency is a concern then I would suggest getting a low-power and efficient Xeon CPU. One thing which I would make sure to have is a UPS protecting your server because power loss can cause wear to the drives and corrupted and incomplete data on the disk/s if they were being written to. I would recommend getting one that can supply 1500 VA and is an intelligent UPS so that it can safely turn off the system in the case of a power outage and will be sufficient to finish loading it with any data being written onto it.

 

3. The hard drives would not be too loud themselves although fans and other sound making components of your server might make the build able to be considered as loud (the answer to this question is dependent on your server configuration and therefore the exact answer would be dependent of that and other possible factors such as what rating of sound (in decibels). I keep my server in a designated area so that its heat output and noise is less of an issue. 

 

4. I would suggest either Western Digital  Red drives or a good Seagate Barracuda drive(only if you intent to replace them after some time and do are able to face its lower reliability) or a Seagate Video Hard drive which I would highly recommend even though the are a bit pricey due to their extreme reliability and overall great performance.

 

5.  Rack mounted units have the tendency to be louder than their not rack mountable server units. If you plan on installing more servers and have limited space and can deal with their higher noise output then a rack-mountable unit would make sense to use although if you want lower noise and won't be installing and running multiple server units in a limited amount of space then a not rack-mountable unit would be more applicable and logical to use.

 

-Good luck and have fun experimenting with your new server solution! 

[AbsoluteFool]

5 hours ago, Matt1309 said:

Hi I'm new to the forum so apologies if this is in the wrong section. Let me know if it should be else where. 

 

What I want:

File sharing (samba, afp, ftp) fast but affordable (so gigabit but not 10)

torrent downloader (running in a virtual machine with a VPN).

virtual machine capabilities for general messing around with new OS's and server OS's

The odd game server (wow emulators)

NVR for simple POE home security system.

HTPC 4k capable (no need to game) to stream locally stored content as well as stream. 

 

 

Current potential plans:

1. All in one server running Debian. 4x2TB HDD as NAS raid 5, another HDD for NVR, and a boot SSD. A long HDMI cable to another room to the TV with kodi running.

2. A NAS (likely freenas) and seperate HTPC (likely debian) with one of them running the virtual machine for torrent downloading over VPN and also a NVR

3. Option 1 but with a raspi HTPC instead of long HDMI (can this handle 4k?). 

 

 I'm looking for a solution around £700 (excluding security camera gear). 

Here are my questions:

Which potential plan do you recommend or is there a better?

What hardware would you recommend (i3? xeon? ECC ram?)

How loud will 4x2tb HDD be? Could I put this server in a living room or would it be unbearable?

A NAS  designed HDD (WDD red) something I should get, are they worth the extra price? 

Would rack mounting be more or less expensive option?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HTPC? Are you gona pass VOD and do live streams? If that is the case you'll suffer from drive speeds.

[Matt1309]

Thanks for the replies, helped a lot!

I'm new to buying server gear and struggling to find a CPU for my needs. Any suggestions on what Xeon to get (ideally built in Graphics to save me some ££ on a card) 

Or are there any sites you recommend i look at to learn what xeon would be right for my build. I'm struggling to balance age of CPU with price.

Also are there any sites you recommend to getting some good deals or is ebay my only friend? 

I don't mind getting a prebuilt and tweaking/altering it but I don't really want an off the shelf prebuilt. I enjoy the building/altering, unless it's more expensive which it rarely seems to be. 

 

 

By HTPC I pretty much meant a kodi box. Nothing more than a raspi worth of load (what im currently using) so not too worried about that. 

Also @Boomwebsearch is there a reason you suggested running the "HTPC" in a virtual machine rather than just loading a gui on the server os itself, is there a reason that would be a bad idea? Or were you guessing I wanted that running on a different OS or something?

[Boomwebsearch]

On ‎7‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 6:44 PM, Matt1309 said:

Thanks for the replies, helped a lot!

I'm new to buying server gear and struggling to find a CPU for my needs. Any suggestions on what Xeon to get (ideally built in Graphics to save me some ££ on a card) 

Or are there any sites you recommend i look at to learn what xeon would be right for my build. I'm struggling to balance age of CPU with price.

Also are there any sites you recommend to getting some good deals or is ebay my only friend? 

I don't mind getting a prebuilt and tweaking/altering it but I don't really want an off the shelf prebuilt. I enjoy the building/altering, unless it's more expensive which it rarely seems to be. 

 

 

By HTPC I pretty much meant a kodi box. Nothing more than a raspi worth of load (what im currently using) so not too worried about that. 

Also @Boomwebsearch is there a reason you suggested running the "HTPC" in a virtual machine rather than just loading a gui on the server os itself, is there a reason that would be a bad idea? Or were you guessing I wanted that running on a different OS or something?

The ability to run virtual machines within a server is there in most operating systems and the primary reason which I suggested running the "HTPC" is because it would save energy and costs which are associated with having an additional system although if you already have a system that could be dedicated to being the HTPC then I would recommend going ahead and using it. A virtual machine would have lower latency due to having faster access to the source of data although I do not think that that would be much of a concern unless you wanted to game on the server which is not really what a HTPC would be designed to do in the place. I initially thought that you were going to have the HTPC do a higher load then your usage scenario and that would be using an operating system for the server which would be different than the one that you want to use for the HTPS and therefore I suggested the use of a virtual machine, sorry for any inconvenience resulted from that.

 

I would be able to make some suggestions towards the specifications you are going to put in the server although I would like if you would post what CPU and other main components your are planning to use so that I can see the scale of hardware you are planning to use and the general price point of hardware you are wanting to use (I would not want to recommend something that would be like 10x more powerful than what your usage would require and be way out of your budget). Also, do you have any budget for the entire server or how much to spend on each component specifically?

[Matt1309]

Thanks again for explaining. That makes sense. 

 

Honestly I don't understand xeons thats the part I'm really struggling with, any suggestions on where i could learn. The only other criteria I have is I'd like a few PCIE slots on the motherboard for potentially adding 10gb nic and a tv tuner in the future. 

 

The big restriction seems to be, as always the cost. I'm beginning to think my budget is far too low for what I'm looking for. 

I initially planned around £750 (currently roughly $925), but the HDD alone are going to set me back at least £250 leaving £500 for motherboard, CPU, RAM, powersupply and a PSU (i already have a boot drive) which seems unlikely. 

 

 

 

[Mayaa]

1 hour ago, Matt1309 said:

Thanks again for explaining. That makes sense. 

 

Honestly I don't understand xeons thats the part I'm really struggling with, any suggestions on where i could learn. The only other criteria I have is I'd like a few PCIE slots on the motherboard for potentially adding 10gb nic and a tv tuner in the future. 

 

The big restriction seems to be, as always the cost. I'm beginning to think my budget is far too low for what I'm looking for. 

I initially planned around £750 (currently roughly $925), but the HDD alone are going to set me back at least £250 leaving £500 for motherboard, CPU, RAM, powersupply and a PSU (i already have a boot drive) which seems unlikely. 

 

 

 

The difference between normal desktop intel cpus and xeons are that xeons have ECC support, usually have lower clocks and lower tdp for more stability and better power efficiency. But honestly its not a must have.

Have you looked at Ryzen ? i heard there were some price reductions for the older generation ones so they should be super good bang for the buck.

[thomasred14]

Hi I'm new to the forum i have an old dell powervault md1000, 14 drive bay can take 2tb per bay mabe 3tb server i was tring to find a compatable server to connect to would anyone have an idea what work? I would be running fedora 12 headless server. I plan to use it as a nas, pi-hole, and file backup server, It has 2 SAS IN and SAS OUT ports on the back. Would a ibm x3650 m3 (7945AC1) work or a ibm xiv hs-1235t 3u work?

[Matt1309]

Any opinions on this so far? I don't really have a reference point. In your opinions is this overkill/underkill or spot on?

CPU: Xeon E3 1220v5

Motherboard: ASUS P10S-X P10S-X (wanted one with HDMI but seems most servers dont, which makes sense)

RAM: any ecc 2x8gb

PSU: 600watt allowing for expansion (i.e TV tuner, cheap graphics card)

4x2tb NAS HDD

 

UPS:APC Back-UPS BX - Uninterruptible Power Supply 1400VA. 

[thomasred14]

I was looking for any brand of server suteable for fedora 12 server and pi-hole running at the same time with sftp and a remote server backup program with 2 10/100/10000 network cards. here are some pic of storage rack.

 

I would prefer a used server that is compatible with good spec.