Seriously thinking of a server build now, and I don't know much about low power, low end boards. I need something that has a x4 PCI-E slot for a raid controller and has on-board graphics. Preferably DDR2, not 3 to keep costs down. Not bothered if it's intel or AMD... but will be wanting a fairly low end, low power CPU in it. Any recommendations?
I have to say AM2 pookey, dosen't need to be awesome either as you suggested yourself about the use of a hardware raid card. something like a Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2H and any low power Athlon II X2 240 would be a nice little bundle. Have a look in your NAS thread by the way, i've asked a question there.
Asus K8V Deluxe with old Clawhammer Athlon 64 in it. 2GB DDR and a Radeon 9800pro. .....and it's dead. Oh well. Looks like I'll be going for a new server build then. Is there no end to the amount of cash I'll spend this month? LOL That board you linked to has no x4 PCI-E however... and if I'm going to build a new server, I may get a better RAID card than the PCI one I was originally gonna put in the above dead rig. I'll spend tonight researching.
It will have to be RAID5 as I already have the drives I bought for the NAS box. Budget.... Hmm... I'll get a refund for the NAS... which was £235.. then maybe a max of £100 on top of that... so £335ish. TBH... so long as it's not stupid, I don;t mind adding more to the budget, but it's just a home network with 2 users... so nothing enterprise grade is needed. My only requirement is the fastest write times possible with RAID5 over a gigabit LAN. I know RAID5 isn;t the best choice for fast write speeds... but still... I need around 40MB/sec sustained minimum. [edit] Maybe RAID10 woould be better... but a hell of a disk space overhead!
What about a secondhand ITX board with a 45W CPU? Zotac also makes a atom board with a PCIe x16 on. It could make for a nice nas box mod in a shuttle like chassis.
+1 for the zotac itx ION/Atom board. very low power, not much heat. perfect for a server, and it has a PCI-E x16
i don't like the suggested itx solutions mainly because i think you'll run into similar problems, not also forgetting that a Athlon and mATX setup would be cheaper than a ITX build. The nas's pooky got didn't have enough CPU power to deal with the heavy demand, RAID 5 is very demanding on processing power unless there is a dedicated high end RAID card.
I've been asking what RAID5 PCI card to put in my server here for days and nobody has replied. Don't mean to hijack but I'm just saying... if you know of a 4-8 port RAID 5 capable SATA controller card that has decent read/write speeds, I'd appreciate a link or some info.
he had this headache, plus i think he works in data management. Only met the fella once but he would give the game away as to what he did.
I've not seen him in the forums for quite a while now. I could do with his input on this, as he knows his stuff when it comes to this. I'm starting to question whether it should be RAID5 at all now. RAID0+1 (RAID10) seems like a good idea, as fast write speeds are important to me because I'll be backing up to it. The downside is I'll need 4x 1.5TB drives to get 3TB
that's true maybe he has got too good for the likes of us, ever since he sold off his machine and went PS3....
You heard it B*tch, he broken down his gaming machine and went all PS3 for his home media system, and i dont think he has looked back since!
Gay caalled... It's for him. Seriously, that's weak dude. Makes me cry a little to hear about stuff like that happening.
