Hey guys, i need some advice... Im looking at some server Mobos cause Im taking the XPS 420 back, and redoing the server hardware config. I found This Supermicro board, and this supermicro RAID card. Now, first things first, whats better PCI-E or PCI-X? The Board im looking at has 4 PCI-X slots and 2 PCI-E x8 slots. Reason for redoing the server is to have more power, Im going to have it running Samba/Print, Mail server, F@H, and some Dev testing. Any Advice on this?
1) PCI-E is better than PCI-X, hands down. PCI-X is to PCI more or less what PCI-Ex16 is to PCI-Ex8; same setup plus more pins = more bandwidth. But even the added bandwidth of PCI-X can't hope to compare to PCI-E. 2) Assuming you're sticking to a traditional server configuration (i.e. getting a multi-socket board instead of sticking a RAID card on a decent desktop) and going AMD, make sure you're running Shanghai CPUs. Shanghai is to Barcelona what Phenom II is to Phenom - a shrink to 45nm plus a ton of extra cache. Most Shanghai stuff is still crazy expensive, but you can get a Shanghai 2378 for $255 - a great price considering the next fastest one is $1130(!). 3) Areca makes the best RAID cards, hands down, but they're generally quite expensive. HighPoint and Adaptec tend to be the next best fallbacks for most people. Search around, read reviews, etc. - Diosjenin -
alrighty that helps a lot.. the card says its 3GB/s capable but i guess the cake is a lie huh? Well time for that PCI-E x4 RocketRaid card... I really dont care Intel or AMD, so long as it works and is cheap. Im either going to upgrade my server and take back the XPS 420 that is currently my server or vice versa, and drop a few more HDDs in the 420 and build myself el cheapo gaming/work rig. Personally I looked at how much it would be for two Quadcore Barcelonas, that board and 32GB of FB-Dimm Memory and im looking at over 1400. Right now Im trying to do this under 1k, cause Idk how much my college disbursement will be, though it should be between 1500 and 2000. So any advice on parts or anything like that?
Well, the card is capable of 3GBps SATA connections - there's just no guarantee that you'll be getting that much bandwidth through the PCI-X slot. Especially if you're chaining multiple hard drives to it (and why wouldn't you be?), I'd be amazed if the performance of a PCI-X RAID card wasn't seriously bottlenecked. As for components... a lot of it depends on what components you're keeping from the previous build and/or can scrounge up (hard drives, PSU, case, etc.), how much hard drive space you're looking to get, things like that. Any details? - Diosjenin -
yeah... someone said it was reaching 1.5gb/s on a set of WD drives in raid 0... Well im looking at doing a fresh build and taking the current server computer and using it as my rig(Q6600, 4GB Memory, 500GB Sata, 8600GTS 512MB, 450w PSU) so it would be all new parts. HD space is undetermined but I want to go Raid 5 and minimum of 2TB.(
You might have a look at some 5100 chipset boards too. It's a dual socket 771 chipset that uses ECC DDR2 rather than FB-DIMMs. As for RAID controllers, I've worked with both LSI and Adaptec stuff and I can't complain about either, and they can occasionally turn up at surplus sites for pretty cheap. Those Areca look really interesting, I'll have to find a way to get my hands on one.
whats the difference between EEC and FB? I know FB stands for fully buffered, and I would assume its better then standard ddr2.
no way im getting a dell anything other than a monitor... me + dell = something bad... so what would be better then FB-DIMMS? ECC DDR2?
They're actually pretty good and can be had for peanuts. Intel IOP333 based, so the same as Areca's lower end offerings but for a lot less money. Budget - Dell Perc5i Midrange - Highpoint 4300 High end - Areca 1680 I wouldn't bother looking at PCI-X cards, PCI-E is definitely the way to go.
Seriously? http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=perc+5i&btnG=Google+Search&meta=lr=&aq=f&oq= There tend to be a few of them on ebay at any one time for cheap too, especially in the states
First, it looks like you can use standard DDR2 with the 5100, and don't need ECC (but it's not something I've tried, you will probably want to check this before you buy). In that case, no need to even worry about ECC unless you need something very fault tolerant. The short answer is that the mainstream community hates them, but there really are not as bad as the rumors suggest (check the Mac Pro community). The reason I suggested a 5100 based board as opposed to a 5000 or 5400 based board is that there is less exotic stuff there, and the 5100 was originally aimed at embedded apps so they are better on power than the other socket 771 choices. They are also pretty cheap, and CPUs don't look to be too bad either, but again, check to make sure what you want to use is supported. I don't get much opportunity to mess with AMD based stuff, so hopefully someone can post more info about what is out there to give you some options. As for the RAID card, I frequently see LSI cards go on ebay for under $200. I also see them pop up on techforless.com and other surplus sites. I know Intel and HP essentially re badge them (they have some firmware customizations, but the hardware is essentially the same) Dell's enterprise gear like their PERC cards are usually good too. And check out SAS as well as SATA RAID cards. I don't know if it is still the case, but SATA support on SAS host controllers was an optional part of the spec that a lot of companies decided to implement in their silicon anyway. So you may be able to get a better deal on a SAS RAID controller rather than a SATA one.
For a lot of useful info on the Dell Perc 5i have a look Here an excellent thread... The Dell Perc 5i (the one I had anyway, which was bought of ebay) was actually made by LSI, and came with 2 SAS->SATA cables, allowing for up to 8 HDDs to be added. ________ LIVE SEX WEBSHOWS