I am finally putting together a nice little home network for myself. Cutting to the chase, am I going to regret getting a single 2gb DDR3 SDRAM module for the file server? Should I get a single 4GB DDR3 module? A pair of 2GB modules? I suspect that I'll never notice a performance difference between single channel mode and dual channel mode on the memory for a basic home file server. Newegg over here in the states has 15% off all their desktop memory and I am slowly putting together the pieces for the file server as I can find them super cheap. I am looking for the lowest powered server possible, but still with a whack of performance and cheap. My current hardware thoughts are Xigmatek Asgard II case MSI 760GM-E51 uATX board (I want a uATX board with at least 4 SATAII slots and Raid 0/1/5) Sempron 140 SeaSonic SS-300ET PSU Memory is the biggest question. I am thinking 1x2GB Mushkin Silverline 1333 memory. That or OCZ Platinum 2x2GB LoVo 1.35v memory if I should go dual channel. Or if 4GB single channel is the way to go probably 4GB G.Skill Ripjaw 1066 or 4GB Mushkin Blackline. I left out the HDD just because I am not entirely sure what I am going to do. I just picked up a 2TB Samsung F4 for $65 open box from Newegg for my PC because I was almost out of space on my 60GB vertex and 500GB F3. I am thinking I'll probably pull the 2TB drive and drop it in the file server and drop a 1 or 1.5TB 5400rpm drive in its place in my PC. To accompany the 2TB drive to the file server I am thinking a 1TB Samsung F3 for higher speed storage for things I or my wife frequently access. Oh, whole network is going to be wired with Cat6 and a gigabit switch...so I'd really like to make sure I can max out or be darned close to maxing out GbE at 100+MB/sec.
OS is really important question. For example i have lot of junk running on my Linux fileserver (Crashplan, JDownloader, NX server, MySQL), yet my memory usage is only 420MB. Windows will need much more.
Same here. If your going with FreeNAS look at Atom boards. I've got mine running on an Intel D510mo. Dual core is total overkill but it was mega cheap when I got it.
I was thinking an Atom board, but to get one with a Raid controller on the board is going to run me about $10-20 more than a Sempron and the Asus board and have fewer SATA ports. The Asus board has 5 + 1 eSATA which gives me a lot of flexibility for a lot of disks in the system later. With maybe the exception of a really expensive board, most of the $100-120 (USD)~ boards with Raid controllers on the board only have 4 ports, no eSATA. I am planning on undervolting the processor like crazy until stability is an issue. I've seen claims of running as low as 1.05V stably at stock clocks and trimming power use by about 2/10w for idle/full load. That should get it down to about Atom power levels for less and a much more capable board for drive expansion (a couple of x1 PCI-E and a x16 PCI-E gives room for an SATA RAID add-on card later if I need more ports and a couple of GbE NICs to do bonded GbE if I need even more speed). Sounds like a single 2GB SDRAM module should be more than enough with Unbuntu or FreeNAS as a file server.
you might be interested in this motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500062 probably can't be beat for low power and features.
That would be a nice setup, but that is over my budget not including drives for this build. I am trying, if at all possible, to keep it under $200 minus disks. Currently what I am looking at is about $195 for the build. Though I think I've decided on a different MSI 760GM board. To lazy to look up the model number, but it has 6 SATA ports, two x1 PCI-e, x16 PCI-e and 1 PCI and is $55 to the E51's 1 eSATA, 5 SATA, one x1 PCI-e, x16 PCI-e and 2 PCI and $70. I figure if I decide I need eSATA later the price is only about $15-20 for an add-on card, will suck up one of the extra x1 slots and still leave me with one SATA port over the E51 board, and is $15 cheaper up front. I went with the Mushkin Enhanced silverline DDR3 1333 memory 2GB. A whooping $19.50 shipped. Sheesh, I remember dropping $110 on 2x2GB for my PC just this past spring for some G.Skill Eco DDR3 1600 CAS7 stuff. Its $70 now. Now if only the 2x4GB kit would come down a little more in price, $155 still smarts. Probably what I'll go with in my next machine when I upgrade (which I am really hoping is this fall).
Settling more on components. Newegg also had a nice deal on a Rosewill Blackbone case for $35 shipped. So, list so far is Mushkin Enhanced silverline DDR3 1333 memory 2GB Rosewill Blackbone case Case is only going to have one of the two 120mm fans hooked up in pulling configuration up front. I figure with the low power setup, a 120mm in pull and the 80mm PSU fan exhausting should be enough to keep case temps down. Probably also going to swap the OE case fan with a Gelid silent series 120mm. ~2w compared to ~4w of the current case fan (quiter too). I've pretty much settled on the MSI 760GM-E51 board and Sempron 140 to drive it. Antec Earthwatts 380d PSU Lastly I think first up to bat is going to be a Samsung F3 7200rpm 1tb drive. I want something fast with decent capacity. This is going to be my fast file storage drive. A bit later I am going to get either a 1, 1.5 or 2tb 5400rpm drive. In the case of a 1/1.5tb drive it'll get dropped in my PC and the 2tb F4 will get yanked and put in the file server (if I get a 2tb 5400rpm drive it'll of course just get put right in the file server). Right now between my wife and myself we've got maybe 500GB of total stuff that is going to go on the server. Its growing fast though. Probably 50-60GB a month. Of that only a bit really needs super fast access. I deal with a lot of 30-40MB Tiffs and assorted 20-30MB PNGs from scanned 35mm film from my photography hobby, and when you open a folder with 20-50GB of images in it, its nice when it can preview them all quickly...combined with loading up the images fast if I am opening half a dozen or a dozen at a time for editing. All those are going on the 7200rpm drive, everything else, music, movies and data is going on the slower drive (well, once there is a slower drive in there). Eventually backup is going to be a 2 disk eSATA enclosure with nightly backups running to it. Still then, everything is going to be redundant between my PC and my wife's laptop and the file server.
