2013-03-14, 20:56
Hi there!
So I finally have built a server, and now that it is more or less finished, I thought I would share some info on it. First, the parts and their cost:
Case: Xigmatek Asgard 381 - 48,28€
Motherboard: Asrock B75 Pro3-M - 63,95€
CPU: Intel Celeron G540 - 35,49€
RAM: GSkill DDR3 1333 2x2GB - 19,99€
HDD (OS): HGST 2,5" 320GB - 36,49€
Power Supply: Corsair CX500M - 52,50€
Xilence fans (x2): 10,90€
Cables: 36,3€ (Sata, molex-to-2xSata, molex-to-1xSata, HDMI, Ethernet, fan regulators; not all of them were used)
Shipping and other extra costs: 8,95€
Total (HW): 312,85€
To that I have to add the FlexRAID license, for RAID-F and Pooling: 48€
Total (HW+SW): 360,85€
For storage, I had 3 2TB USB Hard drives (2 Verbatims and 1 CnMemory), which I dissassembled and mounted internally. They are 2 Seagates (ST2000DL003-9VT166 and ST32000542AS) and a Samsung (HD204UI). In the coming weeks I hope to get 1 or 2 drives, either 2 or 3TB, but probably the later.
I decided on the G540 because lots of people seemed to agree that it's a good CPU for this purpose, also it was easy to get and very cheap, and should be more that powerfull enough for my purposes.
The case was difficult to find, as there were lots of options. Fortunately, I found that Xigmatek, which was cheap and had very nice specs: 8 internal 3,5" HDD bays, 3 external 5,25" and 1 internal 2,5". That allows for up to 13 3,5" drives, plus the 2,5" one. It has also place to place up to 6 12cm fans (some can even be 14cm ones) and has quite a nice cabling system. For the price it's great, althoug the quality is, as expected, on the cheaper side, specially the quick mounts (I may change to screws in the future); it won't compete with the Lian Li ones. For now, I took the easy way routing the cables, and as I add more I will probably keep changing that.
For the Power Supply, I could get quite a good price on the Corsair CX500M, which is modular, which should help keeping everything clean. At the moment, with only 4 HDDs fitted, it's easy, but I'm curious how it will look like when the 8 HDD bays are occupied.
For the OS drive, I ended up using a 640GB 2,5" Samsung drive I had on my Openelec machine for the server, and installed the new smaller HGST to the openelec box, which doesn't need that much space (for now, I store my +150GB music on the openelec box).
I'm still playing with the fan regulators, but as configured now, the temperature of the drives while idle is about 26°C, which I think is Ok. If they get much hotter I can make the fans run faster.
For the Software part, I have installed Linux Mint 14 Mate edition as the OS, and then installed and configured some stuff, like FlexRAID, aMule and Sabnzbd. I also configured Xorg to start headless (no monitor nor keyboard connected) with a resolution of 1366x768, and then configured remote access using the vino VNC server. This way, I can connect via VNC using my laptop, should I need that. Amule runs using the amule daemon, and I can connect using the amulegui app from my laptop or via amule web server on any machine.
And, to finish, pics or it didn't happen:
Some more images here: http://imageshack.us/g/1/10060384/
As you can see, I'm not that good at making photos!
Any comments are welcome!
So I finally have built a server, and now that it is more or less finished, I thought I would share some info on it. First, the parts and their cost:
Case: Xigmatek Asgard 381 - 48,28€
Motherboard: Asrock B75 Pro3-M - 63,95€
CPU: Intel Celeron G540 - 35,49€
RAM: GSkill DDR3 1333 2x2GB - 19,99€
HDD (OS): HGST 2,5" 320GB - 36,49€
Power Supply: Corsair CX500M - 52,50€
Xilence fans (x2): 10,90€
Cables: 36,3€ (Sata, molex-to-2xSata, molex-to-1xSata, HDMI, Ethernet, fan regulators; not all of them were used)
Shipping and other extra costs: 8,95€
Total (HW): 312,85€
To that I have to add the FlexRAID license, for RAID-F and Pooling: 48€
Total (HW+SW): 360,85€
For storage, I had 3 2TB USB Hard drives (2 Verbatims and 1 CnMemory), which I dissassembled and mounted internally. They are 2 Seagates (ST2000DL003-9VT166 and ST32000542AS) and a Samsung (HD204UI). In the coming weeks I hope to get 1 or 2 drives, either 2 or 3TB, but probably the later.
I decided on the G540 because lots of people seemed to agree that it's a good CPU for this purpose, also it was easy to get and very cheap, and should be more that powerfull enough for my purposes.
The case was difficult to find, as there were lots of options. Fortunately, I found that Xigmatek, which was cheap and had very nice specs: 8 internal 3,5" HDD bays, 3 external 5,25" and 1 internal 2,5". That allows for up to 13 3,5" drives, plus the 2,5" one. It has also place to place up to 6 12cm fans (some can even be 14cm ones) and has quite a nice cabling system. For the price it's great, althoug the quality is, as expected, on the cheaper side, specially the quick mounts (I may change to screws in the future); it won't compete with the Lian Li ones. For now, I took the easy way routing the cables, and as I add more I will probably keep changing that.
For the Power Supply, I could get quite a good price on the Corsair CX500M, which is modular, which should help keeping everything clean. At the moment, with only 4 HDDs fitted, it's easy, but I'm curious how it will look like when the 8 HDD bays are occupied.
For the OS drive, I ended up using a 640GB 2,5" Samsung drive I had on my Openelec machine for the server, and installed the new smaller HGST to the openelec box, which doesn't need that much space (for now, I store my +150GB music on the openelec box).
I'm still playing with the fan regulators, but as configured now, the temperature of the drives while idle is about 26°C, which I think is Ok. If they get much hotter I can make the fans run faster.
For the Software part, I have installed Linux Mint 14 Mate edition as the OS, and then installed and configured some stuff, like FlexRAID, aMule and Sabnzbd. I also configured Xorg to start headless (no monitor nor keyboard connected) with a resolution of 1366x768, and then configured remote access using the vino VNC server. This way, I can connect via VNC using my laptop, should I need that. Amule runs using the amule daemon, and I can connect using the amulegui app from my laptop or via amule web server on any machine.
And, to finish, pics or it didn't happen:
Some more images here: http://imageshack.us/g/1/10060384/
As you can see, I'm not that good at making photos!
Any comments are welcome!