its been a while

[fundamentalman]

It's been a while since I built my own computer and I am a little grey on the hardware side. (I am actually A+ certified but when I was certified it was on DOS/Win 3.1!) I have taken a lot of time off.

My goal is to eliminate some of the hodgepodge equipment I have with an actual NAS. I have decided to build instead of buy to get more bang for the buck and to have more expandability and flexibility.

I am thinking about Linux or with the software controlling the RAID. This way if any hardware fails, I can swap or mix and match without too much problem. Windows Home Server is also an option.

I am thinking about the following parts:
NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case $289 (20 hot swap bays!)
newegg norco pics
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard $115
newegg
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core

I am a little grey as to other hardware.
Do memory chips still need to be run in pairs? IE can I just buy one 2GB chip and be done?

I am not attached to the MB/processor if you have other ideas. I have thought about ATOM processors (for the power savings) but the lack of expandability on those tiny boards has me concerned.

I think the case is a little over kill. I mean I don't think that I will actually run 20 drives. I will start with 3-6. I can't imagine running more that 12 but for the money I haven't found one with +/-12 hot swap trays that costs less. I am open to other cases if you have any ideas.

This however opens up other problems. A power supply calc sugessets a 950 watt power supply if I decide to use all 20 of the drive spaces. 950 watts! Ouch. I am planning a 80+ power supply to save electricity costs but at this level I am a little nervous. Even at 12 drives it says 665 and I hate to not plan ahead. Again I am open to suggestions.

But now my biggest head scratcher. How do I control all of these drives? The MB has room for 8 SATA drives. Again I can't picture more than 12 actual drives but how do guys with 20 drives actually control them? I am planning for software RAID so I don't think that I need an expensive RAID controller. The reviews on newegg are mixed as to whether the case actually comes with SAS on the backpane. Here is where I am a little grey. SAS would allow SATA drives to be daisy chained? The advantage would be that I just need an SAS controller? If the backpane does not have it, I need to plan for 12/20 independent cables and drives and controller(s), right?

I am a little embarrassed to be asking such naive questions but I want to get it right the first time.

Thanks for your help.

 

[00Roush]

Might I ask what your goals are?? I mean how big are you planning to go? Will you be serving alot of clients or are you planning to store a lot of data? How much do you want to spend?

Not sure if this helps or not... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI

Just remember that if you are planning to go SAS at all it will cost you as it is more for the business sector.

Looking at this picture... http://www.norcotek.com/item_detail.php?categoryid=1&modelno=RPC-4020# I think that the backplane has 20 connections for SAS/SATA cables. You cannot daisy chain with SAS/SATA like you would with the old SCSI setups. You can however use a single SAS controller to control up to 128 drives using SAS expanders. So you could use one SAS card to run all 20 drives if needed. But if it were me I would just stick with the board you have for the first 8 drives. Then when you need to add more later just buy a SATA controller card to add more drives.

As for your memory. Running in pairs does give higher memory performance as the memory can run in dual channel mode but it wouldn't make a huge difference for a file server. Unless you really plan on working the server.

I really doubt you would really need a 900 watt power supply. Generally SATA drives use less than 15 watts a piece max. So 20 x 15 = 300 watts for the hard drives max. I doubt the board and chip you have picked would use more than 100 watts max but lets say 200 watts for kicks. My guess is that at full load you would not use more than 500 watts so you would probably need something around the 600-700 watt range to be sure. Whatever you get make sure it is a good solid brand.

I hope that helps a little.

00Roush

 

[fundamentalman]

No clients, just common data at the house. I would just like to avoid some of the hodgepodge equipment and do it right the first time and keep it a while. To get started I want to keep costs as far under $1000 as possible. As I said I don't need 20 Hard drives but the tech in me says: 20 hot swap bays for under $300.....What a deal!!! Besides, what will the future bring?

The things I will use this for: A RAID 5 or 6 array primarily used as a NAS serving video files to the media center, a target to save and backup files, but also downloading torrents at night, saving data from security cameras, FTP from the internet, photo/web serving, and anything else I happen to think up.

I had found the wikipedia article about SAS but really helped me picture it were these illustrations here.

I appreciate your advice about the SAS and SATA controllers. I think I will do as you suggested and just start with the 8 on the board and go from there adding a controller here and there. What helps is that I have no plans to use hardware RAID. I figure that with software RAID, when the hardware dies I can replace it with something else and still access my data. With a dedicated controller, I wouldn't feel good unless I had an extra one just like it sitting on the shelf.

Thanks for your advice on the memory and PS as well. You have been a great help to me.