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1U low cost hardware
- Thread starter atakacs
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- May 28, 2011
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You should do some legwork of your own and let us know your results. We will comment on the parts you selected and with any luck they will all be good parts. Please provide links to those parts if you can.
well to be honest I was looking for pointers to start / complement my own list. Anyway at this stage I was either thinking about going "mainstream" wit the
Dell PowerEdge R415 1U Rack Server or using something from the AIC RSC line.
As for the disks themselves I was planing to get WD red 2Tb.
I'm sure those are decent choices. Is there something more aggressive yet still recommendable for a storage server ? Not looking to save the last buck but still running a tight budget...
Dell PowerEdge R415 1U Rack Server or using something from the AIC RSC line.
As for the disks themselves I was planing to get WD red 2Tb.
I'm sure those are decent choices. Is there something more aggressive yet still recommendable for a storage server ? Not looking to save the last buck but still running a tight budget...
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Well it comes down to money. As soon as you say 1U the price jumps up and these items are very noisy from the small fans turning fast all the time trying to keep such a compact unit cool. My suggestions are to first figure out if you want an entire computer or if you want to piece it together. Next look for a case you like. You need to know if you need 4 drive bays, 6, 9.... Whatever you need now and what you think in the future. Do you know how much storage you are looking for? Here is a great link for a RAIDZ pool size calculator http://www.servethehome.com/raid-calculator/ just fill in the information and see what you get. If your data is considered critical, go for RAIDZ2 and if it's mission critical then go for RAIDZ3. Do not use "spare" drives unless you are already using a RAIDZ3 system, it just doesn't make sense. As for the drives well if this system will be having a lot of I/O (lots of users) then you might want high speed enterprise NAS drives, if its home use then the WD Red NAS drives are a good choice, I have 5 of them, no complaints.
RAM, buy a server/MB that can handle at least 16GB RAM (my personal opinion) and if this is for high I/O then you will want probably 128GB RAM if you can afford it. RAM is speed up to a certain point.
Now if this is for a home system and you don't need a 1U rack, fiind any other case that is large enough to hold the number of drives you want. I say last week someone here was building a system, took a case and some Hot Swap drive bays, added those to the case and was able to achieve 9 quick release hot swap bays accessible from the case front. Right now I am using an old computer case, it can hold 10 drives if needed but there is no hot swap or quick swap. I'm looking for another option but not ready to purchase yet. I need one from drive so I can build a RAIDZ2 system. That's $115 bucks I don't have right this second.
As for a MB/CPU, we would need to know what you expect out of the NAS. Ultra High-Speed means $$$$ but good speed like 100MB/Sec write, 80MB/read, that is not expensive.
Run thought these forums and see what others are building. FreeNAS should run on most systems providing you don't start adding raid cards, things can get tricky there and if you want that later, you could add it later.
RAM, buy a server/MB that can handle at least 16GB RAM (my personal opinion) and if this is for high I/O then you will want probably 128GB RAM if you can afford it. RAM is speed up to a certain point.
Now if this is for a home system and you don't need a 1U rack, fiind any other case that is large enough to hold the number of drives you want. I say last week someone here was building a system, took a case and some Hot Swap drive bays, added those to the case and was able to achieve 9 quick release hot swap bays accessible from the case front. Right now I am using an old computer case, it can hold 10 drives if needed but there is no hot swap or quick swap. I'm looking for another option but not ready to purchase yet. I need one from drive so I can build a RAIDZ2 system. That's $115 bucks I don't have right this second.
As for a MB/CPU, we would need to know what you expect out of the NAS. Ultra High-Speed means $$$$ but good speed like 100MB/Sec write, 80MB/read, that is not expensive.
Run thought these forums and see what others are building. FreeNAS should run on most systems providing you don't start adding raid cards, things can get tricky there and if you want that later, you could add it later.
jgreco
Resident Grinch
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- May 29, 2011
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- 18,680
1U rack mount and dual power supply is never going to be all that cheap.
The ASUS RS300-E7/RS4 is a nice prebuilt solution. For a little more money, the Supermicro SuperServer 5017R-MTRF. Both are in the sub-$1000 range and would be quality solutions.
We used to sell AIC back when they and Chenbro were the only places selling a reasonably priced 12- or 24-bay storage server, but quite frankly these days, save yourself the headaches and buy a chassis and a mainboard that were designed to work together. In general, it costs us nearly as much to retrofit some of these old AIC chassis as it would to just buy a new Supermicro chassis. On these old RMC1D-XP's, for example, we end up needing to replace the power supply (with a modern efficient unit), the fans (with 4 wire fans), and wiring harnesses, and suddenly there's $200 in parts when a new SC813T-441CB only costs $280. It isn't clear that there's a strong justification for trying to reuse the old chassis, and in general, while you can make the AIC stuff work with the motherboard of your choice, it has been very pleasant buying matched gear.
The ASUS RS300-E7/RS4 is a nice prebuilt solution. For a little more money, the Supermicro SuperServer 5017R-MTRF. Both are in the sub-$1000 range and would be quality solutions.
We used to sell AIC back when they and Chenbro were the only places selling a reasonably priced 12- or 24-bay storage server, but quite frankly these days, save yourself the headaches and buy a chassis and a mainboard that were designed to work together. In general, it costs us nearly as much to retrofit some of these old AIC chassis as it would to just buy a new Supermicro chassis. On these old RMC1D-XP's, for example, we end up needing to replace the power supply (with a modern efficient unit), the fans (with 4 wire fans), and wiring harnesses, and suddenly there's $200 in parts when a new SC813T-441CB only costs $280. It isn't clear that there's a strong justification for trying to reuse the old chassis, and in general, while you can make the AIC stuff work with the motherboard of your choice, it has been very pleasant buying matched gear.
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