Right now I have a plex media server with the following specs:
Intel Xeon 2670
Generic Intel motherboard
Corsair 450W PSU
32GB Samsung ECC Ram
LSI 9240-8i (IT mode)
Samsung 500gb ssd
6 8TB WD red/white hdd's in z2
This system works great, but I want to add to it a lot. On my main rig I hate having hdd's in it, especially the external one that sounds like it is eating a blender(but has worked fine for a couple years). I want to add a second array that I can use as a standard file server for everything else. Other than my C drive I want to move everything to this array, including games. I am trying to figure out the best way of going about this. First of all for sure I need a new case, motherboard, 10gb network card and either a new HBA card or expander card.
For the case I was thinking of the Norco 4224 for its 24 hot swap bays with mini sas connectors, so I almost never have to worry about drive space again as the case I currently have only holds 6 drives and they are a ...pain to get in and out. The motherboard I have currently only has 2 pcie 8x+ slots, so if I have to get 2 more cards, 4 pcie 8x or 16x cards obviously wont fit. I was looking at Chinese boards from alibaba and I found a couple options. I'm not sure how reliable they are, but it seems like there aren't many other options. I would like to have a 10gb direct link between my main rig and this server and was looking at the Intel X550-T2 to use in both systems. As for the hba card situation my friend said he has an almost identical hba setup with an Intel RES2SV240. For the main storage I will probably get more 8tb drives out of the Best buy WD Easystore's since they are such a good value and I haven't had a single problem since I built my array. In addition a couple ssds in raid 1 as a cache drive( not using same drive as plex jail). Finally of course I'm going to pick up a beefier psu no matter what.
What would you guys recommend is this sort of situation? In terms of motherboard I saw a dual socket one that doesn't seem too bad. I imagine another 2670 is totally unnecessary, on top of spending another $300 for cpu, cooler, and extra $$$ on board, but it would be pretty cool.
Intel Xeon 2670
Generic Intel motherboard
Corsair 450W PSU
32GB Samsung ECC Ram
LSI 9240-8i (IT mode)
Samsung 500gb ssd
6 8TB WD red/white hdd's in z2
This system works great, but I want to add to it a lot. On my main rig I hate having hdd's in it, especially the external one that sounds like it is eating a blender(but has worked fine for a couple years). I want to add a second array that I can use as a standard file server for everything else. Other than my C drive I want to move everything to this array, including games. I am trying to figure out the best way of going about this. First of all for sure I need a new case, motherboard, 10gb network card and either a new HBA card or expander card.
For the case I was thinking of the Norco 4224 for its 24 hot swap bays with mini sas connectors, so I almost never have to worry about drive space again as the case I currently have only holds 6 drives and they are a ...pain to get in and out. The motherboard I have currently only has 2 pcie 8x+ slots, so if I have to get 2 more cards, 4 pcie 8x or 16x cards obviously wont fit. I was looking at Chinese boards from alibaba and I found a couple options. I'm not sure how reliable they are, but it seems like there aren't many other options. I would like to have a 10gb direct link between my main rig and this server and was looking at the Intel X550-T2 to use in both systems. As for the hba card situation my friend said he has an almost identical hba setup with an Intel RES2SV240. For the main storage I will probably get more 8tb drives out of the Best buy WD Easystore's since they are such a good value and I haven't had a single problem since I built my array. In addition a couple ssds in raid 1 as a cache drive( not using same drive as plex jail). Finally of course I'm going to pick up a beefier psu no matter what.
What would you guys recommend is this sort of situation? In terms of motherboard I saw a dual socket one that doesn't seem too bad. I imagine another 2670 is totally unnecessary, on top of spending another $300 for cpu, cooler, and extra $$$ on board, but it would be pretty cool.
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