hardware

It seems I cannot use registered ECC RAM in ASUS M4A79T Deluxe m/b. So I’m going with Patriot Signature 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) for $130 instead.

The parts I ordered last week arrived on Friday. Unfortunately I forgot to order the RAM. It turns out the RAM I had selected was the wrong RAM; it was DDR2. The m/b takes DDR3. But I didn’t find that out until after I ordered it on Saturday, along with two small SATA drives for the OS. I had thought I had several spare SATA drives here, but it turns out I don’t.

Tonight I purchased the following items: ENERMAX ECO80+ EES620AWT 620W for $120 Samsung SATA CD/DVD Burner $20 (+ $8 shipping) ASUS M4A79T Deluxe m/b for $180 AMD Phenom II X4 945 CPU $150 2x SYBA SY-PEX40008 PCI Express SATA II 4 port at $60 each for $120 Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM ECC $97 Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express for $31 HITACHI Deskstar HD32000 IDK/7K (0S00164) 2TB 7200

Based on several recent posts, I found a new case, which I like quite a bit. My thanks to Dan Naumov for the concept. LIAN LI PC-A71F Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case $240 (from mwave) Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W PSU $80 Samsung SATA CD/DVD Burner $20 (+ $8 shipping) Intel S3200SHV LGA 775 Intel 3200 m/b $200 Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 CPU $190 SATA cables $22 Supermicro LSI MegaRAID 8 Port

Wes Morgan suggested this: Athena Power CA-SWH01BH8 Pedestal case $270 Antec CP-850 850W PSU $109 Samsung SATA CD/DVD Burner $20 (+ $8 shipping) Intel S3200SHV LGA 775 Intel 3200 m/b $200 Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 CPU $190 SATA cables $60 Supermicro LSI MegaRAID 8 Port SAS RAID Controller $118 Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM ECC $97 Total price with shipping $1100 roughly. And like Wes says, $400 less than

I am redoing the previous Supermicro quote to reflect some recent decisions. Specifically, changing to LSI from RocketRaid. Samsung SATA CD/DVD Burner $20 (+ $8 shipping) SuperMicro 5046A $750 (+$43 shipping) LSI SAS 3081E-R $235 SATA cables $60 Crucial 3x2G ECC DDR3-1333 $191 (+ $6 shipping) Xeon W3520 $310 Total price with shipping $1560 I also found that LSI card on google. And cheaper cables.

Let’s price out the Athena now: Athena Power CA-SWH01BH8 Pedestal case $270 Antec CP-850 850W $20 Samsung SATA CD/DVD Burner $20 Intel S3420GPLC LGA 1156 Intel 3420 ATX Intel Xeon $205 Intel Xeon X3430 Lynnfield 2.4GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Server Processor Model BX80605X3430 $210 Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ECC Registered Server Memory Model KVR1333D3D4R9SK2/8G $287 LSI SAS 3081E-R $235 SATA cables $60 VisionTek VTK Rad7K 64P

Given my previous post regarding the number of ports, I’ve started to consider this LSI SAS 3081E-R from LSI. It has native FreeBSD support via the mpt(4) driver. I can get one for about $240 shipped. I’d need a couple of cables too. Based on this, I’m going to price out the system with that original Athena case.

For some reason, I want my future file server to have space for 8 hot-swap HDD. Those HDD will house the RAIDZ cluster of my ZFS array (although that particular terminology sounds odd). Why do I want hot-swap? Because I can. It costs about $100 for a drive cage for 4 SATA drives. That’s +$25 per HDD, but it’s nice. That’s all. It’s Nice To Have. I said RAIDZ, but I might go

People have asked me why I’m creating what amounts to a NAS. Why don’t I use Drobo or SmartStor for example? The above don’t have ZFS, which is the best solution for redundant storage. I can’t install Bacula on those systems. Sure, Bacula could run on another system and access that storage, but being directly on the system has advantages. Or why don’t you use FreeNAS for example? You’d be running FreeBSD! FreeNAS,