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,

Let’s look at this combination: Samsung SATA CD/DVD Burner $20 (+ $8 shipping) HP ProLiant ML150 G6 E5506 $850(+$43 shipping) RocketRAID 2300 PCIe 4x SATA $120 (+$8 shipping) Crucial 3x2G ECC DDR3-1333 $191 (+ $6 shipping) Total price in cart: $1178.97 + $42.90 shipping = $1,221.87 So the premium for the Supermicro is about $220. Is the hotswap worth the $220? Oh, and the Supermicro will need a video card: VisionTek VTK Rad7K

For the file server, perhaps one of these three combinations: Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 4@$300 – $1200 8TB or $150/TB SAMSUNG F1 RAID Class HE103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ 4@$150 – $600 4TB or $150/TB Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ 4@$160 – $640 or $160/TB Also in this system would be a gmirrored pair of

Following on from my previous post on my file server, here is what I’m now looking at. It’s based upon various discussions on mailing lists and IRC channels. Samsung SATA CD/DVD Burner $20 (+ $8 shipping) SuperMicro 5046A $750 (+$43 shipping) RocketRAID 2300 PCIe 4x SATA $120 (+$8 shipping) Crucial 3x2G ECC DDR3-1333 $191 (+ $6 shipping) Xeon W3520 $310 Total price in cart: $1389.95 + $52.95 shipping = $1441.90 Not included: HDD,