Server @home ** UPDATED 19/12/2008 **

[Suosaaski]

Decided to get rid of the gaming rig and build a file server and buy another laptop to replace it.

- component list updated and moved to the end of the post -

I am not completely satisfied with the quietness of the setup, it is pretty quiet but not silent (which is what I wanted). Seems adjusting the case or cpu fan doesn't do much difference, so it's probably the PSU (Earthwatts 380W). Remains to be seen wether I will change it or not. It's not loud, just not silent either.

I also measured the power consumption of the setup with the same meter as my Phenom 9950/HD4870 setup (which measured 185W at idle for comparison). This is the part I was very satisfied with, it measured 65W at idle.

Currently the power plan settings are as follows:
Turn off display: 5mins
Turn off hdd: 20mins
Usb selective suspend: Enabled
PCI-E link state power management: Maximum power savings
Min cpu state: 5%
Max cpu state: 100%

Cpu state doesn't really do much since the cpu only supports switching between 6 and 9 multipliers, so basically just the basic Intel EIST is enabled. Also disabled COM port from BIOS

Pics to follow in a few hours.

PS. Anyone have any experience with Silverstone ST30NF PSU? I would guess that would be pretty silent option for the setup


** UPDATE **

Here are a few new pics after some reconfiguration. First the overview, not much has changed:



There are two hdd bays in 5,25" slots for swapping disks. Also the DVD-drive is gone since it didn't fit completely in the case in the lowest bay (mobo got in the way). I'm using an USB-attached optical drive when the need arises.





From the inside the basic hdd cage is gone as there is no need for it. I could put the cable tidier but there isn't that many of them for them to affect airflow.



And finally a pic of what it's running now, all services have been moved to virtual machines.



Component list of the server:

Intel Xeon X3220 cpu
Intel S3210SH motherboard
Noctua NH-U12P cpu cooler
4 * 1GB Kingston DDR2-ECC 800MHz
2 * Seagate 7200.11 SATA HDD (mirror)
Antec NSK4480B (case fan replaced with a Nexus 120mm)

[Suosaaski]

And here are the pics!















Pretty nice temps at idle (which is what a home server mostly is... idle)

[Fayd]

a quad core, and a single HDD for a server? 0.0

[Suosaaski]

a quad core, and a single HDD for a server? 0.0

Quadcore yes, why not

Single HDD is ok, it is not a production server or anything, just my home server. Periodic backups are automated to a NAS device so it doesn't really matter too much if the HDD fails, although I did consider adding another... but then they would make twice as much noise too.

[protellect]

Maybe he wants to encode DVD's on it.

I've considered getting a quad-core for a fileserver, plus a netflix subscription.

[Fayd]

a quad core, and a single HDD for a server? 0.0

Quadcore yes, why not

Single HDD is ok, it is not a production server or anything, just my home server. Periodic backups are automated to a NAS device so it doesn't really matter too much if the HDD fails, although I did consider adding another... but then they would make twice as much noise too.

well... they just seem mismatched. if it's a quadcore, it'd be well suited to doing rips, like protellect suggested. (course, a dualcore would be as well...)

but a single hdd... no matter what cap, you couldnt get enough movies on there to make it worth it. 0.o

hence, an odd combination.

[Suosaaski]

Maybe he wants to encode DVD's on it.

I've considered getting a quad-core for a fileserver, plus a netflix subscription.

a quad core, and a single HDD for a server? 0.0

Quadcore yes, why not

Single HDD is ok, it is not a production server or anything, just my home server. Periodic backups are automated to a NAS device so it doesn't really matter too much if the HDD fails, although I did consider adding another... but then they would make twice as much noise too.

well... they just seem mismatched. if it's a quadcore, it'd be well suited to doing rips, like protellect suggested. (course, a dualcore would be as well...)

but a single hdd... no matter what cap, you couldnt get enough movies on there to make it worth it. 0.o

hence, an odd combination.

The quad core is just something left over from my old gaming rig. It wouldn't have been worth it to sell it and buy a dual core to replace it. Besides, it gives me more options in the future if I decide to run Hyper-V (which is the most likely use for it for me) on it etc.

The 500GB disk is enough for my server, it has roughly 400GB free. If I were to encode movies on it, that would be plenty of capacity for temporary files, but I am not going to do that. If anything, I will buy another and make a RAID1 array but that's it. And as I mentioned, I also have a NAS device, that disk is not my only storage.

If I had chosen that CPU for some other reason than the fact that it was a leftover CPU, I still don't see a mismach with single HDD and a quad core CPU since they really have nothing to do with each other. No matter if I had RAID or 5TB of storage, having quad core over dual core does no difference. If it were to run for example Hyper-V, the CPU holds it's own very well, but for a file server, especially at home, there really is no need for a quad core in any situation.

I also don't see a mismatch between the amount of RAM (only 2GB) and having a quad core CPU, but if I were to run Hyper-V on it, I would most likely need more RAM. For something else, I might not. It's not really worth buying more since I don't really need it at the moment and RAM is easy to add afterwards, as is HDDs if the need arises.

[Suosaaski]

Slight update, added a second 500GB Seagate 7200.11 for mirroring. No pic.

[Houe]

I'm building a home server too, but I'm going to use a dual core amd processor.

[Suosaaski]

first post updated

[e-son]

Im planning to build a server for home use running Hyper-V with a couple of hosts. Did you have any trouble setting up hyper-v or would you recommend your cpu + mb combo for this?

[Suosaaski]

Im planning to build a server for home use running Hyper-V with a couple of hosts. Did you have any trouble setting up hyper-v or would you recommend your cpu + mb combo for this?

I had no issues setting it up.

Just remember that Intels cheaper CPUs don't always have hardware virtualization (neither does AMD Sempron), which is what Hyper-V requires. For AMD, if I remember correctly, if it is AM2(+) and is not Sempron, it has hardware virtualization. Just make sure the CPU has this before any purchase. For example, Core 2 Duo e2xxx does NOT have hardware virtualization. Also remember to completely power off and unplug the computer after enabling it in BIOS (along with NX/XD bit, which might also be called secure virtualization etc).

Also remember you need a full install of Server 2008 or Vista (or System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008) to control Hyper-V hosts running either Server 2008 Core or Hyper-V Server 2008. Setting it up especially in a workgroup environment is not so straight forward as it should be. I recommend using HVremote as it simplifies the process quite a bit.

My CPU/MB is good for it, but AMDs quadcore offerings are better for virtualization, especially now that Phenom II / Opteron "Shanghai" are out. At least for multiple sockets. Basically if a device has Vista drivers, they will most likely work with 2008 too even if it is not officially supported.

PS. Host is the actual computer/os hosting the virtual machines. Guests are the virtual machines.