NAS box build

[TheJackO42]

So I'm building a Media Storage NAS box. Eventually I will be building a MythTV back end & front end, and running media - hi def video at some point - from the NAS to the TV (through gigabit ethernet & probably wireless n.) Will also use NAS to hold media a record with mythTV. I'm aiming for good performance without being too much of a power hog. Here's my build I have so far... any suggestions? I planning on running Ubuntu Server or maybe Windows Home Server... i dunno.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 @ 2.66GHz
ASUS P5N7A-VM LGA 775
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB x 4
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM (to hold OS)
areca ARC-1210 PCI-Express x8 SATA II Controller Card (is this a good?)

Intel EXPI9300PT 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express (necessary?)

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
Antec earthwatts EA380 380W (Will this be sufficient?)

Yep, so tell me what you think. I'm brand new to this, so lay it on thick. Thanx!

 

[MoralDelima]

RAID card looks good. You've got one with hardware raid support rather then software.

As for case, if you wanted to have it to where you could replace one of your drives without opening the case, you can check Newegg under cases for 'Server Chasis'. They have a category called 'Hot Swap bays' and you could pick up a case that had four or five HS bays on front.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811165115

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811152904

You could also get the drive cages individually (they have a 3x5.25 firmfactor for a four bay cage) and install it in a server case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119152. If you don't want to get a cage, considering getting some of those actively cooled 5.25 hard drive coolers to keep your drives cool.

Other then that, if you want to be fancy and go for performance check out http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=463 and some of Dennis Wood's othe rposts talking about Link Aggregation and teaming in the QNAP section. Basically, if you've got a MB with Dual NICs and and a switch that supports Link Aggregation, you can make the switch see the two network ports as one and increas throughput. (Hint: they also have quad GigE MBs)

Other then that, looks good.

 

[BriComp]

Hi,
You could consider an LSI MegaRaid SAS8344ELP controller card. I am using one here in the UK and am very pleased with it. With two SA drives I am seeing a peak of 240MB/s throughput.

You can buy them cheap (NEW) off ebay. I have seen them at $139.
Here is a link which may or may not work. It is very long!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/LSI-LSI00118-SA...4|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1308|301:1|293:1|294:50

If it does not the just search for "LSI SAS8344*"

Regards
Bob Bridges

 

[MoralDelima]

Hi,
You could consider an LSI MegaRaid SAS8344ELP controller card. I am using one here in the UK and am very pleased with it. With two SA drives I am seeing a peak of 240MB/s throughput.

You can buy them cheap (NEW) off ebay. I have seen them at $139.
Here is a link which may or may not work. It is very long!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/LSI-LSI00118-SA...4|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1308|301:1|293:1|294:50

If it does not the just search for "LSI SAS8344*"

Regards
Bob Bridges

Thanks! Probably will use that (or at least find the hardware on eBay) when I build my box as opposed to getting it through Newegg. It's OEM only - what am I going to have to get to hook up SATA drives (since it seems to be geared towards SAS drives).

 

[BriComp]

Hi,

The card will run fine with both SAS and SATA drives.

It will run straight out of the box with Vista but drivers can be had from the LSI site here http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/pro.../megaraid_sas/megaraid_sas_8344elp/index.html. You will also find installation documentation which will be worth a read.

You will need a sff8087 to sas/sata cable. SAS cables come with data connections and a 4 pin HDD socket for power connection to the HDD or you can use a SATA cable which only provides the data connection to the HDD. In the latter case you have to provide the power connection via a SATA power connector from the PSU.
SAS Cable http://cgi.ebay.com/SAS-CABLE-SFF-8...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

SATA Cable http://cgi.ebay.com/6-meter-Multi-l...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

I have no connection with any of the ebay items I have posted. By the way the vendor of the 8344 that I listed is an unusually low price. They normally seem to go for $155. You will see vendors selling them at this price if you search ebay. I do like ebay. I also bought a SAS8888ELP for $350. It came with a 512Mb cache. Oh what a card!

Regards
Bob

 

[BriComp]

Hi Again,

When I said that I got peak 240MB/s throughput that was with two 146Gb, 15K RPM SAS drives in Raid 0 configuration. If I remember rightly the lowest was about 140MB/S. ( MB/s = M Bytes/sec )
Hard drives give the fastest throughput when reading from the outside tracks. The inside tracks often have a much lower throughput.

The SAS drives I was using had max/min throughputs of 120 / 70. So in Raid0 configuration you can expect to get 120 X number of drives througput. There will become a limit where the Raid card cannot keep up any more. I have not tested to find that peak. I was just looking to saturate a Gigabit network connection.

I am using a SAS8344XLP on MY PC in RAID0 just for the pure horsepower. The SAS8888ELP I will be using on my server when I have built the upgraded system.

Regards
Bob

 

[bliko]

Will you just be using for streaming media? or will you be copying media to it from other high speed sources?

If you are just streaming, very high preformance may not be necisary, espcially if don't plan to team your nics.

Also do you plan to continually add more hdds to ur server?

 

[00Roush]

Just wondering why you are needing a RAID card? What RAID setup are you planning on using?

00Roush

 

[TheJackO42]

I'm planning on using RAID 5. That should give me like 3tb of room right?

 

[Madwand]

I planning on running Ubuntu Server or maybe Windows Home Server... i dunno.

Consider running Vista.

 

[MoralDelima]

Consider running Vista.

Care to elaborate your reasons for suggesting Vista?

 

[Madwand]

It's simpler to manage, does media, is increasingly supported by the majority of modern hardware and software, can do file sharing just fine (up to the licensing limits), and can actually perform better than WHS and others for Windows file transfers.

 

[br14]

Given that you like Antec hardware (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that) consider some of their cases with the power supply included, as that will usually give you a better value.
You might want to look at something like NSK6480 or Sonata Designer- the Designer is a (very nice) Solo case with the power supply. I tend to put things on top of everything, so top-facing fan of 300 would be a major annoyance.
Also, there is a number of good boards out there with the GB LAN adapter built-in- you might need an extra slot eventually. Asus boards are generally well regarded, but I found the Intel chipsets to be less troublesome.
Regardless of whether this is your first build or 100th, you will probably eventually regret one or more hardware choices.
Do not let this discourage you and good luck!