I'm just a small timer compared to most of the people here... but I recently completed a build which I'm rather proud of, even if I say so myself.
(Shitty camera phone images because I don't have a nice camera :msnblush:)
Every thing in this build (except for the hard disks) is second hand! Most bought from other forummers here or HWZ!
Brief history of the components:
I researched on motherboards and cases extensively before embarking on this build. I wrote up rather stringent requirements for the board (sufficient SATA ports, rock-solid reliability, ECC support) and case (cable management, airflow, fan locations). Ultimately no such motherboard-case combination exists and I was forced to settle for a next best alternative.
I have a lot of ideas in mind for NAS / compact utility motherboards in mind. If any company wants to design a board that appeals to the home server enthusiast, do approach me :D
In my opinion the "leet gamer" market is too saturated and there are far too many options, while the compact utility serverlet motherboard market is under-explored.
Fractal Design DEFINE Mini was purchased from a guy who was downgrading to ITX due to space constraints.
Supermicro X9SCM-F and 4x4GB of Kingston ECC RAM was purchased from a very nice guy who ran a side business recovering hardware from failed Silicon Valley startups. Initially the deal only involved the motherboard, but he told me he was losing interest in computers and so tossed in 4x4GB of ECC RAM for only a bit more! I was very lucky to have met him and would not have been able to build this without his help.
Intel Core i3-3220T was bought from a guy who bought it by mistake. I don't know much beyond that.
FSP Aurum 400W was bought from a guy who built his home media PC halfway and then decided he needed a bigger PSU so he can also play Steam games on his TV.
Kingston SSDNow 30GB was purchased from an old man who works in the IT industry.
2x2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 - I bought these locally. They were specially chosen because each only has two 1 TB platters. I consider the number of platters in a hard drive to be important mitigation against failure.
2x1TB WD drives - I received these from my elder brother who decided he didn't need that much storage anymore because all his work is stored in his workplace computers.
This build is a lot better than my desktop, which looks like it was cobbled out of random parts lol
Now for some pictures of the completed build...
View of the inside.
The X9SCM-F is a server motherboard so it only has PCIE x8 slots.
I am thinking of putting this server to double-duty as a media center (direct HDMI to my TV) so I will need to buy an x8 to x16 riser soon.
The central router at home is also near the TV, so I am also considering putting in a 4x RJ45 Intel network card, to replace my router, making this triple duty...
The Fractal Design DEFINE Mini is a very pretty, cute case. Almost kuudere :3
It looks very professional, and feels very solid. I don't like ricer cases with useless embellishments.
I think all my cases will be from Fractal Design from now on.
The DEFINE Mini offers a lot of features that I want, but not all. I wish, for example, that Fractal Design made a case that has more 5" slots. They did use to have a case like that but product line was discontinued for some reason.
I really like the steel snap-in tray for hard disks here. I have a Cooler Master 690, that uses plastic snap-in trays for HDD, and those things broke after a bit of usage. So worthless. CM, you have fallen.
The steel trays give a feeling of lasting reliability. They also allow you to screw in 2.5" disks without needing further support, which is a huge plus. No need to buy extra pieces of plastic.
I'm very satisfied with the case, though it can be better.
I wish there was more room at the back of the case for cable management.
It's rather cramp there and I had some difficulty arranging the cables so that the case lids will close properly.
I installed Debian 7 on it. The native display is a weak Nuvotron so I opted not to install the KDE gui, and I operate the build as a headless server through SSH.
Right now it runs Webmin, Samba, and nginx. I have migrated all my files from my i7 desktop to the server. I'm still figuring out how stuff on Debian works, but eventually I hope to put a simple FTP on it so I can access my files anywhere from the Internet.
My friends have suggested installing MyCloud on it, which is an option I am also considering.
However, since I would like this build to do double duty as a media server, I may have to wipe and install Windows Server on it instead. NUS gives free keys :)
My server is named Harvestasha because I am a fan of GUST games, especially Ar Tonelico.
My desktop is named Ar Tonelico, my laptop is named Infel Phira, so Harvestasha was the natural choice for the server.
I do feel that 16GB of ECC RAM and i3-3220T is a huge overkill for what is essentially a simple file server, but I got those at really low prices so I'm not complaining.
I promise they will be put to good use in the future.
In total, I spent roughly $530 for this. It's a rock solid build and booted with no problems from build completion to installation.
I love it so far, and I think this server will live with me for a big part of my life.
I built the server with some important features in mind: Scalability (for more hard disks), Reliability, Quiet Acoustics, Long-Lasting Uptime and Operation.
Gaming rigs come and go, but server will stay.
Thanks for reading. Just wanted to share my pride in this. Sorry for the terrible photo quality. Maybe I will save some money to buy a decent camera the next time, but cameras aren't a priority for me.
(Shitty camera phone images because I don't have a nice camera :msnblush:)
Every thing in this build (except for the hard disks) is second hand! Most bought from other forummers here or HWZ!
Brief history of the components:
I researched on motherboards and cases extensively before embarking on this build. I wrote up rather stringent requirements for the board (sufficient SATA ports, rock-solid reliability, ECC support) and case (cable management, airflow, fan locations). Ultimately no such motherboard-case combination exists and I was forced to settle for a next best alternative.
I have a lot of ideas in mind for NAS / compact utility motherboards in mind. If any company wants to design a board that appeals to the home server enthusiast, do approach me :D
In my opinion the "leet gamer" market is too saturated and there are far too many options, while the compact utility serverlet motherboard market is under-explored.
Fractal Design DEFINE Mini was purchased from a guy who was downgrading to ITX due to space constraints.
Supermicro X9SCM-F and 4x4GB of Kingston ECC RAM was purchased from a very nice guy who ran a side business recovering hardware from failed Silicon Valley startups. Initially the deal only involved the motherboard, but he told me he was losing interest in computers and so tossed in 4x4GB of ECC RAM for only a bit more! I was very lucky to have met him and would not have been able to build this without his help.
Intel Core i3-3220T was bought from a guy who bought it by mistake. I don't know much beyond that.
FSP Aurum 400W was bought from a guy who built his home media PC halfway and then decided he needed a bigger PSU so he can also play Steam games on his TV.
Kingston SSDNow 30GB was purchased from an old man who works in the IT industry.
2x2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 - I bought these locally. They were specially chosen because each only has two 1 TB platters. I consider the number of platters in a hard drive to be important mitigation against failure.
2x1TB WD drives - I received these from my elder brother who decided he didn't need that much storage anymore because all his work is stored in his workplace computers.
This build is a lot better than my desktop, which looks like it was cobbled out of random parts lol
Now for some pictures of the completed build...
View of the inside.
The X9SCM-F is a server motherboard so it only has PCIE x8 slots.
I am thinking of putting this server to double-duty as a media center (direct HDMI to my TV) so I will need to buy an x8 to x16 riser soon.
The central router at home is also near the TV, so I am also considering putting in a 4x RJ45 Intel network card, to replace my router, making this triple duty...
The Fractal Design DEFINE Mini is a very pretty, cute case. Almost kuudere :3
It looks very professional, and feels very solid. I don't like ricer cases with useless embellishments.
I think all my cases will be from Fractal Design from now on.
The DEFINE Mini offers a lot of features that I want, but not all. I wish, for example, that Fractal Design made a case that has more 5" slots. They did use to have a case like that but product line was discontinued for some reason.
I really like the steel snap-in tray for hard disks here. I have a Cooler Master 690, that uses plastic snap-in trays for HDD, and those things broke after a bit of usage. So worthless. CM, you have fallen.
The steel trays give a feeling of lasting reliability. They also allow you to screw in 2.5" disks without needing further support, which is a huge plus. No need to buy extra pieces of plastic.
I'm very satisfied with the case, though it can be better.
I wish there was more room at the back of the case for cable management.
It's rather cramp there and I had some difficulty arranging the cables so that the case lids will close properly.
I installed Debian 7 on it. The native display is a weak Nuvotron so I opted not to install the KDE gui, and I operate the build as a headless server through SSH.
Right now it runs Webmin, Samba, and nginx. I have migrated all my files from my i7 desktop to the server. I'm still figuring out how stuff on Debian works, but eventually I hope to put a simple FTP on it so I can access my files anywhere from the Internet.
My friends have suggested installing MyCloud on it, which is an option I am also considering.
However, since I would like this build to do double duty as a media server, I may have to wipe and install Windows Server on it instead. NUS gives free keys :)
My server is named Harvestasha because I am a fan of GUST games, especially Ar Tonelico.
My desktop is named Ar Tonelico, my laptop is named Infel Phira, so Harvestasha was the natural choice for the server.
I do feel that 16GB of ECC RAM and i3-3220T is a huge overkill for what is essentially a simple file server, but I got those at really low prices so I'm not complaining.
I promise they will be put to good use in the future.
In total, I spent roughly $530 for this. It's a rock solid build and booted with no problems from build completion to installation.
I love it so far, and I think this server will live with me for a big part of my life.
I built the server with some important features in mind: Scalability (for more hard disks), Reliability, Quiet Acoustics, Long-Lasting Uptime and Operation.
Gaming rigs come and go, but server will stay.
Thanks for reading. Just wanted to share my pride in this. Sorry for the terrible photo quality. Maybe I will save some money to buy a decent camera the next time, but cameras aren't a priority for me.
via Hardware Forums http://ift.tt/1tiOOKy
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