Short PCI-E card in long PCI-E 16 slot? 400 watt PS ok?

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pimpsmurf

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I'm building a server. For novelty, I planned to use Intel's Mini ITX server MB.

Manual:
http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s1200kp/sb/g38894002_s1200kp_tps_r1_1.pdf (PDF WARNING)

However, it does not support USB 3.0, which is needed for my external storage.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815836001&Tpk=pcie%20usb%203.0&IsVirtualParent=1

USR was the only company other than silverstone that I recognized when trying to find a PCIE USB3 card.

QUESTION 1: Can I use that short PCIE (1x?) card in the PCIE 16X 2.0 slot? It looks like it would fit, but I've never done that before and wanted to be sure before I ordered a $1200 system and was forced to replace the MB and case.

QUESTION 2: Will a 400w PS be enough for this system? It seems so because it's rather light, but I wanted to get confirmation. Here is a parts list:

QUESTION 3: Will it be enough to upgrade to an i7 later?

System Specs (at the moment):
400w platinum SeaSonic X http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151097

i3-3220 ivy bridge
16gb unbuf-ECC ram
two intel 520 cherryville SSDs (mirror raid application/high speed db drive) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167095
two WD server 1TB drives (mirror raid low speed db and storage drive) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136798
 
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pimpsmurf

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You are correct, however it will be an application development server. There will be code compiling there for it and other platforms (cross compiling for arm and such.)

I realize the i7 is a luxury item, which is why it will come much later.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Yes. Yes. Probably.

Any PCIe card can fit a x16 PCIe slot (x1, x4, x8 and x16).

Why get a mini-ITX when a micro-ATX board will support eSATA and USB3?

I'm not sure that Intel board will be a good value choice.

SSD:
That Intel 120GB doesn't seem a good value. It's $155 but you can get the Intel 335 180GB for only $175.

I don't know enough about your requirements to make any further recommendations. I do wonder if your data is on the hard drive, will your software make much use of your SSD's? I can see software buffering some to your DDR3 RAM, but I'm not sure a 2x120GB is a requirement. Just guessing as I'm not an expert on Servers but it's possible some of your build is overkill.

MMO or Home Media Server?
You don't have to answer, just curious. If it's a home media server then there are cheaper solutions. I was reading up on MMO servers and everybody told me it was cheaper just to RENT one remotely, especially if your friends kicked in.
 
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pimpsmurf

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Novelty mostly. I think it will look pretty awesome when I'm done setting everything up. I'm really big on this being small and light, although it isn't expected to move much. My "server" pc now is mini ITX and is being moved to HTPC duty.



The performance of the 520 is much much better. I won't use 1/2 the capacity, so that is of no regard.



The applications will be on the SSD, and application performance, especially web apps with many small apps like perl scripts running all the time will be much faster on SSD. I'll also have the high speed database running on it. I mirror everything on servers typically for data integrity. I use SSDs so the system can come back online as fast as possible when I have to take it down for a security update, as well as application performance. SSDs go in everything I have now, especially servers.

The data drives are for data files, git repos, and larger file storage (like /images/ for web servers, cloud storage for users, etc). We are a 2-man shop so we don't need a ton of storage.



I don't game anymore. My HTPC (a raspberry pi) is being replaced with a FM1 socket APU mini ITX system. This is a web daemon server and application development server. It will be running mail services, web services, file storage (sshfs), ssh, and such as well as remote development tools and a build system for ARM cross compilation. I'm writing software for Android as well as embedded systems like the Beaglebone Black and Raspberry Pi's.

Thanks for your responses! I'm going mITX for this one!~ :D
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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SSD:
If you are more concerned with performance, then the Samsung 840 Pro might be the SSD for you. You can look up the recent SSD comparisons here at Tomshardware but the Intel drives were often much slower for small files. I used to recommend Intel because of all the reliability problems, but the Samsung 840 Pro appears to be fast, reasonably priced, and reliable.
 
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