1TerraByte File server build plan ready to buy- hit or sh*t?

[hatimh]

I'm gonna configure the HDDs in RAID 5 - Does the following look ok? I'm concerned about my choice of MoBo and Power Supply. And I'm wondering if the PCI Express RAID controller will go into the PCI-E slot on the MoBo as the MoBo says the graphic interface is PCI-E, I know it sounds silly but is it a grafics only PCI-E slot? I'm probably thinking like this coz I got so used to AGP only being for graphics cards.

AKASA Zen case - Black Silent Cool Midi-ATX Computing case w/2 silent 12cm fans w/o PSU
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=446040

580W HiperPower Type-R Modular Black PSU Quiet Dbl Fan aPFC ATX2.2 20/24 Pin (RoHS)


LiteOn 16x DVD+/-RW/RAM SATA black drive & S/W
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=520885

Asus A8V-VM-SE VIA K8M890, S939, PCI-E (x16), DDR 333/400, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, On Board VGA
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=434319

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Socket939, VeniceCore, 2.0GHz, 512KB Cache, Retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=217038

1GB 2 x 512MB DDR PC3200 (400), ECC Registered
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=130976

Highpoint RR2300 PCI-E to SATAII/SATA I 4 Port Raid Controller
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=408085

3-COM 3C980-C-TXM 10/100 Mbit PCI Server NIC
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=2282

400 Gb Seagate ST3400620AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=451529

 

[yamla]

Your RAID controller is fake-RAID. It does all the calculations using the CPU which is why it sells for that price. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, but if you are in Linux, for example, you are better off just using software RAID (because that's what you are using anyway). In Windows, you might want to look to see if you can't get a motherboard with fake-raid right there, rather than using a separate card. My Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI, for example, supports fake-RAID5 right on the motherboard, though of course it uses the CPU for all calculations.

 

[hatimh]

LOL fake RAID.

OK so then which motherboard out there has the best raid performance, I'll be connecting 4 HDDs to it so I'm guessing I may have to get an IDE DVD-RW

Can anyone help with the other queries I have?

 

[yamla]

There's no such thing as a graphics-only PCIe slot. If this is going to be a network file server, the speed of the SATA ports isn't going to make much difference. You are going to be limited by your network connection rather than your SATA ports, hard drives, or RAID implementation. Besides, any modern CPU can easily handle RAID5 for you.

If you are going to use this as a desktop as well as or instead of a file server, you may wish to invest in a real hardware RAID card.

 

[skud]

i see no reason why you wont have enough power there, and the mobo will be fine.

 

[MadHacker]

I'm using a simular raid controller card (Highpoint Rocketraid 2320) only 8 port PCIE4,
I'm running raid 5 on 4x500gig HDs and 4x320gig HDs,

I like the raid controller option best because in the future I can take the raid card and put it into any machine and it will work.

if you use raid on your motherboard you may be limited to using that motherboard only so if it dies... you need to replace it with the same board.

also I do have benchmarks from HD Tach, if you want them PM your email and I can email them to you..
as for performance. I get a 2% cpu hit on my E6600 at stock speeds.

 

[hatimh]

Silly me, I was supposed write 1GB RAM not 512, I've changed it now. Also wanted to mention that this file server is for an office and it'll mainly be big files getting moved around the network.

Are there any advantages of getting a separate PCI gigabit ethernet card over using the MoBo one?

I might get a slightly smaller but better quality PSU, Siverstone 460W or something.

I was reading about about ICH8r and was going to change RAID5 on that but now you guys have sold the idea of a card instead.

Back to the "fake" RAID If I'm using the card mentioned above will that be a bottleneck or would the network be a bottleneck, if it's going to be the network then I guess it doesn't matter that the card is not true RAID, also I know the CPU I've specified might be considered to be overkill but maybe that'll help the fake RAID card to run better?

 

[plankmeister]

I'd recommend a RAID card that supports SATA hard drives, and then of course using SATA hard drives, if only from a cable management point of view... It's also much more futureproof and undoubtedly offers an interface speed advantage over IDE drives, as most modern SATA drives have a bigger cache, and support NCQ.

*EDIT* Of course, most modern mainboards have at least 4 SATA connectors, and support "fake" raid, but only a few of these "fake raid" boards support RAID5, so beware!

 

[hatimh]

Absolutely, I wasn't considering anything other than SATA.

 

[GigabyteRules]

the new 680i mobo by gigabyte is guna release soon has 2nics 10/100/1000 so u could have 1000up/1000down (full deplex is it called??) so ild wait for that also has 10 YES!! Ten onboard sata ports. u should probly wait for that, be costly but