Small Business server build E3, E5 of 4790k? What CPU and MB do you recommend?

[renewGeorgia]

Hi,

I am building a server for the company I work with. The last time I built a server it was 10 years ago. Help is appreciated.

Need 24/7 running. Serving mail, files, print, docs, back ups, possibly website host as well as normal office functions.

At home I use a 4790k with an ASUS MB and it is great, but most servers sold commercially have E3's or E5's.

Any reason to use an E over a 4790k?

What CPU do you recommend?

What MB?

A little off the main topic but I am considering a raid 1 or 5. What do you recommend?

With raid 1, if a disk goes down, can you run on one? can you replace the bad one and have it rebuild while still in use?

Thanks,

Neal

 

[sancho_mic]

first of all you can rebuild while still using it (both for raid 1 and 5). but will not perform to normal capacity till rebuild completed.

secondly, from your needs, you do not need Xeon CPU with ECC RAM and whatever technologies it offers. Unless you tell me that you need certain KPI on response times, I/O, etc...

What OS will you use?

From my perspective, you don't even need a K or X CPU, unless you intend to overclock, which is unreasonable to me for a PC purposed as a server. For this reason, you also don't need a Z or X platform. There are good motherboards (B, H) aimed for businesses.

Your main factors should be:
- how many LAN's you need? maybe you want 2 LAN for redundancy.
- how many sata?
- do you have any particular needs for expansion cards?
- do you have power consumption constraints?

What are the normal office functions? Will a user log in to it and use it is as well?

Have you considered a pair of NAS from Synology? (it does most of the items you mentioned).

Regarding 24/7 - no idea how can you achieve it using single PC If motherboard get's fried, what you will do?
The only way is to have redundant H/W for 24/7.

Synology does offer some HA solutions, at least for the files, that's why i mentioned it...
-s

 

[renewGeorgia]

first of all you can rebuild while still using it (both for raid 1 and 5). but will not perform to normal capacity till rebuild completed.

secondly, from your needs, you do not need Xeon CPU with ECC RAM and whatever technologies it offers. Unless you tell me that you need certain KPI on response times, I/O, etc...

What OS will you use?

From my perspective, you don't even need a K or X CPU, unless you intend to overclock, which is unreasonable to me for a PC purposed as a server. For this reason, you also don't need a Z or X platform. There are good motherboards (B, H) aimed for businesses.

Your main factors should be:
- how many LAN's you need? maybe you want 2 LAN for redundancy.
- how many sata?
- do you have any particular needs for expansion cards?
- do you have power consumption constraints?

What are the normal office functions? Will a user log in to it and use it is as well?

Have you considered a pair of NAS from Synology? (it does most of the items you mentioned).

Regarding 24/7 - no idea how can you achieve it using single PC If motherboard get's fried, what you will do?
The only way is to have redundant H/W for 24/7.

Synology does offer some HA solutions, at least for the files, that's why i mentioned it...
-s

Thanks for the advice.

To answer your questions:
Two lans would be nice but one would be adequate.

SATA, I am thinking at least 5

No need for expansion, no real worry on power consumption unless of course it is way out of the ball park.

When I saw 24/7 I mean it normally needs to be up and running 24/7 for file and mail serve, not indestructible. If it breaks I can take it down for a couple of hours to fix. That was part of my reason for asking about raid. I may build an exact copy of it and just swap one of the disks if the first one breaks.

I agree, probably do not need the K or x version, but I want a CPU that will be fast enough for nothing to lag. My last office had a very slow server... I want this one to at least be fast.

I do not plan to over clock. I thought about the normal 4790, but according to microcenter, it is only 3.6 ghz compared to the 4790k which is stock at 4.0 ghz? Not sure why the stock speed is slower.

If it was you, what would you build?


Thanks again