I'm looking to upgrade my current server machine and as in the title am considering all possible options. My Server is used simply to host masses of media and distribute it all over the household. Currently it has no other purpose than that, although I do need use of web/browser facilities now and then on it. I'd also like to have backup facilities readily available should they be needed. Anyway my current server specs DELL Poweredge SC440 - Intel Pentium(R) Dual Core CPU E2180 (2GHz) - 2GB ECC DIMM DD2 Ram - ATI Radeon X300SE PCIe (this is a modded card to fit the slot) Hard Disks - WD 80GB SATA300 8mb Cache (3 Partitions: OS Tools/Win2k3 Server Edition/WinXP) - WD 80GB SATA300 8mn Cache (Single Partiton: VMWare Installation for testing new OS builds) - SAMSUNG HD753LJ SATA300 32mb Cache 750GB (Media Host) - SAMSUNG HD753LJ SATA300 32mb Cache 750GB (Media Host) - BUFFALO External 1TB HDD (Media Host) - IOMEGA External 1TB HDD (Media Host) - TOSHIBA External 1TB HDD (Backup) 4 Internal and 3 External Drives in total. - Internal DVD-ROM Drive - External DVDR/RW/RAM Drive with HDD Bay (empty) and Media Card Reader The Server has 4 interal SATA which are all used. Ideally I wanted to remove all 3 1TB HDD's and place them interally which I could do by removing the DVD-ROM and racking them in the 5.25" bays problem is, no SATA ports left. I've been considering buying a PCI SATA Controller but I'm unsure on how the HDD's would be powered? None of the 1TB External Casings have esata, they're all USB 2.0) The PSU in the server is 300w I think although people generally say that DELL understate their PSU's. I ran a power supply calculater facotring in all hardware and it said with the 3 1TB drives running internally I'd require 370W. So this is my dillemma, I want to upgrade the storage but I don't have the internal capacity to realyl do it, atleast, I'm unsure on how I could power the drives if they were attached to a SATa controller. I just don't want multiple external drives each with separate PSU's (too many wires). Plus USB 2.0 is too slow for transfer and read speeds so SATA or eSATA would be ideal. The Server has 4 firewire ports also but the enclosures don't have firewire support. So unless I replaced the enclosures with ones that supported firewire I couldn't make use of that. I can't wait for USB 3.0... It took me about 8 months to decide on this server unit which was in the end ideal at the time, I'd compared it to so many other alternatives everything from Servers to NAS. Now I'm not quite sure where to go. I'm considering obtaining a separate NAS which I could then place the 3 1TB drives in and hook directly to the router via ethernet but I'm not sure how much of an improvement, speed wise that would be over USB2.0. My network doesn't ( my router doesn't) currently have gigabit support so I don't know whether this wiould be the best option, although, I also want to upgrade my entire network and incorporate gigabit throughout it. The other option would be to either, buy a new server unit to run alongside my current one OR build a new server unit. In either case, again, unsure on what my best options are. I've been looking at HP's server options and had my eye on a couple for a while but the thoguht of having another PC isn't all that appealing, ideally, I'd like to minmize space, which I suppose would make NAS a slightly better option but the prices put me off when I researched them a year ago, I suppose there are alot more options now. Another option would be to remove the 80GB HDD's and replace them with 1TB drives. Again, I'm not sure how ideal it would be mixing my OS partitons with Media partitons which is what I'd have to do to make full use of the 1TB drives as it'd be far too much space for both the OS's and the VMWare. In summary, what are my best options for upgrading my servers storage capacity? Any thoughts, suggestions greatly appreciated. I'm fairly tech-headed so if you need any other info that would help, just ask. Cheers.
If it's a real 300W PSU, it'd have no issue. I run six drives in my server, (HD753LJ 750GB, 7200.10 750GB, WD10EACS, WD10EAVS (1000GB), WD5000AAKS 500GB x2), and a far more power hungry graphics card (Radeon X1900XT) and it all runs fine off an Antec EarthWatts 380W, with a similar CPU. I've measured the system's draw at the wall and it doesn't even reach 200W a.c. unless it's playing games, let alone 300W d.c.
I have no idea how to measure current draw, suffice it to say my rig has 6 internal WD5000AAKS's and 3 optical drives powered by a 620W PSU; the graphics card is only a lowly Nvidia 6100. I bought the 620W to allow lots of headroom.
and lots of headroom you have. Hard Drives add between 8 (WD GreenPower) and 15 (early Raptors, most Seagates) Watts each to your power consumption at the wall. Take 70-90% of that depending on how efficient your PSU is, for the DC figure.
Have you guys taken any extra cooling contingencies for your hard disks? Another worry was cooling with a potential 6+ HDD's. I could probably fit 2 hdd coolers to a couple of drives but the case isn't really built to support that. Another intake and output fan(s) I could add.
My Server's HDDs get pretty toasty when they're all running (between 40C and 55 for the hottest, which is unsurprisingly a Seagate - they always run at least 5C hotter than any other brand). This is because I only have a covered single front 120mm fan at 950rpm though. If I fitted a faster one they would cool much better. Creaky uses a case with open front vents and two 120mm fans (1050rpm on the low setting which I think he uses). This approach is vastly better for cooling, but much poorer for noise, which is my primary concern. Interestingly, when I moved my gaming PC (just two HDDs) from the same case as my server to a full tower Coolermaster HAF, my HDD temps dropped from 40/37 to 32/29 with the 230mm front fan at half speed, they drop to 30/28 with it at full 700rpm (Unsurprisingly, that annoys me though, it's not noisy at all, but the PC currently sits next to me on the desk, and the roar is a little distracting)
Though i don't dislike computer noise as much as Sam does, and while the Antec 900 (even with 6 HDD's) can run very quietly indeed, i've been running all fans on highest for some time now. It can be annoying but only when watching a movie (this pc contains all my media, the specs are in my sig). I just turn up the volume on the surround system to compensate. Some months back one of my RAM sticks failed, followed shortly by my mobo and while troubleshooting i noticed that the RAM sticks were very hot. So when the new mobo went in i turned up all the fans, and even though i just left 2 RAM sticks in (RAM'd two and the replacements are now kept as spares) i bought a Corsair RAM fan. Don't know if it does very much and i doubt it's cheapy looking fans will last too long but all the fans help keep things cool enough. The SATA and other cabling leaves something to be desired while the front case fans are keeping the hard drives cool, the air isn't really making it's way thru the rest of the case. I have an aversion to messing inside the case unless something's broken so the cabling isn't going to be improved any time soon. Back to your original questions re new server or NAS, i was looking into getting a 4bay NAS, though 4x 1TB drives wouldn't have been sufficient for me, and a 4bay was the only sensible and affordable choice. Then i realised that a NAS such as that draws as much power as a PC, that ruled out a NAS for me as the only real reason to move from a PC to a NAS was if it actually saved money in running costs. So i've given up on the idea for now.
I am also curious about hard drive cooling. I am going to upgrade my server to a new case that can hold 9 drives. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811128020 I plan to take this server to college next year and keep it in my dorm room and I need it to be quiet. So I was going to use a fan controller to slow all the fans down. I am also going to be putting a couple more hdd's in and was wondering what is the safe temperature range for a hdd and do you think this case will be fine for cooling and noise?
The nice thing about the Antec 900 is that when you do turn the fans up, the noise is nice and smooth, a pure smooth Middle C with nothing else but air turbulence When I had 4x1GB Corsair RAM it got quite hot, when measuring it, it ran 50s at idle, and up to 67ºC load, didn't do me any harm. Swapping to 2x2GB sticks and to Dominators cut 30ºC off, so no need for the fan module. Krj: Should do the job fine. More expensive and sizeable, but my preferred case at the moment for a quiet server is this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146051
I actually use the case that sammorris linked to. It's a good case with plenty of room, and really quiet. One of the down sides is that (without modding) running cables from the lower level (hard drives and PSU) to the MOBO, can get a bit congested since there's only one hole in the shelf. The case is quite heavy, but is overall built very well.
