Fishing for server suggestions..

[The Truth]

Originally Posted by loomdog32

I just built a new Sage Server..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157270 ASRock Z68 MicroATX mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116400 Intel i5 65watt CPU
8gb DDR3-1600 - It was gaming memory really cheap Shell Shocker
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148591 Seagate Momentus XT 500gb Hybrid HDD for System - I highly recommend this drive. I have used it in all my recent builds. Comparing price/performance it blows SSD and conventional HDD out of the water. Same system running Win7 boots from power button to usable desktop in under 4 seconds!
3x Seagate 1.5gb 7200RPM HDD for RecTV
Windows Home Server 2011
HD HomeRun
HD HomeRun Prime 3CC

Sil3124 4port eSATA
Sans Digital 4Bay eSATA HDD enclosure
Sans Digital 5Bay eSATA HDD enclosure
9x Seagate 2tb 5900RPM HDD for Archive Media

Total power consumption approx 95-125watts idle according to UPS everything is plugged into. Under Heavy HDD IO (moving media around to correct shares), this spiked to 140-150watts. Without the 2 enclosures, it stays around 50-70watts.

What do you connect the Sans/Esata to you PC with?

[loomdog32]

SansDigital 4 Bay eSATA Enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816111177

SansDigital 5 Bay eSATA Enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816111166

Sil3124 4 Port eSATA Controller Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816111069

Shielded 2m / 6ft eSATA Cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812200071

Seagate 2tb 5900RPM HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148681


These are the exact items I am using.

The Sil3124 is a PCIe8 card. It has 4 eSATA ports. These specific SansDigital enclosures connect via eSATA (they also have USB and FireWire enclosures) to the Sil3124 Controller Card.

Note - Both enclosures have internal Port Multiplier. If the eSATA port/controller does not support PM, it will only recognize the first drive in the enclosure.
Note - The 5 Bay comes with a 2 port eSATA Controller Card, RocketRAID 622. This card has issues with Heavy HDD IO.
Note - Both enclosures also come with 1m / 3ft eSATA cables. I needed longer cables. In the process I found the shielded cables perform better.
Note - I got my HDD at Best Buy when the flooding started affecting HDD prices. The first few I paid $75 for. The last few I paid $160 for.

[loomdog32]

UPS shows current wattage draw at 94watts, this includes:
Server
4 Bay Enclosure
5 Bay Enclosure
Altec Lansing 2.1 Speakers
HD HomeRun
HD HomeRun Prime 3CC
Modem - Cisco CM100
Router - NetGear
Switch - NetGear GS108E
2x Acer 23" Monitors

If anyone is wondering, this is the desk
http://www.staples.com/OSP-Design-Me...product_807666

[The Truth]

I like your setup, what kind of speeds do you get off those drives though?

[osx-addict]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

This alot more than $50, but if your going to use the 2500K processor this will fully exploit it's features. A cheap MB will noty fully support the 2500K processor.

Http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131790
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131792

it's well worth the money IMO.

I was looking into the Asus boards but I'm getting cold feet based on a fair amount of negative reviews -- which I'll admit I see also with other vendors but Asus has quite a bit.. I'm tempted to go with an Intel board well rated on TomsHardware -- the Intel DZ68DB. I'm not looking for something with tons of features that won't be used so I think this board is a good compromise -- it's not the strongest performer for overclocking but I'm not buying it for that..

[panteragstk]

I've used asus boards for close to 15 years now with no issues. Every manufacturer has a poorly designed board here and there, but asus is a very good company. Gigabyte boards are also very good.

Intel makes great boards, but you're going to pay for it.

[loomdog32]

I've used ASUS (and ASRock now) or Intel boards for 90% of the computers I've built since I started building computers - easily a few thousand computers.

The one Foxconn board I've used http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...86211&Tpk=h67s is complete and utter crap! I'm pretty sure it is this specific board (I've built 2 using this board - both had/have issues), not to talk bad about Foxconn in general.

Intel makes great boards, but you're going to pay for it.

I agree with this statement.

[osx-addict]

Thanks guys.. Before yesterday, my first board of choice was the Asus P8Z68-V LX board (a notch below the deluxe/pro) which can be found locally at the nearby Microcenter for a decent price when combined with the CPU but if I go with the Intel board no such deal. I guess, I've still not quite made up my mind and will certainly NOT be ponying up >$250+ on a MB -- too much $$ for me -- most of them appear to be geared towards the gaming market or the serious overclockers out there.. which is not me..

[Wirenut]

+1 for ASUS. I've been very happy with my P5Q board... and I've built a few computers in my day... there's always a bad apple here or there... but ASUS has been really good for me.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by osx-addict

Thanks guys.. Before yesterday, my first board of choice was the Asus P8Z68-V LX board (a notch below the deluxe/pro) which can be found locally at the nearby Microcenter for a decent price when combined with the CPU but if I go with the Intel board no such deal. I guess, I've still not quite made up my mind and will certainly NOT be ponying up >$250+ on a MB -- too much $$ for me -- most of them appear to be geared towards the gaming market or the serious overclockers out there.. which is not me..

The $150 range is the sweet spot for motherboards in general. They have lots of features, but none of the stuff you don't need.

EDIT: I would get this one.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by loomdog32

I've used ASUS (and ASRock now) or Intel boards for 90% of the computers I've built since I started building computers - easily a few thousand computers.

The one Foxconn board I've used http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...86211&Tpk=h67s is complete and utter crap! I'm pretty sure it is this specific board (I've built 2 using this board - both had/have issues), not to talk bad about Foxconn in general.


I agree with this statement.

How good are those ASRock boards? I've looked at one, but have no experience with the brand.

[osx-addict]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

EDIT: I would get this one.

Any particular reason you prefer that one over the LX version described here? The differences I can see (based on looking at the official Asus pages) are :

1. Audio chip differences (LE has Realtek ALC892 vs LX with the Realtek ALC887)
2. LE version has blue-ray audio-layer content protection (prob a feature of the audio chip)
3. 4 USB 3.0 ports on LE vs 2 on LX
4. LE has USB 3.0 boost (whatever that is?)
5. LE has PS/2 ports, LX has none
6. LE has DVI-D on back port but LX has only DVI (no issue for me since it'll be headless)
7. LE comes with an extra SATA cable (3gb/sec)
8. LE has what appears to be an extra blue heat-sink in the Asus photos just above the CPU socket. Not sure what that is??

I think the big differences are the USB3 port counts (2vs4), USB3 boost, PS/2 ports on the LE, DVI-D and the audio-chip differences.. I can get the LX version for about 1/2 the price ($70) of the LE due to some local deals.. I don't think the differences warrant the extra $$ spent??? Is that blue-ray feature needed for Sage?

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by osx-addict

Any particular reason you prefer that one over the LX version described here? The differences I can see (based on looking at the official Asus pages) are :

1. Audio chip differences (LE has Realtek ALC892 vs LX with the Realtek ALC887)
2. LE version has blue-ray audio-layer content protection (prob a feature of the audio chip)
3. 4 USB 3.0 ports on LE vs 2 on LX
4. LE has USB 3.0 boost (whatever that is?)
5. LE has PS/2 ports, LX has none
6. LE has DVI-D on back port but LX has only DVI (no issue for me since it'll be headless)
7. LE comes with an extra SATA cable (3gb/sec)
8. LE has what appears to be an extra blue heat-sink in the Asus photos just above the CPU socket. Not sure what that is??

I think the big differences are the USB3 port counts (2vs4), USB3 boost, PS/2 ports on the LE, DVI-D and the audio-chip differences.. I can get the LX version for about 1/2 the price ($70) of the LE due to some local deals.. I don't think the differences warrant the extra $$ spent??? Is that blue-ray feature needed for Sage?

I honestly didn't see that one. It seems to be a newer version of the LE. If you don't need the "extra" features of the one I linked I'd just the the LX. They are almost identical.

[osx-addict]

No worries.. I figured you knew something I didn't..

one thing I find rather pathetic is all of these MB mfg's that have NO easy way to narrow down your pick list on their respective websites beyond picking the chipset used by a particular series (e.g. pick your 1155 socket and then the Z68 chipset but nothing to narrow down the selection after that). What you, as the potential buyer, gets to do is to check out EACH board they offer and try to distinguish the differences between them.. No wonder few people like to do this -- they make it very painful IMHO! For example, if you visit the Gigabyte site and look at their Z68 boards for 1155 sockets they've got 20 different boards to offer.. If they'd at least let you pick some easy discriminators such as board size, on-board video (yes,no), and a handful of other questions to narrow the list it'd be WAY better!

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by osx-addict

No worries.. I figured you knew something I didn't..

one thing I find rather pathetic is all of these MB mfg's that have NO easy way to narrow down your pick list on their respective websites beyond picking the chipset used by a particular series (e.g. pick your 1155 socket and then the Z68 chipset but nothing to narrow down the selection after that). What you, as the potential buyer, gets to do is to check out EACH board they offer and try to distinguish the differences between them.. No wonder few people like to do this -- they make it very painful IMHO! For example, if you visit the Gigabyte site and look at their Z68 boards for 1155 sockets they've got 20 different boards to offer.. If they'd at least let you pick some easy discriminators such as board size, on-board video (yes,no), and a handful of other questions to narrow the list it'd be WAY better!

While that is frustrating, you need to keep in mind that most of the reason for there being so many is that some are revisions of others. Essentially the same board with one or two tiny differences (as we saw with the two we compared). If you look closely there really aren't that many differences to look through.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

While that is frustrating, you need to keep in mind that most of the reason for there being so many is that some are revisions of others. Essentially the same board with one or two tiny differences (as we saw with the two we compared). If you look closely there really aren't that many differences to look through.

Agreed - this is why most review sites don't necessarily point out the features one board has over another, as they all really are pretty much the same. A lot of differences come down to physical layout of the board, clearances for expansion cards and coolers, etc. One Z68 based motherboard is going to perform and have pretty comparable features to just about every other Z68 board on the market.

As for shopping, newegg's got a pretty decent filtering system on their site, and sense they carry a large portion of the products available, it is a pretty good way to narrow down what you are looking for.

[osx-addict]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

As for shopping, newegg's got a pretty decent filtering system on their site, and sense they carry a large portion of the products available, it is a pretty good way to narrow down what you are looking for.

True -- and they appear to have a fairly active support staff IF you should have any issues with a board or other item.. I saw many instances of them stepping in when a person wrote a nasty review for a product.. I'm hoping I can stop by my local Microcenter tomorrow and checkout the aforementioned board and CPU -- not sure if I want to buy a case there or not along with other items needed. I think for now I'll just stick with the stock fan/cooler that comes with the CPU since I'm not going to overclock anytime soon. Is there a way to match up a motherboard to a particular case to ensure stand-off/hole patterns are lined up or is that not particularly rocket-science anymore these days --? I'm hoping most motherboards are fairly standardized for hole patterns/standoffs and it's just a plug-n-go thing.. Anyone have a good case suggestion that won't break the bank and isn't loaded with annoying lights which seems to be the thing that some people like? I don't need to pimp this ride!

[Fuzzy]

For the most part, any microATX board will fit in and microATX case... same for other form factors. (they are also scalable, so a microATX board should fit in a full ATX case, etc). hole patters are all standardized.

[osx-addict]

Thanks.. I had once (and still have) a MiniITX based system using the old C3 VIA chipset and the one case I bought from the local Fry's just didn't like matching up to that board very well.. Anyway, I'll post the specs & pics (if someone wants to see them) for whatever I end up getting.. Thanks for all the help and direction!

[osx-addict]

Just a quick follow-up.. We visited the local Microcenter store on Saturday in Tustin CA and within about 30 minutes had all the components for the new Sage server. The motherboard I was hoping for didn't pan out so we opted for the newer (but almost identical) Asus P8Z68-V/Gen 3 paired with the Intel I5 2500K processor, a 520W Antec power supply (80+Bronze rated), Cooler Master case, 64Gb SSD drive, 16Gb of Corsair Vengeance RAM and a few other things I can't recall. Anyway, all assembled just fine with little trouble once I figured the motherboard needed to sit on standoffs (which was my hunch) -- as the manuals for these are almost one liners most of the time with drawings to "help" you out. Anyway, I used to stock fin/cooler on the CPU which seems to work well. I checked the power consumption on this setup with the fans running and it was just under 50W with sage running and doing stuff over the gigabit ethernet port. I've checked the CPU/network loading while streaming to two HD300's and also recording and it's barely breaking a sweat at all! At most I might see occasional 20-30% cpu spikes for a couple of seconds but the rest of the time the CPU usage is <2%. The network use is about the same -- with the max while streaming at about 5%. I even loaded some copying over the network from our Mac to the new machine and the network load never exceeded 55%.. I like the Intel nic on this board unlike some of the other Asus boards with the Realtek network chips which I gather aren't as good. Anyway, this is the perfect board for this use. Since setting it up I've even re-enabled comskipping not only 1 instance but two and also doing it live on the fly instead of after a program is done. Still no noticeable issues with performance.. A very nice setup indeed! Fast and power efficient!

Thanks for the help!!