Feedback request for these server specs

[Bronko]

It has been a long time since I have built my own machine, so I would like some feedback please. The server will be for home, running Small Business Server 2003, and handling the following tasks:

1. 
   Digital Image Collection (currently ~150GB)
   Holding captured video while editing
   Serve MP3's and Images to multiple TiVo's
   Possibly a small SQL Database for querying images
   Working location for program files from multiple machines (MS Money, Word, Excel, etc)

So basically it will be a file server. I will be adding a tape backup in the near future, for now DVD will be the primary means of backup. I have a new WD 30GB 7200 RPM drive that the OS will reside on.

Here are the parts I am thinking of ordering:

Promise FastTrak SX4000 for RAID 5 $142
WD 200GB X3 (I have one already) $349 (116.25 each)
P4 Celeron D 2.4 GHZ S478 $79
Intel Motherboard D845GVSRL $53
Antec SLK3700AMB $69.99
NEC 8x Burner $74.99
Mushkin 512MB RAM Basic PC2700 $80

I could save some money using software RAID 5 in Windows 2003, would you advise that? Are any of the above components be replaced for a more stable one?

Thanks!

 

[nick1985]

Smeleron? ewww...

you are better off grabbing a 2500+ and a cheap nforce2 motherboard.

 

[Bronko]

In my defense, it is a Celeron D. Stability is very important, and if there is another motherboard/CPU combo that is as stable and about the same price ($135), I would love to hear it.

I really appreciate your feedback, but cheap nForce board does not help as much as telling me which one is more stable that the others.

Back when I was building PC's for a living, Intel motherboards were the king of stability. Is that no longer the case?

 

[nick1985]

Mobo

CPU

87 + 57

$144 + S&H.


Celeron D's still get pwned

Text


even in encoding (intels strong area), the 2500 beats the celeron D 2.4. needless to say, the 2500 summarily pwns the celeron D 2.4 in every other category. (im assuming the 2.4 is somewhere below the 2.53 in benchies )

 

[pirred908]

Originally posted by: nick1985
Mobo

CPU

87 + 57

$144 + S&H.


Celeron D's still get pwned

Text


even in encoding (intels strong area), the 2500 beats the celeron D. needless to say, the 2500 summarily pwns the celeron D in every other category.

Spend the extra money and get a better mobo.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: pirred908

Originally posted by: nick1985
Mobo

CPU

87 + 57

$144 + S&H.


Celeron D's still get pwned

Text


even in encoding (intels strong area), the 2500 beats the celeron D. needless to say, the 2500 summarily pwns the celeron D in every other category.

Spend the extra money and get a better mobo.

can i ask whats wrong with that motherboard? the general consensus on anandtech is that it pwns. i can personally vouch for its pwnage.

 

[pirred908]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: pirred908

Originally posted by: nick1985
Mobo

CPU

87 + 57

$144 + S&H.


Celeron D's still get pwned

Text


even in encoding (intels strong area), the 2500 beats the celeron D. needless to say, the 2500 summarily pwns the celeron D in every other category.

Spend the extra money and get a better mobo.

can i ask whats wrong with that motherboard? the general consensus on anandtech is that it pwns. i can personally vouch for its pwnage.

I totally agree that setup will blow away a Celeron. Theres nothing wrong with the board I suppose, but there nothing great about it either. I suggest the ASUS A7N8X-X or better yet the ABIT NF7-S Rev.2.

 

[Bronko]

I don't want something that owns or whatever that word means. I want something that is S-T-A-B-L-E at a decent price.

I don't care about benchmarks unless the difference is astronomical, and likely to effect network i/o and disk read/write performance. When my wife is upstairs listening to some MP3's on the TiVo, and I am doing some video editing, and the grandparents are looking at photo's on the other TiVo, stability and reasonable read/write perf is what I am after.

Are Intel brand motherboards still considered to be among the most stable around?

One other thing to consider. I doubt there are nForce drivers on the Windows Server 2003 CD. And if they aren't, they probably haven't undergone a twentieth of the testing if they were.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: pirred908

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: pirred908

Originally posted by: nick1985
Mobo

CPU

87 + 57

$144 + S&H.


Celeron D's still get pwned

Text


even in encoding (intels strong area), the 2500 beats the celeron D. needless to say, the 2500 summarily pwns the celeron D in every other category.

Spend the extra money and get a better mobo.

can i ask whats wrong with that motherboard? the general consensus on anandtech is that it pwns. i can personally vouch for its pwnage.

I totally agree that setup will blow away a Celeron. Theres nothing wrong with the board I suppose, but there nothing great about it either. I suggest the ASUS A7N8X-X or better yet the ABIT NF7-S Rev.2.

there is plenty "really great about it" its extremely cheap, extremely stable, and an extremely good overclocker. i have used both of the 2 boards you have suggested in builds, the the Shuttle is a WY WAY WAY better price/performance mobo. that is, unless you need the few extra featurs on the Abit, in which case, this guy doesnt. read the 400 or 500 reviews on that board at newegg, also search for AN35N-Ultra in the GH forums. this board is very highly regarded around here.

 

[pirred908]

Dude, I don't know whats with you and this whole "STABLE" thing. I have 4 friends that use this board and they have no problems. Did you have a bad experience with AMD mobos or something?

 

[pirred908]

And yes, ASUS makes very stable boards. In case I wasn't clear.

 

[mikecel79]

Originally posted by: nick1985
Mobo

CPU

87 + 57

$144 + S&H.


Celeron D's still get pwned

Text


even in encoding (intels strong area), the 2500 beats the celeron D 2.4. needless to say, the 2500 summarily pwns the celeron D 2.4 in every other category. (im assuming the 2.4 is somewhere below the 2.53 in benchies )

The thing is he's not doing any encoding on this machine or anything CPU intensive. It's acting as a file server. For what he's doing a PII 233 would be more processor than he needs but since he's after stability the Intel board is the way to go. Intel motherboards are known for their quality and stability.

As far as software RAID 5. I wouldn't recommend it. Your better off with a card that is dedicated to doing RAID such as a 3ware card.

 

[Bronko]

Thanks Mike! I am looking at 3Ware now, is there a paticular adapter you like?

 

[mikecel79]

The 7506-4LP should suit your needs. If you think you may expand it more in the future you can go with the 7506-8 which allows up to 8 drives, although at that point your probably limited by the bandwith on the PCI bus.

 

[Bronko]

The 3Ware adapters are more than I was planning on spending. What do you think of the Promise controllers?

 

[mikecel79]

I used a Promise SX4000 controller in a temporary file server at work. We were moving offices and I needed something to use as a file server for a short amount of time. When I tested the controller under Win2k Pro it ran great, however under Win2k Server it ran like crap. I never figured out what caused it, I even rebuilt the server a few times after we stopped using it and it did the same thing everytime. I think it may had to do with the write caching but I never had time to figure it out. I would check with Promise to see if they support it's use under Win2k3 or SBS2k3.

Oh and BTW the SX4000 does not come with a stick of memory which it needs in order to work. I believe it uses PC100 or PC133. You'll probably want this one for your motherboard.

 

[Bronko]

Thanks for the input, I did not know it did not come with the required memory. Should not be hard to dig a stick up however.

Anyone know the difference between the SX400 Lite and non lite versions?

 

[mechBgon]

FWIW, I had an AN35N Ultra that I used as a fileserver at work for months, and never a problem. Not only that, but with an 1800+ and 256MB of RAM in it, it outperforms a 2.4B Xeon with HT, WinServer2003 and 1GB of dual-channel DDR in antivirus-scanning performance (same settings, same defs). Very convincing, although my Athlon64 widens the performance gap to nearly a 2-to-1 margin over the Xeon :evil: I used a single SCSI drive in it, since what it was hosting wasn't mission-critical.

Anyway, just wanted to make a remark in support of the AN35N Ultra. Not that an Asus or Abit wouldn't be nice too.

 

[mbackof]

The AMD XP processors and the Nforce2 chipset are just as stable as the Intel chipsets. Most of the AMD stability problems were due to earlier buggy VIA chipsets years ago. I run 3 AMD machines at home and Windows 2000 and XP never crashes on them. Never. Don't get the Celeron. If you are determined to go Intel, at least spring for a P4. Celeron is the whipping boy of processors.