think tank forum

what do you guys think about the hp proliant microserver gen8 ? i think it's close to perfect for home server use, especially for the fairly low price of $485. i really like the form factor and the drive bays. i wish it had a bay for one (or two) 2.5" disks as well, but oh well. close enough!

doesn't look too bad. I'm extremely happy with this setup that I threw together recently, and it's a bit more powerful than the HP if you're into virtualization and stuff.

yeah, this hp isn't the best for performance, and could use some upgrades (like more RAM), but the biggest selling point for me is just the case. it's hard to find a nice, small case with four to six drive trays. most of such cases sold on newegg are kinda crappy.

i want a server at home, but i want it taking up as little space as possible. other ideas:

- laptop as a server, with a usb-connected external raid storage system
- mac mini, with a usb-connected external raid storage system
- custom built server, using a small case with drive bays

get a fractal design node 304 case. i'm running i3 3225, 16gb ram, and 5x3tb + ssd for OS in a small form factor.

whoa, that case looks nice. how do you like it?

i love it. not much else to say!

that's a sexy case. gotta keep the white one in mind for the future

ok, i want to transform my file server (atlas) into a more compact and powerful computer.

i'm thinking about buying these parts:

lian li pc-q25b mini-atx case with hot swap ($110)
intel i3-4130 ($130)
asus h87i-plus ($111)
sandisk ultra plus 64 gb for the os ($80)

and combining them with some parts that atlas already has:

(2) hitachi ultrastar 3 tb -- raid 1 for data
(2) mushkin blackline 2 gb pc2-6400 4-4-4-12 ram
(1) antec earthwatts 380
nice case fans

i can upgrade the cpu and ram later on if needed for running stata/matlab/R/fortran/C/...

i just gotta decide when then best time is to spend $430. i guess i can sell some of my current parts to recoup some of the cost.

why do you need a new motherboard? also, i would think the performance improvement from an OS SSD would be pretty minor for file serving and cpu-heavy calculations.

my old motherboard is micro-atx, and i need mini-atx. i decided to simply replace the motherboard so that i can use a smaller case. i just bid $60 on a used Intel DG45FC .

just bought the LIAN LI PC-Q25B for $95 (includes tax and ship) from newegg.

this allows me to use this smaller case, which was my primary goal.

--

right now i use two 250 GB disks in RAID 1 for the OS. on average, a disk dies every couple years. i expect one of them to die soon. i only have one spare, and they are all out of warranty. as soon as the next one dies, i'll migrate to a single SSD for the OS anyway. i think the reliability of a single SSD is as good as two consumer HDDs in RAID 1. if i'm doing a clean install now, i'd rather just do it on the disk i'll end up on eventually.
- costs: interest, depreciation
- benefits: precious time saved

I just moved atlas into the new Lian Li PC-Q25B case using the new Intel DG45FC board.

I like the case pretty well. It has room for five hot-swap SATA 3.5" drives and three 2.5" drives. Too bad the board only has four internal SATA connections.

I'll take some photos and post them once I'm done with the data migration. Speaking of data migration, what do you guys think about these transfer rates?

   0     6  0.00   0  0.00  127.39 535 66.59  114.70 594 66.51   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  1 88
   0     6  0.00   0  0.00  127.71 502 62.55  113.17 566 62.53   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  0 89
   0     6  0.00   0  0.00  127.37 471 58.60  112.94 531 58.55   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  0 89
   0    20 14.10   3  0.04  127.84 485 60.51  116.09 534 60.51   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  1 89
   0     6 13.14   0  0.01  127.38 558 69.47  120.87 588 69.42   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 12  1 87
   0     6 28.00   1  0.03  127.89 506 63.21  118.73 545 63.22   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  1 88
   0     6  4.00   0  0.00  127.43 441 54.92  110.72 508 54.94   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  9  0 90
   0    20 25.00   0  0.01  127.89 419 52.28  111.60 480 52.27   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  9  1 90
   0     6  4.00   0  0.00  126.99 423 52.45  111.33 481 52.25   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  9  0 91
   0     6 32.00   0  0.01  127.60 474 59.10  114.72 527 59.08   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 10  1 89
   0     6  4.00   0  0.00  127.54 519 64.67  120.00 552 64.64   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  1 88
   0    20 16.25   0  0.00  127.66 525 65.50  117.66 570 65.49   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 12  1 87
   0     6  0.00   0  0.00  127.78 497 62.06  112.08 568 62.14   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  0 89
   0     6  0.00   0  0.00  127.55 725 90.34  125.52 736 90.22   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 15  1 84
   0     6  0.00   0  0.00  127.83 594 74.11  121.37 626 74.17   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 13  1 87
   0    20  0.00   0  0.00  127.40 510 63.50  116.82 556 63.39   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  0 88
   0     6  0.00   0  0.00  127.75 675 84.25  123.38 701 84.47   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 16  1 83
   0     6  0.00   0  0.00  127.48 644 80.13  121.17 675 79.86   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 14  1 85
   0     6  0.00   0  0.00  127.69 693 86.38  123.57 717 86.53   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 15  1 84
   0    20  0.00   0  0.00  127.61 528 65.85  117.13 574 65.62   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 12  1 88
   0   306  0.00   0  0.00  127.79 479 59.76  115.84 528 59.78   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 10  1 89
       tty            ada0             ada1             ada2             ada3             cpu
 tin  tout  KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s   KB/t tps  MB/s  us ni sy in id
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.37 462 57.49  115.48 510 57.47   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 10  1 89
   0    41  0.00   0  0.00  127.81 506 63.14  117.58 550 63.15   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  1 89
   0    15 14.80   1  0.02  127.44 458 57.02  109.88 531 56.99   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  9  0 90
   0    29  7.20   0  0.00  127.68 505 62.93  115.04 559 62.83   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  0 89
   0    15 28.50   1  0.01  127.63 582 72.53  120.58 616 72.53   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 12  1 87
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.67 560 69.78  121.34 589 69.75   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 12  0 87
   0    15 32.00   0  0.01  127.65 500 62.30  118.92 536 62.29   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 11  0 89
   0    29  0.00   0  0.00  127.62 496 61.79  118.33 534 61.73   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 10  0 89
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.65 494 61.59  117.12 539 61.61   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 10  1 89
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.82 554 69.17  118.20 600 69.21   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 12  1 87
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.35 554 68.87  118.10 596 68.73   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 12  1 88
   0    29  0.00   0  0.00  127.84 647 80.77  122.30 676 80.76   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 14  1 85
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.42 637 79.26  122.14 664 79.16   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 14  1 85
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.87 552 68.94  117.17 604 69.08   0.00   0  0.00   0  0 12  0 87
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.50 400 49.77  107.00 476 49.72   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  9  0 91
   0    29  0.00   0  0.00  127.60 405 50.46  106.35 487 50.54   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  8  1 91
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.54 357 44.44  93.57 487 44.46   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  8  0 92
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.57 418 52.10  104.57 509 51.98   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  8  0 92
   0    15  0.00   0  0.00  127.57 437 54.46  109.33 510 54.43   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  9  0 91
   0    29  0.00   0  0.00  127.67 436 54.34  111.37 499 54.32   0.00   0  0.00   0  0  9  1 91

Information about the devices:

$ df -h | egrep 'File|home'
Filesystem          Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/ada2           2.7T    1.8T    708G    72%    /mnt/usr/home
/dev/mirror/home    2.7T    261G    2.2T    10%    /usr/home (provider of ada1)
$ dmesg | egrep '^ada[1|2]'
ada1 at ahcich1 bus 0 scbus1 target 0 lun 0
ada1: <Hitachi HUA723030ALA640 MKAOA580> ATA-8 SATA 3.x device
ada1: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA6, PIO 8192bytes)
ada1: Command Queueing enabled
ada1: 2861588MB (5860533168 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
ada1: Previously was known as ad6
ada2 at ahcich2 bus 0 scbus2 target 0 lun 0
ada2: <Hitachi HUA723030ALA640 MKAOA580> ATA-8 SATA 3.x device
ada2: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA6, PIO 8192bytes)
ada2: Command Queueing enabled
ada2: 2861588MB (5860533168 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
ada2: Previously was known as ad8