Building my own server

T

Tweak

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Hello,

I'm interested in finding out what would be the best kind of setup to get for my experimental network server.

there will be around 10-20 computers connecting to the server. I would like to have some the nice processor intensive applications available on it, visualization, databases etc.

What does a good 2 socket cpu motherboard cost + 2 good cpu's? Should I have to buy ECC ram or can I just load it up with any good brand DDR3 ram?

I'm not keeping up to date with any computer hardware trends so any advice is appreciated.

Cheers

P.S. why isn't there so many AMD processors for sale on the South African market anymore? :\
 
Ok this may not be the ideal setup for you but here is what I built for a home setup with about 5 PC's on it for storage / streaming of media etc:

Asus Crosshair II motherboard
AMD Athlon x4 3.2GHz CPU (4 cores)
6GB of ordinary DDR II memory (non ECC)
Adaptec RAID 5805 Controller (setup as RAID 10)
6x 1.5TB HDD 7200 rpm drives (total 9TB before RAID, 4TB after RAID)
Geforce 9800 GTX gfx card
DVD burner

All of this is housed in a Coolermaster HAF-932 full tower.

OS: FreeNAS at this point in time - and totally happy with it :D

I primarily use it for storage an streaming currently - but it has potential to be used as a number crunching machine should I choose to.
 
Honestly you can just go for a mainstream system because none of these are server grade and those machines are very expensive and incredibly loud.

I setup a SuperMicro based server last year this time, when the system is off the PSU fans keep spinning (it was as loud as any PC I've ever used when it was off), when it's on it's loud as a vacuum cleaner (no really, I'm not exaggerating). Anyway that system ran SuperMicro motherboard, with 2xCPUs, ECC memory, RAID 1+0 from onboard Intel based RAID card (not some cheapo RAID, it was proper hardware RAID integrated onto the MB), dual Intel based NICs (Pro 1000), redundant PSU (2x hot swap). It also had status LEDs on the front for things like RAID health, LAN activity and connection speed, etc.

Anyway that server was close to R100k, so until you are serious stick to something cheap from the mainstream eh?
 
Keep in mind : The server OS will determine how many workstations can connect to the server by default (with Microsoft, I think its 5). Some database also have a default amount of Cals.
 
Nod said:
If you don't have a RHEL support contract, you might be better of with Fedora, or any other of the free server distros.
Click to expand...

Advice noted thanks a lot :)

This is just for experience, I got training material and now I just need a server to practice on. Maybe one day I will be able to fill out my CV for a position that requires Admin of RHEL server ^^
 
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