test server

pcjunklist

Level 1
Thread author
Dec 28, 2011
523
Case: IBM Netvista Micro-ATX Case H32-HS
Board: Intel S1200KP C206 (Micro-ATX) (Manual, http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s1200bt/sb/480922_g39481_002_s1200kp_productguide_r1_1.pdf)
Cpu: Intel E3-1275 (http://ark.intel.com/products/52277/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1275-%288M-Cache-3_40-GHz%29)
GPU: Onboard Intel HD3000
RAM: Gskill 16gb (2x8gb) Since lga1155 limitation on udimms only 4gb available I used non-ECC
HD: (2) Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120gb RAID 0 (All backups done through iSCSI SAN) (http://www.mushkin.com/Digital-Storage/SSDs/MKNSSDCR120GB-DX.aspx)
PSU: Seasonic 1u 250 watt
HD Bay: Rosewill RDRD-11005 dual 2.5 in a 5.25 bay + dual usb 3.0 (Board unfortunately does not have usb3)
Total Hardware Build Cost = $1,100.00 US

I have accumulated a lot of spare parts in my days. I was cleaning out the attic last night and came across 3 ibm netvista cases. I have no idea what their original purpose was but I thought it would make a nice Micro case project. I know the wiring is messy but It will be nice and clean when I'm done. Installed Win2k8 R2 Enterprise, not fully setup yet but this thing flies. I have room for 2 more 2.5 drives so I might move a lsi 9260 into the case and run a raid 10. Since I test out a lot of server programs I'm just going to use it for a hyper-v testing server.

Drives: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/img2012012700049.jpg/
Inside: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/img2012012700051.jpg/
HD bays: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/img2012012700050.jpg/
Case: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/192/img2012012700052l.jpg/
Case Front Open: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/835/img2012012700053.jpg/
 

Valentin N

Level 2
Feb 25, 2011
1,314
pcjunklist said:
Case: IBM Netvista Micro-ATX Case
Board: Intel S1200KP C206 (Micro-ATX)
Cpu: Intel E3-1275
GPU: Onboard Intel HD3000
RAM: Gskill 16gb (2x8gb) Since lga1155 limitation on udimms only 4gb available I used non-ECC
HD: (2) Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120gb RAID 0 (All backups done through iSCSI SAN)
HD Bay: Rosewill RDRD-11005 dual 2.5 in a 5.25 bay + dual usb 3.0 (Board unfortunately does not have usb3)

I have accumulated a lot of spare parts in my days. I was cleaning out the attic last night and came across 3 ibm netvista cases. I have no idea what their original purpose was but I thought it would make a nice Micro case project. I know the wiring is messy but It will be nice and clean when I'm done. Installed Win2k8 R2 Enterprise, not fully setup yet but this thing flies. I have room for 2 more 2.5 drives so I might move a lsi 9260 into the case and run a raid 10. Since I test out a lot of server programs I'm just going to use it for a hyper-v testing server.

Drives: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/img2012012700049.jpg/
Inside: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/img2012012700051.jpg/
HD bays: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/img2012012700050.jpg/
Case: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/192/img2012012700052l.jpg/
Case Front Open: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/835/img2012012700053.jpg/

I have heard that windows server is quite resource demanding. A linux OS like redhat might be an alternative (of what I have heard this is seen as the best server OS).

Is raid supported for ssd? I am aware that this kind of features is planned to be implemented in the future, or is just one of the raid function?
 

pcjunklist

Level 1
Thread author
Dec 28, 2011
523
Valentin N said:
pcjunklist said:
Case: IBM Netvista Micro-ATX Case
Board: Intel S1200KP C206 (Micro-ATX)
Cpu: Intel E3-1275
GPU: Onboard Intel HD3000
RAM: Gskill 16gb (2x8gb) Since lga1155 limitation on udimms only 4gb available I used non-ECC
HD: (2) Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120gb RAID 0 (All backups done through iSCSI SAN)
HD Bay: Rosewill RDRD-11005 dual 2.5 in a 5.25 bay + dual usb 3.0 (Board unfortunately does not have usb3)

I have accumulated a lot of spare parts in my days. I was cleaning out the attic last night and came across 3 ibm netvista cases. I have no idea what their original purpose was but I thought it would make a nice Micro case project. I know the wiring is messy but It will be nice and clean when I'm done. Installed Win2k8 R2 Enterprise, not fully setup yet but this thing flies. I have room for 2 more 2.5 drives so I might move a lsi 9260 into the case and run a raid 10. Since I test out a lot of server programs I'm just going to use it for a hyper-v testing server.

Drives: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/img2012012700049.jpg/
Inside: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/img2012012700051.jpg/
HD bays: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/img2012012700050.jpg/
Case: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/192/img2012012700052l.jpg/
Case Front Open: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/835/img2012012700053.jpg/

I have heard that windows server is quite resource demanding. A linux OS like redhat might be an alternative (of what I have heard this is seen as the best server OS).

Is raid supported for ssd? I am aware that this kind of features is planned to be implemented in the future, or is just one of the raid function?

Linux is a great server OS, which is indeed light on resources and scales great from large enterprise to small business. Most of the work I do is on the Microsoft platform so I usually stick with MS server packages. An added bonus is that I get all my Microsoft software for free from work so I run Win7 Enterprise and Win2k8 R2 server packages. A ssd is treated just like an ordinary hard drive when raided just much faster then a spin disk. There are also on-raid PCI-E hard drives that have 4 ssd's on 1 PCI-E device. Their are personal one's like the OCZ Revodrive and enterprise one's like the LSI Warpdrive. If you like I can add some articles for you if your interested in raiding some drives.

As far as Windows Server being a resource hog, I still haven't fully configured the server with AD or any other roles. It all depends on your hardware I guess but I'm running a quad-core with HT and 16gb or ram which is considered an entry level server and it's using barely any cpu and only 1 gig of memory.
 

pcjunklist

Level 1
Thread author
Dec 28, 2011
523
Not too bad maxed out at Read: 1,135 MBs and Write: 1,001 MBs, pretty good for onboard raid.

imageshack.us/photo/my-images/638/pcjunklistatto.jpg/
 

Valentin N

Level 2
Feb 25, 2011
1,314
pcjunklist said:
Valentin N said:
pcjunklist said:
Case: IBM Netvista Micro-ATX Case
Board: Intel S1200KP C206 (Micro-ATX)
Cpu: Intel E3-1275
GPU: Onboard Intel HD3000
RAM: Gskill 16gb (2x8gb) Since lga1155 limitation on udimms only 4gb available I used non-ECC
HD: (2) Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120gb RAID 0 (All backups done through iSCSI SAN)
HD Bay: Rosewill RDRD-11005 dual 2.5 in a 5.25 bay + dual usb 3.0 (Board unfortunately does not have usb3)

I have accumulated a lot of spare parts in my days. I was cleaning out the attic last night and came across 3 ibm netvista cases. I have no idea what their original purpose was but I thought it would make a nice Micro case project. I know the wiring is messy but It will be nice and clean when I'm done. Installed Win2k8 R2 Enterprise, not fully setup yet but this thing flies. I have room for 2 more 2.5 drives so I might move a lsi 9260 into the case and run a raid 10. Since I test out a lot of server programs I'm just going to use it for a hyper-v testing server.

Drives: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/img2012012700049.jpg/
Inside: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/img2012012700051.jpg/
HD bays: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/img2012012700050.jpg/
Case: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/192/img2012012700052l.jpg/
Case Front Open: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/835/img2012012700053.jpg/

I have heard that windows server is quite resource demanding. A linux OS like redhat might be an alternative (of what I have heard this is seen as the best server OS).

Is raid supported for ssd? I am aware that this kind of features is planned to be implemented in the future, or is just one of the raid function?

Linux is a great server OS, which is indeed light on resources and scales great from large enterprise to small business. Most of the work I do is on the Microsoft platform so I usually stick with MS server packages. An added bonus is that I get all my Microsoft software for free from work so I run Win7 Enterprise and Win2k8 R2 server packages. A ssd is treated just like an ordinary hard drive when raided just much faster then a spin disk. There are also on-raid PCI-E hard drives that have 4 ssd's on 1 PCI-E device. Their are personal one's like the OCZ Revodrive and enterprise one's like the LSI Warpdrive. If you like I can add some articles for you if your interested in raiding some drives.

As far as Windows Server being a resource hog, I still haven't fully configured the server with AD or any other roles. It all depends on your hardware I guess but I'm running a quad-core with HT and 16gb or ram which is considered an entry level server and it's using barely any cpu and only 1 gig of memory.


You can paste some nice articles :) If you add 6 SSD, if possible, you can put it in RAID 5 config.

For next time servers, I think AMD are a better choice; you can get a 16core (more like a octa core cpu) for 500$, which is a nice price. The motherboards are a pain (very expensive if you ask me) but besides that 4 cpu with 16cores is a good alternative to intel. For business AMD is a better choice for the price
 

Valentin N

Level 2
Feb 25, 2011
1,314
muhammadariif said:
In my country its hard to find 8gb ram with single slot.;)

It's hard anywhere since we, the costumer, has not need of them. 4GB is enough; a normal user won't use more than 16GB.
 

pcjunklist

Level 1
Thread author
Dec 28, 2011
523
Valentin N said:
muhammadariif said:
In my country its hard to find 8gb ram with single slot.;)

It's hard anywhere since we, the costumer, has not need of them. 4GB is enough; a normal user won't use more than 16GB.

That is true but when the price drops to $80 US dollars for 16gb of ram (4gb x 4) then the attitude becomes why not.

I guess the typical American philosophy though, big house, big SUV, Giant food proportions, overkill of ram.

Also for 8gb ram in Sweden your could check out this store. Looks like about 650 krona shipped per 8gb x 1
http://www.prisjakt.nu/kategori.php?k=v1589
 

pcjunklist

Level 1
Thread author
Dec 28, 2011
523
You can paste some nice articles :) If you add 6 SSD, if possible, you can put it in RAID 5 config.

For next time servers, I think AMD are a better choice; you can get a 16core (more like a octa core cpu) for 500$, which is a nice price. The motherboards are a pain (very expensive if you ask me) but besides that 4 cpu with 16cores is a good alternative to intel. For business AMD is a better choice for the price
[/quote]

RAID 5 implementations suffer from poor performance when faced with a workload which includes many writes which are smaller than the capacity of a single stripe. Only 4 drives are need for a Raid 5 not 6 and if I had 6 drives I would probably do a raid 30. AMD is not a real competitor with Intel anymore and even though the have a 16 core chip it still easily gets beat by an 8-core Intel and probably matched by a 6-core intel.
 

Valentin N

Level 2
Feb 25, 2011
1,314
pcjunklist said:
You can paste some nice articles :) If you add 6 SSD, if possible, you can put it in RAID 5 config.

For next time servers, I think AMD are a better choice; you can get a 16core (more like a octa core cpu) for 500$, which is a nice price. The motherboards are a pain (very expensive if you ask me) but besides that 4 cpu with 16cores is a good alternative to intel. For business AMD is a better choice for the price

RAID 5 implementations suffer from poor performance when faced with a workload which includes many writes which are smaller than the capacity of a single stripe. Only 4 drives are need for a Raid 5 not 6 and if I had 6 drives I would probably do a raid 30. AMD is not a real competitor with Intel anymore and even though the have a 16 core chip it still easily gets beat by an 8-core Intel and probably matched by a 6-core intel.

Never heard of RAID 30, and thanks for the correction :) I am not that into raid, it's only what I remembered from what I once saw on youtube. I hear that it's the best solution when you have more than 2 hard drives. I don't remember when RAID 10 can be applied.

It's true that AMD is not a match but the prices makes a huge difference. you can buy two of 16core for the same price of the octa core xeon cpu and it will beat the xeon cpu in multithreaded application.

A cluster of i7-3930K would be the best solution and it would beat AMD like never before. I don't know how cluster works but I know that it's possible.

I personally wished intel made their intel mobil cpu to servers; they are very efficent and strong for their 45W. I also wished the normal could had have two i7 cpu in a motherboard.
 

pcjunklist

Level 1
Thread author
Dec 28, 2011
523
RAID level 30 is also known as striping of dedicated parity arrays. It is a combination of RAID level 3 and RAID level 0. RAID 30 provides high data transfer rates, combined with high data reliability. RAID 30 is best implemented on two RAID 3 disk arrays with data striped across both disk arrays. RAID 30 breaks up data into smaller blocks, and then stripes the blocks of data to each RAID 3 RAID set. RAID 3 breaks up data into smaller blocks, calculates parity by performing an Exclusive OR on the blocks, and then writes the blocks to all but one drive in the array. The parity bit created using the Exclusive OR is then written to the last drive in each RAID 3 array. The size of each block is determined by the stripe size parameter, which is set when the RAID is created.

One drive from each of the underlying RAID 3 sets can fail. Until the failed drives are replaced the other drives in the sets that suffered such a failure are a single point of failure for the entire RAID 30 array. In other words, if one of those drives fails, all data stored in the entire array is lost. The time spent in recovery (detecting and responding to a drive failure, and the rebuild process to the newly inserted drive) represents a period of vulnerability to the RAID set. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9c/RAID_3%2B0.svg

The i7-3930K is a desktop 6 core cpu so it really isn't a comparision to a 16 core server cpu. When the Xeon E5-2600 series comes out AMD will be in the backseat again.
 

Valentin N

Level 2
Feb 25, 2011
1,314
It's actually a octa core with two disabled cores (hopefully motherboard producer will be able to unlock them unless they are "destroyed" by intel). I compared it to the 16core since they are at the same prices and a cluster of it would maybe even win against a cluster of the 16cores.

Bulldozer is such a flop :( sad but true. A phenom II with octa core(not based on the bulldozer) and new set of instruction would have been better.

What will you use the server for?
 

pcjunklist

Level 1
Thread author
Dec 28, 2011
523
Valentin N said:
It's actually a octa core with two disabled cores (hopefully motherboard producer will be able to unlock them unless they are "destroyed" by intel). I compared it to the 16core since they are at the same prices and a cluster of it would maybe even win against a cluster of the 16cores.

Bulldozer is such a flop :( sad but true. A phenom II with octa core(not based on the bulldozer) and new set of instruction would have been better.

What will you use the server for?

Unfortunately the 2 cores path has been removed but the chip will be made with the path enabled for the xeon version. Also a cluster is comprised of lots of low powered servers connected together to act as a single machine. Most of the top servers utilize infiniband to link them together
die.jpg


The server is a little bigger than a PS3 so very portable, right now it's just for testing out software and will be practicing Exchange 2010 on it for a future upgrade at work.
 

Valentin N

Level 2
Feb 25, 2011
1,314
pcjunklist said:
Valentin N said:
It's actually a octa core with two disabled cores (hopefully motherboard producer will be able to unlock them unless they are "destroyed" by intel). I compared it to the 16core since they are at the same prices and a cluster of it would maybe even win against a cluster of the 16cores.

Bulldozer is such a flop :( sad but true. A phenom II with octa core(not based on the bulldozer) and new set of instruction would have been better.

What will you use the server for?

Unfortunately the 2 cores path has been removed but the chip will be made with the path enabled for the xeon version. Also a cluster is comprised of lots of low powered servers connected together to act as a single machine. Most of the top servers utilize infiniband to link them together
die.jpg


The server is a little bigger than a PS3 so very portable, right now it's just for testing out software and will be practicing Exchange 2010 on it for a future upgrade at work.

I didn't know two cores were removed.

no to go from the topic but how is cluster made. can a normal user cluster two normal motherboard and is software need or how is it?
 

pcjunklist

Level 1
Thread author
Dec 28, 2011
523
Clustering isn't something you usually do at home and requires different versions of operating systems.
Most clusters are made up of many nodes as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cluster
Fall-2009-Photo-of-Cluster-Computer.jpg
 

Valentin N

Level 2
Feb 25, 2011
1,314
pcjunklist said:
Clustering isn't something you usually do at home and requires different versions of operating systems.
Most clusters are made up of many nodes as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cluster
Fall-2009-Photo-of-Cluster-Computer.jpg

and how would a normal person be able to achieve this; I ask because I know it's possible and a better than having many desktop on it.

I personally want to make a nice cluster of more laptop motherboard
 

Valentin N

Level 2
Feb 25, 2011
1,314
muhammadariif said:
I have 2 ram slots, if i want to upgrade to 16gb, may be worth using 8gb ram single :)

If you need 16GB, then yea but you need to make sure the cpu and the motherboard allows that
 

pcjunklist

Level 1
Thread author
Dec 28, 2011
523
muhammadariif said:
I have 2 ram slots, if i want to upgrade to 16gb, may be worth using 8gb ram single :)

your info says 32bit Windows, you should upgrade to 64 bit before adding any memory.
 

About us

  • MalwareTips is a community-driven platform providing the latest information and resources on malware and cyber threats. Our team of experienced professionals and passionate volunteers work to keep the internet safe and secure. We provide accurate, up-to-date information and strive to build a strong and supportive community dedicated to cybersecurity.

User Menu

Follow us

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to know first about the latest cybersecurity incidents and malware threats.

Top