My father wants a file server for who-the-fuck-knows, and told me he'd pay me 400 bucks to spec one out and put it together for him. So I spent most of today spec-ing one out, even though I'm kind of new to this. Now I've put together computers before, and built servers for a bank trading floor a few years ago when I interned there, but I'm still kinda confused by some of this stuff.
Basically, he wants a moderately priced file server with RAID, ~several hundred GBs available space, Windows 2003, and DVD burning abilities. I figured I'd use hardware RAID 5. This is what I put together on newegg today:
mobo: SUPERMICRO MBD-P4SCi-O ATX Server Motherboard (includes onboard video and gigabit ethernet)
cpu: intel Pentium 4 2.8E 800MHz FSB Socket 478 Processor
RAID card: BROADCOM BC4852D PCI-X. 64 bits, 133 MHz ... SATA Controller Card
RAM: 2x Kingston2xalueRAM 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM System Memory
storage drives: 4x Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
drive for OS: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
DVD burner: Pioneer Black IDE DVD Burner Model DVR-109 BK - OEM (partially because it has dual-layer capabilities)
DVD drive: TOSHIBA Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model sd-m2012c - OEM
floppy: SONY Black Internal Floppy Drive Model MPF920
case: ASPIRE X-Alien ATXA1A-BK/420 Black Computer Case
fan: ASPIRE CF12S 120mm Cooling Fan
I think he has enough extra keyboards/mice/soundcards.
Will any of this stuff be incompatible? Anything I'm missing? Anything I should do differently? Drastically differently?
Also, the whole RAID thing is kinda confusing me. If I were to go with software RAID, would I not need a RAID controller card? And if not, what's the point of having PCI-X? Also, if I went with software raid, how fast of a cpu should I get?
Basically, he wants a moderately priced file server with RAID, ~several hundred GBs available space, Windows 2003, and DVD burning abilities. I figured I'd use hardware RAID 5. This is what I put together on newegg today:
mobo: SUPERMICRO MBD-P4SCi-O ATX Server Motherboard (includes onboard video and gigabit ethernet)
cpu: intel Pentium 4 2.8E 800MHz FSB Socket 478 Processor
RAID card: BROADCOM BC4852D PCI-X. 64 bits, 133 MHz ... SATA Controller Card
RAM: 2x Kingston2xalueRAM 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM System Memory
storage drives: 4x Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
drive for OS: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
DVD burner: Pioneer Black IDE DVD Burner Model DVR-109 BK - OEM (partially because it has dual-layer capabilities)
DVD drive: TOSHIBA Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model sd-m2012c - OEM
floppy: SONY Black Internal Floppy Drive Model MPF920
case: ASPIRE X-Alien ATXA1A-BK/420 Black Computer Case
fan: ASPIRE CF12S 120mm Cooling Fan
I think he has enough extra keyboards/mice/soundcards.
Will any of this stuff be incompatible? Anything I'm missing? Anything I should do differently? Drastically differently?
Also, the whole RAID thing is kinda confusing me. If I were to go with software RAID, would I not need a RAID controller card? And if not, what's the point of having PCI-X? Also, if I went with software raid, how fast of a cpu should I get?