Nerding Out

trout · August 23, 2013, 08:02:57 AM

Just out of curiosity Mark, what are the Speccs on this unit?
These micro footprint m/boards came out ages ago with the old "atom" cpu on them and they were as tough as nails :good:

markn · August 23, 2013, 08:20:45 AM

Quote from: 'trout' pid='25949' dateline='1377210777'Just out of curiosity Mark, what are the Speccs on this unit?
These micro footprint m/boards came out ages ago with the old "atom" cpu on them and they were as tough as nails :good:

It's an intel 1155 motherboard using the H61 chipset. It'll run any 1155 pin CPU I believe. I've put a Pentium G2030 cpu in it. As a file server I don't need much CPU. There's two RAM slots allowing up to 16GB of memory. I've got a single 4GB stick in in it. There's four SATA3 ports on the MB but the case only holds two. I've plugged in two 5400RPM 2.5" laptop drives. There's USB3 support, on-board video (if the CPU supports it), plus the usual sound, serial ports and so on. I bought this MB because of the USB3.0 support, most of these micro-atx boards only support USB2.0. There's a PCI-E slot on the board too but you'd need a low profile card to use it and I think in this case you wouldn't be able to use it at all because nothing would fit.

The case comes with a AC/DC converter and a 90W internal PSU. There's no case fans. USB2.0 on the front panel.

trout · August 23, 2013, 09:03:34 AM

Quote from: 'markn' pid='25951' dateline='1377211845'
Quote from: 'trout' pid='25949' dateline='1377210777'Just out of curiosity Mark, what are the Speccs on this unit?
These micro footprint m/boards came out ages ago with the old "atom" cpu on them and they were as tough as nails :good:

It's an intel 1155 motherboard using the H61 chipset. It'll run any 1155 pin CPU I believe. I've put a Pentium G2030 cpu in it. As a file server I don't need much CPU. There's two RAM slots allowing up to 16GB of memory. I've got a single 4GB stick in in it. There's four SATA3 ports on the MB but the case only holds two. I've plugged in two 5400RPM 2.5" laptop drives. There's USB3 support, on-board video (if the CPU supports it), plus the usual sound, serial ports and so on. I bought this MB because of the USB3.0 support, most of these micro-atx boards only support USB2.0. There's a PCI-E slot on the board too but you'd need a low profile card to use it and I think in this case you wouldn't be able to use it at all because nothing would fit.

The case comes with a AC/DC converter and a 90W internal PSU. There's no case fans. USB2.0 on the front panel.

Looks like this setup is more than capable of doing the Job :good:

Oz 50c Man · August 24, 2013, 12:28:05 PM

going to all that trouble and not using SSD's?

markn · August 24, 2013, 01:16:31 PM

SSD's would have tripled the price.

Fulvio · August 24, 2013, 02:39:42 PM

Quote from: 'markn' pid='26043' dateline='1377315991'SSD's would have tripled the price.

Plus, its a file server, remember? There IS such a thing as overkill...

markn · August 24, 2013, 06:28:49 PM

Quote from: 'Fulvio' pid='26051' dateline='1377320982'
Quote from: 'markn' pid='26043' dateline='1377315991'SSD's would have tripled the price.

Plus, its a file server, remember? There IS such a thing as overkill...

I have a SSD as a system disk in my development computer. Certainly makes for faster boot times.

Oz 50c Man · August 25, 2013, 07:35:24 AM

I just don't like HDD noise on the desktop... I have 5 x SSDs in RAID5 array on my desk.
And your file server is exactly where you want fast disks as its function of file serving implies (thread did say nerdy!).

markn · August 25, 2013, 07:43:06 AM

Quote from: 'Oz 50c Man' pid='26092' dateline='1377381924'I just don't like HDD noise on the desktop... I have 5 x SSDs in RAID5 array on my desk.
And your file server is exactly where you want fast disks as its function of file serving implies (thread did say nerdy!).

There's just the two of us here and while a SSD or 7200 RPM drives would serve the files faster I don't think the (almost imperceptible) performance improvement would really be worth the extra cost or noise (for the 7200RPM drives). I can't hear the 5400 RPM drives btw and they are on the desk with me about 50cm away from me.

Fulvio · August 25, 2013, 07:00:32 PM

Quote from: 'markn' pid='26093' dateline='1377382386'...I don't think the (almost imperceptible) performance improvement would really be worth the extra cost...

Like most things, it comes down to balance. There are other factors besides drive speed at work. Things like the OS, the cabling, and what the client machines are doing for example.

Did you know just kinking an Ethernet cable can reduce its performance significantly?

There are better places to spend money than SSDs for file servers, IMO.

markn · August 25, 2013, 08:24:43 PM

Quote from: 'Fulvio' pid='26155' dateline='1377423032'Like most things, it comes down to balance. There are other factors besides drive speed at work. Things like the OS, the cabling, and what the client machines are doing for example.

Did you know just kinking an Ethernet cable can reduce its performance significantly?

There are better places to spend money than SSDs for file servers, IMO.

I agree. We actually use very few files "live" from our file server anyway. Most of them reside on our local machines and those are synced to the server. The ones we do actually use live from the server are not used very often anyway.

I must say I am extremely happy with the new machine. I've installed some daemons to monitor the temperatures and fan speeds and found a great PHP script (phpsysinfo) that publishes a web-page with lots of information I like to know about.

I've also run some experiments with it dropping one of the raid members and testing that the machine reboots. I've also made sure I can boot from a live Linux USB stick and still recover the data from the disks. All went smoothly.

I'd quite like to put a little LCD display on it with the CPU temp and fan speeds but PPH doesn't seem to care for the $40 it might cost me.

trout · August 25, 2013, 08:28:48 PM

Quotebut PPH doesn't seem to care for the $40 it might cost me.

Don't tell her Mate :diablo:

markn · August 25, 2013, 08:33:09 PM

Quote from: 'trout' pid='26184' dateline='1377428328'Don't tell her Mate :diablo:

I think a blue glowey LCD starting her in the face is unlikely to escape her attention. And she notices everything anyway.

trout · August 25, 2013, 08:36:58 PM

Quote from: 'markn' pid='26187' dateline='1377428589'
Quote from: 'trout' pid='26184' dateline='1377428328'Don't tell her Mate :diablo:

I think a blue glowey LCD starting her in the face is unlikely to escape her attention. And she notices everything anyway.

"it came with the Case Babe" :angel:

purplepennyhunter · August 25, 2013, 08:45:16 PM

He already said something. I just thought that there'd be some sort of webpage magic that it could do just like we can see our solar output on the internet!