[Build Log] Prometheus (Server Build)

Vicey

New member
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It seems every other year I do a major build and in the interims I do upgrades. This year was a major change for me as it's the first time I'm using a rack chassis at home. Prior to this I used a Lian Li PC-343B case with six x 5.25" to 3.5" backplanes. Whilst that build was functional it was rattly. The backplanes were expensive but poorly manufactured. I eventually turned to stuffing bits of paper between the drive slots just to stop the case from vibrating to pieces. You can see a photo of that here: http://i.imgur.com/pJPxpNC.jpg

So the new server. Before I post the pictures lets just detail the specifications:

  1. Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition, not pirated, legit license.
  2. Intel XEON E5-1650 (6 Cores, 12MB Cache, 3.2-3.8GHz) CPU
  3. 64GB (8x8GB) of Kingston ECC 1600MHz 1.35v UDIMM Memory
  4. Dual Socket Asrockrack EP2C602-4L/D16 Motherboard
  5. X-CASE 4U 24 Bay GEN II Rackmount Case
  6. Seven x SAS SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 Cables
  7. SuperMicro CPU Heatsink for LGA 2011
  8. Corsair AX1200i 1200 Watt Power Supply
  9. Arctic Cooling 80mm silent fan (I use this to cool the RAID and SAS Expander Cards)
  10. Corsair 120GB Neutron GTX SSD (This is for the Operating System)
  11. 1TB Western Digital Black Hard Drive
  12. Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD
  13. 9x4TB Hitachis 8x2TB Samsungs 7x3TB Western Digitals
  14. LSI 9260-4i RAID Controller with 512MB DDR2 RAM + LSI CPU
  15. HP 32 Port SAS Expander Card
  16. 900 Watt CyberPower UPS Battery Backup (21 Minutes run time at current load)

You're probably wondering based on the specifications what the server is used for, well I host a lot of Minecraft servers on it. That is what the high end CPU and lots of RAM are for. My servers in the past year have served upwards of 100,000 unique players. That was on my old server which had a 3930K and 24GB of RAM. This upgrade was mostly about increasing RAM and using ECC memory as the server is powered on 24.7 for years at a time.

It's also why I went with the AX1200i, at our load levels its fan doesn't spin, it doesn't get hot and we are just within its lower efficiency range of 92% (it peaks at 94% at 500-700 Watt loads, we are at around 270-300 Watts). Plus its 7 year warranty and generally great build quality means it'll last a long time.

Now of course I don't only host Minecraft servers from this. I also store a lot of personal media, work files, it runs a web server and two websites and software that I've written and distributed also use this server for many of their functions such as API calls, update notifications and downloads etc

And of course I have a lot of Virtual Machines running on it too including XPEnology, PFSense, Windows 7, Vista and XP for software development testing.

So lets get on with the pictures!


Memory:

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Power Supply:

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Case Pictures:

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Installation Pictures:

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PowerSupply.jpg


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CPU-Installed-Motherboard.jpg


CPU-Heatsink-Installed.jpg


SFF-8087-Cables-Installed-In-Backplane.jpg


Build Complete

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Specification shot from within Windows

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If you have any questions feel free to post those below :)
 
Yay a server build! Never pretty but always interesting ;D

Seeing as it appears to be quite critical to you, why didn't you go for dual PSUs?
Sorry for the noobish questions, I've only recently started to get into server stuff.
 
Fascinating to see server builds, how many Virtual machines are you running with the E5 -1650?
 
Yay a server build! Never pretty but always interesting ;D

Seeing as it appears to be quite critical to you, why didn't you go for dual PSUs?
Sorry for the noobish questions, I've only recently started to get into server stuff.

That's a very good question. This case does support dual and even triple redundant power supplies. There are three main reasons I didn't go that way.

1. The likelihood of the PSU failing is quite small. I ran my old server with a Corsair HX1000 for 4.5 Years and it still worked fine when I just replaced it. I've never experienced a PSU failure in any server I've owned and this is like the 7th one I've built.

2. Getting dual redundant power supplies that are silent is incredibly difficult. This server is in my office and is very quiet, that was intentional.

3. Getting dual redundant power supplies that are rated higher than 80+ Bronze in efficiency is actually very difficult until you get in to the very pricey setups. For example HP sell a 1500 Watt Dual Redundant that is Platinum rated, cost? £450. I got the AX1200i for £210 but I could have also used an AX760i for about £160, also platinum rated. Power efficiency is important for me as the server will be on 24.7.

In general with my servers I've always just bought a nice powerful unit. I used a Tagan 520 Watt then a 900 Watt Tagan, then a HX1000 now the AX1200i. Never had any issues with them and all were silent.

Fascinating to see server builds, how many Virtual machines are you running with the E5 -1650?

Right now I'm only running 5 VM's on it, but it can run an unlimited amount. The limiting factor is the memory and disk I/O the CPU isn't very important for the VM's as most of them won't be using lots of CPU.

With this motherboard I could later on buy two new E5-2xxx XEON's and go up to 24 Cores and 512GB of memory using RDIMM's as it is now I could keep the 64GB of RAM I already have and then add another 64GB for 128GB total but I would need to replace my current E5-1650 xeon as the E5-1xxx only function single socket whilst the E5-2xxx series are for dual sockets.

As for why I went with an E5-1xxx now instead of buying a single E5-2xxx is due to cost. The E5-2xxx are extremely expensive for high clock speeds. I was able to purchase this E5-1650 for £240 and it has 6 cores, 12 threads, 3.2GHz-3.8GHz Clock speed (with turbo). Whilst even a £350 E5-2xxx start around 2.3GHz and turbo to 2.6 which is just not fast enough to host Minecraft servers as the main software is only single threaded.
 
That's a very good question. This case does support dual and even triple redundant power supplies. There are three main reasons I didn't go that way.

1. The likelihood of the PSU failing is quite small. I ran my old server with a Corsair HX1000 for 4.5 Years and it still worked fine when I just replaced it. I've never experienced a PSU failure in any server I've owned and this is like the 7th one I've built.

2. Getting dual redundant power supplies that are silent is incredibly difficult. This server is in my office and is very quiet, that was intentional.

3. Getting dual redundant power supplies that are rated higher than 80+ Bronze in efficiency is actually very difficult until you get in to the very pricey setups. For example HP sell a 1500 Watt Dual Redundant that is Platinum rated, cost? £450. I got the AX1200i for £210 but I could have also used an AX760i for about £160, also platinum rated. Power efficiency is important for me as the server will be on 24.7.
Ah right, thanks for clearing it up. Always wanted a server like yours but I could never really justify the cost/power draw.
My current server-thing is really pale in comparison.
 
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