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I've maxed out the number of SATA ports on my NAS (WHSv1) and am running out of space (1.5Tb left from 10Tb). So I'd like to build a new server with an OS that supports larger drives, and have room for adding new drives as needed. I'm thinking that 8 drives plus a system drive is a good amount, meaning I could expand it to 32Tb eventually. But I have two questions: - What motherboards are there that support this many drives? - Powering the drives - what PSUs should I be looking at? EDIT: Or would I be better off cost-wise in building a new 20/24Tb server with 5/6 drives and running both servers? modeski fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 10:56
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It's rare to find a motherboard that supports that many drives natively. It's better to find a good mini-ITX or micro-ATX board and add a low-end SAS adapter. If finding a SAS HBA is unacceptable to you for some reason, ASRock's Z77 Extreme11 board comes with an LSI SAS controller built-in (8 SAS with RAID, 2 Intel SATA III + 4 Intel SATA II in a separate FakeRAID pool). The Z87 Extreme11, when it is released, will come with two such LSI SAS controllers, for 22 6 Gbps ports total.  Of course, for the price of these boards, you could buy a more sane microATX board and two SAS HBAs, and you would still have money to spare. As for powering the drives, if you plan for 15W of (good, well-built) PSU per drive, you're way ahead of the game.
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Jun 24, 2013 12:25
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Factory Factory posted:It's rare to find a motherboard that supports that many drives natively. It's better to find a good mini-ITX or micro-ATX board and add a low-end SAS adapter. Excellent, thank you. I hadn't thought of the SAS adapter idea, that makes sense. In fact, it might offer me an affordable upgrade path for my current machine to tide me over. Am I fine to use as many molex power splitters as needed?
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Jun 24, 2013 13:33
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There's a LOT of fundamental electronics bullshit that goes into that kind of thing. Just keep your cable runs short and use a high-quality PSU, and don't split the gently caress out of molexes. Molex connectors can handle a decent amount of amperage (and power, since power = volts * amps and your voltages are known), but the wires themselves can be a limiting factor based on their thickness. Fuckin' pain in the rear end is what it is. If you have to split, make sure you're using as many different wire chains as possible. Factory Factory fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 14:14
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I got my Xonar DG sound card in today, but I'm unsure of which drivers to use (because I am dumb). Should I use the official Asus Xonar drivers that haven't been updated since 2011 or the Community UNi Xonar drivers? I just want to make sure to get some good advice before moving on. 
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Jun 24, 2013 18:50
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Ryuga Death posted:I got my Xonar DG sound card in today, but I'm unsure of which drivers to use (because I am dumb). Should I use the official Asus Xonar drivers that haven't been updated since 2011 or the Community UNi Xonar drivers? I just want to make sure to get some good advice before moving on. The official drivers were updated in April, so...  Assuming it's the same situation as the official STX drivers, they used to have some latency problems which have been fixed up for a while now.
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Jun 24, 2013 19:10
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Dogen posted:The official drivers were updated in April, so... The April 2013 drivers did nothing but fix some language settings. Should I just use the official drivers, then?
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Jun 24, 2013 19:14
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Ryuga Death posted:The April 2013 drivers did nothing but fix some language settings. Should I just use the official drivers, then? I would, but it's up to you. I looked into switching to the alternative drivers a while ago and it seems like the official drivers have fixed a lot of the issues the alternate drivers addressed.
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Jun 24, 2013 19:19
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One more question, the sound card I have has front panel audio detection. If I disable the onboard audio from the BIOS, it won't disable the front panel audio from working, will it?
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Jun 24, 2013 19:58
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Broke my headset and now the sound is lovely. What's a good replacement for it? Apparently this is the big thing on Newegg but I'd rather have a goon opinion.
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Jun 24, 2013 20:01
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Ryuga Death posted:One more question, the sound card I have has front panel audio detection. If I disable the onboard audio from the BIOS, it won't disable the front panel audio from working, will it?
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Jun 24, 2013 20:07
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^^^^^ also thatRyuga Death posted:One more question, the sound card I have has front panel audio detection. If I disable the onboard audio from the BIOS, it won't disable the front panel audio from working, will it? It works fine with my STX, but the headphone amp won't run through the front port, and also it has to be switched manually to front panel. YMMV with is being a different card and all.
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Jun 24, 2013 20:08
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Dogen posted:^^^^^ also that Thanks, you two. This subforum has been very helpful. As far as the headphone amp goes, this thread seems to indicate it will work with both rear and front panel audio.
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Jun 24, 2013 20:38
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Question: Power supply blew out. After replacing, I find I get no signal from previously working video card. And two others. Anything I can try before I assume PCI-E port on motherboard died when the power supply did?
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Jun 24, 2013 21:30
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houseofmangle posted:Question: Power supply blew out. After replacing, I find I get no signal from previously working video card. And two others. Anything I can try before I assume PCI-E port on motherboard died when the power supply did? If you had a lovely PSU explode then the board likely got damaged though. Don't use lovely power supplies. Average Bear posted:Broke my headset and now the sound is lovely. What's a good replacement for it? Apparently this is the big thing on Newegg but I'd rather have a goon opinion.
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Jun 24, 2013 22:07
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So performance wise, what would I need to buy to replace two GTX 460s 1GB in SLI? Current PC specs - 1000w PSU, Tri-SLI capable mobo, i7-920 @3.4Ghz, 18GB of RAM, 240GB Mushkin SSD, 1.5TB Raid-0 HDD array.
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Jun 26, 2013 01:36
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A 660 Ti would be a sidegrade/mild upgrade, depending on how well the game scaled with multiple cards. So a GTX 760 would do at least that well. Also, some parts of your system are a bit silly.
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Jun 26, 2013 01:40
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Factory Factory posted:A 660 Ti would be a sidegrade/mild upgrade, depending on how well the game scaled with multiple cards. So a GTX 760 would do at least that well. I do silly things with my PC. Like I have a 4GB RAM drive that I use for my browser cache. My RAM setup is 3x2GB and 3x4GB DDR3-1600 RAM. The 1000w Corsair PSU was bought when they had a really good deal on it on Newegg about 1.5-2 years ago. I got it for about $130 when it was normally priced at $250. Like even decent PSUs in the 500-600w range were around 80-90$ then. Would it be better to go for something like a GTX 670 since they are trying to move stock since the 7 series are out now or to go for a GTX 760(Edit: and they're back). SlayVus fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Jun 26, 2013 |
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Jun 26, 2013 01:45
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Well, are you looking for a sidegrade or an actual upgrade? Something like a 680/770 is more in line for an actually-better experience.
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Jun 26, 2013 02:02
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I would like to do an upgrade, but I really didn't want to spend $400 on a new card. If I could sell my GTX 460s for a fair price I might think about it, but I would rather spend around $250 to $300 for an upgrade.
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Jun 26, 2013 06:24
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SlayVus posted:I would like to do an upgrade, but I really didn't want to spend $400 on a new card. If I could sell my GTX 460s for a fair price I might think about it, but I would rather spend around $250 to $300 for an upgrade. I'm very happy having upgraded to a 660 Ti from a single 460GTX but I'm not sure how the upgrade would compare going from SLI 460s (Rest of our systems pretty similar, i7 920, 12GB DDR3, 256GB Samsung 830 SSD)
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Jun 26, 2013 06:52
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Okay, so someone in the GPU thread suggested when comparing an old card to a newer card look directly at the Pixel/Texture fill rates. Well, a 1GB GTX 460 has a 21.6 GP/s fill rate and 37.8 GT/s fill rate. So if we figure a best case scenario of 90% effectiveness with SLI would be 38.88 GP/s 68 GT/s and a worse case of say 70% is 30.24 GP/s 52.92 GT/s. A GTX 660 TI does 25.6 GP/s 102.5 GT/s A GTX 760 does 31.36 Gp/s 94 GT/s It really seems that Nvidia's performance comes from their GT/s performance rate. And if you look at processing power The GFlop of SLI'd 460s at 90% eff. is 1632.96 GFlops, A GTX 660 TI is 2459.52 GFlops, followed by 2257 GFlops for a GTX 760. Edit: Looks like I might be able to pick up an EVGA GTX 680 Superclocked w/Backplane for $360 shipped? Good deal? SlayVus fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Jun 26, 2013 |
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Jun 26, 2013 20:48
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Do you guys have any recommendations for business-class computer manufacturers aside from Dell and Lenovo? I was hired recently by a company who are almost exclusively using ancient Lenovo laptops with Windows XP , at least for at-desk work. With the impending end of support for XP and an inability to upgrade some of our critical software due to lack of XP support, I've convinced the higher-ups we're going to need to cycle pretty much all the computers and move to a Windows 7 environment. I've had the most experience working with Dells in these cases and they're clearly used to working with Lenovos, but I'm at a loss for other manufacturers that make consistent machines such that I'll be able to start a computer cycling policy. Also, if this doesn't belong here, please let me know.
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Jun 28, 2013 17:25
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Might try the Laptop thread. There are three other vendors for professional PCs worth looking at: HP (the big kahuna), Apple (the fancy kahuna), and Asus (Asus Pro brand, not yet released, looking to go against Thinkpads.)
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Jun 28, 2013 17:31
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Dell Gold Support is pretty great. Their laptops use mostly Intel-based components, so you can swap in a new wireless miniPCI-E card or something later without running into any problems (vs. HP laptops which usually have BIOS lock-outs if you try to use another card). I avoid HP since their consumer line is awful and they always quoted us significantly higher pricing than Dell for server and desktop replacements. Maybe they've gotten better in the last year or so but I doubt it. Lenovo laptops are generally well-built, although I haven't used their business support to comment. Apple laptops (MBA or MBP) might be a good option, although the initial cost would be higher and you'd need separate Windows 7 licenses if the business doesn't have volume licensing. Apple support is usually top-notch on the consumer side at least.
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Jun 28, 2013 19:16
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About a year ago I had a Radeon 5770HD undergo a mosfet explosion (it was horror at the time, but fascinating now), and was wondering if a new graphics card could be obtained (end usage is gaming, current games and into the future if possible) for a midrange amount of money- problem is, the rig it was in is about six years old.. So should I save up for a completely new system, or can (should?) a better, capable card be installed into this rig? mATX: MSI 785GM-P45. CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 440. RAM: four gigs. PSU: 650w. I have a gut feeling it wouldn't be worth it to upgrade to the CPU or RAM I would need in order to keep up with a card that can handle upcoming games. 
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Jun 28, 2013 21:31
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SoroScrew
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Paradox Personified posted:About a year ago I had a Radeon 5770HD undergo a mosfet explosion (it was horror at the time, but fascinating now), and was wondering if a new graphics card could be obtained (end usage is gaming, current games and into the future if possible) for a midrange amount of money- problem is, the rig it was in is about six years old.. With the release of the GTX 700 series a lot of people are off loading their GTX 600 series. I've seen 680s for as low as 320 and 660s as low as 150. I would not suggest buying used AMD cards because you may never actually know if they used it for bitcoin mining. Im watching prices on Hardforum(Requires 50 posts and 6 months time there to buy/sell).
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Jun 28, 2013 22:20
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Any particularly good 2.5" USB 3.0 HDD enclosures out there? I just got a new laptop and replaced the 500GB Western Digital with an SSD; hoping to use the original drive in turn as an external.
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Jun 29, 2013 00:23
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I have a 32 inch widescreen tv, with VGA hookups on the back. I am currently using it to play Bioshock Infinite. How can I make it correctly adapt to the screen, aspect ratio wise? It only gives me 4:3, or 16:9, and both do not fill up my screen. Help?
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Jun 29, 2013 03:54
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I'm pretty sure you want to choose a 16:9 resolution, then turn off Overscan in the TV's settings.
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Jun 29, 2013 03:56
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No such feature. :/
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Jun 29, 2013 04:05
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It can have other names. Picture/Screen Size, Zoom, etc.
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Jun 29, 2013 04:58
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Hey I have a question I hope you all can help me out with, it was driving me to fits all day yesterday and I still cant figure it out. I just bought a evga 760 and installed it. I kept my gtx 570 and dedicated it to physx because why not, didn't want it just gathering dust in the closet. I cant say the exact time that it happen but somewhere along the line my onboard audio stopped working. My realtek speakers in sound devices are showing not plugged and no matter what I do I cant get them back online. I have used Driver Fusion to uninstall all realtek drivers, re installed from my motherboards website, made sure onboard video is enabled in bios, disabled all of the hdmi entries in sound devices that nvidia installed, and even did a system restore to before I change anything and nothing has worked. Luckily, my monitor has an HDMI input and an audio output so I am using that to power my speakers right now so I do have a work around, just wondering if I did something wrong for this to happen. Not sure what you all will need to try to help but here are some of the things I am using. Motherboard ASUS P8Z68-V PRO GPUs installed GTX 760 with a 570 dedicated to physx Operating system Windows 8 Latest Realtek drivers from the ASUS website. Like I said, I have a work around so I am not too stressed, I just dont have much experience with building my own pcs and wonder if I did something wrong that I can avoid in the future. Thanks for any help you can give, if this post is poo poo and not understandable, please just ignore.
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Jun 29, 2013 07:05
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I have an Acer Aspire 5755G with an Atheros AR5B97 wireless adapter that might be crapping out. Sometimes it drops all wifi connections and needs a reboot to work again. I'm considering just buying a new wifi adapter and slotting that in there. It's currently 2.4GHz only, which is a little crowded in my neighborhood. Would it be possible to buy one that supports 5GHz, or would that be a waste of money because 5GHz needs different antennas?
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Jun 29, 2013 12:58
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So, I think I hosed up my airflow maybe without realising it? I had assumed my top three 120mm fans were outtakes, but turns out I had mounted them as intakes (???) so I mounted my H80i push/pull as an intake too assuming it'd instantly be sucked out. Nope.  This is the current airflow, and I'm too lazy of a gently caress to either flip three fans or flip my H80i, can I leave it like this or should I not?
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Jun 29, 2013 14:18
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Well, you can look at it a few ways, that fresh air is being pulled straight over the radiators, but you can also look at it in the sense that you are pumping hot air into the case as much as possible. I'd reverse the top 3 fans at least, to be honest.
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Jun 29, 2013 14:40
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I would flip one or the other, but if your temps are ok you can always let laziness win
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Jun 29, 2013 16:26
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Dogen posted:I would flip one or the other, but if your temps are ok you can always let laziness win Ah, picked up some anti-vibration washers while out today, so I might as well get the top fans as out-takes. I swear I had them like that originally. 
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Jun 29, 2013 17:36
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So this is driving me crazy. I had a blackout a few days ago and when I restarted all my sound was stuttering, cracking and popping. I use a USB sound card, and when I switched to the normal audio ports on my tower the sound was fine--unfortunately I need that sound card to work so I can record audio without interference and white noise from the inputs. My first instinct was to replace the sound card, which was literally falling apart after 2+ years anyway. I buy an identical card to replace it, plug it into my tower and get the exact same stuttering sound with the original card. Is this a hardware/mobo problem? Did the blackout affect my USB ports somehow without completely frying them? Everything else on the USB ports work fine, unless I try to use the USB sound card. Mobo is an Asus P7P55D.
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Jun 29, 2013 18:31
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Geemer posted:I have an Acer Aspire 5755G with an Atheros AR5B97 wireless adapter that might be crapping out. Sometimes it drops all wifi connections and needs a reboot to work again. A dual-band Intel card would work for either 2.4ghz or 5ghz networks, and it will use the same antennas (either 2 or 3 depending on the model).
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Jun 29, 2013 18:36
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