LibriumArcana.Games

In the world of gaming and enthusiasts, names like Asus or Epox is already familiar for those who prefer to build their own PC. But how about server? Frankly, I mostly deal with branded servers like HP ProLiant or Acer Altos, but if I'm to build my own, what is the recipe? For instance, what is the best brand of server Mobo? RAID Controller? SAN?
etc.

Still ASUS IMO. I believe they've got a board out right now for up to 4 dualcore opteron processors and 64gig of RAM.

THERE'S your server right there...

What would this server do?

B4UTRUST wrote:Still ASUS IMO. I believe they've got a board out right now for up to 4 dualcore opteron processors and 64gig of RAM.

Kewl. What's the model of the mobo?

Also, in gaming and enthusiast realm, I'm already familiar with brand names like BFG (video card) or Turtle Beach (sound card), but I rarely hear about server pheriperals. The only brand I knew in server is Mylex SCSI controller card (which beats anything offered by HP in performance), but where can find more information about such products? For instance, what's the best brand/model for "whitebox" external storage?

Destructionator XV wrote:What would this server do?

I'm thinking about a large database server, so it should adhere to these requirements:

- multiple CPUs. In large database, the number of the CPU is more important than clockspeed, so I'm looking for a mobo that can support multiple CPUs. Scottie's mention about the ASUS mobo above makes me interested.

- kickass SCSI controller card, because in a database server, I/O performance is everything. Based on my experience, a Mylex SCSI controller card is very fast (I remember putting one in an Acer Altos Server). Alas, Mylex is the only brand I know, because mostly I deal with branded servers like HP Proliant or such. If there's a better SCSI controller card out there, I would be really interested.

- large RAM support. A mobo supporting to 64 GB of RAM is really welcome.

- Finally, an external storage array. You know, those rack-mounted enclosures where you can put about fourteen hard drives or such (usually it has either SCSI or fibre channel connector, or both). If I'm building a costum-made solution, what is the best storage solution I should use?


Anyway, websites like techreport is a great source for buliding a gaming rig. Alas, they don't seem to cover much about server components and pheriperals. Where can I find such information?

Okay...time for a long long long post condensed into a short post.

Tyan’s Thunder K8WE nForce4 Pro 2200

Fit that with 2 of the new dual core Opterons. The thing has built in SCSI AFAIK thats very fast. It has PCI-E 16x slots if you need graphics. Capability for 16GB of RAM minimum from my recall.


A storage array is easy to get, I belive IBM corporate sells this stuff rather cheap.

If the above was incomprehensible, tell me and I'll write something rather more understandable.

It doesn't seem to have SCSI, but that's alright as long as there's a free PCI slot to put one of those Mylex card.

No, it dosn't, but I belive there are versions with SCSI ports, I belive GamePC mentions the place for a connector thats not utilised.