Basic server specs - Advice

E

Edd1e

Enthusiast
Not really my bag this one but I need to cost up a basic server that people in my office can back up video rushes from shoots to. It is purely a redundancy as all editing happens elsewhere but needs to be able to handle the I/O transfer of media in a stable and timely fashion. I spec'd the following as a jumping off point but no idea if it is over/under kill for the task, any advice as to what I should be looking for would be gratefully appreciated. Only thing to note is ideally i would run for of the WD green drive in raid with a basic one for the is but I don't seem to be able to configure that. Thanks in advance for any help!

COOLERMASTER CM690 III ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3 Dual Core Processor i3-4160 (3.60GHz) 3MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97M-PLUS: m-ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6.0, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st Hard Disk
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD20EZRX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
3rd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD20EZRX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
4th Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD20EZRX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
RAID
RAID 1 (MIRRORED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Extra Case Fans
1 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£5)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £716.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-haswell-pc/FKpP7NzFKd/
 
A

A314159

Super Star
You can't raid 2 different drives. Case is overkill. Get a h81m motherboard. Do what you want with HDDs. Done.
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
A314159 said:
You can't raid 2 different drives. Case is overkill. Get a h81m motherboard. Do what you want with HDDs. Done.
Click to expand...

I assume the 2nd and 3rd (or 4th) HDD's will be the mirrored ones, which will work just fine. Unless I'm missing something?

if it is purely for backup then I can see nothing wrong with your spec, you could save a couple of quid but I think you have a nice setup with the components as they are.

Have you given a NAS device any though? Its basically just a big box you fit 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 HDD's into and it connects to your network. NAS stands for network attached storage, so its just a big HDD really with limited processing power, but plenty of storage.
 
E

Edd1e

Enthusiast
Thanks for the replies. The raid config is something I struggled with the PCS configuration tool as I would like to have 4 drives in raid but it won't let me add that (or I am just getting it wrong which is most likely!).

NAS is definitely an option but my initial config was based purely on the fact that the current server that performs this task is an old mac (pro or G5 I think), and I assumed that as the requirement is to increase the maxed out storage this offers but for PC stations the setup would require a stand alone computer rather than a NAS... See told you I was oh of my depth!
 
nathanjrb

nathanjrb

Prolific Poster
I'm interested in this, from a purely curious point of view, if you don't mind :) As someone who does video production - how exactly does this fit into your workflow? You get back from a shoot - insert SD card (or whatever) into your PC and upload the files to the connected server? When it comes to editing - do you stream the files off your server into your editing software or do you move them back onto your main PC whilst you edit? What software do you use to edit? I use PP and save all my cache files next to the originals where possible - do you do a similar thing? Sorry for all the questions, just interested :)
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
As Nathan touched on, it's dependant on how you work. Do you stream to multiple stations at once, is it just purely a backup or do you use it as both.

A NAS will connect to any computer, phone or tablet you like. It probably wont be too much cheaper than the above build if you get a decent NAS and HDD's, but many of them do auto configure RAID fro you so you could have 4 HDD's in raid. What flavour of RAID were you looking for in your original config? PCS only do 1 and 0 as far as I know.

If you just use it purely for backup then a NAS setup in RAID 5 might be your best bet for storage space + redundancy. RAID 5 will allow for 1 failure and still keep all the data.
 
E

Edd1e

Enthusiast
Apologies for the delayed reply been busy at work. The server's role is purely as a redundancy measure. So cards come back from a shoot, they are copied onto the server as a backup so cards can be recycled. This part of the server is on a scheduled LTO backup on a set of tapes that loop so they in theory will only ever overwrite footage that has been finished with. Prior to edit the cards are copied to the relevant edit station (we edit locally ATM but soon to be replaced with a central media server I hope!), and the edit performed. Then once the edit is finished the project is consolidated down to minimise the size and copied back onto the server where it is archived to LTO before being removed.

The need for having to run the LTO software and a few other automated processes is why we have stuck with a server as opposed to a NAS to date but I have considered it in the past.

We also use the Adobe CC apps. Currently while we edit locally I have the OS and software on one drive, project and media on another and the cache and previews on a third. This is to spread the work on the drives as much as possible to keep R/W speeds up. Autosaves are also set to the main OS drive and backed up automatically using freefilesync to the backup server and then to Adobe cloud storage.

Will all change around a bit when we get a central media server which will cut out transfer steps and free up time I the workflow, but the above has worked well I terms of redundancy up to now (touch wood!). For the media server I will be going with a turnkey solution as I have researched the crap out it and though I believe it possible to setup something like a Synology (other makes are available!) box, fast drives and a bit of optimisation and opensource goodness it is always going to need nursing and really beyond anything I would begin feeling comfortable with so I can not recommend for our business at this time despite the potential cost saving.

Hope that helps and any more qs just fire away!
 
Last edited:
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Alright, I see why you want a server over a NAS.

I think your original spec is fairly close to being spot on, you could tinker with bits but overall I think it wouldn't make much difference in usage terms apart from increase the price.

So I'd say go for the original spec as you have obviously researched it fairly thoroughly
 
G

grimsbymatt

Enthusiast
If you're going to be hitting the HDDs a lot, you might consider WD Red drives (designed for NAS use and have a higher MTBF) - dunno if PCS sell them...
 
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