I discovered the world of streaming late last year. In Jan I got an EX-495, shortly thereafter added a TR8U, at the rate I was going at I figured I needed a 1 box solution. So I decided to build 'Lilbisqit'.

I am still trying to figure out the inards that I need to use for this build. So far, I have placed the following parts on order

1 x Norco RPC-4220
1 x PSU - Corsair HX750W
2 x Noctua NF-R8 fans
1 x Sony AD7590S DVD drive
1 x custom Fanboard

Newegg have dropped their price on the chassis so this was a plus for me. Anyway, I am still trying to figure out the mobo, cpu & other parts I need to get to put Lilbisqit together. I was going to try unRaid, but Linux & me don't really know each other that well. The latest HP update has hosed my EX-495, so it is barely limping along also.

I want to keep my options open to either unRaid or WHS, but I am leaning towards WHS due to the Linux learning curve. Or, is it a 1 way street where I will have to pick either one OS & stick with hardware that supports just that OS?
Anyway, I needed some suggestions on the Motherboards/CPU & controllers........

Thanks

_________________
Lilbisqit

Its great you picked out such a nice enclosure. I think you will like it very much! Picking out a motherboard sometimes can be a challenge. Its often the hardest thing to come to terms with. Sometimes I envy those that just can run out grab a motherboard, processor, ram and a few cards and be happy with their purchase. But today you have the ultimate opertunity to purchase something that not only meets your needs now but will grow with you.

I think you really need to start with what your prefrences are for example what processor do you want to use and which motherboard manufacture are you most comfortable with. Do you want a motherboard that can run one processor or duel processors, do you desire 1 or 2 gigabity network ports. What type of RAM do you want to use DDR2, DDR3 and how much memory do you believe you might need both now and in the furture. Many new motherboards now have USB3 ports, do you use many USB Devices or maybe plan to use them in future. Some have eSATA connections but if you chose one with eSATA make sure it supports portmultipliers because if your server grows past the 20 drives your chosen case can support and need to add more drives you might want to add port multipliers.

Of course you will also need to select cards to support all the drives in your Norco case so if you have a particular card prefrence then your motherboard should support the number of card compliments you will need to add to fully support your servers needs.

So figure out what you want, what you need and elliminate things you do not need then it will become clear which motherboard you will want to chose for your system. On the other hand many how have gone before you and have assembled large WHS's have posted their build stories on this site and have gone into great detail of their progress. You might want to take the time to reveiw some of these message threads as I believe they will be most educational and might help you to better determine your path to a build that works best for you.

Keep one thing in mind. What works well for one individual may not be suitable for another and its only you who can determine your needs since they are indeed your needs. Take your time and plan it well and I am certain you will build a most wonderful server. You will know its good when you desire to show the entire world what you built and you appear to be off to a good start too......

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Thanks for your input, very insightful. I wanted to go slow and build a unit that will not need upgrade or make frequent changes to for a while. Of course performance is a big factor for me, boys and their toys ...we always want the fastest, biggest & baddest rig available. My aim is to stream audio & videos to PCH A110, A200, PS3 & an Oppo BD83. I have made up my mind, I will stick with WHS as my OS

I am more or less leaning towards i3, i5 or i7 mobos. Someone suggested going with a Supermicro server boards.

_________________
Lilbisqit

The difference between MEN and BOYS?

The cost of their toys!

And he who dies with the most toys WINS!!!

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

_________________
Lilbisqit

Problem with my toys is that as they evolve they continue to cost more money but unlike a wife they come with RESET Buttons... Speaking of the wife anyone know where I can get that REMOTE used in the movie CLICK....

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Its interesting you mention a Server Motherboard because I firmly believe they might be the solution to the demigrator issue with taxing the CPU. Now my Proliant has 2 processors and when I was moving my data to the server I expected demigrator to take a solid week to balance out the hard drives. So first I moved the data then I thought ok lets turn on demigrator and see how long it takes to balance the drive pool. What I observed was demigrator topped out at 40% CPU utilization then settled done to below 10%. While it was active I decided to watch a movie with my WD TV Live and it played without any noticable impact on the movie stream yet demigrator was active but not to the point where it taxed the CPU like on my EX470.

I was so happy with what I saw I installed ORB and asked those with access to it to see what if any improvements they could report. All feedback came in positive regarding the movie streams. Of course I then decided to put my server in to full gear and let it take over everything except my client backups which I decided I would let one of my EX470's do so it would not feel neglected.

As I installed the add-ins of choice I did notice an impact regarding perfromance on my end which I attributed to the amount of RAM that the ProLiant had which was only 1 GB. CPU utilization was low but the server was using up the Virtual Memory which I feel caused some of the performance to drop off but its not noticable on the internet as much. With that I have 6 GB of RAM comming for the server which will provide 3 GB for one processor and 4 GB for the other although the other will only be able to utilize like 3.2 GB but thats ok.

To accomodate any future impact to the processors I am changing out the current AMD Optron Single Core 2.2 Ghz processors with new AMD Duel Core Optron 2.4GHz Processors even though the CPUs have not been over taxed I found some new processors for a decent price so I ordered them.

Comming back full circle to the Server Motherboard and using Server Processors and in my case Registered ECC RAM I think had a big impact on how well it handled demigrator or you might say put it on a leash and brought it into submission rather then demigrator wacking the hell out of my processors. This is just my opinion from what I observed a couple weeks ago. As I monitor the server more over time I will of course know more but so far so good and I am well pleased to say the least.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

I guess I'm spoiled but I feel "CPU Power" = "No Brainer"
You can almost never go wrong by having too much, but can go wrong frequently not having enough.

GO BIG OR GO HOME...

Power consumption is the only draw back, but thats why I use lights out.
It has kept my beast under control and 90% effective.
The only issue I've had trouble figuring out is the whole WoW (wake on wan)
It only works occassionally.
This seems to be more an issue with my Router than with my WHS.
All the power saving/sleep mode stuff works AWSOMELY, everything within the house is perfect.
It's just the remote access crud, but I have several idea's how to address that.

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram

I think I have narrowed down my controller cards to the following:-
Adaptec 5805
Adaptec 5805SZ
Adaptec 51245

I am assuming my selection should afford to me different flavors of Raid or if I don't want RAID, I can select JBOD & let WHS do its thing. Would selecting JBOD for the above controllers be equivalent to using an AOC-SASLP-MV8 card?

I see folks using 2 cables to connect the controller to the Norco backplane
Eg.
C-SFF8087-4S Reverse Breakout Cable & a 2nd cable like C-SFF8087-D Cable

Is it because the 1st set of cable splits into 4 which can then be connected to 4 of the Norco's backplanes, while the last cable provides connectivity from the controller to the remaining 5th Norco backplane?

@chasrobin I see you mentioned that your previously selected an Adaptec card that was limited to 1T, which card was it?.

_________________
Lilbisqit

You do not need RAID to run WHS. WHS uses a neat program called demigtator to handle all your file duplication and drive balancing. Its simple and works well. It can be processor intensive, I know on my EX470 when it kicked in it really bogged the server down. On my ProLiant it doesn't even phase it one bit.

There are 2 Norco 4U cases, the RPC-4220 and the RPC-4020. I believe the case your refering to is the 4220. At this point I will leave the comments about that to those who actually use them. One thing to note about the two cases is that they have different connectors the 4220 uses the cables your asking about which you only need 5 connections vs the 4020 as an individual data connection for each of the 20 drives (Ick) on the backplane.

Your on the right track tho. Keep asking questions. Seek out all the information you can find and then you will be able to make the best possible decision to meet your needs.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Ahhhh.... I don't think remotes work on wives (or any spouses). In fact I don't think that spouses can be controlled, can they?

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

For further details on the "Drive Extender" (and other topics) I suggest the MS WHS Technical Library at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd347480%28WS.10%29.aspx, specifically under the Technical Briefs at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd309758(WS.10).aspx.

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

Mine speaks Chinese so maybe any remote you get now might work on her since they are all made in China. However what I can say is this when she gets going like most its like dealing with demigrator. Sorry for getting off topic......

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

I have been on the road for the last couple of days. Norco was delivered during my absense & the misses had to lug the box into the house. I have to thank her for that. I quickly tore the box but I heard something rattling inside. It turns out one of the clips that hold the CD-rom in place had broken off. I will find out if the CD-rom will still be secured once it is delivered

_________________
Lilbisqit

That doesnt look like a CD-rom/DVD bracket piece.
It looks like a case top alignment tab, The spot wields failed and it fell off.
At least thats what it looks like to me, just a piece of metal to keep the lid from sagging where it buts up against the front of the case.
You can see where the black powder coating ends on the piece, the only coated parts are on the front of the case.

The norco's are ok cases, excellent for the money but they do have quality issue's.

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram