I decided to build a brand new white box All-in-One server after being a happy Synology (DS1511+) user for a couple of years. I needed more drives, the ability to run virtual machines, integration of my perimeter firewall on the server, and transition from RAID5 to a more secure file system (ZFS).
I build the server using these components:
- Chassis: X-Case RM424 (improved Norco 424, mine had 12Gbps back-plane and no SGPIO)
- PSU: Seasonic SS-750HT Active 80+
- Motherboard: SuperMicro X9DR7-LN4F (dual socket)
- CPU: Intel E5-2620v2 (2.1 GHz, 2.6 GHz Turbo, 6 cores)
- CPU Heat sink: SuperMicro SNK-P0047PS
- CPU Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2
- Memory: 4 x Samsung M393B1K70DH0-YK0
4x8 GB registered ECC 1600 MHz DDR3, 1.35v, dual rank - Host Bus Adapters:
- LSI SAS 9201-16i (16 SAS2 ports)
- Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I350-T2
- LSI 20320IE (PCI Express Ultra320 SCSI with external LVD)
- Drives:
- 3 x 4 TB HGST Deskstar 7K4000 (HDS724040ALE640, 4K sector size)
- 6 x 2 TB Samsung HD204UI (left over from Synology NAS, 4K sector size)
- 3 x 256 GB Samsung 840 Pro (over-provisioned to 174 GB)
- 1 x 100 GB Intel DC S3700 (as ZFS intent log, over-provisioned to 8 GB)
- 2 x 80 GB Intel X25-M SSD (ZFS rpool mirror, over-provisioned by to 40 GB)
Unfortunately, X-Case initially sent me the wrong chassis (RM424s, a short version which did not accommodate the motherboard). Also the motherboard (from Jacob Electronik) was dead-on-arrival. After having quickly resolved those issues, the server has been running smooth ever since (6 months).