The Ultimate Gamester ! PC Spec ~ $6,000 - $7,000 USD

Hi Pirx,

This is likely the setup I will use, RAID-5 with hotspare.
I will give it more thought though.

The raid set doesn't need to exceed 100Mbits per second - Limit of the fibre connection for internet access

I do not think that the drives (Seagate SAS 6Gbit/sec interface) can exceed 80Mbytes/sec sustained anyway.
The current 1TB Seagate SATA 3Gbit/sec interface only sustains 45Mbytes/sec.

The boot drive will be a 450Mbytes/sec SSD in each system.

I may just go with encrypting the entire volume using truecrypt (For ease of implementation) and run RAID-5 with hotspare using 2TB drives to reduce costs. I really do which to keep the array implementation under $ 2000 + raid controller, another ~ $ 600. Total < $ 2500.

6 x 2TB drives will cost me ~ $ 1900 ($ 315 each) - RAID 5, 5 drives + 1 hotspare

http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/168673/HDD_SCSI_-_SERIAL_ATTACHED_SAS_-_3.5/Seagate/ST2000NM0001.asp

This will achieve 8TB of space - http://raidcalculator.icc-usa.com/

 

Crash and burn .... I am on the phone to intel atm in reference to the DE model of their controller.

They are recommending RAID-6 @ 8 x 2Tb drives ~ $ 2400 (12TB space, 4TB parity)
+ DE model of their card rsp $ 1000

$ 400 for a crypto module AES-256 that won't chew CPU cycles, hmmm.

Decisions, decisions. I will give this more thought later.

 

One thing I have to consider after researching out various companies that offer services in Australia is that I will need to be somewhat competitive with AussieHQ services - http://www.aussiehq.com.au/web_and_email_hosting/

Even though this is a hobby, there is the prospect it will grow into a small business rather quickly. I will limit my audience to 200 accounts limit offering 50Gb space (10TB) to each and regular services for $15/month. The intention is to recoupe money spent on IT equipment over the next 2 years while operating as a hobbyist. To do this, I will offer free web site building as part of the $ 15/month and two major updates within a 12 month period. Minor updates will be charged at a $ 20/hr fee, minimum 1 hour.

 

Ok, after talking to Intel and considering their offer, it would seem management of an encrypted volume would be better done using software than hardware - easier to make backups of keys used and no hardware failure (crypto engine)

It looks like this implementation will blow out in costs a little more than expected.

I will cancel the order for the APC 2200VA UPS $ 1900.
http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/172647/UPS_RACKMOUNT/APC/SMT2200RMI2U.asp

Instead purchase the EATON 3000VA $ 1100 and the dual redundant PSU for $ 800.
http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/120572/UPS_RACKMOUNT/EATON/PW5130i3000-XL2UAU.asp
& http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/157946/POWERSUPPLIES_REDUNDANT_PSUS/Zippy/MRG-5800V4V.asp

That nullifies that cost, however see below on PSU consideration

I will go for the standard raid controller from intel ~ $ 600
http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/131981/...RIAL_ATTACHED_SCSI_(SAS)_C/Intel/RS2BL080.asp

and run 8 x 2TB drives ~ $ 2400 in RAID-6 (12TB +4TB Parity) - Note 2TB drives are lowest TCO
8 x http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/168673/HDD_SCSI_-_SERIAL_ATTACHED_SAS_-_3.5/Seagate/ST2000NM0001.asp

The raid does not need to be read nor write sensitive with a 100Mbit limit of the fibre connection. RAID-5 + hotspare is sensible, though why not just leave the drive in and operating giving dual parity redunancy. Intel stated that even though the processing is double, the card will handle it with minimal noticable impact on overall performance.

So server costs, including the UPS & redundant PSU in the configuration will be $ 5000. ($ 3000 for the raid)

This is acceptable, the remainder of the configuration - 2 PCs /wo monitors will need to be under $ 2500 each.

Case - Purchased - 2 x Norco rackmounts, $ 200 each
PSUs - Purchased - 1 x Corsair 850W Gold rated $ 280
+ 1 x Zippy dual redundant $ 800 - Not purchased yet
Monitors - 1 x Purchased - 27" LED Asus Monitor - $ 540 (Another will be purchased later)

$ 2000 - $2500 each will account for:

- Socket 2011 Motherboard with 8 memory slots - PCI-E 3.0 spec, SAS controller & SATA controller for cdrom
- Socket 2011 CPU - Fastest, yet not extreme additon
- 16 Gb (4 x 4Gb module DDR3) for workstation, 32 Gb (8 x 4Gb) for server
- OCZ 200 Gb SAS SSD drive for boot drive ~ $ 600 each
- Video card, Nvidia 580 GTX spec for workstation, lower GTX spec for server
- Blueray/DVD reader/writer
- On motherboard sound will be sufficient for both systems since it is ported through the wireless speakers

At this point, I will spec up and purchase one server and then look at a second down the track once I grow the hobby a little and can justify the additional costs (HW & SW) to divide roles between to improve overall performance.

I am also questioning the need for a redundant PSU, I have used corsair PSUs for a long time now and have found them to be very reliable. An alternative may be to go for the 850W Corsair 80+ gold certified and keep one spare as a backup which will save me ~ $ 300.

http://www.corsair.com/power-supplies/modular-psus/professional-series-gold-2/ax850.html

 

Woot woot, 4 to 8 times faster encryption using truecrypt.

Truecrypt supports Intel AES-NI which is present in all new processors :)

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hardware-acceleration

Hardware Acceleration

Some processors (CPUs) support hardware-accelerated AES encryption,* which is typically 4-8 times faster than encryption performed by the purely software implementation on the same processors.

By default, TrueCrypt uses hardware-accelerated AES on computers that have a processor where the Intel AES-NI instructions are available. Specifically, TrueCrypt uses the AES-NI instructions that perform so-called AES rounds (i.e. the main portions of the AES algorithm).** TrueCrypt does not use any of the AES-NI instructions that perform key generation.

Note: By default, TrueCrypt uses hardware-accelerated AES also when an encrypted Windows system is booting or resuming from hibernation (provided that the processor supports the Intel AES-NI instructions).

To find out whether TrueCrypt can use hardware-accelerated AES on your computer, select Settings > Performance and check the field labeled 'Processor (CPU) in this computer provides hardware acceleration for AES'.

To find out whether a processor you want to purchase supports the Intel AES-NI instructions (also called "AES New Instructions"), which TrueCrypt uses for hardware-accelerated AES, please check the documentation for the processor or contact the vendor/manufacturer. Alternatively, click the link below to view an official list of Intel processors that support the AES-NI instructions.

http://ark.intel.com/MySearch.aspx?AESTech=true

 

Truecrypt also supports parallelization. I think this is the software encryption solution I will go for with the raid solution. Truecrypt is offered as open source so you can review the source code before compiling to satisfy any need to ensure that there are no backdoors included. Something other vendors such as DriveCrypt do not offer.

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hardware-acceleration

Parallelization

When your computer has a multi-core processor (or multiple processors), TrueCrypt uses all of the cores (or processors) in parallel for encryption and decryption. For example, when TrueCrypt is to decrypt a chunk of data, it first splits the chunk into several smaller pieces. The number of the pieces is equal to the number of the cores (or processors). Then, all of the pieces are decrypted in parallel (piece 1 is decrypted by thread 1, piece 2 is decrypted by thread 2, etc). The same method is used for encryption.

So if your computer has, for example, a quad-core processor, then encryption and decryption are four times faster than on a single-core processor with equivalent specifications (likewise, they are twice faster on dual-core processors, etc).

Increase in encryption/decryption speed is directly proportional to the number of cores and/or processors.

Note: Processors with the Hyper-Threading technology provide multiple logical cores per one physical core (or multiple logical processors per one physical processor). When Hyper Threading is enabled in the computer firmware (e.g. BIOS) settings, TrueCrypt creates one thread for each logical core/processor. For example, on a 6-core processor that provides two logical cores per one physical core, TrueCrypt uses 12 threads.

 

To save costs, I will go for the single 850W PSU in each system (Workstation & server(s)) and keep a spare onhand. This will save me $ 300, something I need to be looking to do more of to trim down costs. The total budget should not ultimately exceed $ 8,000 for the full initial solution (1 WS, 1 Server + raid).

Rackmount cabinet, rackmount cases, UPS, monitors & keyboards/mice/speakers are seperate to this budget since all of them bar one monitor have now been purchased.

 

I feel this topic has somewhat gone off-topic from the original, ultimate gamester spec to now what will be a gaming workstation come website building machine & website server host implementation.

I hope the admins do not mind the direction this thread has taken ... looks at lykke & peter :angelic:

Maybe I should request a lock for this thread and start a new one while summing up all the details as to not confuse people.

 

Admins, please lock thread, I will start a new one to cover this thread, it has gone too far off-topic.