January | 2020 | Bismarck

Several people have asked me about my latest Server Rig Build. Here it is. This is my second server. I’ll share some details. I prefer to build my own servers and I spare little expense to build exactly what I need. My goal has always been balancing performance with noise reduction since I have my servers running in the house almost 7×24.

My last server build used massive heat sinks for the dual CPU’s to keep the noise down however in this new build I opted for a sound proof case and went with Silent fans.

So, my server build utilizes the Asus Server Board supporting two Intel Zeon processors generating 14 cores each, so I have up to 28 cores and a terabyte of memory. Asus is always rock solid and it’s the only manufacturer I use.

One gotcha was that the Cabinet is designed for a gaming machine so it has nice USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and Audio ports nicely located in the front but being I have a server board, there are not enough connections that can utilize all of these ports.

Lastly, I bought a NAS (Network Attached Storage) from Thecus with 36 Terabytes of Storage in a RAID 10 Configuration. Its enough to store all of my Pictures, Video, Music and Backups.

Here is an itemized list of components I chose for this build. I expect this server to last me at least 5 years.

Case:	Cooler Master Ultra Tower II – This provided me the space I needed for the Hard Drives and has seven cooling fans
Motherboard	I chose the Asus Z10PE-D16 WS
CPU	Two Intel Zeon E5-2690V4 2.6 Ghz LGA 2011 135W BX80660E52690V4 Server Processors from Newegg.com
Memory	Micron CT4K32G4LFD42A – DDR4-2400 LRDIMM I bought 1000GB of Memory
Hard Drives	4 Crucial 2T SSD Disks 22 250GB Samsung SSD
NAS	Thecus 5810 with 36 Terabytes of Storage in RAID 10

Result

I have a very powerful server that is super quiet. With 26 Disks all aligned for Hyper-V I have begun to setup sever virtual machines to support Active Directory, SQL Server, SharePoint, Project Server, SQL Reporting Services, CRM and Exchange. The SQL Server is configured with HA (High Availability) within a Failover Cluster. A separate load balancing virtual machine handles SharePoint App and Web Front Ends. Everything locked down internally via its own VLAN.

Photos: Click on the Image to see full view.

Cabinet Internals