After a recent rash of hard drive failures - Maxtor, Western Digital, Samsung, IBM (to name a few - both 5400 and 7200 RPM).

Also, I've had quite a few motherboards, or components on motherboards go out lately - ASUS (quite a few more than you'd expect), Intel, and MSI have been the biggest offenders.

I'd like to get everyone's opinion on what are the best components to use in a Cpanel-based 1U/2U server. I really would like to find a manufacturer that I can rely on, and not have to spend all night trying to recover data from bad hard drives, or swapping motherboards, or just troubleshooting hardware in general. Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Just a thought, but you might want to look at your power systems and power supplies. If you are getting a lot of spikes, dips or other power anomolies (spelling?) that can cause hardware failures. Do you use Power regulators or UPS systems to regulate power to your servers? If not you might want to consider it...

It sounds like you already have a variety of equipment, and it would be surprising to me to think that with all the different vendors you mentioned you are having a high failure rate with them all.


Take care,

Brian

Hi Jeffrey,

I've been using Tyan for 7 years (total of 6 motherboards 3 servers, 3 workstations) and each of them never have any problem at all. It is more expensive than others, but it is rock solid for stability and quality.

I've had Seagate, Quantum, IBM and Maxtor. I currently use IBM and Maxtor for the IDE RAID. My Seagate (2 LVD SCSI) never have any problem. Maxtor is great! The only thing is, 1 of 6 of my IBM drives went bad on a RAID environment, but that's all.

Like BTeeter said, the most important component is actually your power supply, since everything derives from it. Knowing a little bit about power, I'm willing to pay a little more for a better power supply. :)

I like Maxtor drives, but I avoid "cutting edge" if you GAVE me a 160 gig drive I wouldn't put it in a server (though I'd throw that baby in my home system so fast your head wouls spin).

I've been in the PC industry building and selling PC based systems for about 10 years or so, and one thing that rang true, time and time again don't go bleeding edge when you build a server, let them revise their hardware and their configuration at least once, especially harddrives and nearly as especially, motherboards and chipsets.

Motherboards: Tyan, good second when Tyan doesn't fit the bill: Intel, SuperMicro.

Harddrives: Maxtor for IDE, Seagate for SCSI

Just personal opinion. At one time Maxtor wouldn't be on there, but ever since the 1.6 gig drive they've been relatively consistent with "good" products.

MSI boards have been great... I'm surprised you have problems with them. I use two brands: MSI boards for AMD cpu's and Aopen for Intel cpu's.

Well, there is a new MSI board out for P4 cpu's that just runs SUPER.

Avoice WD IDE hard drives like the plague. Maxtor and Seagate (barracuda) are great.

I put an MSI in my last server and it seems quite capable so far, granted it's only 3 days in service and doesn't have any sites on it (note to self: make sure SSH is actually ACCESSIBLE before you put it in the rack across town next time). I'm gonna use another one for a customer's dedicated server that I ordered parts for last night.

I'll echo rey's comments. Tyan has been the workhorse here for many years with never a problem. They are not good as a "tweakers" board but are rock solid when used within spec. Also had good luck with Supermicro server boards.


Currently use both Maxtor and Seagate IDE with no problems. For SCSI all Seagate. I even have an 85M Seagate SCSI-1 that used to run my BBS from 1987 that is still in use.

Be careful if IBM 60G glass platter Deskstars as there have been a couple of bad batches.

Cheers:cool:

Well, I hadn't considered the power supply of the boxes might be bad - that makes a lot of sense. We've been using the same 2U case with a 300W power supply for most of our servers, and it would make sense that it could be causing the problems. As for the power source that we're using - it's top quality power, and is regulated through UPS's and such (downtown Atlanta's primary power grid, hardly if ever fails).

That leads me to another question - what's a good 2U case?

I've been using Chenbro and this (with redundant power supply):

http://www.rackmountpro.com/productpage.cfm?prodid=523

So far, the performance have been great! Chenbro is also an excellent case, and I think I like Chenbro's IDE backplane better because it is more flexible. I had one technician bent two IDE backplane pins with the other case (accidentally). Chenbro has a neat individual switch that disconnect the power before you completely remove or connect the harddrives when you swap them. It adds extra protection to your HD.

I have four PC's here and four are Tyan boards....never a problem....I have a fifth boards from years ago......it worked so good for me ....... I don't want to junk it. :bawling:


I have 2 WD drives and 2 Seagate's between the four PC's and never no trouble with any of them. I never built a server myself.....
but these PC's are running 16 to 18 hours a day.

I've had Maxtor and IBM drives years back......and I didn't like them as much as what I have now.

Just my opinion............

How about Supermicro motherboard?? I am thinking to get a few of those...

my company builds computers (also servers but mostly PC's) since more than 10years, and we've been using Chenbro in the last 3 years ...
they're really solid rocking, though changing the power supplies can't be wrong. (there are always just the standard power supplies in ... so if you really want a good one, get yourself an enermax, not a gun! :D )

greetz Johannes

Supermicro motherboard??

Well like I posted its Tyan or nothing.......the only problem I ever had I phoned them and had it cleared up ...right after the call....but that was years ago.

I've had about 7 PC's with their boards built from the ground up over the years....so I'll strand by them.

Drives well.....there are pros and cons for each.....Seagates I'll have to say I've had the less troubles with.....but I like WD's.....go figure.

my current server is running a epox 8kha+ and its been rock solid since december :)

also got a nice 450W power supply to make sure we dont have any power issues.

If you are only using a 300W, you might want to consider getting a bigger one to make sure that isn't the problem.

rey, nice stuff.........

http://www.rackmountpro.com/productpage.cfm?prodid=523

Thank you ;)

I like it a lot. In fact, it has at least 8 fans inside and so far it's been very cool. :)

Bring on the AC............ :)