Building a Water Cooled Web Server

[ryandlf]

I am a web developer and i'm building my own web server. Of course...because its just fun, I want to pimp this thing out. Below are my hardware selections and hopefully some of you that are better versed in server builds can help me out and let me know if these are good choices based on my needs, if they are compatible, and any other suggestions or recommendations.

I will be running a version of Ubuntu server, so hardware must be compatitible with this. The needs are specifically geared towards a web server. I will be hosting multiple sites which at the moment are low traffic, but my entire goal with this server is upgradability. If and when one of my sites begins bringing in heavy amounts of traffic I want to be able to upgrade this thing without having to rebuild an entire server. I want to build a little on the heavy end in case I want to host a site that does more video streaming type stuff etc etc. Basically a jack-of-all-trades server for hosting multiple projects and of course if one really takes off, then it will be moved to its own servers etc. At the moment is will serve a mysql database as well as the http requests. Eventually i'm sure i'll build a separate database server, but for right now i'm hoping this will do.

The motherboard
SUPERMICRO MBD-X8DTi-LN4F-O Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5520 Extended ATX Dual Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series Server Motherboard

I chose this MB because of the dual cpu slots and the high memory it can support. At first I plan on only running one cpu and one stick of 16GB ram. Is it ok to run this board with only 1 cpu and have the option to just stick another one in the future? Does a web server require this much power or is it way overkill? Should I downgrade a save a couple hundred bucks?

The RAID Card
Adaptec RAID 6405 2270000-R 6Gb/s SATA/SAS 4 internal ports w/512MB cache memory Controller Card

Do I need a raid card with this much power? Is it a good investment? Or for my needs does it make more sense to go with something a little lower end? As I will talk about a little more below, at first I plan on running 2 SSD drives on RAID 0 (mirrored), but i'd like to eventually upgrade to a RAID 5 or event 10 config. I went with this model also because it has its own processor and won't rely on the cpu for this, but is that worth a couple hundred extra bucks?

The RAID Cage
ICY DOCK MB994SP-4SB-1 4x 2.5" SSD/HD in 1x 5.25" Bay SATA Hot-Swap Backplane Cage

Can I daisy chain these if I want to add another in the future for a raid 10 config? Not much to say about this, I plan on running SSD's and its a great space saving way to achieve this.

The CPU
Intel Xeon E5606 Westmere-EP 2.13GHz LGA 1366 80W Quad-Core Server Processor

Again, i'd like to be able to run this alone at first, and then add another. Does the second cpu have to be the same or in the future can I add a 6 or 8 core in addition to this without a problem?

The Memory
Kingston 16GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ECC Registered Server Memory

I plan on getting a stick of this and adding more as needed.

The Hard Drives
Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F120GB3A-NB 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Notebook Upgrade Kit

I'm going to start with 2 of these, and plan on adding more as needed. The price is good and they seem like they would do the trick.

The Case
NORCO RPC-470 Black 4U Rackmount Server Case - OEM

Not sure if this comes with a power supply. I'll add one if it doesn't. How many watts should I do on this with upgrading in mind? 750? I also plan on water cooling the CPU's. Does this case look like it has enough room to add a fairly large radiator? Should I run the RAD externally? I haven't picked a cooling system yet (any suggestions? i've got a XSPC in my desktop that has been great so i'll probably go with another one of those), but i'll start with 2 blocks and just run the one over an empty cpu slot until I add another.

So, does all this look good? Any thoughts? I'm all about saving some cash so if i'm going overboard on anything here, please let me know. I'm totally open to suggestions and comments. Right now this build is looking to cost around $1500, which is decent for a server and I really like the idea that I can toss a couple hundred bucks at it and double the memory, or bring in more cpu power etc...upgradability is my goal here. And if you've made it this far...thank you for reading

 

[ryandlf]

I should mention that I will be using the on board graphics and networking. Is this good enough for a web server?

 

[Automata]

You aren't going to have any space to do watercooling in this case. Plus, doing watercooling in a server is a Bad Idea to start with.

I run this server off a HX620 and I'm not close to straining the power supply. Here is the hardware list:

Motherboard: Asus P5Q Deluxe (P45 chipset)
Processor: QX9650 (400 MHz FSB)
Memory: 4x2gb 800 MHz G.Skill sticks (1:1 ratio)
Hard drives:
–100gb Maxtor SATA (operating system drive)
–3x 500gb IBM System X (39M4533)
–8x 1.5tb Seagate ST31500341AS
RAID/HBA controller: IBM ServeRAID M1015
Network: Intel PT gigabit PCIe
Power supply: Corsair HX650
Case: Norco 470

I should mention that I will be using the on board graphics and networking. Is this good enough for a web server?

You don't need video to work with a server by using RDP (Windows) or SSH (Linux). Onboard network for server boards is likely an Intel PT series, which are good.

 

[ryandlf]

Why is water cooling such a bad idea? I understand reliablity is an issue, but this will be hosted at home and i'm not running a data center so I can afford to baby it a little. Maybe go with a water cooling ready case that can fit the mb? Id be sacraficing rails and the ability to rack it, but i'm ok with that.

 

[ryandlf]

What do you use your server for? Are my specs overkill for my use case? What can I downgrade on? The mb, the raid card?

 

[kraven]

Are you hoping to make any money from your websites?

Water cooling increases downtime just from the maintenance. That's downtime that would cost you money.

 

[Automata]

Why is water cooling such a bad idea? I understand reliablity is an issue, but this will be hosted at home and i'm not running a data center so I can afford to baby it a little. Maybe go with a water cooling ready case that can fit the mb? Id be sacraficing rails and the ability to rack it, but i'm ok with that.

It increases the chance of the system being down by adding complexity and extra parts. You are also going to be running those processors at stock speeds, so why do you want to spend $200+ to cool them better. The case is also too small for watercooling, so you are effectively going to be putting the radiators outside the server. Stock cooling will be more than enough.

What do you use your server for?

Mine is internal file serving via samba and a virtual machine server for various services and projects.

Are my specs overkill for my use case? What can I downgrade on? The mb, the raid card?

That completely depends on what you are going to run on it. A high traffic server will need a good internet pipe, processing power, memory, and disk. I literally can't answer this for you in more specific terms as you need to figure out how much and what kind of load your setup creates.

 

[ryandlf]

Ya i know its a tough question to answer im having a hard time with it too. Lets say i have 500 concurrent users at any given time on heavily dynamic websites with heavy database requests. Mostly serving text data and building dynamic views. Overkill on something like that?

 

[Automata]

That is still too vague to give an answer. There are too many variables and you would be much better of doing benchmarking to find out how it handles it. Assuming the database can be loaded in RAM and the internet connection isn't the limit, you'd be limited by the processors. What you have would be pretty good for that situation.

 

[ryandlf]

Thank you so much for the advice. Any insight on using a single cpu on a dual board?

 

[Automata]

I'm not sure what you are asking. If you meant to ask whether you can run one processor on a single socket motherboard, yes, you can.

 

[ryandlf]

No the mb has 2 sockets. Can i leave one open or do i have to run 2 cpus?

 

[Automata]

Sorry, that was a typo. It should have read: "If you meant to ask whether you can run one processor on a dual socket motherboard, yes, you can."