New server hardware suggestions

[Nick]

Hey guys -

This is my first post here, so I'd like to just say thank you to the people who take time out of their life to help run and help others on this forum. It is an extremely useful for people like myself.

Now onto my question:

Looking at purchasing hardware for a new server build to run probably 8-10 32 man TF2 servers at hopefully 512 fps. Here's what I had in mind:

-Dual Intel Xeon Gainestown E5506, 8x 2.13Ghz cores, 2x 4M L3
-SUPERMICRO MBD-X8DTL-iF-O Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 ATX Dual Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series Server Motherboard
-Adaptec 2260200-R PCI Express SATA / SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) 2405 SGL Controller Card
-Patriot Signature 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) ECC Registered Server Memory Model PS312G13ER3K-E
-2x Seagate Cheetah 146-Gig 15K.6 SAS 15000rpm
-Win 2k8 Std 64bit

Any comments, changes, upgrades? Just looking for some feedback. Thank you very much in advance.

-Nick

[MIG]

Save some money on getting non sas drives and get some faster CPUs something like the E5620 or E5520. The E5520 scores 3116 points higher than the E5506 on passmark.

[Nick]

Yeah I want the sas but I already was comparing benchmarks. The 5620 looks like a go. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Monk]

I think SAS is an overkill; I'd only ever use SCSI or SAS if you have performance problems with writes. If you have to get SAS anyways, I'd get LSI logic based controllers. Adaptec's support and drivers are buggy and their CLI is very generic and doesn't offer alot of 'tuning'. Personally, 3ware/LSI cards and a few others (Some intels) are way better than adaptec

[Nick]

Thanks for this info dude. I'm just going to be purchasing all the hardware straight from newegg. Is there one in particular you suggest? In addition to that, what do you think of the motherboard? I've had good experiences in the past with supermicro.

[Monk]

I only ever use supermicro stuff. The board looks fine to me. Most of all the SM boards are more or less the same chipsets, just different layouts and minor differences.

[Nick]

One of the tricky things with this will be fitting it into a 1U case. What do you think of this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811152112

Also will 520W be enough to power?

[Monk]

Looks ok to me. Make sure that case will hold the board though (read through the specs on SM's site to be sure)

[Nick]

Yeah the case will hold the board. 12''x10'' is the maximum fit and the board is 12''x10''. The only thing that concerns me now is the heatsinks.

[loopyman]

You can get a basic copper heat sink, just make sure that you have some decent airflow or the case comes with some duct work to move air directly through the heat sink.

[Nick]

Thanks for the help. The drives I wanted are sold out ATM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148558

What do you guys think for a comparable drive? Thanks a lot!