Reddit mentions of Kingston Technology ValueRAM 8GB DDR3 1600MHz PC3 12800 ECC CL11 DIMM with TS Server Workstation Memory KVR16E11/8

Well RAID is not a backup.

>Because two RAID5's running on Pentiums are superior to ZFS in terms of reliability and performance, and don't come with the attitude.

I don't see how that would win in reliability. In ZFS ( I think ) you can rebuild an array live if a drive dies. They support "hot spares" so it would be automatic if you use that. You'll still have full access to the array. If a drive dies on your setup, you'd have to swap access to the 2nd array which is fast, but then what happens if your backup isn't up to date?

And then even if your backup is up to date, what happens if it copies over bitrot data? I like this article about how bitrot can effect RAID5, with pictures

>I've been looking at this all wrong. For the cost of ECC RAM and a fancy CPU, I can buy 2-4 drives (depending on size of array), shove those in a crappy old PC, and BAM!, I now have full backup for my primary array.

Why not just run a RAID6 at that point with all your drives in it? What is the point of a backup onto the same computer, and like you said earlier there's nothing that important to store that you can't wait for a rebuild if you have a drive die.

Also ECC CPUs aren't as expensive as you're making them seem. Celerons have them. i3s have them if you want a bit more power. It looks like AMD's entire FX CPU series supports ECC if you want.

Looking at RAM, the 8GB ECC stick I got was about 100$ while a not ECC stick of ram is about 70$.

I think ZFS seems good, but only at a bigger scale. I personally don't run it on my server, but I can see how for people with more storage it is a good idea.

You're right, the fans make the noise. If I buy the Xeon, do I also get a good fan? Or would you suggest buying a better fan right away?

I updated the post a little bit:

• ASRock E3C226D2I https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00G9TZHSQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
• Intel Core i3-4170 https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00VHKZ6I8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
• Kingston KVR16E11/8 https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B008LMNXS0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  The Xeon would be Haswell too, but I need to take a closer look what the motherboard supports.

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-ValueRAM-Workstation-KVR16E11/dp/B008LMNXS0
I'm using these modules. Working perfectly.

I have a ML10 v2, running NAS4Free on it for data storage and as a VM Host.

Needed more memory for the VMs, best deal I could find:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LMNXS0/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apap_zntvJSQBlYqls not cheap but it now runs like a top

Pro-tip: use http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/ to look up any item you want, and see how the price has fluctuated over the last few days and months. If there's something you want, set a price alert.

I've bought several things I wanted because I received an e-mail alert, and straight away logged onto Amazon and bought it, before the price jumped up an hour later again.

It's an incredibly useful site. For a while I was buying quite a lot of ECC RAM for servers I was building, the graph is interesting: Kingston-KVR16E11-1600-DDR3-240-Pin

Errm, perhaps a generic build but pretty simple would be:

CPU: E3 1230 or 1245 (Or better if your budget suits)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-BX80646E31230V3-Quad-Core-Processor-3-3GHz/dp/B00D69PY1C/

Motherboard: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HWLICLO
(Frankly anything with a 1150 socket will work, the asus are usually pretty good value, server motherboards take ECC RAM usually, but that's the main difference, you can customise to get the ports that you want, pcie and ethernet)

RAM - ECC (Error Correcting Code)
this would be an example of some
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Technology-ValueRam-DDR3-1600/dp/B008LMNXS0/

Power Supply
PSU, if you have built desktops, then you should know, but something between 300-500w will be more than enough, you can use a standard desktop PSU if redundancy // reliability aren't of the utmost importance, but I've run consumer grade PSUs for years 24/7)

Case:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Codegen-500mm-4U-Rack-Mount/dp/B008IB9TH8/
Generic cheap case, I have one, it's not too shabby. If you go for 2u or 1u case, you will need to buy a special size PSU

*** This is a pretty generic guide, I invite anyone to improve it, you can probably find parts for a lot cheaper, or more efficient for the particular use. The use of a 4U case does take up more room than preferred, but it's an easy size to start with, and allows generic desktop PSU).

If this isn't beefy enough for your needs, you can always build multiple, and cluster them for virtualisation, or bump up to an E5 and/or E5 dual processor.

You can use the same build (just change case, and add raid card/SAS expander) if you wanted to build a NAS with many hard drives for central storage, it's a pretty generic/robust setup of components.

If you're looking for a cheap RACK in EU http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B000QDLPHS is decent, just got one. Beware it lacks the depth for rails though.

Please pm me if you would like

As I said, if anyone has any suggestions/changes, please suggest

Ok, I found these which seem to be reasonably priced:
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-ValueRAM-Workstation-KVR16E11/dp/B008LMNXS0

Which should tick the box on the QVL: Kingston KVR16E11/8 - 8GB ECC. My RMA is good for 15 days. So I'll have these to my place on Saturday and then I'll get to checking everything out.