Shuttle for a BSD file server?

[Maxim Khitrov]

On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 10:33 PM, Maxim Khitrov <mkhitrov at gmail.com> wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I'm planning to build a new home file server for myself, starting with
> about 2TB of RAID6 space, but with room to grow in the future. Most of
> that will be on SATA drives, but I may throw in two SAS drives in
> RAID1 for the base OS, hence the SAS raid controller and enclosure.
> The highest priority for this build is data security, followed by
> performance and uptime.
>
> Rather than go for server-grade components, I thought that I should
> instead try to separate storage from the server itself. It's cheaper
> (sort of), easier to upgrade in the future, and if the server goes
> down for some reason, I can just put the raid card into another
> machine and once again have access to my data. The other advantage
> with this build is that I already have a Q6600 and some DDR2 memory
> around, so that will save me money on having to get Xeons and ECC
> memory. With that in mind, I currently have the following components
> picked out (listed below).
>
> I would like to know whether anyone has used any of these with FreeBSD
> 7.x, or if you have some other suggestions for what I should look into
> (am I asking for trouble by using these parts for a 24/7 file server
> in terms of stability)? I know that the 3ware controller should be
> supported, but I'm not sure about the Shuttle. How does FreeBSD play
> with X48 chipset? The drive enclosure obviously doesn't interact with
> the OS, but I'd still like your opinion on it or maybe some
> alternatives. Please let me know what you think.
>
> - Max
>
> Barebone:
> Shuttle SX48P2 E
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101070
>
> Raid Card:
> 3ware 9690SA-8E-KIT
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116062
>
> SAS Enclosure:
> RAIDAGE iAge840ML2
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816702014
>

Ok, other components aside for now, I've been thinking about what
video card to get. Since the raid controller will occupy one slot, and
BBU another, I thought about using a usb video adapter. Can anyone
please let me know if something like this is supported by FreeBSD:

eVGA UV Plus USB VGA Adapter 100-U2-UV16-A1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815101001

- Max