UK available parts build suggestions, please?

[Northwinds]

Hi all
Got a very basic box running from old parts here and as a result of certain bottlenecks have been searching here for suggestions for a better setup.
Only thing is most of the hardware posts are for motherboards and other parts mainly only available in the US.
Has anyone got good suggestions for UK available alternatives - budget end please?
Many thanks!

 

[phoenix]

Have you looked on eBay? What specific parts are you interested in using?

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 4

 

[Northwinds]

Thanks but I have been looking at jgreco's
"So you want some hardware suggestions."

sticky and the motherboards he mentions are Supermicro boards which if I search in ebay.co.uk (I'm in London) then the only mentions are for imported from the US items and the last time I bought over ebay from the US the customs and import duties cost more than the value of the item and the postage combined!

So for a start can anyone suggest similar UK available motherboards to the Supermicro boards?

Thanks!

 

[phoenix]

I wasn't suggesting you specifically look for those models of boards, I know full well that a lot of motherboards available in a region (specifically the USA) aren't necessarily available elsewhere. If I look at eBay (including the EU) I see 805 (that's new items only) Supermicro boards starting at £59.99 - not exactly expensive. :) Why don't you look at the specs of the recommended versions and see if you can get a similar one on ebay, I'm afraid you're going to have to do some research yourself for specific boards (if you want Supermicro) available in the UK.

 

[Northwinds]

Got to admit, after doing a search on ebay in the uk for Supermicro boards as suggested then choosing to sort by nearest first, the only boards I'm coming up with on the European continent under £100 are even older than the shitty P4 board I have now!

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah. Supermicro stuff is good quality and typically used by people that use the hardware until its so obsolete nobody wants it, or it breaks. You'll have much better luck just buying new stuff.

 

[Northwinds]

Yeah, but the question is where in the UK?
I'm poring over jgreco's hardware sticky again ansd someone mentioned a German stckist so had a look, but they're all readybuilds and not that cheap.....

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, I can't help with that. I know several people have had a hard time sourcing hardware in the UK.

Move to the USA and you won't have that problem. :P

I'm actually considering upgrading since I built a system 2 months ago and regretting being limited to 32GB of RAM.... lol

 

[Northwinds]

wish I had your problems ;-)
set me up with a green card and I'm on my way....... :-D

 

[phoenix]

Got to admit, after doing a search on ebay in the uk for Supermicro boards as suggested then choosing to sort by nearest first, the only boards I'm coming up with on the European continent under £100 are even older than the shitty P4 board I have now!

I don't really know why it's so difficult to find what you want. Two slightly different models than mentioned on the jgreco hardware suggestions page, he mentions the X9SCA & X9SCM and a quick search of ebay gives the X9SCA-F & X9SCM-F. Scroll down until you find the first motherboard, they're from a German company named Avides a reputable company that ship quickly and sell at a good price. What's wrong with those two items? Is there something in the specs that don't meet your requirements or do you specifically want to purchase in the UK?

 

[Northwinds]

Thanks Bill​

However, even clicking on your link I get no mention of X9SCA-F only the X9SCM-F from said company which still comes in at around $230 or £144 plus the added concern of international shipping which is usually expensive and can incur further import duties on top.​

All in all probably looking at over $300 just for the motherboard.​

Not exactly what I had in mind.​

I had hoped for cheaper alternatives locally.​

 

[phoenix]

The X9SCM-F is (about) £142 with shipping of (about) £9 there is no import duties or any further VAT to pay - the UK, as far as I know, is still in the EU and any duties paid for an item (at source) are all you pay. The current exchange of the pound/euro quite advantageous (for you) at the moment and I make the cost of that motherboard about £151 which is pretty good for a Supermicro board with those specs, I don't believe you'd get it cheaper locally but if you then snap it up. As for the other board I mentioned it must have gone.

 

[Northwinds]

Hey Phoenix - thanks for the heads up on this!
Almost decided to go with this company now, thanks to your suggestion.
Only thing, the X9SCA-F has just reappeared on their shop so wondering between the 2 now?
Othere than the PCI slots can you think if there is much else between them that should sway my decision?
Cheers again! PS - I meant between the X9SCA-F and the X9SCM-F by the way.

 

[phoenix]

Hi

I suppose the answer to that question would depend on whether you're going to get an HBA for your drives or rely on the on-board ports. That's about the only thing that would sway me one way or the other, other than that I can't see much difference but maybe someone more experienced could give you some advice. Good luck with your new build. :)

 

[Northwinds]

Thanks again!
Sorry for seeming dim, but what's an HBA?

 

[phoenix]

Thanks again!

You're welcome.

Sorry for seeming dim, but what's an HBA?

Not knwoing every acronym in this industry doesn't make you dim. :) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter, it's an add-in card (usually things like RAID cards) for attaching additional hard drives. RAID is obviously useless with ZFS but you can flash them to be just an 'ordinary' card for adding SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) SATA drives and you can also get HBAs that have more ports than you'd find on the typical motherboard. Whether you need one depends on how many drives you're intending to install, what filesystem you'll be using and what sort of performance you want and what is the intended use of your FreeNAS server.