I know nothing about SCSI and I'd like to know if it is necessary or advisable to look for a particular type of motherboard or if its a matter of using an add-on board (pci or other).

The purpose is to build a reliable server.

Any hint or advice most welcome.

Thank you for your help.

SCSI is fine, but not your only option. If your only goal is to build a reliable server, you've got lots.

SATA controllers can support RAID as well as SCSI, as can HBA's and SAN drives. As far as built-in or PCI...that depends on the application. If you're talking about something that is just to keep your data safe, using on board SATA with RAID1 is all you need. If you're talking about having a 24/7/365 database server, supporting thousands, that gets hammered all the time, you're going to have to spend some $$$ on a serious controller, multi-channels, etc., and the drives and chassis to go behind it.

What is your goal, besides the very broad "reliable server"? Budget?

1 members found this post helpful.

I love my little ultra 320's but sadly they really cost too much. You may wish to get raid 5 or above setup that is enterprise level (full hardware)in sata or if you insist scsi. Be warned that not all distro's offer support for high end devices out of the box. Might even look to ssd's as they are really in the price range of ultra 320's and may be a bit faster.

You would want a server grade board to begin with. They offer sometimes built in scsi and sata controller that attach to a pci-x or express bus. They also offer ECC memory that should be used.

1 members found this post helpful.

It is a non-commercial Web site that will be available, at the start, in 12 languages 24/365 and could easily see 1000s of hits per day, however the budget may be (not sure yet) small at the beginning so we need to consider a cheap option to start with, an option that can easily be upgradable.
In the worst unlikely case, we'd use a home PC then rent in colocation as funds permit.

I am also interested in learning options other than SCSI, any hint most welcome.

Many drives exceed the upload speed of ISP's I'd think unless you have a T-1 or fioss or such. What kind of up speed do you have?

Data centers also look now to energy use. Both ac and electrical loads need to be computed to determine an actual cost to run. It might end up being quite a lot each month. Consider running a 1500w heater all day and night.

Might look at ram caching some of the pages or apps or data too.

They make cheap NAS raid solutions in the terabyte pretty cheap.

You almost need to make some guesses as to the load to really start buying. It can't hurt to start cheap and see how the loads are in the major areas.

I'd invest in a server grade nic.

1 members found this post helpful.