Sanchez Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Well I installed my 6th hard drive today and even with this SATA raid extension i'm all out of space so I think it would be a good time to outsource this to a server, make it easier to share too. So I'm going to build a fileserver but I haven't really been keeping up lately and I need some advice on the best components and to do this cheaply. So, any suggestions? Also I hate RAID and want to avoid it wherever possible. OK after doing some searching of my own I believe this case will serve me well: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-071-AN&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=160 6 Hard drive spaces, and I can probably put an adapter for more, no need to buy a seperate PSU either. Good for now. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-085-GI http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-187-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=554 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-030-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=144 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-090-SA&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=185 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-123-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=257 Ok so those are the components I picked out. A couple of questions. Any problems? Is a celeron going to be too slow for full speed transfers (I also want to stream 1080p content, huge 8GB files)? Any benefit of Windows Home Server than just stuffing maybe a light version of XP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadKill Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Something you might not have thought of is that you don't need a huge case - you can put more drives in the 5.25" bays. http://www.span.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=30_1403 Second item down, only a quid a pair. I run my file servers in Antec SLK-3000B cases: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=93000 Which aren't huge but have a removable drive cage below, filtered 120mm intake, rear 120mm, just really decent small cases. Of course, it depends how much you think you're going to be moving it about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanchez Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Something you might not have thought of is that you don't need a huge case - you can put more drives in the 5.25" bays. http://www.span.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=30_1403 Second item down, only a quid a pair. Ah, perfect! At the moment I had this Lian Li thing which did 4 5.25 to 3 3.5" but this is better and vastly cheaper. This is what I have now then: Case: NZXT Alpha £45 nep HD Mount: 4x 5.25 converters £2.50 span PSU: Seasonic 500W Modular M12 £80 ebuyer Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P £74 ebuyer CPU: Intel Celeron 440 2Ghz £20 ocuk RAM: 1GB A-Data £15 nep Total: £236 nep= local store The other things I already own, and can swap in briefly. http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=3G12 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108604 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jordan Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 No no. Don't, seriously. I'd HIGHLY suggest you get an old Pentium 3 rather than a current Celeron. Those things are little work horses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanchez Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 This celeron is appartantly equivalent to a 3Ghz Pentium 4, so I thought it would be dece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jordan Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 I have a P3 1ghz, it can stream HD video just fine. Its more a case of a decent network and alot of ram rather than a fast CPU. Its basically going to be idle most of the time anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanchez Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Yeah, fair enough. Is 1GB going to be enough RAM wise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jordan Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 I have 512mb and everything run great.... so yeah. That'd be way more than enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McPhee Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 You don't need a high spec machine because it's basically doing nothing. It's just running an OS, reading data from a HDD and then sending it down the network. the data that you're computer receives at the other end is the same as the data on the HDD. Get mobile parts if you can, you're electrics bill will thank you. The more energy efficient the better! 1.5" and 2.5" Hard Drives are more energy efficient, also helps to run large drives rather than lots of small ones. Pentium M and Turion 64 processors are pretty efficient, either that or the new energy efficient Semprons (cheaper) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanchez Posted January 25, 2008 Author Share Posted January 25, 2008 You don't need a high spec machine because it's basically doing nothing. It's just running an OS, reading data from a HDD and then sending it down the network. the data that you're computer receives at the other end is the same as the data on the HDD. Get mobile parts if you can, you're electrics bill will thank you. The more energy efficient the better! 1.5" and 2.5" Hard Drives are more energy efficient, also helps to run large drives rather than lots of small ones. Pentium M and Turion 64 processors are pretty efficient, either that or the new energy efficient Semprons (cheaper) I'm not going to run small drives in a fileserver, the extra cost alone would probably be equivilent to 20 years of powering the fileserver! Not to mention the much smaller capacities, besides, I already have the drives I'll be using. I have 6 500GB's sitting in my case now and another 2 lying around. :-/ These celerons have an idles power draw of 25W (compared to 80 for a P4) so that shouldn't really be an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCK Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 AMD chips are usually a bit faster when it comes to serving, and they're quite cheap too. Semprons and such have Hypertransport, which means they have better data bandwidth. You can buy a boxed Sempron 64 for 15 quid (ya, really!) and it'll be more than enough. Get a cheap mainboard with built-in graphics and some decent amount of RAM, a big case, and it shouldn't total above £100. Also, speaking HD video, it'll only have to send it, not actually play it, so even an old Pentium III 500 could do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stefkov Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 The February edition of CustomPC has a couple pages on Servers at home. Just as an option to read up on it. That's all I can contribute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jordan Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 AMD chips are usually a bit faster when it comes to serving, and they're quite cheap too. Semprons and such have Hypertransport, which means they have better data bandwidth. You can buy a boxed Sempron 64 for 15 quid (ya, really!) and it'll be more than enough. Get a cheap mainboard with built-in graphics and some decent amount of RAM, a big case, and it shouldn't total above £100. Also, speaking HD video, it'll only have to send it, not actually play it, so even an old Pentium III 500 could do it. Its a file server, a Sempron is as about as reliable as a chair with 3 legs. A server doesn't need to be fast, just rock solid in terms of stability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCK Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 How is a Sempron irreliable >_< ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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