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Build Advice Spec for a file server?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by livesabitch, 16 Feb 2010.

  1. livesabitch

    livesabitch life is what you make it!

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    Hey guys just wanted to know your best recomendations for a file sever build?

    would perfer it to be and AMD build and cost about 300 just for mobo, ram, psu, processor!
    any help would be appreciated.

    also forgot what HDD's would you also sugest? many thanks peeps!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 16 Feb 2010
  2. Zoon

    Zoon Hunting Wabbits since the 80s

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    Do you need performance, resilience, or just diskspace?

    How much diskspace?

    :)
     
  3. livesabitch

    livesabitch life is what you make it!

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    i wish to use it for user accounts and media streaming to all other computers, so it has to have at least 1.5 TB.
     
  4. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Windows Home Server box :p Plenty of companies do them: Asus, Tranquil.

    Really easy to setup, has user accounts and media streaming is a given.
     
  5. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead It's big, and it's clever.

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    You need RAID?

    I built this recently.
     
  6. livesabitch

    livesabitch life is what you make it!

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    wasnt thinking of using raid on the system really! just wanted a new project for myself and to save the space on my hdd's and my fathers really! just want to put all our songs onto it with all our films and for it to act like a domain controler! so you cant log into windows without an account on the server!

    any advice would be great!
     
  7. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead It's big, and it's clever.

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    You don't need to use it as a domain controller to log in without account credentials. I don't on mine. You just set up share permissions so everyone can access the folders you wish to share, and then you can just map them as network drives on the local PCs.

    You can still create user accounts and have everyone log in with a password without it being a domain controller also. With user accounts created, you can also set different permissions for each user. You can do all this without it being a Domain based network. If it's just one or two PCs on the network, just create shared folders and map them as network drives on the PCs.


    Depending on what OS you use, you may not be able to use it as a domain controller anyway. If you're using Win 7 you'll need Pro or Ultimate to do that. Win 7 home does not allow it.


    Because all your stuff is in one place, have you thought about back up? I'd be very nervous is all my stuff was on one machine, being accessed by many people, and no back up created. This has nothing to do with being RAID or not either.... RAID is not back up, it's redundancy against drive failure. It won't stop someone accidentally erasing your stuff.

    I would always recommend someone building a server to budget in for at least a NAS box of the same size to mirror the server contents to it using a sync program.

    That way, not only does your server contain all your media files etc, it can also contain back ups of the local machines. The entire server will then mirror itself to a second location for security.

    Whether you are interested in RAID or not, think about a backup strategy for the server!.


    I would use WD Green hard drives. They're very quiet, use less power, and reliable. WD are synonymous with reliability if you ask me. I've used them on and off for over 15 years and never had a bad one.

    If you are tempted with RAID, do NOT use the onboard raid controller of any motherboard, as performance will be pants unless you use a powerful CPU (defeating the object of a media server). RAID0 is useless for a server.. RAID5 is what you want, but it needs processing power to work, which is why a decent hardware RAID controller, or a powerful CPU is needed.


    Does it have to be AMD based? Why not use a Celeron E3200 like I did? Low power, dirt cheap to buy. Couple it with a motherboard like the G31 based mobo with integrated graphics I used, and you can get the board and chip for a little over £60. All you'll need is some DDR2 RAM.

    Also bear in mind that if you plan on having a single partition greater than 2TB you will need a 64bit OS to format it.

    PSU: Reliability and stability is paramount with a server. Don't go cheapskate here. You don't need power, but you need quality.

    There are options to go with M series intel chips for lower power etc, but their way more expensive.

    If I was to do it all again, and build another low power, cheap, reliable home server, I'd probably do it the same way.




    You didn't budget for hard drives with your £300.. just Mobo, CPU, PSU and RAM.... so.... If you don't want RAID...

    [​IMG]


    Loads of change left :)

    More than adequate for a home server.

    As for OS, it's up to you. I used Vista 64bit ultimate on mine... just because I already had it. Someone will be along in a while to suggest a Linux solution no doubt... which is viable and cheap, but I know little about it. Just make sure it's 64bit to remove the 2TB partition formatting issue in case you need a lot of disk space.
     
    Last edited: 17 Feb 2010
  8. livesabitch

    livesabitch life is what you make it!

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    i will deffo have a think about that one man! many thanks for your help! just to ask to does anyone know on a bit of software i can use to only give a certain amount of time to my lil bro for access for the internet? i only want him to have two hours a day so when he logs onto windows and opens the internet it gives him only 2 hours play, the rest of the time he can play his games on the computer?

    after thinking about it tho pookeyhead will that system run server 2003? cause there is no doubt im going to run the internet thro it to all the comps in the house and do much more with my network! many thanks once again!
     
    Last edited: 18 Feb 2010
  9. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    That system will run server 2k3 fine. Although 2k3 costs more than your entire budget
     
  10. livesabitch

    livesabitch life is what you make it!

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    I allready have server 2003 on cd with key! Just wanted soming new to do!
     
  11. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead It's big, and it's clever.

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    It will run 2k3 just fine, yeah.
     
  12. livesabitch

    livesabitch life is what you make it!

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    many thanks dude! will get cracking asap on that!
     

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