first lan server

dont know if this actually counts as a problem but yeah me and my friend want to build a server basically for lan purposes and maybe later upgrade so far we have a budget of 380pounds excluding casing is this even viable as we feel we are way over our heads here please recommend any components the ones with th best bang for good buck

 

Please don't make duplicate threads. It's easier to keep all the replies in one place

 

So is it just going to be for running game servers?

If so, check out this thread :here:

to get a good idea on whats available for the budget you have.

If it's for serving files to a small lan then you're not going to need a majorly fast computer, a very basic spec with integrated graphics and a few large HDDs in a RAID setup will do the trick

Take a look at this article if you haven't already as it goes into great depth on what you will and wont need (to basically spend your money as efficiently as possible) :here:

 

Ahh i see sorry for moving am a newbie here thanx whats the most important thing about a gaming server and where should i focus the bulk of my money towards ram, processor or harddrives cos i hear the new raptors with 10K rpm where really good as well thanx for the help so far

 

read the article on the cheap home server that seems great and all but its specified as a network server and web server and file server but no specifics on it as a music server will it still function well enough

 

same difference, if you want to use it as a music server then it doesn't have to have any particular multimedia talents, all it's doing is sending mp3s over ethernet, just make sure you have enough disk space

 

You don't need much, I used to run a web server/proxy server/game server/FoH client all at the same time with no probs (on an Athlon XP).

Got pretty toasy though, with 100% CPU all the time.

 

could i run a raptor hardrive and a sata 2 hardrive in raid setup like it says i should do and put all the game installations on the raptor and other files and music on the sata 2

 

That wouldn't be in RAID then. It would be silly to put a Raptor in RAID with a 7200rpm drive anyway.

I really don't think a Raptor is necessary for your usage.

 

Plus Raptors are actually slower than some SATA-II drives in all departments (namely Samsung Spinpoints).

 

Not true.

 

Spinpoints rape raptors.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/storage/charts.html?modelx=33&model1=280&model2=124&chart=31

 

wow thats awesome that hmm il look into that for my next media drive thanx for the help so far

 

No, it is true, read above link =)

 

Isn't that benchmark just the theoretical interface speed? I.E. SATA II is technically faster than SATA I.... but if you look at the transfer rates, the Raptors are far faster.

 

Nothing theoretical about it, those are actual tested benchmarks.

 

Samsung make amazing hdds! amoung other things...

 

Wow, those are cheap
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2436189&CatId=0

Makes those raptors look like a ripoff!

 

Heh a sata 300 drive, but with an IDE interface? Perplexing?
For the server, it relly depends on what its used for. Most can get away with low power everything, and spend the extra on HDD space.

 

That single test is the interface speed which the Spinpoint wins because it's SATA300 and the Raptor is SATA150. That doesn't make a lot of difference to real world performance since even the maximum sustained transfer is well under 100MB/s. In all the other tests the Raptor comes out faster.