Building new home media server

[VARDY]

Getting around to replacing my current home media server as it is showing its age when it comes to supporting larger drives.

The basic plan is to allow for the maximum amount of storage space in a reasonable sized case with the ability to add more in the future via a SATA PCIE card.

The rationale behind some of the decisions:
- The SSD's are for the OS in RAID 1 which will be housed in the 3.5" caddy.
- AMD CPU/Mobo is chosen because of the number of SATA 6Gb/s ports available when compared to a similar Intel build.
- Case is chosen as it has ample external bays for the 5 bay backplane with an extra spare. The 3.5" caddy will be placed in the floppy drive bay. Still leaving the internal sata bays available.
- Modular PSU to allow SATA power cables to be added if needed. Preferably looking for a more energy efficient one.

The OS itself will be Server 2008 R2 Standard and will be running software which wont be too system intensive. However this software is Windows only as I have not been able to find decent alternatives for open source.

So, what do you guys think? Any improvements you can suggest?

 

[VARDY]

Are you going to run RAID or another type of pooling?

Why do you want SSD's for the boot drive?

The only RAID will be with the OS in mirrored. The rest will not be changed. Each drive will represent its own space. This will allow for future changes and negate any wasted space from striping/mirrors (it is only media which can be re-acquired if a drive fails).

The SSDs were more of a luxury as the current selection of 2.5" drives are low RPM and high latency which I would not like to have as an OS drive.

 

[VARDY]

What will you be doing with this, aside from serving media?

Mostly media. Got a HTPC to keep busy

 

[VARDY]

Are you also aware that 3TB drives start at about £120, whereas you're using 4TB ones for £290.

An N40L (after cashback), extra RAM, 5*3TB, SSD and bay adaptor would cost a under £850 for example. More compact, less power and considerably better value.

Yes, I have considered one of those in the past and the 3TB drives. I am looking for the best density of storage, with value being secondary. My current server is already at 10TB which means the 5*3TB will already be mostly full when it is complete.

Compactness for me isn't as much of an issue as the server will be mostly static. The power savings will come from the less number of drives. A standard sized case will also allow me to add more drives at a later date as the inner bays will be unused. All that will be needed is a decent SATA card.

I will always want to keep the cost down, but available storage space and future expansion will always take priority.

 

[VARDY]

£2100 on a home server yet you're using 2008R2?

You obviously haven't researched this very much. See ZFS/OpenIndiana/NexentaStor

2008 R2 currently meets my requirements. However, this may also be a virtual machine to allow more flexibility although some hardware may need to change to allow this.