Cheap home server

Chris Beard

Chris Beard

Chris Beard

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Joined
17 Apr 2006
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Hampshire
Hi Guys,

My mate has asked me to spec out a home sever. He wants RAID and reliability, disk space, and quiet in that order of priority. Asthetics and speed are minor considerations.

My current spec looks something like this:

Chip:
AMD Semrpon 140

Board:
ASUS M4A77TD PRO 770

RAM:
Corsair 2GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory single Dimm

Case:
Silverstone Raven RV02

PSU:
Seasonic S12 II 430W PSU

Drives:
2 x Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB 32MB Cache

CPU Cooling:
Xigmatek HDT-S1283 (H.D.T.)
120mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle SE

HDD Cooling:
2x Scythe Quiet Drive

Case Cooling:
Scythe Kaze Jyuni 500RPM Slip Stream

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Chris.
 
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No idea, he has a pretty firm grasp of current software, as it's a file server for windows machines I'd guess he'll magically find a copy of sever 2008 from somewhere.
 
Just a file server. The (relitively) expensive CPU and Board are for 45nm process (cooler - I can undervolt/underclock it) and raid/good capacitors etc.
 
I'd suggest looking at true hardware RAID if he can afford it, it just makes data recovery so much simpler if theres a motherboard failure etc. I also always reccomend keeping a small seperate OS drive to the data drives. Keeps things simpler in my opinion.

I've got a linux based home server thats more than a little ott to be honest, but it does have true hardware RAID5 using a 3ware controller and the OS runs from either a seperate smaller hard drive or I have even got a linux install on a USB memory stick it can run from if I want.
 
Evil-I said:
I'd suggest looking at true hardware RAID if he can afford it, it just makes data recovery so much simpler if theres a motherboard failure etc. I also always reccomend keeping a small seperate OS drive to the data drives. Keeps things simpler in my opinion.

I've got a linux based home server thats more than a little ott to be honest, but it does have true hardware RAID5 using a 3ware controller and the OS runs from either a seperate smaller hard drive or I have even got a linux install on a USB memory stick it can run from if I want.
Click to expand...


Cool - I'm a little lost when it comes to hardware raid - could you suggest some specific hardware please?
 
Chris Beard said:
I'm a little confused by this post - please could you expand?
Click to expand...

you don't need a dualc core at £50 for a file server, I use the AMD Semrpon 140 single core, 45w at like £20 new :)

Why don't you try debian linux as the OS? It's rock solid, legally free. You seem to be suggesting that your friend is going to pirate a windows server OS? I wouldn't risk my files on pirated software. What happens if the crack goes funny?
 
rhearly? £20 new and only 45W you say? - Fantastic - thank you for saving on chip cost - sempron it is!

Can linux run an ntfs file share accessable to windows users?
 
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Chris Beard said:
rhearly? £20 new and only 45W you say?

Can linux run an ntfs file share accessable to windows users?
Click to expand...

yes and yes. I think the 140 can even be unlocked to a dual core with the right mainboard and the right cpu.

The program is called samba, I use it on my linux home server.

Install debian and do your research in virtualbox first, see if your happy with it.

Seems silly spending shed loads on windows OS just for a simple fileserver.

If you want even simplier google FreeNAS, that seems to be exactl want you want and easy to setup.

FreeNAS on youtubz:

 
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Thank you Oxy - you've been of great help already.

I'm a little out of my depth with AMD (as can be seen by my selection of the wrong chip) - is the board I've selected apropriate or is there something a little more apt for a fileserver?
 
Ram is fine, HDD seem fine, Case looks pricey. Could you not get away with an Antec 300? Its like £60 cheaper :) thats the price of a 3rd HDD :p

mainboard needs look at I think... let me have a look!
 
It's a really really nice case - and it lets him add like 11 5+1/4" quietened (is that a word) drives. I'll let him choose between that and an old case I'm binning.

Thank you for taking a look!
 
M4A785TD-M EVO


M4A785TD-V EVO


Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H


All should do the job fine! They have onboard video and should be fully compatible for linux/BSD/Windows.

Download Virtualbox on your windows desktop now and run freenas in it and see what you think.
 
Lastly dunno what corsair ram you were thinking of but get

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-234-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1516

I don't think you need the fancy stuff.

My server runs debian with mediatomb, ftp, rtorrent, NFS, Sabnzbd and samba. It's runs headless with no GUI, I issue it text commands from my windows desktop :)

I started to use FreeNAS as its noob friendly :)

My server is very modest:

socket 754 3400 AMD
512mb DDR1 ram (gave my sister the other 512mb)
20GB ghetto old as hell IDE dribe for the OS drive.
1TB Hitachi storage drive
500GB seagate storage drive.

I'm very envious of your build, it's what I want mine to be, but I have no monies. :(
 
It's for my mate else it'd be made up of bits I got lying around - as I'm extremely cheap and over-laden with out-of-date tech. Had a P4 board with a chip that went to the tip last week as we've just got too much carp and other fish.

Thanks for the board suggestions, with those I'd have to go software raid or hardware raid right? I'm erring towards software raid as the slowdown is unlikely to be noticable. What do you think?
 
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