Custom server build, need some advice and experienced eyes please.

[Kanifee]

posted this in the sff forum but i think it may be more suited and get a better response in here


Decided a nas was needed a week or so back to function as my home server and media streamer, after posting for advice and being recommended the sensible and adequate netgear readynas i decided to blow it and go for a custom build.

i decided on the ZOTAC NM10-DTX WiFi on the expansion possibility.
Ive ordered a Fractal Array r2 with 300w supply and a western digital 1.5tb wd green 5400rpm drive to go with the 1tb barracude low power drive i allready have, on that ive also got a small 8Gb chassis mounted ssd for the server operating system and light apps ill be needing and 2gb ddr2. all came to just shy of £370, should be a beast!

Couple of things i was wondering, is there any transcoding software that uses gpu offloading to benefit streaming and transcoding to a ps3??
Also what operating system is best, what is windows server like to use and are there better alternatives?
Lastly have i made a booboo or is this set up justified as a home server, its not overkill is it or is it lacking on the cpu fornt? i was drawn in by the shiny bits and the lull of unrapping new parts, anything else i may need for this build.

 

[mikeh501]

You definately splurged lol.

I think what your completely missing is a decent storage controller for all those potential drives. Before you go any further i'd splurge some more on a decent SATA RAID controller which does RAID5/6 etc. The onboard controller is likely to only do striping or mirror which with that many potential disks is either suicidal or expensive

I'd just go for Windows 7 32bit and have done, unless your wanting to host your own DHCP/AD/DNS etc its probably not worth going to Windows Server. Other option would be some flavour of linux.

I very much doubt you will need either more CPU power or the SSD, but hey its cool

 

[Kanifee]

Ok, any suggestions on a sata raid card? and yes what splurge, the missus wasnt pleased without googling i take it raid 5/6 are like three drives for the space of two with the ability to loose one and still function?

 

[mikeh501]

Ok, any suggestions on a sata raid card? and yes what splurge, the missus wasnt pleased without googling i take it raid 5/6 are like three drives for the space of two with the ability to loose one and still function?

Yes pretty much. RAID0 basically means you get two disks which act like a single disk in windows. The downside is that a failure on either disk (i.e. twice as probable) will nuke the contents of the whole thing. RAID1 basically copies all data onto both disks providing redundancy but you lose 1/2 your storage.

RAID5 will use 3 or more disks to provide redundancy whilst only losing 1 of the drives as available space.

I'm actually looking for RAID card recommendations too for my home server, so be interested in what anybody comes up with. Obviously you have the usual suspects from adaptec, 3ware and LSI but there are numerous others. I think you should budget to pay £100 for a decent basic model, but you can pay the earth tbh, which is the main reason people go with NAS because its built in etc.