HELP - Spec me a machine to use as a NAS \ Print Server \ Music Server

slaterss · 5 Feb 2008 at 10:58

I want to build a server for NAS \ Print Server (USB Printer - Canon) \ Music Server for my home network (100Mbit);

My constraints are

£450 budget or thereabouts, since it will just be a NAS \ Print Server
500GB of useuable storage
quiet'ish operation
not massive power consumption as it will be left on all the time
No keyboard \ Mouse \ monitor required
Onboard graphics is fine
Small'ish form factor; but not critical

What is the best OS to go for; is it Unbunto; or should I stick with MS XP Pro?

the streaming will be used to stream to my 360 & PS3;

Or is it best to by an off the shelf NAS such as the synology 107e and wack in a 500GB Segate SataII drive ?

your valued help and support and guidance is muchly appreciated.

many thanks

PhillyDee · 5 Feb 2008 at 11:10

Have you thought about Windows Home Server? Thats exactly what it was designed for!

slaterss · 5 Feb 2008 at 11:13

many thanks; Windows Home Server sounds ideal for what I want the PC for.

I am thinking about going for Shuttle SX38P2 Pro Barebones System.
would this be too much of an overkill; I realise it will throw me over budget but its very tempting and I can use the PC for a few extra things; What Processor \ Memory would I want to add to this ?
thanks
Stu

afraser2k · 5 Feb 2008 at 12:51

What about the Asus Vintage barebone system range? You don't need that much power if you're only going for a handful of users so maybe something like:

Asus Vintage V3-P5G33 Barbones system = £109
Intel C2D E2180 2.0 GHz Retail = £53
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-5300C4 DDR2 = £33
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA II AAKS = £66

Total: £261

Then you can decide if you want another hard disk for backups and if you really need to spend on WHS when you could probably get by with Ubuntu Server edition. I suppose it really depends on your Linux experience and if you want to take the time to set it up over WHS ease-of-use.

However, you could just go for a NAS box like the Icy Box IB-NAS4220-B NAS Enclosure with the same Western Digital drive listed above and have a cost of about £173. The home server would give you more room for more than two drives though.

slaterss · 5 Feb 2008 at 17:54

thanks for the suggestion; great cheap spec; the asus item is currently out of stock unfortunately;

decto · 5 Feb 2008 at 21:13

Coolermaster Hyper TX 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £8.21
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-024-CM&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=821

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3600+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM £24.66
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-215-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=803

Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £35.24
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-012-FC&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=807

Antec NSK 4480B Mini Tower Case (Black) - 380W Earth Watts PSU £46.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-093-AN

Samsung SH-S202HBEBN 20x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.44
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-090-SA&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NQ PC2-6400C5 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit £32.89
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-018-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813

2 x Western Digital RE2 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5001ABYS) £79.89 each
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-176-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM (WD1600AAJB) £34.06
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-005-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=59

£358.27 if I haven't missed anything.

That gives you 500 GB raid 1 mirror storage with enterprise class drives 5 year warrenty. Add a third drive and you can have 1TB raid 5. With the Nvidia raid you can add the extra drive at any time and migrate the array.
Also a seperate system drive - 160GB mainly for the OS.

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PhillyDee · 5 Feb 2008 at 23:54

If you do decide to use WHS, you install it on the largest drive in the system, it then partitions 20gb for the OS and the rest as the first drive in the storage pool.

Just a heads up. That Antec case and PSU are a good deal, and are pleasant to work with. I would go for the above spec, and if you use whs then just buy 2x500gb drives. It makes it easier as you dont need to faff about with raid, you choose what you want duplicated on the server at the touch of a button, and adding extra drives is the easiest ever.

decto · 6 Feb 2008 at 00:27

PhillyDee said:
If you do decide to use WHS, you install it on the largest drive in the system, it then partitions 20gb for the OS and the rest as the first drive in the storage pool.

Just a heads up. That Antec case and PSU are a good deal, and are pleasant to work with. I would go for the above spec, and if you use whs then just buy 2x500gb drives. It makes it easier as you dont need to faff about with raid, you choose what you want duplicated on the server at the touch of a button, and adding extra drives is the easiest ever.

WHS is a good option, it's fine for duplicating critical files, backing up your photos and music etc but it's not as space efficient as a raid 5 array so all depends as to how much space you need and how big the budget.

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