Help with home server spec?

Keltik THC

Keltik THC

Keltik THC

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16 Dec 2008
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just wondered if i could get some advice from you guys?

ive only built my gaming rigs over the years and i am in need of some help to spec a server for my home network.

The Q9450 is the processor that i think i will order from OCuk, and probably the Western Digital RE3 1TB.

But i cant decide on the motherboard or anything else for that matter, i plan on filling it to the brim with HDDs so many SATA ports are necessary.

Although, even though i've only had my newest rig since the new year passed i am tempted to move my P6TD mobo from my gaming rig (in the sig) and using that in my new server because i haven't been as impressed with it as i thought i would and some of the new mobo's are very appealing... but then again i know there's not much point but I'm itching to upgrade my gaming rig as well!

but then again, doing that would mean either buying another i7 for one of them.... which I'm not so keen on. I really just need rig with heaps of space, that will be on 24/7, has low-noise etc.

i really don't know what to do, any advice please guys?
 
What's the role of the server?

Looks like it's for storage and file serving only - and even if you wanted to stream stuff, then a quad is probably overkill, you'd get away with an Athlon or E5200, 2gb RAM and spend what you've saved on RAID controller cards if you can't find a mobo with enough ports :D

You might also want to consider Windows Home Server for your OS, as it makes for a user-friendly, low maintenance home server platform.
 
just get a dual core, 2gb ram, and onboard graphics, a psu that will run at around 50% load so its most efficient, dont skimp on the case as they will be thinner and noisey (i forgot this for my HTPC) and now im spending just as much on noise dampning lol. Windows home server is good, most mobo's will give you 6/8 internal sata ports. If you need more id check the members market for controller cards, or buy some new, if you dont need raid support just get a cheapo one, if you do, get a proper one.
 
thanks for the feedback guys.

Yeah, the server is for storage, file serving etc.. as i say too much stuff floating about on heaps of external HDDs.

so something very quiet, lots of storage, with low electricity consumption etc..
 
You need to decide on what you want. On one hand you're worried about low power usage and noise, on the other you're putting an i7 in a file server. That doesn't add up. No mention of transcoding or anything else that is CPU intensive so you're burning money on 3 cores you'll never use and 1 you're barely going to use not to mention the power costs you're concerned about or the hardware costs.

If you want WHS and new hardware buy entry level but the power usage is still going to be a lot higher or dedicated off the shelf hardware and loose flexibility. If you want low power then consider a dedicated 5 disk off the shelf product from elsewhere or a dedicated multi disk NAS depending on your actual needs.
 
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You could probably get away with an Atom core for file server operations, no point getting an i7 920 setup when you won't be using more than 5% of it!
 
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