Home Server Build

MatthewC · 20 Mar 2011 at 17:29

Hi all,

Thanks for all your help so far in choosing parts from OcUK shop for a new PC at work.

Now for a personal project, looking to build a home server with around 2 TB of usable space, with option of easily upgrading down the line.

Price is important, but is not the most important, as depending on features given to me, I can allocate more funds to the project. I don't know what to expect, so would like to hear opinions.

Summary:

+ 2TB Space, with space in the case for expansion
+ For storage of Movies, my iTunes collection, photos, and other general files
+ Would be used for streaming movies and music to another PC.
+ Not sure if RAID would be a good thing in the server, or not?
+ May use it to install WebDev tools on for testing.
+ Energy efficient, but not compromising on performance of above features.

Can anyone recommend a spec and config please? And any software (an OS, but also anything else that will make accessing the files easy, convenient and smart)?

I've heard RAID should not be used as a backup solution, but in my mind, RAID is better than nothing? Any opinions?

Thanks for your help so far

Cheers,
Matthew

MatthewC · 21 Mar 2011 at 08:56

Hope you guys don't mind me bumping.

I appreciate there are lots of tutorials out there. One I have found is at:

http://www.whatthetech.com/2011/01/10/how-to-build-a-cheap-home-server/

They are recommending an ATOM processor. Their spec is also much lower than what I am looking for but surely, more storage doesn't mean more processing power?

Any ideas on good software, can I just use my WinXP OS, or should I go and buy Windows Home Server?!

Cheers guys,
Matthew

Martynt74 · 21 Mar 2011 at 14:25

The Atom based pc's are very good for servers as they consume such low amounts of power.

Processing power wise there really isn't too much needed to stream movies and music. Perhaps if you were streaming huge files to multiple computers at any given moment but for streaming to a couple pc's an Atom based pc is fine (and cheap to!)

RAID is alright as a source of back up as it creates a Mirror of each hard drive. (IE you have 2 x 2tb hard drives and one is an exact copy of the other), however if theres a fire inside the pc then its very likely that both hard drives would go caput!

A better option would be to also get a 2tb external hard drive and keep it stored well away from the server.

Winxp will probably be fine, although you can also get a freeware OS called FreeNas i believe is good

JonJ678 · 21 Mar 2011 at 17:06

I'm not sure what you mean by project, but if you're used to linux or have a fair amount of time on your hands you might want to consider the device linked in my sig. It hits everything in your OP except for raid & easily upgradable, does so using 10W of electricity, without a fan, and currently costs about £130, including a 2TB western digital drive.

Aside from webdav I believe it does everything you've asked for out of the box. It has an itunes server, and general media serving from Twonky. It ships with samba (windows shares) and nfs (linux shares) already set up and ready to go, and a usable web interface.

By not easily upgradable, I mean that upgrading will involve pulling the box apart (which is tricky), imaging the current hard drive onto the new larger one, and then putting it all back together. People have done so successfully moving from 1tb to 2tb, but it isn't "easy" by any reasonable definition.

Worth considering anyway, it's certainly cheap.