Media Storage Server

Ramshackles

Ramshackles

Ramshackles

Associate
Joined
24 Jan 2006
Posts
33
Morning,

I've been looking into expanding my digital media (backing up everything literally) , now my main pc is in my bedroom so can't just have that running 24/7 would drive me crazy.

So I thought about buying a motherboard, cpu, ram and a case to use as a file server (maybe even use windows home server) for software raid since I don't know s*** about backing up etc.

I kinda like the Lian Li PC-A16A:
http://www.lian-li.com/product/product06.php?pr_index=22&cl_index=1&sc_index=1&ss_index=4&type=a
PC-A16-a.jpg


I was then going to fill the expansion slots with drive cages (backbones) like this:
pc-a16b-closed.jpg



Would this be overkill? I'm on a budget aswell so can't get too expensive, but I'm kinda wishing it would be a quiet rig
 
Last edited:
I like it, but I can't see it being cheep or quite.

If you fill it with the cheapest GB/£ HDs it's going to cost you in the region of £800 in HDs alone and give you around 5TB of disk space. Not sure it's entirely necessary.

Why don't you just get a NAS device and a much smaller, quieter system to act as a media server?
 
Last edited:
I wasn't going to fill it up with harddrives from day one, was more thinking about being able to expand really. I'd have 5 drives in it from the get-go :)

Any recommendations on your other idea though? Haven't seen any cheap NAS devices around, I can't really go below the 5 initial drives. I suppose I could get a miniITX system to act as a server.
 
Easily possible with music in lossless. But at this time, with a large collection of films it's either incredibly expensive or just not pratical. Unless you convert DVD's to Divx, but then you'll lose quality. And forget Blu-Ray stored on your computer.

I don't think storage capacity is there yet.
 
Look at the Lian Li 343B, is what I am looking at going with at the moment.

A highpoint 2340 16 port RAID 5, start off with 4 and can add 1 or 2 disks a month till complete.
 
If I was going down this root, I would start of with a 4 disk raid 5 array with 500GB disks, that 1.5TB's, the good thing is a reasonable motherbord will support this raid 5. yes i can hear the cries that on board raid is rubbish, but the board isn't doing anything else and your not looking for gaming performance

then when time goes by pick up a reasonable raid card, I would say 8 port one PCIe based, that's another two arrays of 1.5TB, a total of 4.5TB's but this is without factoring in that hard drives will get cheaper so you will be able to go bigger.

so plan for this.

now overclockers stock some nice HD caddys like these

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-018-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72

they take up 3 5.25" bays, so that 9 in total. and you will be able to hotswap every drive. a Antec Nine Hundred will do the trick

i whould go down the AMD root, as you wont want to overclock, and you will want to keep it cheep.

£650 ish might get you going, but that is a very off the top of the head number.
 
I absolutely love that Lian-Li case and it has so much room for drives, even internally that it would probably last me a few years, the case would probably be the most expensive part of the system.

Then I'd need a cpu, motherboard, ram and psu. Doesn't even have to be that powerfull, well won't go cheap on the psu, never do that :)

In the beginning I could probably get by with software raid, like unRaid if you guys know it.

Any idea if the case will take a mATX motherboard? Only says ATX on the website.
 
It should take mATX, the mounting holes are in the same places.

Just watch with the PC343B, you get very little in the way of accessories with it, by the time you add CD bezels, front fan mounts, HDD cages etc it can get pricey.
 
I meant the Lian Li PC-A16A, not sure where I would put the PC343B in my flat :) Definately doesn't fit into my closet hehe.

So I was thinking going with the A16A, a mATX motherboard with onboard video, stick of ram and a little cpu.

I already have one of those backbones from icydock which I'll put in the case and a few harddrives lying around, that oughta be it.

Would want a motherboard with as many internal sata connectors as possible, they have some with 6 here at ocuk i see.

Ofcourse a corsair psu or similar
 
Ah, OK. Lost track of which case we were referring to. Just out of interest the PC343 is only the size of a pair of A16s side by side - surprisingly compact for something which takes 30 HDDs.
 
That's actually pretty incredible, you could probably even whack 2 entire systems in there aswell. Motherboards and all.

It's double the cost aswell though :)

Any idea if a mid-level system (passive cooled cpu) with only the psu (120mm fan) and some fans at the hdd's would be relatively quiet? Atleast for now with only a few disks in it I'm trying to keep it quiet.

The case fans are 120mm aswell, and if not quiet by default could probably switch them out fairly easy.
 
You could stick 2 systems in a 343 but you'd need to mod the second one in, the right hand side is purely disks and PSU(s).

If the machine is purely operating as a file server then you'll be able to get it running pretty quietly. The disks will likely be the loudest part, especially if they're in a big array since the accesses are synchronised. Take a look at running the fans at 7 or even 5V rather than the normal 12V, it makes a huge difference to the noise they make.
 
Do you have any links or tutorials on that? I've always noticed how people say they've 5/7v modded them, never knew what it requires though.

Yeah I suppose I'll find some quier 500gb drives to start with, seagate most likely I reckon?
 
I thought about building a dedicated server as well.
Instead I purchased this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-156-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=707
I worked out that it cost the same as a purpose built server, but was a lot smaller and easier to set up. It's biggest disadvantage is that it's slow @7MB/s compared to what a dedicated server could run at on my network (upto 60MB/s hard drive speed limited). It could be quieter as well, but mine's tucked away under my desk so the noise isn't intrusive.
 
Ramshackles said:
Do you have any links or tutorials on that? I've always noticed how people say they've 5/7v modded them, never knew what it requires though.
Click to expand...
You can do it yourself but I use Zalman speed reduction splitter cables, they plug into a molex power plug and split it out to a pair of 12V and a pair of 5V 3 pin fan headers.
 
chronicbint said:
How much space do you need?
Click to expand...

I have 4 full 750gb HDD's in my main pc which I can't have always on, so looking to move that data to another location. Also trying to be aware of the future, not doing HD backups now just can't bother with all that data, but plan to backup dvd's and cd's which will take a large chunk of space.

I've looked at NAS and I could build a complete system (case,mobo,ram,cpu,psu) for the same and atleast the lian-li a16a can hold atleast 15 disks without problems hotswappable even.

This built system has another major plus, ability to add sata cards, raid cards, use software raid, i.e. user control over what features I'd want.

Out of the box I could use onboard ICH9 raid (6 disks) or software raid (unraid etc), and down the line I could add more HDD's and raid controllers, it's flexible atleast.

A NAS is just so final and I'm worried about filling it up too fast, having to buy another and that would be money out the window in my mind :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom