Can anyone advise me on the minimum spec that would be required for a samba file server?
I potentially have 2 pieces of hardware to choose from:
A p3 550 with 256mb ram and onboard gfx. I've got it all working with fedora core 4 and samba (despite being a linux noob
It idles drawing just 38W.
The question is - will this system be up to the job though? I run a dual tuner setup in windows media centre, so i could be writing 2 x TV shows to the server, while also reading a recorded show from the same drive. Potentially in an extreme scenario my other PC could be writing to the server or my housemate could be accessing files at the same time. The last thing i want to do is compromise my TV recordings however. In the future i may also add another media centre to the mix.
If necesary i could use an old socket A 1.6ghz duron i have as the file server, but this means buying myself a new pc so i can shuffle bits down the line (what a shame
... but more concerningly it draws 80+ Watts at idle. As a 24/7 machine that would cost £35-40 more a year in electricity to power!
As the electric bills are already sky high - If the p3 550 is more than enough to do the job I'd rather use that.
Another question is - will i need to use raid 0 or 5 to get the necessary drive performance for the above scenario or will a single disk on the server be able to cope with all that simultanious reading/writing?
If raid is going to be required I plan to do it in software - I'm sure the p3 won't be up to the job in that case, but will the duron be enough?
Thanks for the help
Marc
I potentially have 2 pieces of hardware to choose from:
A p3 550 with 256mb ram and onboard gfx. I've got it all working with fedora core 4 and samba (despite being a linux noob
It idles drawing just 38W.The question is - will this system be up to the job though? I run a dual tuner setup in windows media centre, so i could be writing 2 x TV shows to the server, while also reading a recorded show from the same drive. Potentially in an extreme scenario my other PC could be writing to the server or my housemate could be accessing files at the same time. The last thing i want to do is compromise my TV recordings however. In the future i may also add another media centre to the mix.
If necesary i could use an old socket A 1.6ghz duron i have as the file server, but this means buying myself a new pc so i can shuffle bits down the line (what a shame
... but more concerningly it draws 80+ Watts at idle. As a 24/7 machine that would cost £35-40 more a year in electricity to power! As the electric bills are already sky high - If the p3 550 is more than enough to do the job I'd rather use that.
Another question is - will i need to use raid 0 or 5 to get the necessary drive performance for the above scenario or will a single disk on the server be able to cope with all that simultanious reading/writing?
If raid is going to be required I plan to do it in software - I'm sure the p3 won't be up to the job in that case, but will the duron be enough?
Thanks for the help
Marc