Server spec

colheath · 17 Jan 2008 at 15:40

Hi, I'm looking to put together a pc to use as a file server. It'll be serving to 2 pc's and 2 xbox's. I'd like it to be quiet as it'll be in the living room, have a decent amount of space in the case for hard drives, and be under £300 if poss.

I've had a good hunt through the many threads and just got more and more confused :rolleyes:

Here's where I'm upto so far:

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Senture · 17 Jan 2008 at 16:14

Depending on how many hard drives you need is the big question. If you need 8 hard drives for example, here's what I managed to find:

Lian-Li PC V2000B PLUS Black Aluminium Full-Tower Case
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2)
Intel Celeron 420 1.60GHz
Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU
Asus GeForce EN7300TC 512MB DDR
Pioneer DVR-115DBK 20x DVD±RW IDE
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

Total delivered: £491.00

The 2 biggest savings you can do if you don't need 8 hard drives maximum is a smaller case (saves about £100-135) and PSU aswell (saving about £40)

colheath · 17 Jan 2008 at 16:59

That's a nice looking case. I think it's useful to have the option of fitting more drives in the future if needed.

What's the advantage of the motherboard you recommend?

Senture · 18 Jan 2008 at 00:34

Its the cheapest of the lot I could find that directly caters for 8 hard drives without needing add on raid cards. I have the V2000 in silver myself, fantastic case. It fits really well, has LOADS of room, good air circulation, dust filters, wheels can can take water cooling easy

It is a big spend for a case, but when you get it you won't be able to lift your jaw off the floor for the next hour

BillytheImpaler · 18 Jan 2008 at 00:41

The V2000 is muchos overkill for a lowly file server. You could spend a quarter as much on a nasty stamped-steel "server" case with room for a bunch of disks and pocket the rest of the money. Save the nice cases for machines that you'll have to look at.

/Hugs silver V1000 on the floor beside me

Likewise, a 650 W PSU is unnecessary. 400 W is more than enough.

Senture · 18 Jan 2008 at 00:43

I know the PSU is overkill, but it was the only one I could find with support for 8 SATA connectors. OCUK stopped doing the V1000 otherwise I'd have picked that

I use the V2000 as my file server rofl

As they stopped selling some of the Tagan power supplies

colheath · 18 Jan 2008 at 09:15

so how about the Antec Titan 650 Tower Case? Cheaper than the V2000 and includes the power supply.

PhillyDee · 18 Jan 2008 at 09:57

I would recommend going for 2x500 gb drives, it will work out cheaper, and you can partition one for the system.

blue4ice · 18 Jan 2008 at 11:40

Also isnt that RAM in your spec for a laptop?

colheath · 18 Jan 2008 at 13:20

blue4ice said:
Also isnt that RAM in your spec for a laptop?

oops

Mac RAM, I got myself more confused than I thought :rolleyes:

colheath · 23 Jan 2008 at 11:18

I'm thinking now of buying a ready made server, cheaper and easier for me. The HP ProLiant ML110 seems like a bargain.

Any thoughts?

Senture · 23 Jan 2008 at 12:23

Yep, possibly be prepaired to be screwed on the shipping costs. If it comes over from the states, you could also get screwed on the import tax

therealnerd2 · 23 Jan 2008 at 13:35

AFAIK most with most readymade servers you're paying business rates, i.e. paying extra for brand name, silly components etc.

You're probably much better off getting a smallish workstation, adding RAM, a SATA RAID card and some extra HDs.

What OS are you planning on running?

colheath · 23 Jan 2008 at 14:04

Senture said:
Yep, possibly be prepaired to be screwed on the shipping costs. If it comes over from the states, you could also get screwed on the import tax

The one I've seen advertised is from a UK supplier, with free delivery

therealnerd2 said:
What OS are you planning on running?

I was thinking WHS.

Senture · 23 Jan 2008 at 14:17

colheath said:
I was thinking WHS.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/27/windows-home-server-bug-corrupts-files/

colheath · 23 Jan 2008 at 14:44

Linux?

balls · 23 Jan 2008 at 16:19

Freenas?

http://www.freenas.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=37

jammir · 23 Jan 2008 at 17:46

i would suggest something like this

Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £58.99
(£69.31)
Maxtor Diamondmax 20 80GB SATA-II 2MB Cache - OEM (STM380215AS) £23.99
(£28.19)
Intel Celeron 440 2.00GHz (LGA775) - Retail £15.00
(£17.63)
Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) £13.99
(£16.44)
Samsung SH-S202HBEBN 20x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44)
2x Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD501LJ)
(£133.92)
Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £25.99
(£30.54)
Sub Total : £265.93
Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £48.10
Total : £322.98

bit over 300 but you can drop the 80gb and use a smaller cheaper used hdd you dont need anything super fast and 2gb ram is not needed i run a far lower spec and it can stream to 4 pcs 1080p video just fine while downloading with sabnzb, emule and torrents

a1ex2001 · 23 Jan 2008 at 17:52

second hand PC off the bay then stuff it full of disks, I use an old P3 box for file serving its practically silent since I removed the CPU fan. You don't need anything fancy at all and I'd avoid windows home server bit overpriced for what you get when you'd probably be fine with XP or even cheaper Linux!

Server spec

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