Spec me a Media/File Server

[FrankDaTank]

Hey guys! I am finally getting round to making a file server. Something I have wanted to do for ages, and hopefully give my networked laptop a rest as it is acting media server at the minute.

I really want to know if there is anything I should be looking out for when building it compared to a Home PC? I don't want to skimp on much, but as usual want it to be nice and cheap

Can you suggest a Mobo, CPU, RAM, PSU, Case and anything else you would recommend needed (dedicated lan card for better network performance?).

I have all the HDD's I need for files/OS, have a monitor and KB & M. Any particular OS you would recommend?

To give you an idea I have 4 HDD's - SATA that will be going into it, and it will be connected via ethernet to a SKY router, which then travels to another Netgear router I use as a switch/Wireless AP. The PC using the media is connected to this Netgear router via ethernet.

I intend to watch movies in HD too. 10-20GB file streaming. I am open to upgrading my Home Network setup if needed. Enough waffle from me.

To give an idea, I would like something around £150-£250 if possible.

Thanks as always and looking forward to your input.

 

[FrankDaTank]

I run the following

Intel i5 4570T 35w dual core 2.9ghz
8gb Crucial Sport DDR3 1.35v 1600mhz
Asus MAXIMUS VI Gene z87
Corsair H100 water cooler
Samsung EVO 120gb SSD
3x Seagate NAS 4TB drives
Lian Li V358 case
Seasonic FANLESS 400w psu
Intel RS2SG244 raid card

Windows 7 licence I already had. Very quiet. Never seen it hotter than 30c. Sits beside my tv in the front room. Streams to my sons NUC, my TV, daughters laptop etc. Tad over kill. Plan was to add a GPU if I wanted to game on it. Never got round to it.

Haha, just a tad overkill . I like it though

The solution I am looking for will hopefully be more minimal than that. As I said, I want to keep it low budget with out it affecting performance where possible. I would spend more on it but I am hoping to make a new gaming PC build soon also.

To give an idea, I would like something around £150-£250 if possible.

 

[FrankDaTank]

I don't like the idea of a NAS to be honest. I would rather have something I can remote onto and if necessary use as a backup PC in the off chance there's an issue with my main PC. @booyaka that sounds like my sort of rig... Also what is this members market you speak of? Need to follow up on that.

I will have to look into that hominid and see if it fits my needs. That router sounds good too. I think an older setup would be good. As long as it has at least 6 sata on the MOBO to give me room to expand if needed. I dont know if this is the right thread for you jas72 if you have other needs...