Ideas on home server...

[Madwand1]

You should also budget for a Kill-a-Watt or similar meter to see what you're actually using -- idle and load. Idle will typically matter more over time. Note also that your biggest gains may be outside this file server altogether -- and such a device can help you check that.

 

[elcamino74ss]

I'm just using a retired Dell GX150 P3 933 w/512mb ram for a linux server. I got into the beta for that windows home server and thinking about giving it a spin. Its a desktop case so its only running one 250gb IDE drive right now but it screams with ubuntu server. I'm upgrading my main rig from a s754 2800 newcastle to an AM2 3600 this week and will probably end up using that for a new box. I'll wait and get one of those ultra cases that end up almost free AR.

 

[oynaz]

Maybe this:

http://synology.com/enu/products/CS407e/index.php

Might be worth considering?

 

[corfe83]

I recently built a system precisely for this, and I too wanted to go as energy-efficient as possible. I ordered one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813181019. It's fanless, super low power, and has gigabit LAN, which you may want to have in the future.

I also ordered an IDE-to-compact-flash adapter with a 2 gig compact flash drive, and used it as my system drive. The OS is basically a SLAX liveCD server distro, except it boots off of the compact flash drive, not a CD (there is no CD drive in my server). This way the entire system drive is loaded into RAM at boot time, and no writes are made to the flash drive in normal operation - writes are only made if I change the server's config (a drawback of this is that changing the server's config will require a reboot). This is necessary to avoid wearing out your flash drive. I did have to manually setup a samba server on it (to enable filesharing to windows systems), which took a bit of work. If you're interested in setting up a system like this and have reasonable unix skills, private message me, or consult your local unix geek / unix forum for help.

Lastly, my server has two SATA drives - one for storage, the other for a backup. It's not a mirrored RAID 1 array. Right now it's just a periodic copy of what's on the storage drive, but I later plan to upgrade it to use an incremental backup system (rdiff-backup). That way even if I accidentally delete some files on the storage drive, or I want to go back to an earlier copy, I'm still covered by my backup's insurance policy . It also avoids super-long backup times, as only the changes need to be copied to the backup drive.

 

[bX510]

Originally posted by: oynaz
Maybe this:

http://synology.com/enu/products/CS407e/index.php

Might be worth considering?

Hey, I like this. How hard would it be to custom build something liek that and beable to turn it to a FTP server or a webserver and drag and drop torrent files and let the thing download.

I like this project:
http://www.mashie.org/casemods/udat2.html

Is it possible I can make it with this hot-swap instead? I am planning to use this as a FTP server or probably just a media storage for my network.
http://www.circotech.com/icydock-mb455-...hard-drive-cage-for-5-hard-drives.html

Also, does anyone know of a case that I don't have to mod.

 

[Penth]

Another vote to wait think about waiting on Windows Home Server. It'll use all of your storage and create redundant storage for your important files, plus like was mentioned will backup all your pcs and allow you to restore them to any state that they have been in. I've read quite a bit about it and it sounds pretty sweet. Also, I don't know how much the prebuilt ones will be but they're going to be headerless and designed much like a router or something that you just plug into your network. It sounds like they'll be pretty low-power devices. (Not really as fun as DIY though)

 

[dartworth]

Any word on when Windows Home Server is going to be released? I was going to just use linux, but this flavor of Windows sounds like a great concept...

 

[BoberFett]

Unless things have changed, Home Server will only be sold to OEMs for preloading.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070108-8573.html

 

[catellus]

If you're thinking about Windows Home server in order to run software RAID (which IS a good idea), you can patch Windows 2000 pro so it will do RAID. The patch involves 3 files, and basically you're switching the program's constants for the names "Windows 2000 Professional" and Windows 2000 Server".

Software RAID is good if you're doing RAID 1 for redundancy, because you can still recover even if your HDD controller goes belly up, as long as one of the disks is OK. Performance isn't as good, of course, but we're more concerned with reliability. And you still need backups.

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: bob4432
anyway here is the rest of the deal/plan - 3x500GB in a raid 5 array w/ a highpoint 2310

Don't you need 4 drives for RAID 5?

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: yh125d
Don't you need 4 drives for RAID 5?

No, but Google is highly recommended.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: BoberFett
Unless things have changed, Home Server will only be sold to OEMs for preloading.

That's certainly an unknown at this point. Microsoft didn't generally release MCE 2005 for a while, presumably because of the limited hardware compatibility and the desire for a good "out-of-the-box" experience for the final purchaser.

But Windows Home Server doesn't have any special hardware requirements. And there's not a lot of profit to be made from the hardware, since no fancy video cards or other devices are needed, except for the ability to accept lots of hard drives.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: BoberFett
That's certainly an unknown at this point. Microsoft didn't generally release MCE 2005 for a while, presumably because of the limited hardware compatibility and the desire for a good "out-of-the-box" experience for the final purchaser.

But Windows Home Server doesn't have any special hardware requirements. And there's not a lot of profit to be made from the hardware, since no fancy video cards or other devices are needed, except for the ability to accept lots of hard drives.

Microsoft's web site / FAQ clearly points to an OEM-targeted release:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc...nfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

When will this product be available for purchase? How can I buy it?

Windows Home Server will be available through the retail channel within a wide range of new hardware products. The first products are targeted for availability in the second half of 2007. It will be available in English, German, French, and Spanish.

How much will Windows Home Server cost?

OEMs will set the final pricing for their products, depending on the storage capacity and additional capabilities. We'll have more information to share in the future.

This makes a lot of sense IMO because the target buyers for this product are not DIY builders, and would like most of the hardware choices being made for them as well, together with pretty boxes, point and click deployment, etc., of course.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: yh125d

Originally posted by: bob4432
anyway here is the rest of the deal/plan - 3x500GB in a raid 5 array w/ a highpoint 2310

Don't you need 4 drives for RAID 5?

nope, just 3. raid 6 would need 4 but the card i am eyeing doesn't support raid 6

 

[Jeff7181]

If you want to be the greenest you can be, I think a type of NAS would be best rather than an entire PC just to use as a file server.

 

[bX510]

I found this, if you want to see...
http://excito.com/products.html

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
If you want to be the greenest you can be, I think a type of NAS would be best rather than an entire PC just to use as a file server.

I agree. If all you want is accessible storage then NAS should be on your watch list. I built my Sempron long before NAS became a cost effective household option. If I had to do it over again I wouldn't have that black box in the corner of the room.

It's been a little over a month since your post. Did you make your move yet???

 

[AncientPC]

Kurobox ($150) - Uses only 17W and includes a 266Mhz PowerPC CPU, 128MB RAM, 2 USB 2.0 ports, and a 10/100/1000 NIC. It has a single 3.5" PATA IDE interface. hdds will typically use up ~20W each.

It looks nice, but is has an extremely small footprint so you can still shove it into the corner or a cabinet if you want to.

If you want to use all your hdds try USB enclosures (~$30 each).

Edit: I just realized all your hdds were SATA. Well this option is still out there for people who simply want a file server / torent box and have PATA hdds laying around.

Otherwise for storage only you're better off with a NAS.

If you're going to build a full workstation might as well make it a HTPC, but that's just me.