[protocol77]

Gonna be putting together a server for a mate tomorrow these are the parts i have picked out he has picked a case seperately but it is a large gaming case (not my taste but each to his own i guess)

anyways this is what i picked

CPU - Intel Celeron G1610

Mobo - ASRock B75-PRO3-M

Storage - 2 x 3TB WD Green Drives (Reds too expensive right now)

RAM - 4GB DDR3 1333mhz (not sure what brand doesn't really matter whatever is cheapest)

OS Drive - WD 2.5 inch 320GB (went with laptop drive as cheaper and can mount almost anywhere in the case and save a drive bay)

PSU - Antec Neo Eco 450 Watt 80 Plus Bronze (i prefer seasonic but no seasonic for sale at local store plus cheaper than the corsair ones)


I haven't decided on an OS yet either Windows 8 Pro or a Linux Distro of some sort i don't need raid or drive pooling or anything just straight ntfs seperate drive sharing

I will basically be only used to store all media to share to xbmc and have a mysql sync database


What do you guys think do you like the parts and also do you have a good suggestion on the best OS i am leaning towards windows because i am more experience plus i can easily setup teamviewer or something to remote desktop in and do maintenance if needed (i know teamviewer can be installed on linux)

[cwide]

Do yourself a favor and switch to an SSD for your OS drive. The G1610 is a great processor, but I don't think you will notice that with a regular hard drive.

[solamnic]

Do yourself a favor and switch to an SSD for your OS drive. The G1610 is a great processor, but I don't think you will notice that with a regular hard drive.

+1

[protocol77]

yeah i thought of ssd for OS and there is a Kingston SSD for like $15 more at my local store however researching the general consensus i found from people is that for a server that is mostly idle a SSD is not really worth it the only benefit would be from booting quicker but seeing as i wont be booting very often that would not be a big concern

[dagatech]

yeah i thought of ssd for OS and there is a Kingston SSD for like $15 more at my local store however researching the general consensus i found from people is that for a server that is mostly idle a SSD is not really worth it the only benefit would be from booting quicker but seeing as i wont be booting very often that would not be a big concern

that can all depend. If you're running a linux distro, and really not accessing the server frequently, then the hard drive isn't that big a deal. Windows, however, is generally pretty bad about randomly spinning up the drive. Also, an SSD doesn't have moving parts, which makes drive failure less likely.

If you aren't committed to Windows, what about running something like FreeNAS from a USB drive?

[00b5]

yeah i thought of ssd for OS and there is a Kingston SSD for like $15 more at my local store however researching the general consensus i found from people is that for a server that is mostly idle a SSD is not really worth it the only benefit would be from booting quicker but seeing as i wont be booting very often that would not be a big concern

that can all depend. If you're running a linux distro, and really not accessing the server frequently, then the hard drive isn't that big a deal. Windows, however, is generally pretty bad about randomly spinning up the drive. Also, an SSD doesn't have moving parts, which makes drive failure less likely.

If you aren't committed to Windows, what about running something like FreeNAS from a USB drive?

+1 this, and also will suggest unraid (which also runs from a usb stick). You went with a 2.5" to save drive bays, why not go the extra mile and not waste the sata slot either!

To save you time looking it up, something like unraid (not sure the specifics for freenas) you will have one drive dedicated for parity, so deduct that from the total storage count (so 2 3tb hdds would only give you 3tb of space, but 3 3tb drives would give you 6tb, 4 drives = 9tb, etc.)

[protocol77]

thanks for the replies guys i am working within a budget but i will talk to my friend and see if he was to spend the extra money (just check and it is about $20 more for the SSD not much but not my decision i am just building the thing)

this is the one i was thinking as it is the cheapest they have
http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=10089

i like kingston ram but not sure if their SSD's are any good i only own one SSD and it is Samsung 830 which has been working fantastic so my next SSD i would go with either Samsung again or i hear the Intel ones are awesome


As fpr OS i am leaning towards windows for familiarity i have been using windows since Windows 98 and can easily setup and configure it for just about anything however i have spent some significant time test out linux distro's and as much as i like the idea (and price) of them until i learn more they just take too much effort to setup because i gotta research everything i try to do, i have to find Linux alternative to software that don't have linux installers plus i have driver issues

Windows you can install set it up within an hour and be done with it instead of spending hours researching and learning to do the same stuff but in linux

I am not really interested in a Unraid system i know it is popular here but i use different methods for backup myself i use software to make a mirror copy to an offline drive i once a week put in my HDD docking station it is not an automated solution but simple and effective and easy to recover from if a drive fails i simple swap out for the offline drive and be up and running in a couple minutes i then go and buy another drive put that in the docking station and start a incremental backup to copy to the new drive from the offline drive i just installed then once every couple months i go through and do incremental backup comparison with the older full drives just in case any files have been changed this also lets the drive spin up which i think helps keep them in working order and lets me know if i still have a reliable backup drive before the ones in the server do fail dont want to have false confidence thinking i have a backup then a drive dies and the offline is also dead

no rebulding arrays, no expensive raid card and no relying on software to recover my data as long as i can insert a hard drive and copy and paste i am good to go

plus i get full utilization of space no parity drive using space sure i have to buy two drives for every one i use but i would have to do similar the other way around and it is not like i purchase one every day a 3TB will give you plenty of space for quite a while

[00b5]

If you have any spare old hdds and a pc you can use, I suggest you try setting up unraid for yourself as a test bed (its free for 3hdds).

There is no expensive raid card, it DOES provide parity (which isn't a backup solution) but does allow for 1 of the hdds in the "array" to fail and the system is still useable.

Maybe its not ideal for what you are doing right now, but i encourage you to try it out one day and see for yourself.

BTW, it also has a plugin for sql, so it'll cover that aspect as well. It also pools all your hdds together, so you just get 6tb of space, instead of having to split things amongst numerous drives, etc.

I used to have 3hdds in my win7 desktop, running sql and sharing out to all my XBMC machines. Finally, when I couldn't handle having to micromanage the files on the numerous 1tb and 2tb hdds i was using, I decided to give Unraid a try, and haven't looked back.

Lastly, i'd probably go with Win7 over Win8 for a makeshift file server, Win8 just drives me nuts with all its metro crap getting in the way. I guess at least 8.1 has a "start menu" again.

[Camlann]

Windows 8 would offer a nice Feature called Storage Spaces (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windo...woldogcb=0, and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libra...31739.aspx)
It's easy to Set up and Maintain. Basically if you run out of HDD Space you simply plug in a new Disc and add it to your Storage Pool.

[RaggSokk3n]

my win 8 server has been running for 1 year with no issues so if you can afford the hardware needed its a great choice
Only drawback is that storage spaces takes more disk (sw raid 5 option) than unraid and its a bit more intensive on your drives.