Building a home server

I am looking to build a home server to work as a media server in the house and also an FTP server so I can access everything anywhere. It will be running 24/7/365 so heat and power consumption are a concern. I plan on running the computer headless as well and plan to underclock the cpu to lower the power consupmtion.

I have been out of the computer world for quite a while now though so could you all take a look at what I am planning and let me know what you think, if I am missing anything, and if you would reccomend something different. Keep in mind that I am looking to do this as cheap as possible, but still have something decent.

I already have a case, psu, and hdd so this is what I am planning on getting now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138311
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116406
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231425
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289


Thanks.

I've had my NAS (5 Terabyte server) running for over 6 years. Here's some issues I see since I started with a biostar board. Their caps pop. I'd go with Asus board. AMD CPU . Make sure the onboard video of the Board has the requirements to meet Windows 7. I know your running headless.. but still.

I've ran it on linux in the past. Some issues. I've also ran it for 3 years on NASLITE, was great but again not as versatile. Then I ran it with Windows homes server for 6 months. What a POS that was. Now it has been running Windows 7 for 2 years , not even a reboot, only on updates. I run FTP, airvideo server , subsonic server, calibre server, itunes server, 24x7 no problems.

Oh, and get a ups

Why not run a Iomega NAS with all the services...?

http://iomega.com/about/prreleases/2011/20110104-iomega-personal-cloud.html

MC

Just one hdd, no RAID?

JesseRC said:

I've had my NAS (5 Terabyte server) running for over 6 years. Here's some issues I see since I started with a biostar board. Their caps pop. I'd go with Asus board. AMD CPU . Make sure the onboard video of the Board has the requirements to meet Windows 7. I know your running headless.. but still.

Click to expand...

I wanted to go with a better board but like I said I am trying to keep it as cheap as I can right now. I didn't find any other boards that I would have gotten over that one for less than $100 more. Even if that board only lasts a year, at this point it would be worth it for $60.

I will keep looking for something else in my price range though before I order.

JesseRC said:

I've ran it on linux in the past. Some issues. I've also ran it for 3 years on NASLITE, was great but again not as versatile. Then I ran it with Windows homes server for 6 months. What a POS that was. Now it has been running Windows 7 for 2 years , not even a reboot, only on updates. I run FTP, airvideo server , subsonic server, calibre server, itunes server, 24x7 no problems.

Click to expand...

I am still trying to decide on what OS to run. I would like to do some sort of linux but I have never used linux before and don't know if I want to learn it. Other than that it would be either Windows home server or W7. I still have time to decide that though.

JesseRC said:

Oh, and get a ups

Click to expand...

Yeah, that is on the list for the future.

Misplaced_Canuck said:

Why not run a Iomega NAS with all the services...?

http://iomega.com/about/prreleases/2011/20110104-iomega-personal-cloud.html

MC

Click to expand...

Thought about it and about a year ago I was leaning towards that, but the decent ones are considerably more expensive and much less versatile.

lustreking said:

Just one hdd, no RAID?

Click to expand...

For now. I will get more drives and set it up as a RAID5 once the price of drives drops back down in a few months hopefully.

Check out FreeNAS

You can install it on a USB thumb drive and boot off of that, which will save on power and will be more reliable than a HD. Sure, you'll still want a HD for data, but it's easier to swap out data drives in the furutre when you don't have an OS on them.

I think your fine growing a NAS/Server. I did that. As for the off the shelf solutions , there are so many and some are really great. I use my NAS as mainly a media server to feed movies to my media center. With that said sometimes I want the horsepower of a desktop CPU for re encoding or re encoding on the fly. Some off the shelf products might not do that.

Please let me reiterate, stay away from Windows Home Server. I lost many files using it. Windows 7 can do everything and runs so smoothly . Never have I love a OS as much as I do with 7.

Many brands of boards used poor caps over the years. I'd hope that by now they would have all switched to a different style, or at least a better supplier. But I don't know that I'd choose Biostar retail. ASUS, Gigabyte, etc. all make good boards and they all make suspect boards. In general ASUS does a good job, but if you think you want to run Linux, you better check support and drivers on all of the chipset functions.

As far as Linux goes, if you aren't familiar with it, there is a fairly steep learning curve to get all of what you need configured and running properly. But I can guarantee you it will run with less hardware than windows.

It's free, and I encourage you to download any flavor and try it out. The Ubuntu has a server version and it pretty easy to get started in comparably speaking. I have been using Slackware and still learning. Slack is much more hands on and nitty gritty, which you don' really need just to do the job.

There are many different disk options, just choose what fits your budget and at least make sure you have a backup drive. For a home server I would be happy with mirrored drives and a backup easily.

novafire said:

Check out FreeNAS

Click to expand...

I looked into it extensively a few months ago but decided that I wanted a true OS instead. If I wanted to hook up a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and use the computer I would wouldn't be able to with freenas.

JesseRC said:

Please let me reiterate, stay away from Windows Home Server. I lost many files using it. Windows 7 can do everything and runs so smoothly . Never have I love a OS as much as I do with 7.

Click to expand...

I hadn't read much at all about home server but was already leaning towards 7 anyway.

Homercidal said:

As far as Linux goes, if you aren't familiar with it, there is a fairly steep learning curve to get all of what you need configured and running properly. But I can guarantee you it will run with less hardware than windows.

It's free, and I encourage you to download any flavor and try it out. The Ubuntu has a server version and it pretty easy to get started in comparably speaking. I have been using Slackware and still learning. Slack is much more hands on and nitty gritty, which you don' really need just to do the job.

Click to expand...

That is the problem. I don't have time right now to deal with learning it, adjusting to it, and just getting used to it in general. I may dual boot it and screw around with it for a little while here and there and then later down the line switch over completely once I have it figured out.

I am open to suggestions on another mobo though as long as it is in the same ballpark price wise.

This one looks pretty decent is is only $40 more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121509&Tpk=BOXDH67GDB3

I used to build stuff when I was younger part by part. Searched for the best/fastest cheapest price.

My advice

buy some cheap junker put linux on it. (ubuntu is the easiest for the non familiar) it doesn't sound like u need a powerhouse to do what you're talking about.

If you have ps3 user pms (yeah i know ha ha) media server. or any dlna media server that's free

Buy any of the NAS anyone else has said.

Open up ports on your router to connect to it. Most like ssh that is all you need to connect and transfer files.

Use some free dynamic url service so you can call it supercool.dyndns.com <--hint hint (dyndns)

send me a homeBrew for the tips

I recently bought an older Dell Optiplex 745 for just over $200 and it is built like a tank. These were top line business machines that can be had for a song and will reliably and economically.

I maxed out my memory and put Windows 7 on. Best computer I have ever owned.

JesseRC said:

Please let me reiterate, stay away from Windows Home Server. I lost many files using it. Windows 7 can do everything and runs so smoothly . Never have I love a OS as much as I do with 7.

Click to expand...

With the data redundancy how did you lose files? I've been running WHS for years without any problems. I've got an 80gb SATA drive combined with a 100gb IDE and another 2 TB SATA drive and I love the disk pooling feature. I back everything up to an external regularly though. I can stream media over the web and through my PS3 too but that can be done with most OSs.