buy a high end NAS or build my own conroe based system?

[weebroonieuk]

nah i know you are i know fine well xp is no good for server tasks and practically frowned upon but since im not experienced with linux and its various incarnations id like to something "windowy" thats familiar enough for me to work with and install and maintain and have a nice range of software

i know theres more than enough things for linux but they always seem pretty basic and im not much of a command line person

im more of a fischer price click the nice icon person dont like all the command line stuff

[alsenior]

i would not go for a full conroe system you could by used server parts from ebay. i built my server for around £100 and it is very fast for file serving

this is the spec:

• 2 x p3 800
• 512 mb pc133 sdram
• 1 x 9gb 10000 rpm scsi drive
• 2x 18 gb ibm 10k scsi drive
• asus cur-dls motherboard
• adaptec utlra 160 scsi controller (beats sata anyday over extended random requests)

best thing about it is that is consumes half that of a conroe box when idle and i can add sata drives when im ready.

[weebroonieuk]

i know about the dual boards i was thinking ab out it before but was kinda told not too as a similar speed single cpu would do the job just the same and consume less power

im pretty sure a properly tweaked conroe chip and be underclocked and undervolted to consume less power than 2 p3's possibly even 1 p3 and i will be using 4 750gb drives in raid 1 per pair and will need sata as i want to get rid of all my pata drives in everything i personally use so its easier and faster for me to back up my laptop hardrives using onboard esata so a modern motherboard is a must

and i will have a spare conroe cpu doing nothing when i upgrade my new laptops cpu as it works out alot cheaper for me to spec the lowest speed cpu and upgrade it myself instead of getting the faster one in the first place !

so i will only be shelling out for a mobo and ram really which i dont mind for the excellent performance on tap as and only when needed as i think it will be used for more than just fileserving when the time comes .....

possibly archiving massive files or converting dvd's to xvid's over night

just rip a few dvds and setup a batch file to convert a few while i sleep

and most likely running azureus which can fairly hog resources when it wants too so the extra power on tap should take care of its needs

we have a couple of xbox 360's and a media center in each room and in the living room so at most i will be streaming mp3's or some xvid's especially once they get the xbox's cracked open so my file serving wont be that great and not much small random file transfers to worry about to justify scsi drives plus they are quite power hungry aswell from what i remember

[alsenior]

it's uoto you really i found this to be more than adequate for my needs and has proven to be a reliable work horse i will soon be adding 2 sata drives to it anyway. as for the scsi drive i have them turned off after 15 mins of inactivity to power consumption is nothing then also scsi drives are very good at long sequential transfers as well and they are very reliable ~5 years continuous before they die.

[weebroonieuk]

yes they are generally built better and to tighter tolerances but i couldnt get 1.5tb mirrored for a grand using scsi
i wouldnt buy a second hand hard drive thats going to be used only for storing my colllection of movies and music, and all my ps2 and old xbox rips for sticking on there hard drives
cant bear to hit the delete button for them even though i never play them atall these days and i barely touch the 360 either

but for the time and many hours of headscratching when ripping things and reripping due to doing it wrong or an error i dont like deleting stuff once ive made it

[weebroonieuk]

just another thought here ....

instead of raiding my storage drives,would i not be better makeing 1.5tb available with 2 discs and leaving the other 2 drives that would have been used for mirroring the first 2 drives set to powerup only when accessed so if i change my files ....
e.g. me adding new files to the visible networked drives, compressing/archiveing files and such like

then from my laptop i could access the drives that are usually turned off and copy over any new or changed files and then the drives will turn off again when im finished.

i dare say this would save yet more powe(albeit a small amount) but most importantly it will increase the lifespan of the drives since they are not in a raided state and only ever getting turned on and accessed only to add files or remove them

and it will go through alot less power up and down cycles than the main storage drives

anyone think this is would be better than mirroring ? i dont need live rebuilds or whatever i just need to know the files are backed up and the back up hopefully outlasts the the drive it is backing up !

[DR]

I know

Get the Conroe system - every other idea you have argued around to being the Conroe - so do it ;p

[dave87]

Or alternatively send the Conroe chip to me

In all seriousness - if you think you will use the machine to its full potential then go for it. If not, save yourself a lot of hassle and buy a NAS

Dave

[DR]

Just remember - I can have pretty much any kit I want on my desk, and I've got a 5200 for a reason

[directhex]

OR.........

get a low-power dedicated NAS box, install ARM linux on it, and you get not only a file server but an everything-else server too

[tfboy]

XP has crippingly limitations built into to stopping it from been used as an on mass server.

Such as.....?

Remembering this is for a small home network

[weebroonieuk]

i know you could have anything (to david) and i respect the choice of the nas but as youve said i do seem to be arguing in my own question

its defo the conroe route i can think of more and more uses for it , basically it can do any tasks that arent urgent overnight and have the usability of xp and im already familiar with it

if i was in your position then id defo have the thecus too but then youl get them cheaper than us mere mortals if not for free so i cant blame ya, i will have to utilise what i will have spare and work too it plus with my own pc i can upgrade and mess around as i see fit

[weebroonieuk]

oh david just wondering ... does hexus's advertising etc earn you enough to live on or maybe even extremely wealthy?

or do you still do work for others ?

im just nosey but its more or less the ideal job well second to your own "adult" site

appologies for the wildly off topic comment folks

[deviantdave]

Dunno if this discussion is dead, but either way here is my couple of pence.

AVOID THE 5200! It is completely and utterly unreliable where it comes to serving up files to different platforms, Apple especially. Also despite perfectly compatible and functional drives, the RAID array randomly degrades. Build times are ridiculous. The user interface is crap. SSH is not supported, Thecus can't even explain that one to me. The built in software goodies like Nsync backup don't work properly. The unit randomly disables essential services for no apparent reason. Also the 5200 will not operate properly when accessed through a permanent VPN connection. The firmware is poorly written and constantly being altered (not always for the better). Basically the 5200, although a fantastic idea and concept, simply is not up to the job!

I would most definitely custom build a server. There's far too much functionality in the 5200 that simply does not work, or doesn't work the way it should.

I have two of these units, both are going back to the supplier for exchange.

Once again AVOID the 5200 like the plague. If you need more info e-mail me at eldeviante@gmail.com


Bye

Also to Weebroonie:
Try using Fedora Core 5. It's not particularly complicated in the slightest! I understand you are familiar with XP and as such fear the 'Nix route, but if you take your time and get a decent book maybe, it's very easy to do. Seriously.

Install Fedora 5 - 30 minutes & it's free!!!
Install Samba - 5 minutes & it's free!!!
Setup and start Samba - 5 minutes with a bit of help or a book or even just the manual page that comes with Samba.

So 40 minutes to a working file server that cost nothing with regards to the software. And believe me Fedora is as easy to use as XP, but much more powerful and FREE!!!!!

Go get it kid!

[alsenior]

holy thread revival batman.

in all get what you need everybody has different needs my set me up just fine and is different to what your need.

[herulach]

why do you want a conroe based NAS for gods sake? talk about overkill, a cheap a64 system will probably not consume much more power, and stick freenas on it. Spend the extra on drives.