Home server/ NAS

[Terbinator]

Thinking of putting a home server type thing together and ive been looking at the AMD Sempron AM3. It's only 1 core though and although i know it can be unlocked it means i'd have to get a board that does 'unlock' - if not do you think this would be fine for the above purpose ? I've already got 2GB of DDR3 to stick in there and everything else i just need a CPU & Motherboard.

[[GSV]Trig]

Even single core it'd be fine..
My WHS box is fine with 1Gb ram, disk space and network is where mine had money spent.

[asposium]

if you're planning on running WHS very little CPU power is required
my WHS runs an atom based board with no problems, though admittedly the CPU is dual-core. even then CPU load is very low
depends if you want the server to transcode

[jim]

Yeah that's the only thing that the Home Server struggle with, transcoding video.

That's part of the reason why I need an HTPC now... the PS3 won't take anything in native format, and the server can't keep up with the transcoding.

[cptwhite_uk]

I've been looking at the Western Digital TV (WDTV) and Asus HDP-R1, they make a cheap alternative to a full blown HTPC set-up. However if you go for NAS I've been thinking of the following setup:

2x 1Tb Drives plugged in an always on atom based NAS with windows > hooked up to this router

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/UK/en/...?lid=LearnMore

[kmac]

Asposium what case is that - looks very cool

[Terbinator]

Cheers for the replies guys! It wont strictly be HTPC-like but im just going to farm all mine and the households files onto it but may want the option of streaming from it.

I still may go down the Sempron route as there isn't much difference between that and an Atom build - hopefully it will have some more grunt should i change the use of it as well.

What would you recommend OS wise for simple file-sharing? Linux / Windows ?

[asposium]

Coolermaster RC590

Scan Link

It was about the cheapest/smallest case I could find with 9 5.25inch drive bays with no-silly-features, such as flashing lights, windows etc.
No need on a server that sits downstairs ... though I admit the disco caused by the access lights flashing is quite cool.
I wanted a clean build for the server

The 5into3 drive modules are Supermicro CSE-M35TQ

A far more cost effective solution to the SM drive modules are the Silverstone 4into3 drive modules
I used these for a while before I bought the SM. changing a failed hard drive took ~ 30mins with the SS, whereas it took ~ 10seconds with the SM.
The white drive tray is on purpose, and is the system drive (i had some white trays from an old build)

The SM 5into3 is a bit of a pain as its use requires the tabs in the 5.25inch drive bays on the RC590 to be removed. Doesn't take too long with a needle file.

The SS module is FAR cheaper than the SM, but it is a right royale PITA to change a drive with the SS module, whereas it's bl00dy simple with the SM. You get what you pay for.

The "spare" molex power connectors zip-tied to the side are for when i need to add another SM 5into3.

[asposium]

What would you recommend OS wise for simple file-sharing? Linux / Windows ?

try windows home server
each user on the home network has an account on the server
their account storage mounts as a network drive
remote access is also possible

a 30 days trial version of WHS is available for evaluation

[jim]

What would you recommend OS wise for simple file-sharing? Linux / Windows ?

To be honest I'd disagree with the previous post. I have Windows Home Server - and make no mistake, it's brilliant.

I've got automated network backups if I want them, I run PS3 Media Server from it, everyone has their personal documents stored on it, it sends music to my girlfriend's Squeezebox, I've got all sorts of things that it does very well - not to mention the way it uses disk space.

Simple file sharing though? I think WHS would be extremely extravagant for that. I would rather use XP Pro given that I've got a license kicking around somewhere, serving a load of files is not exactly a big ask. Bear in mind though that if you switch to WHS later on, you must format drives before using them in WHS.

So if you store files on the drives, you'll need to back them up elsewhere before installing WHS. Always worth bearing in mind if you might want to go down that route at a later date.

[mycarsavw]

What would you recommend OS wise for simple file-sharing? Linux / Windows ?

FreeNAS - tiny and simple

[Terbinator]

Again, cheers for the tips and information. It will probably be a few weeks until i build this which will let me mull over a few ideas anyway. I suppose i can give WHs and FreeNAS a quick run over on the spare pc we've got here though and i'll see which best suits my needs.

Something else i might consider is should i wait to see how much those new 8xx series boards are going to cost or would that be overkill do you think ? They support SATA3 and so may be useful longer down the line.

[b0redom]

IF your hardware is supported. I'd recommend OpenSolaris. I've just ditched FreeNAS and replaced it with OpenSolaris.

I had a disk which was going faulty - turns out it was the SATA cable, but I found that FreeNAS couldn't cope with disks disappearing and then subsequently reappearing following a reboot. It would also take an age to rebuild the arrays. This:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Super...)-AOC-SAT2-MV8

card is supported out of the box.

ZFS is much better at handing disk problems than Linux RAID in my experience, and creating new arrays is as simple as:

zpool create <poolname> raidz <device 1> <device 2> <device ....>

and swapping out disks is as simple as:

zpool replace <poolname> <device #>

and it seems to come back a LOT quicker than Linux RAID.

[Terbinator]

Creating a RAID array in addition to extra cost wasn't something i really had in mind. I'm thinking of maybe a couple of TB hard drives in a case to store the family media files mostly - input appreciated though ! How compatible is OpenSolaris with Windows ?

[jim]

At the end of the day even if you've got RAID you still need to take backups - that's why I'm not bothered about it.

If my fileserver goes down for 24 hours while I get a replacement drive - I can cope with that. Paying extra money for drives that will hold copies/parity data I can't really see the benefit of.

[[GSV]Trig]

RAID is fine if you have the money to do it properly.
WHS has its own way of balancing data around which, for what its intended use is, is better than RAID.
IMHO of course..