Home office server

[Hans L]

Hello folks:

I have a good modem/router (Motorola SBG6580), but it has no USB port. I need the USB port to attach a Seagate external drive in a dock (I intend to buy two drives, and store and regularly replace one at a neighbor's house in case of burglary or fire here).

So, I started looking at routers with a USB port, but soon realized that my wife and I soon need to store, among other things, databases. pictures and calendars in a place where we can both access them (read and write). So I thought, why not go for a not-too-expensive but still high-quality home or home-office server?

Problem is, I know close to nothing about what is available, or what to look for in such an animal. So, I am asking here for assistance in identifying a good choice.

Regards,

Hans L

[b0redom]

HP Microserver - still best bang for buck.

[aidso]

When I click that link its bringing me to DDR RAM....anyway +1 for the server noted.
It usually comes with an offer of cashback (Amazon).
I have one for the bedroom and it is super silent. I know a few colleagues bought several and they work exactly as need above

[scaryjim]

When I click that link its bringing me to DDR RAM

Green links in Hexus are affiliate links added by the SkimWords package, and are coloured green to indicate they are different to user links (which are coloured blue). They are automatically generated by some arcane algorithm and occasionally need some interpretation! Hexus has to find some way to pay for all the electric that the servers eat, after all

[tfboy]

Another vote for HP Microserver. I've expanded / upgraded mine quite a lot so if your needs ever do grow, there's a good chance you can keep doing so with the existing hardware.

[ChaosSystem]

HP Microserver is one of the cheapest options, it is can take up to 4 drives, 6 with modifications! If that is overkill, look at the Netgear ReadyNas RND2000, but it has a similar price to the HP Microserver.
How much data are you looking at storing? Try a cloud service like Dropbox, Google Drive, Skydrive or SpiderOak.

[jim]

Out of interest, how can the Microserver take 6 drives? I thought it only had capacity for 5?

[ChaosSystem]

2 2.5" drives in the CD-ROM bay and take the ESATA and feed it back into the case!

[jim]

Ah, fair enough. I'm only interested in 3.5", but good tip

[ChaosSystem]

I've seen a picture where somebody modified the Microserver's CD-Rom bay and placed 2x3.5" drives in sideways (perpendicular to the way you slot a Rom in).
You also have to get a modified Bios to allow full speed on the CD-ROM SATA connector.

[abaxas]

Buy a nas.

Much lower powered than the microserver, makes less noise and plug and play.

Take your pick of synology or qpap.

[DanceswithUnix]

Agreed, sound like you want a NAS.

You can get really cheap single disk ones, like this which come with a 1TB drive for 80 quid:

http://www.ebuyer.com/291389-buffalo...e-ls-x1-0tl-eu

Or pay for more reliability by getting multiple drives in a RAID array so that if one drive fails you don't lose data.

http://www.ebuyer.com/290542-netgear...rnd4000-200eus

multi drive ones are rather more expensive, but you get a lot more flexability.
Quite a few people I work with seem to have Qnap multi bay NAS boxes and like them.

[drakioned]

+1 for the microserver, they don't use a lot of power and they can have tons of tasks thrown at them. Mine's a file server, web server, subversion server, database server, amongst other things.

[tfboy]

The microserver is fairly frugal on power. I think mine drew around 30W with a single hard drive installed, and that's running a full WS2008R2 / WHS v2 with 4GB RAM.

Also, the possibilities of having a full blown OS (*nix or Windows) means you have litterally limitless possibilities. With a dedicated NAS box, you're limited to the feature set provided. For that reason alone, I went for a full OS so I can run databases (Mymovies), HTTP servers, FTP servers, torrents, etc.