For the record, this is more so an open debate and suggestions thing. I have experience of building, configuring and working on servers for years before starting HEXUS - infact working for Nildram and also setting up a loads of servers for Jolt. However, NAS/SAN is something which I have not played with.
My Ultimate setup would be a 1TB+ San/NAS box which if needed could have a server plugged in to.
However, a box which has a relative good performance, redundant PSUs, and of course RAID/hot swap would kick some serious ass....
It also HAS to be SCSI - I am not interested in huge PATA or SATA drives which *may* fail.
Note - WD Raptors are small in size, and very reliable... mm makes you think?
This is the tales and questions I have had to ask myself... and for once, I am being sensible and setting and sticking to a budget.
Of course, a box from eBay would be a sensible outlook - which I can then upgrade at a later date.
Remember - for every hard drive you use, you need a viable way to back it up - so a tape drive could work out well....
Anyway onwards....
Anyone can *build* a box and claim it to be a server, I have one here - P4 3.8, 2GB Ram, Dual 120GB hdds - but, thats not a server - thats a PC.
A server is about uptime and reliability - not always about performance.
I want to have a system which is a NAS box - so one option is having maybe 4+ SCSI drives in hotswap.
As we all know, drives are getting bigger - and now you can pickup 18GB drives on ebay cheap - so I need an enclosure.
I have seen some bargains which would maybe do the job?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...784012477&rd=1
As performance doesn't matter - get this and ditch the drives?
Cost - got to be under 400 ish.
I want it to have RAID and be SCSI based, it does not have to be hotswap but that would of course be 'fun'
Noise doesn't matter since It will go in my cellar.
I don't have req for software.
If it is a box which plugs in to SCSI card - I have a few cards here and a box which can sit on top of it.
Too Many people state they have a server at home, which is not used. I want this box to be used to backup data, but if it is a 'server' and has some grunt it should have a purpose - remote desktop, and possibly run my exchange - depending on circumstances of course.