Building a File Server

15 Mar 2005 8:36 PM

pooua

Every year, I create about 10 thousand still photographs and several
hours of miniDV movies. I would like to store all of this information
on a server in my home. I do not have any plans to make my server
accessible to the general public; it is for my use, only. I am looking
for ideas of what kind of server I should build, and I would appreciate
suggestions.

I suppose that I could get a large case, outfit it with some number of
the largest hard drives available (300 GB is just becoming available)
and attach a UPS and networking equipment, but I want to avoid things
that would compromise my system, such as heat or hackers.

Would a 64-bit processor be of practical benefit? I doubt that
multi-processors would help me very much in this application? What kind
of OS would be best? What motherboards handle this work best?

I am also going want to make a mobile server for my car or pickup
truck, but it would auxiliary to my home server. It would have its own
set of challenges, but I intend it to perform the same central task as
my home server.

Thank you.

15 Mar 2005 10:22 PM

kony

On 15 Mar 2005 12:36:34 -0800, po***@aol.com wrote:

>Every year, I create about 10 thousand still photographs and several
>hours of miniDV movies. I would like to store all of this information
>on a server in my home. I do not have any plans to make my server
>accessible to the general public; it is for my use, only. I am looking
>for ideas of what kind of server I should build, and I would appreciate
>suggestions.
>
>I suppose that I could get a large case, outfit it with some number of
>the largest hard drives available (300 GB is just becoming available)
>and attach a UPS and networking equipment, but I want to avoid things
>that would compromise my system, such as heat or hackers.

heat is simple, build using cool-running CPU & video and put
fans on the HDDs' intake. Hackers are probably more
interested in your personal-use PC, the one you'd use to
make online purchases with a credit-card. Just keep your
lan secure from the outside.

>
>Would a 64-bit processor be of practical benefit?

No, nor would any modern 32 bit CPU. Personal fireserving
has very low performance requirements. A Pentium 200 with a
PCI controller card would be sufficient for 100Mb. A 1GHz+
is better suited to GbE.

> I doubt that
>multi-processors would help me very much in this application?

There are two things that will matter most:

1) The lan speed.
2) IF the lan speed is GbE, the HDD speed and bus the GbE
controller is used on. IE- for best GbE, don't use a 32
bit, 33MHz PCI bus based card. Then again, for the
described uses it's probably overkill to spend any extra
time or $$ on anything high-end.

>What kind
>of OS would be best? What motherboards handle this work best?

Doesn't necessarily matter, whatever OS you're comfortable
with. Is it going to be FTP or Windows filesharing or
something else?

A linux derivative might be tailored to the task, but Win2k,
XP, would do ok too. Simple fileserving for a limited
number of client systems is something any of the popular OS
can do.

16 Mar 2005 12:32 AM

Veritech

Dont forget the good old raid set up

Unless you wanna say bye bye to your data go for 1 or a 0+1 setup might cost
more but saves the pain later on. 2 250gb's for 1 or 4 200's 0+1 my
recommendation
<po***@aol.com> wrote in message
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news:1110918994.797133.22200@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Every year, I create about 10 thousand still photographs and several
> hours of miniDV movies. I would like to store all of this information
> on a server in my home. I do not have any plans to make my server
> accessible to the general public; it is for my use, only. I am looking
> for ideas of what kind of server I should build, and I would appreciate
> suggestions.
>
> I suppose that I could get a large case, outfit it with some number of
> the largest hard drives available (300 GB is just becoming available)
> and attach a UPS and networking equipment, but I want to avoid things
> that would compromise my system, such as heat or hackers.
>
> Would a 64-bit processor be of practical benefit? I doubt that
> multi-processors would help me very much in this application? What kind
> of OS would be best? What motherboards handle this work best?
>
> I am also going want to make a mobile server for my car or pickup
> truck, but it would auxiliary to my home server. It would have its own
> set of challenges, but I intend it to perform the same central task as
> my home server.
>
> Thank you.
>

16 Mar 2005 2:40 AM

Spajky

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 00:32:00 GMT, "Veritech"
<avis.dalrym***@ntlworld.com> wrote:

>Dont forget the good old raid set up
>
>Unless you wanna say bye bye to your data go for 1 or a 0+1 setup might cost
>more but saves the pain later on. 2 250gb's for 1 or 4 200's 0+1 my
>recommendation

Make RAID 5 Happen Using WindowsXP
http://www4.tomshardware.com/storage/20041119/index.html

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