Building a "storage" computer

[Aastii]

How powerful/big would a storage system be and what would the costing be (i'm in england so in £ please)? I can link it up to my current network wirelessly pretty easily and then Install a copy of windows or linux or something on and just elave it up and running. Obviously a couple of pretty big HDDs but would it need to be all that powerful, and because it would be on 99% of the time, would it need much cooling to stay cold?

I'm thinking for the cooling, no, just get a few passive heatsinks but because it may have to be serving up to 4 systems at once, would processing/memory need to be quite hefty?

 

[Tomdarkness]

It would not cost a huge amount (The cost really comes from how many drives/capacity you want to install). I'm currently about to build one myself and the setup without any drives costs ~£170. Most of the expense comes from the server case i'm install it into (4U server case with 6x 5.25" drive bays in the front for easy access to drives - using SATA hard drive caddies) which is £80. The setup is very minimal with a AMD Sempron LE-1250 processor and 512mb of RAM.

Depending on how many drives you want to install you may need to get some molex to SATA power connectors and prehaps an additional SATA controller card (Since you're getting a fairly cheap mATX mobo it will most likely have 4 SATA ports max, any more than that you'll need another controller card).

I plan to install Openfiler on it with 3x 1TB SATA hard drives in (software) RAID5 with the potential to upgrade to 6x 1TB HDs as I need it.

Cooling should not be a real issue, but you should make sure the case you install it in is well cooled - no real need to install specialist cooling for the drives.

Also i'd recommend you don't connect it via wireless if you plan on transfering large files.

 

[fmw]

I would recommend using a NAS or network attached storage unit. These are boxes with RAID controllers that hold drives and attach to your network just like any other node. They can be pretty simple or quite complex. I like the Synology units for commercial use. For home use I recommend the one I have called the D-Link DNS 321. This is a small two drive unit for RAID 0 or 1 operation. Synology has all kinds of them but they are pricey. I have no idea what things cost in the UK so I'll leave the research up to you.

 

[Tomdarkness]

I found these very expensive for what they are. If you are prepared to build one yourself you might as well - its a hell of alot cheaper.

I would recommend using a NAS or network attached storage unit. These are boxes with RAID controllers that hold drives and attach to your network just like any other node. They can be pretty simple or quite complex. I like the Synology units for commercial use. For home use I recommend the one I have called the D-Link DNS 321. This is a small two drive unit for RAID 0 or 1 operation. Synology has all kinds of them but they are pricey. I have no idea what things cost in the UK so I'll leave the research up to you.

 

[Aastii]

Awesome, so i'm not looking at a huge lot for components (so im guessing low end stuff will do), just the drives?

 

[bilbus]

most off the shelf nas units are total crap, you would be better off buying a pc / recycling a existing one you have already.

How much storage do you need .. that might be important.

You can get 2x 1.5tb for around $120 US.

The system does not need to be fast. Any dual core cpu, and 2gb+ ram will be fine. 4GB if vista / 2008

You do not need extra cooling. I have a server with around 4TB of storage at home no problems.

If you can do raid i would, even if it's only host raid (do not do software raid)

 

[fmw]

You can buy a 2 drive NAS enclosure here for $100. Add a couple of SATA drives and you are in business. $300 will get you a perfectly good NAS with RAID 1 capability. I couldn't guess what it costs in the UK.

 

[Aastii]

You can buy a 2 drive NAS enclosure here for $100. Add a couple of SATA drives and you are in business. $300 will get you a perfectly good NAS with RAID 1 capability. I couldn't guess what it costs in the UK.

At the minute 70p=$1...roughly, so £210ish for it all.