File Server/NAS

[Yeti]

Alright, I've been tossing around the idea of building a personal file server/NAS. Basically the requirements are that it be cheap (relatively), have very low power consumption, and be fast enough (basically just file transfer/videos, not running games off it). So here's what I've come up with:

Ultra Mini Tower
Sempron 64 2600+ Palermo
5X 250 GB SATA HDD in RAID5 (1 TB with 1 drive redundancy)
1X 45 GB HDD (system drive)
cheap/dependable mobo ?
probably rip 256 MB memory from another system unless someone can convince me otherwise
use one of the PSUs I have lying around


Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

 

[suprasteve]

I don't really understand the one drive for redundancy, it's not enough to back up the other drives so are you only going to use it to back up the OS or something? I'd say either run data mirroring or don't bother trying to back stuff up at all

 

[Yeti]

I don't really understand the one drive for redundancy, it's not enough to back up the other drives so are you only going to use it to back up the OS or something? I'd say either run data mirroring or don't bother trying to back stuff up at all

It'll be running in RAID5 which has the storage of (N-1)*capacity where N is the number of drives. Maybe redundant isn't quite the correct term.

Anyone have suggestions for a good socket 754 motherboard?

 

[Ku-sama]

Abit KV-80, its a GREAT motherboard, we use them at work and buy them by the 10s, if you cant find the KV-80, look for the KV-81

 

[Yeti]

Abit KV-80, its a GREAT motherboard, we use them at work and buy them by the 10s, if you cant find the KV-80, look for the KV-81

Thanks, I'll take a look at those.

 

[Geoff]

I have the MSI K8T Neo-V, works great. Also a great overclocker. I think the price of it was ~$40.

 

[wensk]

Here's what I did for cheap...

My son just built himself a killer rig and de-commissioned a few years old Compaq D500 with 1 gig of ram. I bought a $15 IDE raid card from NewEgg along with 2-200 gig hard drives. I have it set for mirrored and installed Windows Server 2003 but XP would work too. Total cost was just under $200. An older decent box would work just fine if its just a file server. My .$02

Oh yeah..forgot to add...since there usually isn't anyone home during the day I put it into standby mode at bed time during the week days which results in a reasonably low power consumption. When I get home from work, i just give the on/off switch a quick push and its back up and running. Weekends its usually up all the time. I disconnected the periphs and use Remote Desktop to manage it.

 

[Yeti]

My son just built himself a killer rig and de-commissioned a few years old Compaq D500 with 1 gig of ram. I bought a $15 IDE raid card from NewEgg along with 2-200 gig hard drives. I have it set for mirrored and installed Windows Server 2003 but XP would work too. Total cost was just under $200. An older decent box would work just fine if its just a file server. My .$02

You make a good point. I have thought about using an old box, but the only one that I have to spare is a Dell PIII 800 MHz. Now the speed would be fine and the RAM should suffice, but I don't think I'd be able to cram 6 HDDs (I have my reasons for this number of drives) in the case and even if I did, I'm not sure the power supply could handle it. And because it's a Dell I don't know if I could swap out anything. I guess I could look for a cheap used computer somewhere...

Oh yeah..forgot to add...since there usually isn't anyone home during the day I put it into standby mode at bed time during the week days which results in a reasonably low power consumption. When I get home from work, i just give the on/off switch a quick push and its back up and running. Weekends its usually up all the time. I disconnected the periphs and use Remote Desktop to manage it.

Thats my basis for a couple other reasons I wanted to build a new box - the Sempron is supposed to have very low power consumption (both idle and load); and I could find (hopefully) a mobo that supported wake on LAN so I could put it in sleep when not being used and wake it remotely, basically I'd never have to touch it and at the same time it wouldn't consume much power. Thanks for the input btw.

 

[Praetor]

Wouldnt a dedicated NAS be cheaper? Definitely cost less in terms of elecricity cost ...

I don't really understand the one drive for redundancy, it's not enough to back up the other drives so are you only going to use it to back up the OS or something? I'd say either run data mirroring or don't bother trying to back stuff up at all

Cuz it would be incredibly wasteful (read:stupid) to run RAID1 over the span of anything more than 1 drive. Having a 2N requirement is insane (in terms of cost) to a N+1 (i.e., RAID5)

It'll be running in RAID5 which has the storage of (N-1)*capacity where N is the number of drives. Maybe redundant isn't quite the correct term.

It's quite the correct term (which is why R in RAID is for 'redundant' )

Anyone have suggestions for a good socket 754 motherboard?

Again, considered a dedicated NAS? (or a SAN?)

I bought a $15 IDE raid card from NewEgg along with 2-200 gig hard drives. I have it set for mirrored and installed Windows Server 2003 but XP would work too. Total cost was just under $200. An older decent box would work just fine if its just a file server. My .$02

Nice but again running mirroring for a RAID is bad idea.