Server Type PC for Home Use

F

Farrsolo

New Member
Hi, I am looking for what would be the cheapest but the most ideal home server setup.

My current setup:
I have an Antec three hundred two case
ASUS P8Z68 MB
GTX 560Ti
16GB Corsair RAM
650W Power Supply
240GB OCZ SSD
3 X 2TB Western Digital HDD's(currently one is for TV shows, one is for movies and the other is music and backed up data) I would like to learn more about RAID setup so that each drive doesn't contain separate data. And if one drive dies, I can replace it and no data is lost.)

I use my PC for CAD work as well some mild gaming use. I don't like to leave it running all the time, but in order to stream media to my tv's (via Roku2) It requires the desktop to remain on. hence the second home PC/Server which I could leave in the basement. (my house is hardwired and I have a switch down there already)

So I was at first thinking of buying the cheapest desktop from Bestbuy or futureshop for $300-$400, but I doubt this would be the ideal solution. I bought a HP media center 5 years ago and it was junk. I think I would need a larger PSU to handle the HDD's.

I have 2 tv's, one in basement and one upstairs. the one upstairs uses the roku for streaming and netflix access and I currently use the PS3 in the basement to connect to the PC.

Ideally I would like to set up the server by the basement TV and have it connected there for streaming directly from it and then the roku could connect to it as well through the network.

So Home server would need the following:
-need to connect to a TV via HDMI or VGA
-be able to hold 4-5 HDD's (enough power, and is there limitations for setting
up a raid array)
-I have windows 7, (but is there better software??)
-I would like it to be relatively fast, (not for gaming, but for browsing,
streaming and daily uses)
-possible remote access(not necessary but would be sweet)
-and CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! haha

Thanks!

PS- I live in Ontario, Canada, I don't mind ordering from places like Ebay, Newegg or Amazon, but I do have access to places such as TigerDirect or Canada Computers.
 
Possible Server Build

So I spent some time searching for parts and have come up with the following.

  1. Thermaltake Versa II All Black ATX Mid Tower USB3.0 (VO700A1N3N) - $45
  2. ASUS B75M-A Socket 1155 Intel B75 Chipset - $80
  3. Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Socket LGA1155, 3.4Ghz - $245
  4. Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - $35
  5. Corsair Builder Series CX750 - $65
  6. G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz CL10 Dual Channel Kit - $83
  7. LiteOn (IHAS124-04) Internal 24x DVD Writer - $20
  8. Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - $100
  9. WD Red 3TB 3.5" SATA3 64MB Buffer NAS OEM Hard Drive - 2x150 = $300

Totaling $1100 with taxes in.

I have a few questions though, I am fairly new to spec'ing out components.
  • is the motherboard capable of handling Raid 10 or is it called 1+0??
  • are the two 3TB HDD's usable in a RAID 10 in this potential PC?
  • if the answer is yes to setting up the raid for the 3TB HDD's, can I copy over the media that I currently have on my other hard drives to it, then use those two 2TB HDD's in another RAID 10 in the same PC?
 
The board doesn't have RAID support at all, much less 1+0 (aka RAID 10, same thing). For a cheaper board, you will need a RAID card. Also, go LGA 1150, though personally I would go with a Xeon. You can get a quad Xeon for cheaper then a 3570K, ans they are made for server use.
 
PCunicorn said:
The board doesn't have RAID support at all, much less 1+0 (aka RAID 10, same thing). For a cheaper board, you will need a RAID card. Also, go LGA 1150, though personally I would go with a Xeon. You can get a quad Xeon for cheaper then a 3570K, ans they are made for server use.
Click to expand...

OK, incase you respond before i can research all this some more,

Which is typically cheaper, cheaper MB with RAID Card or just up the MB to a RAID supported one

Also the only reason I stuck with LGA 1155, is because that is what I currently have with an i7 2600k CPU, I was kinda sticking to the same components for that "just in case i want to do some swapping for whatever reason." However if it is substantially cheaper to get a workhorse CPU then I would consider it for sure.

Any comment on the 3TB WD RED drives? I vaguely heard some rumours about issues with them being over 2TB and being compatible with windows/MB operations?
 
Some older Motherboards wouldn't support over 1.5 TB, but I believe all Z77+ boards do. Depends on the card and board for RAID.
 
Most boards these days will support up to at least 2TB, most will do 3TB. I've got a Z68 board and it works perfectly with a 2TB drive and probably a 3TB drive too, and that chipset is now two generations old.
 
Yeah, some older boards will work with large HDDs, but it depends on the board. I had a P67 Pro that did, but I saw some that didn't.
 
I think I used the term server too loosely in this post, although for the most part this PC will be used a media center, however I don't want to limit it to just a data storage machine, I would like to build it for full functionality for down the road. Hence the i5 CPU, I am trying to pick up what is classified as a "good" motherboard.

I found this combo off of NCIX.ca: combo set
What you think?
to go along with the rest of the stuff I posted earlier.

Thanks!
 
It's good, but unless you are planning on gaming, I would get a FX 4300 and a AM3+ board like the 990FXA UD3 from Gigabyte, a 4670K is overkill.
 
Gaming is not the primary function, but I like the option it provides, I am not too concerned in regards to being overpowered, I would rather be overpowered now then underpowered in a year, if that makes any sense...

I was more concerned about the RAID capabilities, since I now see how to check for this, selecting a MB isn't trivial anymore.

Now my next question is can a MB support more than one RAID setup?

My workflow is going to be, to buy the system spec'd out above, set up the raid1+0 with the two 3TB WD Red HDD's. Once that raid is set up, copy over all my data that I have on my current HDD's. Then once that original data is copied to the 3TB RAID setup, I would like to use my original two 2TB HDD's in another RAID1+0,

So the system would have one 3TB RAID1+0 and one 2TB RAID1+0 setup.

Doable??

Thanks!
 
I would say no as each raid 1+0 requires 4 drives. So you would need 8 drives and 8 sata ports. You are probably looking at onboard raid and then a dedicated raid card.
 
Farrsolo said:
Gaming is not the primary function, but I like the option it provides, I am not too concerned in regards to being overpowered, I would rather be overpowered now then underpowered in a year, if that makes any sense...

I was more concerned about the RAID capabilities, since I now see how to check for this, selecting a MB isn't trivial anymore.

Now my next question is can a MB support more than one RAID setup?

My workflow is going to be, to buy the system spec'd out above, set up the raid1+0 with the two 3TB WD Red HDD's. Once that raid is set up, copy over all my data that I have on my current HDD's. Then once that original data is copied to the 3TB RAID setup, I would like to use my original two 2TB HDD's in another RAID1+0,

So the system would have one 3TB RAID1+0 and one 2TB RAID1+0 setup.

Doable??

Thanks!
Click to expand...

What JohnB said. And, it won't be underpowered. In fact, even a 4300 will game fine. Spend more on the board, less on the CPU.
 
I seemed to have missed the fine print when reading up about RAID Configurations...There is no way I can buy four 3TB HDD's and another two 2TB to match my current ones.

I'll have to re-study the RAID configurations and decide what I am going to go with.

Any recommendations, I basically want to protect all my data. Currently about 2.5TB worth.

Thanks!!
 
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