Building Small Home Server

[micangaroo]

Hi all,

Need some advice here on building a small home server to replace my 2TB NAS and the information on the internet is too varied to filter.
Hope to get some directions from all the pros here.

Basically, what I have in mind is this -

1) It'll be a small form factor with an outlook similar to a bigger size NAS but smaller than a full sized PC.

2) Will be fully controlled and accessed via Network, without mouse/keyboard/monitor etc.

3) Preferably running a stripped down version of Windows 7

4) The usage is mostly storage/backup, with 24/7 torrenting/sickbeard/couch potato, streaming movies every now and then and other remote functions.

5) 12 TB RAID protection (software level) with future plans of expansion

6) 8GB RAM

7) Minimal power consumption comparable to a NAS

Are there any recommendations on how I go about this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[thiggins]

What NAS are you switching from and why? What is your budget?

 

[micangaroo]

I'm switching from a LS-WVL, mainly due to performance and drive slots limitation.

Although I'll like not remove the LS-WVL from my setup, I require a solution with higher capacity, flexibility without an outrageous increase on the power consumption.

My budget would be around say, $700 excluding the harddisks.

 

[matthelm]

I did this a short time ago using a ASUS F2A85-M PRO and a SilverStone SST-PS07B case. It ended up being slightly bigger than I'd hoped, but anything that can hold 6+ 3.5" HDs, really can't be much smaller. I think I did find a smaller case later with enough drive bays, but I don't remember what it was, as I already had mine working.

Reason for the MB I bought, was native RAID 5 with 7 internal ports, and all slots are PCIe. I have 4 storage drives attached, as the 3TB+ drives were still high priced when I bought, so mine are just 2TB each.

I also expanded the array, and that went smooth, except you just make the new drive a RAID 5 disk, and THEN it asks if you want to add it to the array, which seemed a backwards way to do it.

Other than a earlier driver loosing the array (Fixed by the 13.1+ AMD drivers) it's hummed along nicely. It's not super fast, but I also used the slower WD RED drives.

Current CPU is an A4-5300, but have an A8-6600 setting on the desk beside it. (I've only pushed the CPU when I multitask, but then I like to multitask, so decided to replace the CPU)

About the only thing I wish it had, was RAID 6, but even the cheapest RAID 6 cards are $200-300.

I really can't say how fast the array is, as I'm just a single user, but the few times I've multitask the array, I've always been CPU bound, not drive bound. Network writes to it are as fast as any machine I have, even with the slow CPU.

 

[micangaroo]

Hi,

Going with what you've mentioned above, I came up with the following specs.

Mobo: Asus F2A85-M LE Socket FM2 Motherboard
Processor: AMD A8-5600K Quad Core APU with Radeon HD 7560D
Casing: BitFenix Prodigy Midnight Black/Black Steel/Plastic Mini-ITX Tower
PSU: Cooler Master Extreme 2 475W Power Supply RS-475-PCAR
RAM: 8gb DDR3

Total price comes up to around $400+ over here.

Will power consumption be an issue? Since I'm running it for 24/7 and stability is important too as i will be running 5 x WD RED 3TB.

Thanks for the help!

 

[matthelm]

Mobo: Asus F2A85-M LE Socket FM2 Motherboard

I don't see that on their web site. Don't get a 55 chip!

Also, feel free to look over the Intel boards too. Most will tell you you get more CPU power for the same power, but at the time, I couldn't find a cheap one with RAID 5.

Processor: AMD A8-5600K Quad Core APU with Radeon HD 7560D

If you can afford it, and buying new, get the newer chip (A8-6500 or A8-6600). Also, from what I've read, the 100W chips run slightly cooler that the 65W chips at idle. If you have the older chip, don't buy the new one. The new AMD chips aren't worth replacing the old one, but are worth the price difference when buying new.

Casing: BitFenix Prodigy Midnight Black/Black Steel/Plastic Mini-ITX Tower

Sweet case! Wish I'd seen that when I bought mine!!! (I think mines taller, but that one looks wider)

Will power consumption be an issue? Since I'm running it for 24/7 and stability is important too as i will be running 5 x WD RED 3TB.

I don't know what to tell you for sure, as electric prices very a great deal. Both my "servers" are hooked to a single UPS, plus a bunch of TV stuff. Saying that, the UPS shows 160 watts idle total, but I normally turn off everything but CPU power savings.

(So total on 1 UPS: 2 servers, 1 optical, 8 HDs, 2 SSDs (OS), 2 extra NIC cards (I hate realtek NICs), cable modem, router, cable box and few USB hubs, plus a few other items.)