is a file server overkill?

Bud · January 2006

i have 4 hard drives i need to share across a network. 2 250gb and 2 300gb hard drives. I run my main desktop, laptop, a media center computer, and i might add one more mce computer. I would listen to music of the hard drives, stream video to all my computers, and share some files, use it as a ftp, I might also make it a mail server too. Is it overkill to have a fileserver for what i have? I just debating it

deicist · January 2006

tut, another computer is never overkill

in my place I have a MCE computer, 2 desktops and 2 laptops and my fileserver is invaluable. It's good having everything you need in the same place no matter which computer you're at, and being able to access your entire media collection from a laptop is always good. You can also use it as a mail server / DHCP server / Webserver / whatever so it's hardly going to be sat doing nothing. Oh, and it's another folding machine of course

Bud · January 2006

a guy i work with is selling new all sealed opteron 246 and a asus (single socket) mobo for $350 or $250 for the chip is that good deal. Should i look at something different maybe like a p4 d820.

lemonlime · January 2006

Bud wrote:

a guy i work with is selling new all sealed opteron 246 and a asus (single socket) mobo for $350 or $250 for the chip is that good deal. Should i look at something different maybe like a p4 d820.

I wouldn't bother with the opteron 246. It's going to require registered ddr memory and the price is really not all that hot. You really won't need anything too fancy as a file server. I actually have a Sempron 2600+ 754 system doing similar tasks to what you mentioned and it does not even break a sweat

Bud · January 2006

actually its a single socket so u can use non-registered memory. manual says so

shwaip · January 2006

Bud wrote:

a guy i work with is selling new all sealed opteron 246 and a asus (single socket) mobo for $350 or $250 for the chip is that good deal. Should i look at something different maybe like a p4 d820.

you can get a better price on that or another cpu at newegg. Also, like lemonlime said, those cpus are overkill for what you're looking to do.

GrayFox · January 2006

Just get a athlon 64 3000+ don't get a opteron if you don't need one.

lemonlime · January 2006

Bud wrote:

actually its a single socket so u can use non-registered memory. manual says so

If it's a Opteron 2xx model, it is a socket 940 chip, which has an integrated memory controller designed to use registered DDR only. Was this the motherboard manual that said you can use normal DDR? Only the 1xx 939 based Opterons can use non-registered DDR afik.

JB · January 2006

$350 for a processor and motherboard seems expensive for a simple file server. Do you have any older Duron/Athlons/P3/P4 systems around? If not how about something along the lines of a cheap ($90+sh) Sempron 3100+ and ECS nForce3 motherboard offered here: http://www.bensbargains.net/ktalk/1137585260,98273,.shtml

jradmin · January 2006

I've got a P3 700mhz prosessor in my 2U file server in the basement. Bought the whole server with a IDE controler card (holds up to 8 IDE drives) for $100. I tossed in an 80 and 40 gig HDD and use it to save music and video on. I don't even have a monitor on it, I just VNC or open a remote desktop when I need to do maintenance.

Atticus · January 2006

quick question here, if i had a 64 bit server its fine to access files from Win XP Home(32bit) right? there should be no problems?

Armo · January 2006

Atticus, there is absolutly no problem

the only thing the 64bit means is that the processor can understand more complex calculatins, thus increasing overall speed.why do 100 small calculations when you can do one big algorithm faster?

also, there are only a few operating systems that can take full advantage of 64 bit processesing, which includes WindowsXP 64bit edition, server 2000, server 2003, and various versions os Linux

Bud · January 2006

im debating between a coolermaster cm stacker or a antec p160. Im looking for quiet, good cooling, and lots of room for hard drives. any input on which one is better or should i look at something else

Armo · January 2006

chris has the stacker and HATES it

Bud · January 2006

why? what is chris running

Tex · January 2006

I guess many people say file server and mean differant things. You don't need a heavy duty cpu for what your wanting to accomplish.

I run a gigabit network at the house and I get better network throuh put off NIC's in 64bit slots. I usually have 2 or 3 dual cpu servers here running at any one time and I had a really sweet older dual p3 with 64bit slots for a 64bit NIC I regret selling to this day.

I backup gigs of data from one server to another.

Please.... work out a backup plan for all that data.

Tex

Armo · January 2006

he runs a X2 4200, 7800gt, the Areca 1230 with 4 sata drives, but he hates that thing, he says its too big and heavy, its almost 3feet tall.

i use a Lian Li v1100b silent case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811112088

i give it 5 stars

Bud · January 2006

yea but im not gonna move this case. my main machine is for that

GrayFox · January 2006

Im just goina throw in my 2 cents and post what I would recomend for what your doing.

-Antec case with psu (one of the ones that comes with a 400W)

-Asus A8v

-Linksys 8port gigabit switch (So the network isn't piss slow)

-Intel gigabit network card (A decent nic is always good intel makes some of the best)

-4X 250GBin raid 5 (so you have data redundency (if one drive dies you dont lose everything))

-A decent raid controler (If your on linux any will do a raid 5 in software mode :) ... blows on the other hand needs the hardware to take care of the raid)

-A64 3000+

-2X512Mb of ocz registered ram

You will save the most money if you go linux, also linux supports scp its like ftp but secure.

Heres my file server its a little dated but does the job

http://graynetwork.org/phpsysinfo

(If you want to see some of the crap I have on the web server)
http://graynetwork.org/grayfox

(Yes I know I dont have a dns server setup I have a dynamic ip and my isp wont give me a static so im stuck without one)

Bud · January 2006

i have a amd64 3200+ and a asus a8n sli deluxe i might use then. only thing that sucks is i gotta buy something to replace it with. I would use linux, only thing that scares me is i dont know anything on linux. I took 2 classes in ecpi but i didnt learn much (even though i got a's) greyfox & tex thanks for info. Also greyfox i love that system info page that is sweet. yea i gotta work on a backup plan im just debating ideas since its sooo much data. i might buy a 300gb external just to backup too. Im gonna have a lot of videos on thier that will be on dvd form too in a closet so they wont be to crucial info to lose. but my pics, apps, music i do want backed up. Im saying file server but it will do a little morer too. Im thinking of playing in some home automation & e-mail server. I do have a netgear 8 port gigabit switch and a few netgear gigabit cards aroung too.

Bud · January 2006

if i decide to go linux how hard would it be to setup? any guides online i could follow?

Atticus · January 2006

Ubuntu Tutorial Here I haven't had a chance to actually put files on it yet but it installed smoothly, it was for my office. I needed to have a central location for our accounting and purchase orders, but i'm not confident about the security so i haven't put any files :/

Tex · January 2006

I use rehat fedora. It's free..... Throw in a cd and your up in 20 minutes. We will help ya setup Samba (Windows file sharing program for linux). Friggin piece of cake dude. An hour and you will be able to just walk away and forget about it forever.

Tex

GrayFox · January 2006

Bud wrote:

if i decide to go linux how hard would it be to setup? any guides online i could follow?

I recomend using debian it has the least bull**** and its the most secure.

To install samba type in apt-get install samba

To configure it use a text editor (such as nano) and edit etc/samba/smb.conf.
edit for the settings till your happy with the settings.

Tex · January 2006

I bet he needs more help then that for samba

Bud · January 2006

should i software raid if i do linux or dont worry? Also what do you guys think is a good backup option. Oh also does linux support anything like volume shadow copy service like windows server does?

Tex · January 2006

Dude its not perfect but I have a 8 port gigabit switch at my house. So I backup one server to another. Most of my big directories to backup do not change much. So I copy my document (which is also where I move my Outlook data files for eveyone on the network) daily from one server to another. The rest the stuff... movies and mp3's etc... I back up once a week from one to another.

GrayFox · January 2006

Bud wrote:

should i software raid if i do linux or dont worry? Also what do you guys think is a good backup option. Oh also does linux support anything like volume shadow copy service like windows server does?

If you use debian setting up a raid aray is VERY easy.

Where you normaly select your partition slect multi disk and tell it not to mount the drives, then select create multi disk aray and then select your raid configuration you want (ex raid 0 raid 1 raid 5, raid 10).

Bud · January 2006

tex i know its not perfect. I was just curious if it had something like that. I just like the ideas of multiple copies backed up in case of an accidental delete. Is it any performance gain to do software raid 0 and how bad is raid 5.

Tex · January 2006

the performance hit on software raid-5 is huge. But it has redundancy at least. The rule is never put anything on raid-0 you can't afford to lose. raid-10 is better,

Tex

Bud · January 2006

is there a performance jump doing software raid 0?

is a file server overkill?

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