$450 small business fileserver build

[nerr]

Hey everyone, I'm speaking with a friend right now who is starting a small game development business, and he is interested in a server for his small business. He intends to have it run Linux and host Subversion, Samba, and NFS for his business.

He would also like to add 4 HDDs to the system to run in an mdadm RAID0+1 or RAID5 configuration, to ensure that data integrity is preserved. EDIT: Hotswap bays would be awesome as well, but not necessarily required, due to budget constraints.

As stated in the title, the budget is about $450 USD, and it is preferred that the parts come from Newegg.com. If anybody could point me in the right direction as far as a build goes, it would be much appreciated! Thanks for your time!

 

[xDezor]

Does his budget include the hard drives?

 

[s0rce]

How about this, I can't seem to get hot swap under budget. This low power/low cost - not high performance. I run basically this setup with Solaris at home:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...228&cm_re=asrock_e-350-_-13-157-228-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=mushkin_silverline-_-20-146-736-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154093&cm_re=apex-_-11-154-093-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145475&cm_re=5k3000-_-22-145-475-_-Product

MB/CPU: $109
Memory: $20
Case: $54 (it fits 4 drives if you mount one on the base, there is a little mini-itx chenbro with hotswap but it costs $70 more)
HDD: 4x $70
Total: $463

That's the best I can do.

If you can spend more you could get more ram (4GB), a better case or better MB/CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813176005

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...e=amd_athlon_II_x2_250-_-19-103-903-_-Product

but that puts you even more over budget. good luck

there are numerous threads on cheap builds:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1037264790

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1597060

edit: I used 2TB hard drives since they are the best deal in GB/$ but if you for some reason you really want to do it cheaper and need 4 drives you could get small drives but IMHO it would make more sense to get 3 drives.

edit 2: use a USB flash drive for the OS since you can't afford anything better! grab a half decent one on newegg for $20.

 

[Vengance_01]

if this does not include HDs in the budget, Link

 

[Red Falcon]

s0rce, you recommended the very mobo I was going to, haha.

Definitely agree with your suggestion, and +1 to adding more memory, especially if Subversion, NFS, and Samba shares are all going to be used in a multi-user environment.

Also OP, don't forget that having a hotspare for either RAID 10 or 5 is a must. With the RAID 5, you could have 3 drives in the array and 1 HS. For RAID 10 though, you may want to get another drive, just to be safe.

 

[ChrisBenn]

If this doesn't include drives
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&model_id=poweredge-t110
330 bucks for a x3430 xeon, system.
Add 100 for 8GB of ECC ram and you have
x3430 (4 core) xeon, 8GB ECC ram, case, ps, optical.

I'm working on the theory that this may turn into more of a general purpose server (subversion already listed) and suspect the extra power may be useful.

If this has to include the HD, well, 2TB drives are 70 a pop and 4 of them is 280, which limits your options a bit...

 

[GeorgeHR]

The real question is: "How small is the business?"

While it is easy to spec computers with no knowledge of the load being put on them, it is unlikely to produce a computer suitable for the use.

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Most small businesses consist of just the owner. For that a server is not needed.