Building a fileserver for my home, suggestions please

[digilink]

I am wanting to build a new linux based fileserver for my house, I know that I want to put at least 1 terabyte+ worth of storage into it, but I am looking for suggestions for what to put in it based on my intended usage.

I'd really like to go with an Opteron setup, but I am on a budget so I am looking at doing a socket 754 based Athlon 64. I don't expect this box to see much usage, as it is just me and my wife that will be using it to watch DVD's, listen to MP3's etc streamed to my Xbox running XBMC, that is my intended use for it and moving up to a home theater PC at some point this year.

Here is what I am thinking:
Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 754)
Gigabyte GA-K8NS mobo(I bought one of these for my brother for Christmas, he is quite pleased with it, and it's cheap!)
512 or 1 gig of PC-3200, should I do ECC for what I am doing?
Not sure on the drives or RAID controller, but definitely want SATA I or II type drives

I already have a case and power supply that I think will be sufficient to handle all of this, as well as an old PCI video card.

Suggestions?

 

[Malk-a-mite]

I don't expect this box to see much usage,

2 people, DVDs (assuming ripped to the server), and MP3s?

You are greatly over estimating the power needed to drive a system with these requirements. I do DVDs, MP3s, and general file sharing on a P3-600 with 512mb of memory for a network with 4 systems and 3 users.

Now if you just want to build a hot machine because you can... well then, have at it. But if you are on a limited budget you can save on things like getting less memory. The joys of not having a GUI interface tends to cut down on the need for lots of memory.

 

[J4M3S0N79]

Personally,
I would steer clear of using a dedicated box as a home file server. Largely it's overkill, and the OS will typically just get in the way of continued smooth functioning....even if it is linux. I personally have about 1.4tb in my HTPC and I like it a lt except that the computer is heavy as hell now and I cannot set upa raid array because when I upgrad the mobo (and storage controller) I cannot just rebuild the same array.

Personally, I am looking at the Infrant X6 xraid storage controller. It has some slick functions and it's sata with GbE connectivity. Allows for seemless volume expansion and good raid levels....as well as instant portability.

 

[versello]

You can get a cheaper CPU. My file server (domain controller and exchange server as well) consists of a dual processor P3 866MHz w/ 1.5GB of RAM... and it has plenty of processing power to spare.

You don't need ECC memory, but I would get at least 1 gig of RAM, a quality RAID controller that does RAID 5 and reliable drives.

I snagged a 3Ware 9500S 4-port RAID controller w/ 128MB of onboard memory off ebay last month for $190

 

[Christopher]

Overkill is what makes it so much fun

I did a similar project about a year ago for a home fileserver. Here's the hardware I used:

* P4 northwood core 3200mhz (200mhz FSB x 16 quad-pumped to 800mhz FSB)
* 2gb Crucial PC3200 DDR ECC RAM
* Intel SE7210TP1-E Server mainboard
* 3Ware 9500S-4LP SATA RAID controller
* 1 Western Digital 1200 120gb 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA hard drive as boot drive
* 1 Western Digital 2500 250gb 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA hard drive as backup drive
* 4 Western Digital 2500 250gb 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA hard drives in a RAID-5
* Addtronics 7890 Chasis
* PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 510ATX

After RAID-5 and filesystem overhead, it gives me about 700gb of storage on the array. Running FreeBSD 5.4 and Samba, its nice and fast over a gige network, easially 80 megabytes/sec.

 

[digilink]

Overkill is what makes it so much fun

lol, qft. I think that is part of my goal here, like everyone else I get sheer excitement of building a box and watching it come alive and saying I did that.

So now it's down to either a single Athlon 64, or maybe a dual PIII setup? Would I really need a gig of RAM? I am definitely going to do a RAID 5 SATA setup, just won't be able to buy all the drives at once, I may just start off with 2 and do a RAID 1 until I can get some more drives.

 

[kumquat]

lol, qft. I think that is part of my goal here, like everyone else I get sheer excitement of building a box and watching it come alive and saying I did that.

So now it's down to either a single Athlon 64, or maybe a dual PIII setup? Would I really need a gig of RAM?

If you want to actually waste money, sure.

A Pentium II 400MHz would be more than sufficient for a file server. My dual Xeon 1 GHz server with 1GB of RAM services 35 users who are constantly using it all day long and the CPU usage never goes above 10%, and RAM usage never goes above 300MB.

File serving is very, very, very NOT resource intensive.

Spend the money on your workstation, the drive setup, or network infrastructure, not the CPU and RAM for a file server.

 

[Ockie]

Heck, go on newegg and grab that all in one integrated motherboard with the via c3 2200 processor... more than enough and it's recent technology... not older p3 stuff.... oh and only $55 for the board, cpu, and has everything else on board.

 

[mobiux]

If you want to actually waste money, sure.

A Pentium II 400MHz would be more than sufficient for a file server. My dual Xeon 1 GHz server with 1GB of RAM services 35 users who are constantly using it all day long and the CPU usage never goes above 10%, and RAM usage never goes above 300MB.

File serving is very, very, very NOT resource intensive.

Spend the money on your workstation, the drive setup, or network infrastructure, not the CPU and RAM for a file server.

Truth!

The main reasons i went with a low power pc is the heat and noise. I have it in a custom enclosure built under my desk, it's a passively cooled p2-400, 384 mb ram, it serves everything just fine.

Get a underclocked sempron or something, spend your extra cash on fast network and fast storage, that will do more for you that a fast cpu on a server.