building a server

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lonchaney

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May 26, 2009
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Hey,

I wanna build a relatively cheap server to keep all my videos, music and pictures on. I wanna make sure that if a HD goes down I don't loose a TB of stuff. I have a 1TB caviar black and a 1TB caviar green. I don't know if i'll need to set up a RAID and I read that the caviar blacks aren't recommended to RAID I think. Windows home server will be able to reconstruct a HD if it fails, right? I eventually wanna set it up so I have 8 x 1TB HDs I think.

Basically I think I'll be running windows home server and will use this case, http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=019666&cid=CS.220

Can anybody help me pick out the rest of the components (or suggest a better case if I chose a crap one)? I don't know what MOBO/Processor to get along with RAM. I don't need a server MOBO or anything like that I don't think.

Thanks a lot
 
running a pair of wd blacks in raid in multiple locations they run just fine, using both raid 0 and raid 1

mixing a green and black might make it a slower setup but for a mirror (raid 1) it really doesn't matter

planning on making a mni itx one myself with windows hom server and 4x1.5 tb greens, the chebro mini itx nas case etc
 
If youre planning on using WHS, you dont need to raid (i dont think it supports it either). Turn on folder duplication for any file you want backed up and it will put it on a separate physical disk.

I dont believe that windows home server can RECONSTRUCT a drive, but if everything was duplicated, then nothing got lost in the first place and when you remove the bad drive and put a new one in the server automatically levels all of the storage out to keep backups and duplication arranged properly.
 
so this way i would be using 2 times the amount of space for every file i want backed up?
 
lonchaney said:
so this way i would be using 2 times the amount of space for every file i want backed up?
Click to expand...

thats how raid 1 works, i makes a mirror of drive 0 on drive 1, whs does something similar with software, but thats how you get redundancy, you loose space in favor of having multiple copies of data
 
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so if i have 3 x 1tb hds (or more) is there a way to make it so it's not a 1:1 back up? i don't want to have 8tb of space just for 4tb of data.
 
lonchaney said:
so if i have 3 x 1tb hds (or more) is there a way to make it so it's not a 1:1 back up? i don't want to have 8tb of space just for 4tb of data.
Click to expand...

raid 5 is a 33% loss with 3 drives
 
so RAID 5 is the way to go with more than 2 drives?

thanks for the help so far...anybody have any suggestions as to hardware??
 
lonchaney said:
so RAID 5 is the way to go with more than 2 drives?

thanks for the help so far...anybody have any suggestions as to hardware??
Click to expand...

If you end up with 8 1TB drives and one fails, RAID 5 will keep you from losing any data.

If two drives fail, you lose all 7 TB of data.

Seems like more people would at least go RAID 6 with 8 drives. So it's hard to say what the "way to go" is just because you have more than two drives.
 
ok this gives me a lot to think about...what about using windows server 2008? can that reconstruct hard drives if they fail?
 
Just go Windows Home Server. No RAID. All JBOD. Buy another PCI/PCIe SATA card. Buy your 1TB+ drives. Pool all of them in WHS, turn on file duplication, then just forget and not worry about it.
 
veritas7 said:
Just go Windows Home Server. No RAID. All JBOD. Buy another PCI/PCIe SATA card. Buy your 1TB+ drives. Pool all of them in WHS, turn on file duplication, then just forget and not worry about it.
Click to expand...

yah this would be the easiest way to do it but would also require the most amount of hd space, right? it would be 1:1 back up
 
lonchaney said:
yah this would be the easiest way to do it but would also require the most amount of hd space, right? it would be 1:1 back up
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Yes, but if your RAID fails, and you don't have a spare drive, you will have to wait until your RAID rebuilds to access your data. Or worse, wait to rebuild for a new drive to come in the mail.

There are pros and cons, but IMO, WHS is still cheaper than RAID. Plus I would never trust onboard motherboard RAID, or cheaper RAID cards with higher data parity processing.
 
It would help if you could tell us what your requirements were for a mobo/CPU were. Like number of SATA ports, Gig NIC, RAID support, etc.
 
ok i've saved up some money and am ready to start getting some pieces together. i'm going to be running windows home server and still need help finding a mobo and cpu. i want as many sata ports as possible but the minimum is 6 i guess. i need a gigabit ethernet connection. no need for raid.

can anyone suggest a mobo and cpu? i don't wanna spend too much money...maybe $250-300 at the most

thanks for the help
 
For WHS, this is all that you really need:
$170 CAD - AMD Athlon II X2 240 + GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard Combo
 
Danny Bui said:
For WHS, this is all that you really need:
$170 CAD - AMD Athlon II X2 240 + GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard Combo
Click to expand...

that looks good to me...what about ram? this will be the first computer i build by myself so i wanna get some good advice :) should i get a specific cpu fan/heatsink?

i'm gong with a coolmaster haf 932 case but can anyone suggest a good psu?

also, this may be a stupid question but there'll be no reason to get a video card, right?

is there anything else i should get? i have the hds already.

thanks a lot for the help guys
 
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lonchaney said:
that looks good to me...what about ram? this will be the first computer i build by myself so i wanna get some good advice :) should i get a specific cpu fan/heatsink?

i'm gong with a coolmaster haf 932 case but can anyone suggest a good psu?

also, this may be a stupid question but there'll be no reason to get a video card, right?

is there anything else i should get? i have the hds already.

thanks a lot for the help guys
Click to expand...

The stock HSF will be fine for your needs. As for RAM, just get the cheapest DDR2 667 or DDR2 800 RAM you can find and you'll be fine. RAM timings do not matter for this kind of situation. PSU wise, 8 hard drives is the max amount of hard drives you're planning to get, correct?

No need for a video card since the mobo already has onboard video. No need for anything else AFAIK,
 
thanks for the info. i'd like to have a psu that can run 10 hds just in case i get a few more later :)
 
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