Looking to build a cheap file/print server. Nothing great.

G

Geekling

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 22, 2004
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I just need a small server for my house. It will be mainly a file and print server. No games, websites, etc.

Any suggestions on the hardware? I will be buying plenty of HDs to fill this beast. We have a lot of videos, pics, etc that need to go on the server.

Thanks for any help.
 
I think that may be better for the hardware section. While some folks may be able to offer suggestions, generally the people that have more of a passion for hardware are in the hardware areas.

Generally what you want to ask in this section is what OS to use and how to go about it. I suggest Linux if you want cheap, EX because this is only file and print services.

Another thing that needs to be known is the kind of traffic expected. How many users, how many will be using it at one time, etc?
 
I will be trying Linux. I've played with it a little in the past so I'm not that great with it. It will take me some time to set it up correctly.

Traffic? Very little. It will have at the most 3-4 people.
 
Check out FreeNAS. While it won't do printing, you can just connected and map those on the individual clients.
 
I was pretty inpressed with Redhat Fedora Core 5. Which is what I run @ home. Recognizes my printer, and you will need to run SAMBA if it is a mixed environment with Windows.

No problems with me!
 
If it's for videos and pics, it sounds more like an HTPC.

If you were to use high capacity HDs, you could do worse than to put it into a quiet case and have some media centre capability in it. And what the hey, it could still do some basic file serving and printing too.
 
mostly just need a raid card and some harddrives and any computer. http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4551377 110 bucks for 500 gigs, get a raid 5 card or use some software raid, and a older machine.

or maybe just a nas drive? most do print sharing, alot have raid and more then enough storage.
 
If this is a windows network, the best idea, imo, would be to use XP home/pro (dep on the number of clients) because, so far that's all I can get to work, and I was running my server with W2K pro (never did get printer sharing to work on w2k).

Keep in mind your network speed, especially if it's WiFi, you have no need for a super high-end PC. I'm using a celleron 900 with 256mb ram and usb 1.1 with a 20gb hd connected externally and a 10gb internally (and previously an 80gb that just bit the dust) I'll eventually upgrade to 2x 500gb, once I get the $$$ but for now, all I'm using it for is to share documents between PCs (2 laptops, 2 desktops --- 2 XP home, 1 XP pro, and 1 W2K) and all of it's on WiFi, so USB 1.1 is 12mbps, and wifi is 12mbps, so it works fine (and if I get desperate for speed, I can use IDE->SATA, cut a slit in the case, and get soem esata drives)

Another option, though is you might want to install an FPT server on it instead, and you could access it over the itnernet then if you chose (though this wouldn't help with printing)
 
i run a p2-400 with 256meg ram with 2 hdd's in raid and a gige intel card.

works like a charm, i've run everything from windows to linux on it.

i'm going to probably switch to freenas or the like soon, just so i can boot of a compact flash card, you might want to look on ebay and get a dedicated usb print server, i picked up a netgear one for like 14 bucks, works great
 
For my file server I used an Athlon 64 3000+, 2x 500GB SATA drives, 1x 80GB System drive. I had most of the extra hardware laying around, but slower Althon64's can be had for well under $100.
 
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