Low Budget System for ~$500

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film42

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Dec 15, 2009
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I know this is HardForum and everything is larger than life (which is jaw-droppingly awesome), but I was wondering if anyone out there has put together a low budget 2-5TB System for around $500.

My HTPC is running great, but only has a small internal HDD for the OS and the Media Center (XBMC) its self. My little 500GB external seems like it wont last much longer and it's been filled for over a month now, restricting me from watching new tv shows and movies.

I would love to try an atom powered setup running 3-4 1TB or 1.5 TB HDDs via a RAID controller. Unfortunately I lack the experience required to piece something like that together. I figured someone here might though.

I would love to hear anyone's input,

Thanks,
Film42

P.S. If I'm speaking out of place, or if this goes against everything, I apologize in advance.
 
Does that $500 budget include the drives themselves?
What OS will you be using for this file server?
Do you want hardware or software based RAID?
What exact parts will you need for that $500 budget?
 
Ideally ubuntu or some other linux distribution. The OS its self isn't important.

As far as the RAID controller goes, I'm not 100% sure. It's probably better to offload it to a card, but if it's doable for a significant price reduction then I guess software would be smarter.

Hard Drives ideally part of the $500. Assuming that'll run at least $300, I understand if the system goes over the $500 goal. I'm asking this because I'm not sure what the best parts to get are. So everything basically.

If the system only starts out with 2TB and is scalable without hassle, that would be fantastic.

Basically I'm just looking for a reliable system that runs great for real cheap.

Thanks for your help,
Film42
 
Yeah software RAID is all that you can do for $500.

Here's a prelim build:
$139 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU + Asus M4A785TD-M AMD 785G HDMI mATX motherboard Combo
$40 - Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$75 - Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU
$55 - Antec 300 ATX Case
$55 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (OS Drive)
--
Total: $364 plus tax and shipping.

The case can hold up to 10 drives which means that you're gonna need a decent PSU for that. The EA650 would be more than enough power for 10 drives + that CPU. That 500GB drive is just for the OS + additional software, not for any sort of heavy storage. And before you ask, there are smaller drives out there but they're horrible in terms of price per GB. 2GB of RAM should be enough for a file server setup.

I left enough room in the budget for you to decide on the hard drives setup you want (RAID array, etc)
 
This is exactly what I'm looking for! Thanks man.

[H]ardForum = best forum ever!

I was thinking RAID 5, just in case one fails... Assuming I want to scale, what's the best way to RAID everything?

Also.. I was just looking into cheap seagate 1TB drives on newegg for ~$85 each.

Thanks again man!
-Film42
 
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