SFF File server

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cuog

Weaksauce
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Feb 11, 2008
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I'm looking to build myself a small and power efficient fileserver. I'll be running a small very lightweight linux distro on it with little to no GUI. I'm looking to hold in the neighborhood of a TB of files, mostly movie(non HD) and music which I will need to stream the file, as some of the client systems may not have the Harddrive space to handle the full file. Also it will serve as a repository for system backups. To keep costs down I'm looking at a VIA C3 CPU, 1GHz. However I've never worked with this CPU and I don't know if it will be able to handle the task. Anyone that has used this CPU has it worked for you? Or would an Atom CPU be much better suited for the task?
 
cuog said:
I'm looking to build myself a small and power efficient fileserver. I'll be running a small very lightweight linux distro on it with little to no GUI. I'm looking to hold in the neighborhood of a TB of files, mostly movie(non HD) and music which I will need to stream the file, as some of the client systems may not have the Harddrive space to handle the full file. Also it will serve as a repository for system backups. To keep costs down I'm looking at a VIA C3 CPU, 1GHz. However I've never worked with this CPU and I don't know if it will be able to handle the task. Anyone that has used this CPU has it worked for you? Or would an Atom CPU be much better suited for the task?
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i5 draws the least power at idle. but thats definately much more expensive than if you purchased a sempron 140 which draws about the same as the atom while being able to crank out quite a bit more power.
http://www.servethehome.com/amd-sempron-140-sargas-whs-review/
 
I'm still not sure on the 140 since I'd have to pick up DDR3 it seems. If I go with the atom I could just take one of the 2gb modules out of my desktop(I have 8gb now which is probably more than I'm realistically using) The atom D510 is looking good right now, although it does put me at about 200 dollars total budget instead of the 100-150 I was looking at. But I would much prefer onboard SATA which the VIA doesn't offer.
 
I Can tell you the d510 is a little work horse.. I have one in my WHS that has about 6tb of data & it transcodes video on the fly for my Tivo HD's.. Overall i am very impressed with this little chip.. & using the intel board its fanless so thats also a bonus.
 
If you were able to do transcoding with the atom it sounds like it will be more than enough muscle for my needs thanks.
 
cuog said:
If you were able to do transcoding with the atom it sounds like it will be more than enough muscle for my needs thanks.
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Definitly.. & thats under a windows OS so using nix it should be more then enough for anything you throw at it..
 
that barebones server doesn't seem as good dollars wise, I can get the atom board for ~80-90, a case/PSU for 35, RAM from my desktop, and a TB HD for under a hundred. At a little over 200 I'd be done instead of just starting with the barebones.
 
You won't get a decent case/power supply for $35. A decent one is going to be a bit under $100. It is also about as small as it gets. If you look at the cost of quality parts and the given size, the value isn't all that bad really.
 
I've heard for years buy XYZ expensive power supply, and I've used some of the cheapest and nicest stuff around and they both have the same fail/success ratios in my experience.
 
I Can say I have had good luck with some cheap PSU, but I never recomend them.. That being said consider skipping a case & jsut buy a quality PSU & fab a case into something (like a shoe box).. & The new corsaid 430cx is like 40 bucks right now too so thats a good buy. If you copmbine that with a 10.00 find on craigs list or a thrift store you have better reliability then a cheapo case psu combo
 
cuog said:
that barebones server doesn't seem as good dollars wise, I can get the atom board for ~80-90, a case/PSU for 35, RAM from my desktop, and a TB HD for under a hundred. At a little over 200 I'd be done instead of just starting with the barebones.
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It still won't be as power efficient or as small/attractive as the VIA Artigo A2000. The VIA solution uses probably around 5W less than a dual core Atom (probably a tie with single core Atom) and of course the chassis is really small for holding two drives. What small ITX case can you find that can ("officially") hold two 3½" drives for $35 with PSU? Most small ITX cases are meant to be workstations, thus holding one HDD and one optical.

There's also the new VIA M'SERV S2100 which is almost the same as the A2000, but instead of a VIA C7 proc you get a VIA Nano proc which supports 64-bit and is newer/faster. It also has two gigabit ports instead of one.

For the OP, how do you want to keep costs down? By building it as cheap as possible? By building it as power efficient as possible? That decision can influence what you get because the cheapest may not be the most power efficient. Also, how small is small for you? For some people anything smaller than their full tower beast is "small" for them so micro ATX may suffice. For others, "small" starts at mini ITX and ends with a Beagle Board. Regarding performance, since all you will be doing is serving up files, then just about anything will work.
 
that m'serv 2100 is pretty spiffy, except that its 300 with no hard drives or ram. For that a Dual Core Atom could get slapped into a Lian Li PC-q08 with a corsair or silverstone PSU & have room for 6 drives instead of 2..

@cuog what is your budget on this..
 
Yup, the Q08 is pretty nice for a multi-drive file server. But it indeed all boils down to budget as well as desired capacity and other possible features.
 
I want to go with Mini ITX. I have very little space to work with. Power consumption isn't my main cost factor, its more cost to build the system. I want to stay under 200 for the whole system minus HDs. Originally my budget was 100 before harddrive but that doesn't look feasible. As far as a case, I don't mind modding internals. I just want the exterior to look nice and complete instead of rigged together. I wont be running an optical drive so that's an extra slot I can setup a harddrive in. The main OS drive will also be a 2.5" SATA disk from my girlfriends old laptop as soon as I take her music off there for her.

This is the case that I'm looking at building into: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1234032&cm_re=itx_case-_-11-234-032-_-Product
with this motherboard: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160394638948&ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT
If I can find cheap DDR2, I'll buy some new otherwise I'll "borrow" a 2GB stick from my desktop. That would put me much closer to my original build budget so I could maybe afford a harddrive and still keep under 200.

My budget is kind of flexible since its coming from selling a bunch of the random crap that's been laying around my place, so once its all sold I'll know a little better how much I can spend.
 
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I Would say go for it on both.. But that board is cheaper on newegg by about 16 bucks.. also 45 shipped for a 2gb stick of Kingston DDR2 800 Mhz puts you to a shipped total of 175 for all 3 from newegg.
 
I guess I missed the board first time through on newegg. Now just a waiting game on my stuff to sell.
 
I would get a eco or green type (5400 rpm) drive given the use.. But if you cant find one in budget then the one you have there will work fine
 
Its like a 5 dollar difference. I was thinking 7200 because of access speeds, but when sending everything over a 10/100 network does the difference between 7200 and 5400 rpm become negligible? I can see where the power savings of the 5400 rpm green drives would be beneficial as well.
 
the slower drive is also a bit cooler typically & more reliable. Yes you do take a little hit in rap performance, but for a home use file server you wont see the performance difference anyhow.
 
bastage said:
that m'serv 2100 is pretty spiffy, except that its 300 with no hard drives or ram. For that a Dual Core Atom could get slapped into a Lian Li PC-q08 with a corsair or silverstone PSU & have room for 6 drives instead of 2..
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Right, but it will be about 3x bigger by volume. It comes down to how many drives are (eventually) needed.

cuog said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119023

Unless there's a reason not to go with any of those.
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I have a variant of that barebones (different face) and it is not very quiet. The CPU fan is 40mm... and that's the QUIETEST fan out of the 3 in it! :eek: There's an 80mm exhaust fan on top that is noisy but the noisiest might be the 80mm PSU fan which runs full speed all the time. My PSU was a CWT. Apparently this barebones is available with either that or an FSP power supply. I don't know if the FSP is any quieter. You have to take off the face to get the drive subchassis out, and mine was a PITA, plus the cables stay attached. Still, really cheap setup and works reasonably well.

cuog said:
Its like a 5 dollar difference. I was thinking 7200 because of access speeds, but when sending everything over a 10/100 network does the difference between 7200 and 5400 rpm become negligible? I can see where the power savings of the 5400 rpm green drives would be beneficial as well.
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Yes, 100Mbit network is slow enough that there will be no difference for streaming. You should get yourself signed up for Newegg emails because deals come and go pretty regularly on hard drives. I've seen 5400RPM 1TB drives for $60 and 1.5TB for $75.

cuog, if you end up buying just an ITX board and separate case instead of an actual barebones, FYI most Atom ITX boards have only two SATA ports and no EIDE. Cheapest one with more is the Gigabyte at $100 with 4x SATA plus one EIDE (6 drive support total). If you think you might need to go over two drives, it is worth considering.
 
as far as the number of Sata ports goes the Intel branded D510 board that I have workes very well with a cheap 30 dollar PCI SATA controller with WHS. It also worked with FreeNAS that I used on the same hardware before WHS.
 
If I go more than 2 HDs I will use external SATA ports on a PCI card and make an external enclosure for the drives. 1TB sounds like more than I would use for quite a while so I think I'll be safe for a few years with just that, at which point I could probably get a used mini ITX bored that newer and has more onboard sata for cheap anyway. If the fans turn out to be louder than the many things in the room already making noise, I'll probably get some better fans and do some mods to quiet things down.
 
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