Storage server on the cheap

T

Thrus

n00b
Joined
Jul 10, 2009
Messages
10
I'm looking to build two new computers for myself and my wife for gaming, and upgrade our network from 100 to gig. In the process her old pc is going to become a storage server for our photos, music, and movies.

It is an older HP tower; athalon 64 3800 (2.4Ghz) with 1 gig of RAM and a 300GB hard drive (SATA). The plan is to add 2-4 1TB drives to it for storage, SATA card if more ports are needed, and maybe a PSU again if needed.

From what I have seen looking around in this forum WHS is the recommended idea but I just don't see what I gain with that over keeping the current copy of XP on it and using rsync or a free app to duplicate data to a second drive. Unless I’m wrong WHS is $199 so what else am I getting for my money? I know that WHS can backup data from our new computers as well but that is not really a big deal as we will store 95% of our data on the server and accessed it from there, the other 5% will be things like save files in games that if we really don't care if we did lose. as is we do a format of our computers every 6 month for me, 1 year for her so the os and software is not an issue.

We don't have a PS3 or Xbox (any variety), so only streaming would be to watch some movies on our new PCs on rare occasions mostly non-HD ones at that.

Sorry if I seam cynical about WHS but just tiring to find the best fit for my need and with the extra $199 I could add a fair amount more storage to the system.

Thanks,
Thrus
 
Thanks, for the quick reply and that dose make it more apealing for half what i was thinking.

Guess I have been looking at to many OS prices between XP Vista and 7 upgrades to keep then straight in my head.
 
How computer literate are the users of the systems? Do you want some thing that is easy to use (works well with minimal set-up) or something you'll spends weeks tweaking and possible praying no-one screws up the settings.........
 
You could always demo WHS to see if it's what you need. I think you can do a 120 day demo or something like that. Also, Unraid is another good option that gives you a 1 drive protection. I'd definitely stay away from hardware raid, especially if you are wanting to go cheap. Hell a 8 port card runs close to $400 by itself and you are locking yourself into a specific hard drive. With Unraid I started by purchasing 1tb hard drive for $200 as they were the max size, now I can add 2tb hard drives instead of having to redo my setup.
 
Dnphamus13

I'd perfer the works well with minimal setup, as to the users it will be me and my wife.

I'm slowly infecting her with the computer geek virus, no need to be idiot proof. all she cares is that she can get her pictures up to myspace and load her ipod with music, and this project should give her access to all of her CDs and pictures insed of only what fits on her hard drive at the time.

mufdvr3669
I'll take a look at Unraid and do some reading.
 
For you the draw of WHS might be the automated client backups, expandable storage (buy as you need to keep it cheap), remote access, and folder duplication.
 
It almost seems you need a backup solution rather than a server solution. WHS is great for a few reasons. You can add and remove discs as your needs change. Automated backups of your PC's is super nice. The seller for me was it does bare metal backups. What that means to you and me is we can literally take the hard drive from our PC. Smash it to a gazillion pieces. Put in a new drive of equal or larger capacity and restore it as if nothing happened. That alone was worth it for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top