r1sk

after looking a bit more into Vsphere, i think it will be the best way to go, it will give me the best versatility in wahtever i'd want to do with this server. after looking a bit more at the space I want to put in my server, I decided that it could be possible to put in a small server cabinet something like 10-14U cabinet, I think for a case with 12~ hdds and just a place to place my router and modem into it should be fine. it gives me an option to put into it my receiver or have future expend ability. but now i am looking into hardware i've never used before, a server grade hw, i understand that i can use a typical pc hw but if im going for it, why shouldnt i use a server grade hw? i think i should add the additional cost for a good raid card as well. do anyone have any experience with server hw? , any suggestions on mb + cpu should i look into? i would love for some suggestions on server cabinets + hdd cases for it as well. if you think that abandoning the consumer hw is a mistake for this kind of server, id love to hear you thought about it as well

from looking at the freenas options I was thinking of not using a hardware raid controller, but what are my options for an MB, if i want 8-10 hdds ?

I didn't hear about Vmware Vsphere until now, but from what i was able to understand from reading for a few minutes, this application will be my main OS? that will control the storage and the cloud options? and if I will want to run other OSs like windows server or/and ubuntu server i could do it by running them simultaneously? I don't mind a failure tolerance, but I think it won't be needed on all the storage, the most impotent data will never be saved only in one place, I always have an offsite backup of documents and other impotent data. movies/music/tv I don't think I will need a failure tolerance most of the data that is really impotent I have the original blue rays / music cds / dvds. and from my previous experience with failure tolerance in the drobo, it makes the data transfer much slower. (unless it is different with a normal raid card and a good system?)

My current setup: Drobo FS (5 Drives ~15TB -> ~10TB real storage) ChromeBox (Ubuntu server) -> which works as download manager(torrents / sabnzbd / sickbeard / couchpotato) and media server. everything kinda work ok up until now, but now the drobo stopped working. So now I am looking into changing my setup, first I was looking at other pre-build nas solutions like qnap / synology since I am not coming back to Drobo. they both seem ok, but again in the same situation that one of the parts will stop working the whole thing is basically useless for self-diagnostic / repair. then I was looking into building my own NAS, the location of that NAS isn't big so I need a small case, a case for microATX should be fine, but a small one can be better. at this point I found some issues, all this small mb don't have a lot of SATA ports, at max i found 8 sata ports on a high end mb, so i've started looking into pci-e controller cards, most of what I found where for RAID, and for 16 sata connections they were pretty expensive, I wasn't able to find a good non-RAID card, I am not planning to use the raid options on that card because I was looking into FreeNAS / Windows 2012 R2 storage options and as far as I understood they are aggregating the storage capacity on a software level without any specialized hardware. 1. Budget & Location Location isn't really an issue, in case I don't have the parts in my country I will order them from somewhere else. Budget don't really on a budget but just in case so you won't create a 10$k NAS servers, lets limit it to 2.5$k ? (not really a hard limit). I have no issues spending money on this, but I don't want just to buy unnecessary HW like the a super expensive raid card if I don't need to. currently I have HDDs, they are from different time in my life, so in case I need to change them or not use some of them, let me know: 2 x 4TB WD Red 1 x 4TB WD Green 3 x 3TB WB Green 2 x 2TB Segate (don't remember which ones) 1 x 1TB Samsung F3 2. Aim Since I was looking at a windows 2012 server based solution or a much powerful build I decided that it was better if it will operate as a Home Server: 1. maintain a backup of all machines on the network 2. download manager 3. plex server ? (is it any good ? should I put an effort into it? ) 4. personal cloud ? 5. music server ?. Storage (?) the storage part of the system should it be in one system or is it better to buy a pre-build nas ? or build another computer that will handle only the storage issues? I don't want the other functionality to do any issues for the storage, in case any of the other functionality of the "home server" will do harm to the storage part of the machine. the clients of this machine will be: 1) 4 Raspberry Pi (running kodi) 2) 1 Desktop 3) 4 Laptops 4) 4 cellphones 5) 4 tablets - all of them will use the home server in some way not all of them will use all the functionality of the server, but I would like to be able to stream movies to 4 raspberrys and maybe a phone and a tablet simultaneously + downloading an extracting from archive + backing up laptops / desktops all at the same time. 3. Monitors Maybe hook the machine to a tv ? but mostly i think i will use RDP / command line / web interface depending on what OS solution I will choose to go with. 4. Peripherals No. 5. Why are you upgrading? the old solution stop working. the help I want is regarding a decision on what direction to take this, should I build a powerful home server ? does it need to be powerful (i7/i5?) or an Pentium / atom is good choice ? should I look at a pre-build nas solutions at all? and after deciding on what direction to take this build, I will need an assistance on what parts should I use while building ? Thanks anyone who tries to help me on this!

i just noticed that i didn't mentioned something that might be really important, the choice of the cpu and the motherboard are based on the assumption that i might change my mind and in a few months i will get a new case and buy a good gpu to make the htpc, a somewhat gaming pc as well, that is why i wanted to go with really good parts (price isn't an issue so i don't care that the AMD A10 is cheaper than the i5 , i only want the best component choice). is there a good reason to get a good soundcard with the system / or get an Asus motherboard with the better onboard soundcard? , or if i only use the hdmi cable to connect to the receiver i don't really have a use with a soundcard? is the NIC on the motherboard good enough or should i think about getting pci NIC ? I am not that familiar with htpc cases, so i would be happy if you could tell me if i have other options ?,, what i am looking in a case, for it to be slim (dvd player form factor / receiver form factor), metal is better, good looking in general.

I was planing on using the onboard graphics from the i5 or is it a bad idea ?

I want to build an HTPC for myself, and I did some research and compiled a list of hardware that I think will make a good HTPC. It would be great if someone could help me with understanding if it's an overkill ? or if I missed anything, or maybe you have a better idea for some of the parts. first of all - budget, I don't really have one, but lets say around 2000$ is the max. the use of this HTPC will be mostly to run XBMC, and manage my downloads, storage, I don't really need, I have a 16TB NAS. The parts: CPU: Intel i5 4570s Mobo: Asus H87M-Plus / Z87M-Plus (I'm not sure if i need the z87 over the H, and if thats the correct model naming) SSD: Samsung 840 Evo 120GB Case: SilverStone Milo ML04 PSU: Seasonic 400W Gold X-Series Fanless CPU Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Memory: Corsair 2x4GB XMS3 Bluray-Drive: Pioneer BDR-209DBK let me know if I forgot anything, and your thoughts on the parts i've choosen.

I did manage to find a website that I can eventually transfer my bitcoin into paypal account, but it is a costly way. (from a 230$ worth of bitcoins I managed to transfer to my paypal account about 180$). if you are still interested you can visit this site: https://www.virwox.com/ - you can't actually transfer bitcoin into dollar and then to paypal, you can transfer you bitcoin into the wallet in that site, than to transfer the funds into an SLL currency and only than you can convert it into dollars and from there you can transfer it back to paypal. from some research I did on the subject, that was the fastest way to convert bitcoins into paypal transferable money. Hope this info helps you in anyway.