Can I use old 6600k pc as a home server and help getting started?

[Dvrman123]

Hello, 

 

I have an upgraded my computer this year and have my old parts of one sitting in boxes collecting dust. I currently use a terrible WD My Cloud as a home backup storage but I have no redundancy built in I back it up every month or so but if it dies I will loose data. I would like to create a home server with this PC if possible, i'll link the specs below:

 

PC to be converted:

i5-6600k 

16gb ram

Motherboard: GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-H170-Gaming 3 (rev. 1.0)

some older 500 watt power supply

 

I've never dived into something like this and I look around reading and kind of get overwhelmed, I know this will be a steep learning process and would like to ask for help as to where to get started. I would like to access my files externally from my home network and continue running plex. I'm trying to stay under $500 if possible Some questions I have:

• What OS do I use? Windows 10 pro(someone mentioned storage spaces to me) Some other NAS software, Windows server os? 
• Thinking of using this case but if you have suggestions that would be great too? Antec Performance Series P101 Silent
• What type of hard drives should I buy? What type of Raid? I'm trying to stay on a budget of under $500 I've honestly never messed with raid but would like the ability to add more as I go maybe start low and increase my WD is 3tb and I have 2tb filled so I would like to at least start with having 3tb available.
• Do I need a cache drive? What exactly does this do?
• Any other tips would be fantastic.

Just want to say thank you in advanced! I'm a little nervous but think this is a better thing to do then to buy another NAS with some crappy atom or celeron processor.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Unraid is pretty simple to use with a web instaerface. Windows 10 will also work fine.

 

How many tb do you need? Id just get as many 8tb drives as you ned.

 

You don't need a cache for backups, they speed up data(exactly how depends on os + filesystem), but backups really don't need much speed.

 

Case depends on how many drives, so how many tb do you need.

[steelo]

Your PC really is overkill...Personally, I'd hang on to it or give it to a family member. I'm using the same CPU with 8 gb of RAM and a really crappy Nvidia GeForce210 for a work PC and it's perfectly capable.

 

Home servers don't require much in terms of CPU power or RAM. I've used a Athlon machine with 4 gb of RAM for plex and simple file storage and it never let me down.

[Olaf6541]

OS: Multiple options, you could just use windows, or unraid or freenas. Since you have very basic requirements any of these will do, so none of them will really stand out but if you already have windows 10 ill suggest just using that one.

 

HDD: Best option will be NAS drives such as WD Red of Seagate Ironwolf.

 

Cache: If youre limited by your network speed (which you probably are with 1gb) cache drives wont speed up anything. Its more of a datacenter thing and not really useful for home solutions.

 

Case: should be fine, as long as all of the drives can fit in it.

 

The processor is extremely overkill for a storage server but it gives you the opportunity to play around with vm's, like a vpn server for remote acces.

[seagate_surfer]

Another option may be the SkyHawk Surveillance HDD, that one supports many writings too.

[Dvrman123]

5 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Unraid is pretty simple to use with a web instaerface. Windows 10 will also work fine.

Case depends on how many drives, so how many tb do you need.

Awesome, I've taken a look at unraid I keep seeing a lot of freenas vs unraid articles. Have you used freenas? Do you prefer unraid vs freenas? I see unraid is $50(which is fine) just want to make sure I choose the right OS. I see unraid is installed on a thumb drive, is that reliable? 

 

3 hours ago, steelo said:

Your PC really is overkill...Personally, I'd hang on to it or give it to a family member. I'm using the same CPU with 8 gb of RAM and a really crappy Nvidia GeForce210 for a work PC and it's perfectly capable.

On the bright side this will hopefully last me a long time  

 

3 hours ago, Olaf6541 said:

OS: Multiple options, you could just use windows, or unraid or freenas. Since you have very basic requirements any of these will do, so none of them will really stand out but if you already have windows 10 ill suggest just using that one.

You suggested to use windows 10? Can this file server be used with macs too? I have a mac user in the household. Can you always make it accessible externally?

 

3 hours ago, Olaf6541 said:

Cache: If youre limited by your network speed (which you probably are with 1gb) cache drives wont speed up anything. Its more of a datacenter thing and not really useful for home solutions.

 

The processor is extremely overkill for a storage server but it gives you the opportunity to play around with vm's, like a vpn server for remote acces.

Good to know about the cache for the network won't even bother then since i am on 1gb. that might change in the future but it's expensive so i might up it to double. lol IDK future task. As for VM's like a vpn server for remote access, that is something I definitely would want to do. Can't wait to play around with it. 

 

 

 

I think i've decided to start with two 6tb drives https://www.newegg.com/p/1Z4-0002-00MY7 it seems to be the best cost per tb. 

 

Thank you everyone for your help  

[Electronics Wizardy]

35 minutes ago, Dvrman123 said:

Awesome, I've taken a look at unraid I keep seeing a lot of freenas vs unraid articles. Have you used freenas? Do you prefer unraid vs freenas? I see unraid is $50(which is fine) just want to make sure I choose the right OS. I see unraid is installed on a thumb drive, is that reliable? 

Ive used both.

 

Unraid makes it super easy to add drives as you want later on and mix drive sizes, this is harder in freenas.

 

Freenas is normally faster, but that won't matter here.

 

Unraid has a free trial, id just give it a shot.

d

37 minutes ago, Dvrman123 said:

You suggested to use windows 10? Can this file server be used with macs too? I have a mac user in the household. Can you always make it accessible externally?

Yep you can do that all on windows 10, it uses smb, just like unraid and freenas can.

 

 

35 minutes ago, Dvrman123 said:

I think i've decided to start with two 6tb drives https://www.newegg.com/p/1Z4-0002-00MY7 it seems to be the best cost per tb. 

This is about the same price and 8tb, might as well get these and remove from the case.

 

 

[Dvrman123]

One thing I forgot to ask everyone is I have an old Radeon HD 7850, would there be any benefit for me to put this into the unraid server?

 

On 9/6/2019 at 4:06 PM, Electronics Wizardy said:

Ive used both.

Unraid makes it super easy to add drives as you want later on and mix drive sizes, this is harder in freenas.

Awesome! I'll go with Unraid then  As I probably will use that 3tb from my WD My Cloud along with 2 other 8tb drives. Will redundancy have an issues if I use a 3tb drive along with the other 8tb? Will storage suffer because of the big difference in the storage sizes?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, Dvrman123 said:

One thing I forgot to ask everyone is I have an old Radeon HD 7850, would there be any benefit for me to put this into the unraid server?

 

Wont help for file sharing at all

 

1 hour ago, Dvrman123 said:

As I probably will use that 3tb from my WD My Cloud along with 2 other 8tb drives. Will redundancy have an issues if I use a 3tb drive along with the other 8tb? Will storage suffer because of the big difference in the storage sizes?

Unraid is made for this. Made your biggest drive the parity drive, then you get the capacity of all the other drives combined and can lose any one drive iwth no data l_oss.

[Olaf6541]

15 hours ago, Dvrman123 said:

One thing I forgot to ask everyone is I have an old Radeon HD 7850, would there be any benefit for me to put this into the unraid server?

no it just adds to the idle power consumption, just use the igpu of the 6600k.