Home server Help

[cbgk82]

I have an old WHS v1 from a refashioned old computer that is not up to much anymore. I have just bought a new house and have wired every room with cat5e cable and gigabit network. I want to build a new 2011 WHS home server to be a file server and be able to transcode all of my centrally stored movies and music. I also like to tinker and want to make sure I can make the server do more than just transcode and file serve.

 

I need help with the hardware to do this. I would like a dedicated raid 5 card and house it in a design r4 from fractal. I plan on 5 2tb WD reds and a 60gb ssd for the boot drive. other than that I am at a loss. Can any one help me plan the build I don't want to spend too much but don't mind making sure I get a future proof server.  I live in the UK

[WoodenMarker]

Do you have the drives already? Are you dead set on raid? Budget?

[cbgk82]

not got the drives as yet, I figured raid was a good option as I don't want to loose all my photos and documents. I was thinking of a budget of about £500 for the server + cost of drives. Please feel free to give any suggestions!

[cbgk82]

not got the drives yet, I was thinking of raid just to make sure I had a good stable backup of my important documents and photos. The bulk of my data is my movie and music collection that I stream around the house. I am completely open to suggestions on putting together a good quality fast server, I was aiming for about a £500 budget for the machine and getting the drives separately from that

[WoodenMarker]

not got the drives as yet, I figured raid was a good option as I don't want to loose all my photos and documents. I was thinking of a budget of about £500 for the server + cost of drives. Please feel free to give any suggestions!

not got the drives yet, I was thinking of raid just to make sure I had a good stable backup of my important documents and photos. The bulk of my data is my movie and music collection that I stream around the house. I am completely open to suggestions on putting together a good quality fast server, I was aiming for about a £500 budget for the machine and getting the drives separately from that

In that case, why not just use a single raid 0 for the documents and photos using onboard raid fro the mobo and unraided drives for everything else? Much cheaper with no need for an expensive raid card. 

 

Fyi, you need to quote a post or tag a member or else they won't get a notification you replied to them.

[cbgk82]

In that case, why not just use a single raid 0 for the documents and photos using onboard raid fro the mobo and unraided drives for everything else? Much cheaper with no need for an expensive raid card. 

 

Fyi, you need to quote a post or tag a member or else they won't get a notification you replied to them.

That's not a bad suggestion thanks. Sorry about quoting I am new to this.

 

Any suggestions on the motherboard and processor? I tend to favour intel but was not sure if should go xeon or something like a locked i5. Some people also tend to use sever memory and server motherboards but I think this may be a bit overkill. I think i should max out the WHS 8 gb of ram for the transcoding, can it be any old ram? I plan on running this 24/7 as well so will need a decent power supply. Would a haswell chip help in this respect?  

 

Thanks for the help, I have built many gaming pc's before but this is my first server

[WoodenMarker]

That's not a bad suggestion thanks. Sorry about quoting I am new to this.

 

Any suggestions on the motherboard and processor? I tend to favour intel but was not sure if should go xeon or something like a locked i5. Some people also tend to use sever memory and server motherboards but I think this may be a bit overkill. I think i should max out the WHS 8 gb of ram for the transcoding, can it be any old ram? I plan on running this 24/7 as well so will need a decent power supply. Would a haswell chip help in this respect?  

 

Thanks for the help, I have built many gaming pc's before but this is my first server

It's up to you. FM2 tends to have cheaper mobos with plenty of sata 6 gb/s ports--up to how you want your money spent.

Haswell isn't exactly cheap on the lower end spectrum for mobos. Power consumption may be an issue if you happen to have really expensive electricity. 

How much storage do you need for the important files you need to raid for?

How much storage do you plan to max out at?

[cbgk82]

It's up to you. FM2 tends to have cheaper mobos with plenty of sata 6 gb/s ports--up to how you want your money spent.

Haswell isn't exactly cheap on the lower end spectrum for mobos. Power consumption may be an issue if you happen to have really expensive electricity. 

How much storage do you need for the important files you need to raid for?

How much storage do you plan to max out at?

I was planning on a old i5 lower end, with a low end mobo. I need a minimum of 4gb storage and was planning on 5 drives 2 or 3 gb each (so 10 -15 gb total) + 1 cheap ssd for the os. I get the feeling it doesn't really matter what you go for?

[WoodenMarker]

I was planning on a old i5 lower end, with a low end mobo. I need a minimum of 4gb storage and was planning on 5 drives 2 or 3 gb each (so 10 -15 gb total) + 1 cheap ssd for the os. I get the feeling it doesn't really matter what you go for?

I'd recommend a newer mobo to ensure you get enough good connectivity.

It doesn't matter to go for what?