£60-£70 Server Challange

[scooterandy11]

OK, so here is a challenge...

 

I have a budget of £60-£70 to create a server that will either:

1) Store data such as Photo's, Personal Documents etc...

2) Be a web server, (To collect data from my Arduino).

 

I need advice on the parts that I should use. I have never built a server before so this is why I am asking.

I don't mind searching around on various second hand not to mention any names *Ebay Cough Cough*. I also thought it would be a nice challenge for people who know what to

build for a server.

 

Thank you and have a nice day!

                                                        Sincerely Andy.

[Isvan]

Id say your best bet is a Raspberry Pi

The most expensive part becomes data storage

[scooterandy11]

3 minutes ago, Isvan said:

Id say your best bet is a Raspberry Pi

The most expensive part becomes data storage

 

The problem with that is it is extremely underpowered and leaves little to no room for upgrading/expansion.

I'm looking for a solution that is upgradable from its base hardware such as more RAM and such.

[tlink]

Just now, scooterandy11 said:

The problem with that is it is extremely underpowered and leaves little to no room for upgrading/expansion.

I'm looking for a solution that is upgradable from its base hardware such as more RAM and such.

look for any bankrupcy auctions in your country, i often find old servers on there. they are noisy, they will raise your power bill by 50% and they might light your house on fire, but they are the cream de la cream you're going to get at that pricepoint.

[saitir]

Hi dude

 

Really need to know more about your storage expectations really.

 

As Isvan says, a Raspberry Pi is almost certainly the way to go, but then it's a decision about 256GB memory card vs a cheap ebay 1 - 2TB usb drive.

 

I'm assuming you have basic infrastructure?  i.e. a router/switch with a spare port and some USB power wall warts lying around?

 

If not things will get more expensive quickly.

 

There are plenty of articles on how to setup the Pi as a storage server, and Web server side of things won't take up much resource at all.

[saitir]

3 minutes ago, scooterandy11 said:

The problem with that is it is extremely underpowered and leaves little to no room for upgrading/expansion.

I'm looking for a solution that is upgradable from its base hardware such as more RAM and such.

Yeah... no.  Not really.  Again, unless you get really lucky on ebay with an old desktop.  The Pi is surprisingly powerful and you listed needs as storage and Web server.  It will do that.  If you envisage other needs, be more precise.

 

Also, the Pi will likely be on a constant upgrade curve while it remains as popular as it currently is, and it's ARM architecture is only going to improve over time.  So once in a while you'll upgrade by buying the latest Pi.  Way less hassle than other options.

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, scooterandy11 said:

The problem with that is it is extremely underpowered and leaves little to no room for upgrading/expansion.

I'm looking for a solution that is upgradable from its base hardware such as more RAM and such.

HOw about a old dell optiplex on craigslist or ebay. You can get a core 2 duo for that price and about 2gb of ram. Then get a few of those old 2tb hdds on ebay for 40 bucks a popl

[scooterandy11]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

HOw about a old dell optiplex on craigslist or ebay. You can get a core 2 duo for that price and about 2gb of ram. Then get a few of those old 2tb hdds on ebay for 40 bucks a popl

 

Interesting I might take a look and see.

[scooterandy11]

2 minutes ago, saitir said:

Yeah... no.  Not really.  Again, unless you get really lucky on ebay with an old desktop.  The Pi is surprisingly powerful and you listed needs as storage and Web server.  It will do that.  If you envisage other needs, be more precise.

 

Also, the Pi will likely be on a constant upgrade curve while it remains as popular as it currently is, and it's ARM architecture is only going to improve over time.  So once in a while you'll upgrade by buying the latest Pi.  Way less hassle than other options.

 

I suppose but I like total control over my computer systems getting the most power I can get from everything.

[scooterandy11]

1 hour ago, saitir said:

Really need to know more about your storage expectations really.

I will need about 6-10 TB of storage space to clarify.

[saitir]

3 minutes ago, scooterandy11 said:

I will need about 6-10 TB of storage space to clarify.

Honestly, I don't think that that's possible for your budget.

 

Used HDs on ebay are going for around £20 - £25/TB, so that would put your minimum cost at around £350 - assuming you can get a 4 bay NAS for about £150 or so and 4 x 2TB drives.  There are some second hand ones on Ebay for around that much, but it's pretty hit and miss.

 

Some NAS boxes have web servers, others don't, so you'd have to research that a fair bit.  Alternatively, any old PC with a mid-tower case, throw mint or Ubuntu on it and you can probably get a similar pricing...

 

However, for your stated budget, you're not going to beat a Pi and a USB HD, probably around 1TB.  Don't get fooled by £10, 1TB USB sticks - they're just 8GB drives with compression software - i.e. unless you've got 1TB of text documents, it's an outright lie.

[Mikensan]

You may be better off using cloud storage and just using vbox on your personal computer for the web server. I feel like if you do find a solution for that price, it's not going to last long and you will have ended up wasting that money.

[porina]

20 hours ago, scooterandy11 said:

I will need about 6-10 TB of storage space to clarify.

Is that a case of it will need to eventually be upgraded to 6-10TB or do you need that up front? If up front, rethink the budget. Also, do you really want a ton of unknown history drives to store important data on? When I saw the subject, I thought, ok, something not too serious to play with, that's fine. But if you care about the files, in that quantity, you're going to need to break the bank.

[scooterandy11]

3 hours ago, Mikensan said:

cloud storage

I myself dislike cloud storage as it is off site and I do not know who has access to my private and sentimental data.

[samiscool51]

either a old server on ebay or a micro-computer of somekind

if you look at the orange pi http://www.orangepi.org/

on the side it has a SATA port for HDD's

i think it supports up to 1-2TB's but i don't know

thats your best bet for a micro-computer

if you don't like a micro-computer, these would be a good buy

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-PROLIANT-ML150-G5-TOWER-SERVER-DUAL-XEON-E5405-2GHz-4GB-RAM-NO-H-D-/282251108670?hash=item41b77a213e:g:frQAAOSw~bFWLRm5

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-1950-IIServer-Twin-Quad-Core-Xeon-2-33GHz-16GB-RAM-SAS-RAID-NO-OS-/252633881745?hash=item3ad2271c91:g:pzgAAOSwMVdYDklG

[Adyn]

In you price point I would look at HP ProLiant Micro servers you may have to do a bit of hunting to find one at your price but found a couple (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Microserver-G7-N40L/122216989538?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D38661%26meid%3D8a769f4f63cd43f785e349bbd2ad4f66%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D172406554249)

 

You may not get one with the total amount of storage that you are after but it does give you 4 drive bays (more if you don't mind using the CD bay).

 

It should be noted though that at this price point everything is going to be older kit but at least with a microserver your power bill will not be through the roof.

[Mikensan]

As big as Amazon and the like are, nobody has time or desire to go through your personal data. I believe Amazon has some white papers on how they go about securing your data - they can move it but not view it, but it is a trust thing so I understand.

[Lord Nicoll]

On 11/14/2016 at 8:09 PM, scooterandy11 said:

OK, so here is a challenge...

 

I have a budget of £60-£70 to create a server that will either:

1) Store data such as Photo's, Personal Documents etc...

2) Be a web server, (To collect data from my Arduino).

 

I need advice on the parts that I should use. I have never built a server before so this is why I am asking.

I don't mind searching around on various second hand not to mention any names *Ebay Cough Cough*. I also thought it would be a nice challenge for people who know what to

build for a server.

 

Thank you and have a nice day!

                                                        Sincerely Andy.

Well, For I think £88 pounds I bought a HP proliant DL160 G6 that cam with dual Xeon L5630 and 16Gb of RAM. This is an actual rack server which all it needed was drives, I already had them. I'd advise that route if you want a decent server. 

[alex75871]

On 11/15/2016 at 10:58 AM, scooterandy11 said:

I will need about 6-10 TB of storage space to clarify.

You can buy a secondhand server on your budget but certainly no drive capacity. Please note that a lot of old servers will consume a lot of power offsetting your budget. You are better of spending more money on something half decent.

[deanochips]

It can be done....i spent £66.98 on my server.....had to be a little inventive

I brought this:

Dell inspiron 23 (5348) 23" All-In-One Intel i3-4170 @ 3.70GHz, 1TB HDD, Win 10
 

It had a smashed touch screen and the cost of replacing was really high so it was going cheap.....just took off the broken touchsceen .......also put the LCD thats perfectly fine back on ebay to sell

I get a passmark of about 5150

I have 4 VM's on it running non stop in Xenserver and still have space and grunt to spare
1, Aegir, NGINX
2, a WebTrees Website (My Family tree Project, 450 people and over 5000 photos cetificates etc... wanted to keep it seperate for other systems for easy duplication)

3, (Ubuntu Running these dockers), Shipyard, Muximux, Sonarr, couchpotato,Jacket,Jacket Public, Cardigann, deluge, pyload, Home Assistant, Plex, Nextcloud

4, XPEnology (only running for photostation because its the only software i can find that supports face tagging)

Aegir and Ubuntu are both running PV......the others HVM




 

[deanochips]

forgot to mention its only pulling 30 watts doing this