Basic Home File/Media Server

[rexy2346]

Hello!

I've been planning for a long time now, and I am now starting to look into components to build a basic server that I can access anywhere I am. Does anybody have any suggestions, or recommendations on what would be good for this?

[LukeSavenije]

what budget? prebuild or build it yourself (PCMR). what system? as a file server only?

[O-T]

Check ebay for old used rackmount servers for eventually finding cheap enterprise-grade systems, especially talking about the HP ProLiant lineups, including DL360 and DL380 gens 5 and 6. If you're looking for something less noisy, go for a tower you can build yourself, since rackmount servers are especially loud. Then from there checkout OSes you might wan't to go for, windows server is a solid OS and packs a few features like data deduplication which are great. Otherwise you can go for a linux server for free, or simply a desktop alternative.

[rexy2346]

3 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

what budget? prebuild or build it yourself (PCMR). what system? as a file server only?

I'm looking around a max of $500-800 I know that's not much for something like this, but there's always room to improve it later on. I would also would like it to possibly be a cache server for some of the most common things we download on steam

 

Edit: I would like it to be custom built for easier upgrade later on

[LukeSavenije]

those things don't require that much compute power. this is just an example of what you could do, but I am looking into building something from some old components myself. just something like this, with some hdd's or ssd's and you will probebly be fine for a long time

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor	$96.99 @ SuperBiiz
Motherboard	ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$59.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	$62.99 @ Newegg
Case	Cougar - MX500 ATX Mid Tower Case	$50.70 @ Newegg
Power Supply	SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$50.25 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$350.92
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$320.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-05 12:21 EST-0500

 

[LinusOnLine]

10 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

those things don't require that much compute power. this is just an example of what you could do, but I am looking into building something from some old components myself. just something like this, with some hdd's or ssd's and you will probebly be fine for a long time

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor	$96.99 @ SuperBiiz
Motherboard	ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$59.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	$62.99 @ Newegg
Case	Cougar - MX500 ATX Mid Tower Case	$50.70 @ Newegg
Power Supply	SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$50.25 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$350.92
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$320.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-05 12:21 EST-0500

 

Building a very similar system for the girlfriend who will mainly watch Netflix and play bingo on the computer  Really good value on that processor.

[LukeSavenije]

Just now, LinusOnLine said:

Building a very similar system for the girlfriend who will mainly watch Netflix and play bingo on the computer  Really good value on that processor.

for your usecase you could even get a 220ge, but the budget allowed me to do this. just to let you both know

[DezGalbie]

35 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

those things don't require that much compute power. this is just an example of what you could do, but I am looking into building something from some old components myself. just something like this, with some hdd's or ssd's and you will probebly be fine for a long time

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor	$96.99 @ SuperBiiz
Motherboard	ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$59.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	$62.99 @ Newegg
Case	Cougar - MX500 ATX Mid Tower Case	$50.70 @ Newegg
Power Supply	SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$50.25 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$350.92
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$320.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-05 12:21 EST-0500

 

This is very close to the system I have at home as my media server. It's mostly used to play downloaded movies and TV shows through Plex, but also as a comic book/graphic novel server using Calibre.

It knocks both of these tasks out the park, as you would expect. Never had a problem with it.