Using PC as simple server for network storage?

price of a

need lots

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to do

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SATA2 ports,

Tony, this would be a good solution if you already have a retired PC to use as the storage server. Since you're talking new hardware, a better solution would be one of the pre-made network access storage drives, or NAS.

I use a Buffalo 250 GB NAS drive on my little home network. It connects to my router via an Ethernet port, and has USB ports for an external drive and a printer. (Yes, it even has a built-in print server that sorta works. You might be able to access your printer from all machines on your network.)

The drive contains built-in utilities for backup, configuration, maintenance, and even an FTP server. Using a free dyndns.org account, I can go live with an FTP server any time I need or desire.

The NAS maps into my Windows machines as another plain vanilla disk drive. There are no special considerations, software, or procedures required. I copy files to and from the NAS just as I would from a second hard drive installed locally in my machine.

I use a cheap 250 GB USB external drive to back up the NAS, giving me the full storage solution for not a lot of money, no hassles, and no hidden costs.

Search your favorite equipment vendor sites for NAS. (I see that the

500 GB NAS boxes are priced pretty well right now.)

Good luck!

Tom

"Tony" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Buffalo Linkstation - It's Linux already and there are utilities for it so you can tweak it. The best part is that it's cheap and power consumption is low. The "old PC solution" will blow the cost of one Linkstation in power within the first year.

For a server, the problem with via is that they're underpowered (600mhz for fanless), or howl like a jet engine for anything faster as via uses the crappiest fans imaginable. I eventually moved an m10000 I had for a media frontend to a fanless case, but the case cost $300.

For a serious file server I recently constructed, I used a server case with a rack for seven drives and put seven 500G drives in an array. The system runs solaris as its ZFS file system's raid pools can tolerate power failures. Normally any time you lose power on a raid system, you can have partialy written data to the pool and run into serious problems. Higher-end raid controllers use non-voltile memory to avoid this situation, but such controllers cost more than my entire server sans the drives.

I fooled around with the VIA ITX stuff for a few years, both the smaller one and the M1000. In fact I just helped a friend rebuild the larger system for his us yesterday.

I find that the current Mini-ATX stuff is only a bit larger, far more servicable, about as quiet, far more powerful and based on much more readily available parts.

the price of a

but need lots

only, with

asked to do

needed (ie, no

filter, with

SATA2 ports,

You can do this with a linux server, but be aware you will need to set up samba and swat Personally, I'd suggest designing the linux server as a real PC, that is, one you will use as well. Some software only exists under linux, and other programs only exist under windows.I'm partial to suse/ati/amd/gigebyte. If this is a network server, you can get away with the Nvidia software raid. If not gigabyte, then asus. Suse works well with nvidia raid. Technically OpenSuse, the free version, but you can buy suse if you need support.

is a website that compares all the linux variants.

price of a

need lots

only, with

to do

needed (ie, no

filter, with

SATA2 ports,

Linksys NSL2U

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E-mail naar nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)

I have fanless VIA C7-M boards that are 1.2 GHz. They're excellent and incredibly low power.

Phil.

Just get one of the LinkSys Wireless Routers with the USB port, and load the hot new open source firmware onto it, and you have an NAS device right there, for no more than the hard drive and router take to run. What? 30 Watts?

I have a 1.5GHz Via C7 based server, running Solaris, with 2 3.5"

250GB PATA disks, a full size DVD-burner, an extra Realtek gigabit interface and a serial board, and with the Antec 300W power supply it normally draws about 60W. The MB is a PC-chips v21G, which is dirt cheap.

I did a test with an 80W PicoPSU, and the consumption dropped to around

30W at idle and occasional 40W peaks. Had I selected low power 2.5" disks and removed the DVD-burner I'm quite certain it would be quite a bit lower.

Thomas

bad

4 SATA, 2 Ethernet (one Gigabit), 4 GB RAM.

Thanks to all who replied. I looked through all the data, but in the end I bought a cheap i945 mATX mobo, Celeron dual core CPU, DVD writer, 2GB of cheap RAM, a "green" HDD and a decent TV tuner. When I get it up with Linux, I'll change the fan to a larger, slower, quieter one, buy a new HDMI HD TV and maybe a picoPSU 12V power supply + battery

• float charger. Cheers, T>>