# Building a File Server



## bawlmer (Aug 7, 2008)

Hi and thanks in advance for checking out this thread.

I have a small home office where three people usually work. I have one 500GB WD EBook attached to one computer which used to be the backup solution and has since turned into our sole source for working files. Currently it is attached usb to one of the computers and mapped to the others.

What is the best solution to get out of this situation? I fear one day coming into the office and the HD burns out with no backup and our business is gone.

My thoughts (I'm no expert) were to build a basic modern computer, dual core, 1 or 2 bg ram, and put 3 500GB in Raid5 for 1TB of redundancy.

Can anyone give me a handle if I'm on the right track or not? Thanks again.


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## af3 (Jun 18, 2008)

Another solution would be a standalone NAS (network attached storage), but it sounds like you are going in the right direction.

Here are some:
http://www.google.com/products?q=na...TF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&um=1&sa=N&tab=wf

EDIT: Raid 5 NAS's:
http://www.google.com/products?q=raid+5+nas&show=dd


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## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

NAS would be the easiest way to go.

If you want to go the computer route for cheapness / server robustness, I don't think you would even need a dual core. In fact, if I were to build a file server tomorrow, I would probably use intel's new mini itx motherboard paired with the atom processor. A motherboard / processor combo like this one weighs in at 70 dollars, and has a single pci slot, which you will probably want to use for a pci sata raid card. I don't think it supports it with the onboard sata (most don't support raid 5, and if they do, their implementation usually isn't very good). The only downside to this board is the d945 chipset. It was a bad call to use it (since it ends up drawing more power than the processor), but at that price point it's really hard to complain. 

As an added bonus, the power supply for this board can be extremely small, and the entire system will be slim and draw very little power from the wall, so you can leave it on all the time. I'm guessing it would probably draw around 80 watts idle and maybe 90 at load, and cost in the neighborhood of 200 dollars plus the cost of the hard drives to make. 

I would wait for others to comment on this idea, but I think it would be pretty solid.


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## bawlmer (Aug 7, 2008)

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I didn't mention that the computer I was thinking of building would essentially be a NAS. I have looked at other prebuilt NAS options and it didn't look like there were any lower-non-corporate-level solutions that didn't have horrible ratings/reviews.

This did look interesting though which was on the top of the second link from af3:
http://www.unityelectronics.com/product-product_id/4476

@Fox - I have been looking into intel atom for a different implementation and after reading up on file servers I think you are right that it wouldn't need too much power or cpu. I did read that file servers like more ram though. This is very interesting and may be the way to go if I can build it for under the price of the above link.

If I were to go the in the atom direction, it would only be expandable to 4 hdd's though because of the 1 pci slot for a raid controller which typically has 2 or 4 slots - correct? This shouldn't really be an issue as it is just a home office backup and not a media server backup.

Thanks again.


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## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

That price looks tough to beat, especially with gigabit ethernet. 



> If I were to go the in the atom direction, it would only be expandable to 4 hdd's though because of the 1 pci slot for a raid controller which typically has 2 or 4 slots - correct? This shouldn't really be an issue as it is just a home office backup and not a media server backup.


I believe this would be the case, although you would most likely be able to boot off of the onboard SATA, which would allow you to keep the operating system separate from your array.


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## bawlmer (Aug 7, 2008)

Wow, I did a little more digging on that cheap NAS and found these reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-301161U-Ethernet-Network-Attached/dp/B000LNH978
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154172

Guess it looked too good to be true. In my searches though, I did find this one at newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822102020
And found it cheaper ($319) @ Lagoom:
http://www.lagoom.com/THECUS_N3200_3-BAY_NAS_3.0TB_RAID/N3200/partinfo-id-579814.html

For the atom solution I would have to go with
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3986411&csid=_22
plus a raid card such as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102062 which would bring me around the $250 range.

Neither of these comes with the hd's I would need for the RAID but I am not sure which one to go with. I have read somewhere that RAID5 needs a bit of processing power, others say it doesn't, some say that a lot of NAS systems are really software based and not hardware, etc.

Any suggestions?


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## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

As far as I know, only the cheap PCI raid cards have software implementations of raid that leech cycles from the CPU to work. The well-regarded ones should do their own processing. I would do a google search for something like 'pci raid cpu cycles' and see if that turns up anything relevant. 

That bundle deal looks pretty nice for a low-power build, but you might be able to save some cash by taking the hard drive off of the deal and buying the ram separately (it's pricey for what it is).


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## bawlmer (Aug 7, 2008)

So I think I am going to go with the Thecus
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822102020

As much as I wanted to go the build your own route, it started to get a little pricey. After searching for a quality raid 5 card it turns out they hard not cheap. In fact, the card alone was approaching the same price as the thecus.
If this were a home file server for movies, music, etc., than I definitely would have gone with the build - the thecus does not leave any room for expansion. But, this is for business only so 1tb is going to suit just fine. 

Thanks for your help Fox. Much appreciated. I will definitely put this info to good use when I build one for myself! :smile:


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## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

Yup, no problem 

I'm considering an atom build for a low-traffic website for the company that my mother is starting. Hopefully it can cope with some traffic; I'm going to keep the database separate from it I think.


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