Hardware of choice for a Storage Server + few other tasks

LordVan · Developer Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 63 Location: Austria

Hi.

I am currently thinking about what hardware would be good to use for a (home) storage server.

My plan at the moment is to definitely use Raid1 (I doubt Raid5/6 is worth it but if you can convince me maybe

).
I need to start out with at least 2-3 TB but want to be able to still have space (and SATA plugs) to upgrade.

The next thing is that unfortunately - since I am also a bit of a gamer - I still need windows on my box to dual boot

-> having a 2nd box with linux has more than one advantage since I don't have time to try to mess with Xen+VgaPassThrough at the moment (also my hdd is too full hehe)

So the idea is to have a linux box with a fast CPU, lots of RAM and disk spaceand some Graphics card useful enough for day to day graphics (gimp, some video cutting,.. - blender usability would be a plus but I don'T do too much with it so not a priority). Of course this means that also of high importance is that the whole thing is stable (so no FGLRX for sure - open source ati radeon drivers are working ok for me at the moment, but I heard that nvidia/intel work well too/better. -- on another note I found there are still some serverworks mainboards with Matrox cards

) -- oh HDMI out would be good then I use it as "media center" for the tv too but it'll have to be quiet-ish for that
Also want to offload things like compiling and/or video encoding (which is what I want the fast CPU for)

anyway to make a list of things I want/need (in order of priority):

0) As many RAM slots and SATA plugs as possible on the mainboard for extensibility + fast CPU
1) Stable system (no crappy binary only drivers or half-supported hardware)
2) As quiet as possible - I will be putting this in the living room for now (until new flat is done then we will see)
3) I should be able to afford it

4) useful case -- if i can'T find one I build it myself so that is not the big issue I suppose

Anyway since I got an AMD Bulldozer CPU in my work pc at the moment I was considering getting one of them as the performance is quite good and they are cheap, but I'm not sure if maybe an Opteron would be better -- also willing to consider Intel CPUs (not the high price range though I guess) but I'm not too familiar with Intel's current cpus as I only got AMD CPUs at the moment.

The next question is that should I go for some sort of server mainboard which are good for what I want to do (mostly referring to the graphics chip at the moment but I guess even those should support enough opengl, accel for some graphics editing / video cutting)

This is just "first" - real - brainstorming .. any comments/suggestions/.. would be greatly appreciated
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VinzC · Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 7:59 am Post subject:

If you want to consider network file sharing for your storage needs, that's what I'd do. There are pretty net and clean storage boxes like Netgear; they have multiple slots with disks that range to 2 TB maybe even more. You also have RAID 1/5. They can work as NFS and CIFS share boxes and are well known to be open source minded. (There is a development kit that is based on Debian, IIRC.)

Just my 2¢.
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LordVan · Developer Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 63 Location: Austria

cach0rr0 · Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 8:43 am Post subject:

I honestly think youd be better off - and not even necessarily financially worse off - by not trying to roll too many functions into this single piece of hardware.

You can get a sick little HTPC for ~$500 (or less)
You can build a damn nice storage box, running only NFS, hooked to Gbit switch, for $500 or less

You could go cheaper on both too, mind you. But if I were in your position - which i somewhat am, but i have other things i want to buy first - that is the route I would go. I think it will get very old and annoying having to take down your NFS server every time you want to reboot and play a game, for example.

...and then if you want to build out a new desktop, gradually? Have at it. But I tried doing what you're suggesting on my current "monster" desktop, and a few years later it's a bit of a schizophrenic mess, a box that just really doesnt know what it's supposed to be doing. SO this next time I'm doing my gear much more specialized.

But then that's me, if you want a more multi-role box, about $1300 here in the US gets you an 8-core AMD, 32GB memory, 5x1TB Samsung drives, a nice-but-not-amazing nvidia card, mobo with 8 sata channels (6 of them are 6G/s SATA), and all of the other bits (PSU, case, etc).

For me, i never have to boot to windows, so my desktop can stay running all the time without reboot, and so it is usable as the NFS server for my network.
Then there is my TViX which streams videos via NFS. It does all of the nifty 1080p awesomeness, supports HDM1.3a, does matroska, does .iso, everything i could ask for. And its existence doesnt interfere with anything else

Up to you, I am just thinking out loud.
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LordVan · Developer Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 63 Location: Austria

Well I wouldn't reboot as I do not plan to put windows on that box at all - which is why I intend to keep the one I have now for games and 3d stuff

just thought maybe a fast pc as htpc , storage and for some desktop use would be a good idea maybe.

Of course what you suggest also has it's advantages (and I've been considering that too)
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VinzC · Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 7:17 pm Post subject:

As far as I've tried video encoding (if we're not talking about running a GUI, which is a bit different... although...) I can witness the speed of the disk doesn't matter for it's mainly a CPU-intensive lot of computations. (I'm referring to transcoding a video file into DIVX or whatever, which made my box process the output file @ almost the same rate as the one required to play the movie. The CPU is a Core2 Duo, much slower than the one you have but... well.) So as cach0rr0 and I suggested, you might be very well served with a network file system box.
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cach0rr0 · Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 8:30 pm Post subject:

VinzC · Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 8:40 pm Post subject:

Well, I'm no longer certain I understand your needs but if you're looking for a small HTPC powerful enough, I can tell you about what I have. It's a Giada N20. It comes with a built-in 320GB hard drive but I'm using it only to boot OpenElec (a XBMC spin-off). Other than that I have a 1TB USB disk that I plug with all my media files, which I play from there.
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cach0rr0 · Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 9:07 pm Post subject:

LordVan · Developer Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 63 Location: Austria

VinzC · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 4:17 pm Post subject:

kimmie · Guru Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 531 Location: Australia

Old laptops make good home servers. Built-in UPS, low power, quiet. Just add external storage, even USB-2 speeds will keep up with your network.