Mentor
17-12-2009, 08:08 PM
Thanks to an old pc i got a while ago, ive been using my media drive for more and more things. It now operates as a combintion of webserver/fileserver/media server and streaming tv server in the house - which it does well, although has a few limitations.
1) its kinda old so ide only (which means big hdds are more expensive) + it can only contain 2 of them, so alot of the storage is usb which is also expensive.
2) since its power hungry, its not always on so needs to be booted up often etc.
3) its only got 100mb ethernet, so streaming lots / moveing big files of stuff can cause a slow down
So my solution is to try and put together a always on media server i can hide somewhere around the house. The basic aims is it for to be as cheap as possible, yet have as much storage capacity as possible. Since i'm lazy i'd prefer if there was something cheap i could buy and just swap out and shove in a load of bigger hdds and a gb Ethernet if the mobo doesn't support it. (if theres an obvious price difference i may build from scratch)
So far best i've found is: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168131 + 4 1.5tb hdds (around £70 each) (can add em as needed)
Although with backing everything up in mind, i think this may be a little limiting in terms of future proofing. Preferably i'd like a similar system to the above but with space for maybe 8 or more hdd's if anyone knows of one?
So any suggestions / thoughts on the idea?
Summary of idea:
1) needs to be always on - so run very cool and be power efficient
2) needs to be cheap as possible
3) needs to have the potential for as much hdd space as can physically be crammed in to one computer :p
(this would be linked up internally via gigabit switch connected with a router which would supply the wireless and internet's (may invest in a wireless n one for this if the build goes ahead)
*this is purely speculative for now because i cant yet afford it :p
1) its kinda old so ide only (which means big hdds are more expensive) + it can only contain 2 of them, so alot of the storage is usb which is also expensive.
2) since its power hungry, its not always on so needs to be booted up often etc.
3) its only got 100mb ethernet, so streaming lots / moveing big files of stuff can cause a slow down
So my solution is to try and put together a always on media server i can hide somewhere around the house. The basic aims is it for to be as cheap as possible, yet have as much storage capacity as possible. Since i'm lazy i'd prefer if there was something cheap i could buy and just swap out and shove in a load of bigger hdds and a gb Ethernet if the mobo doesn't support it. (if theres an obvious price difference i may build from scratch)
So far best i've found is: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168131 + 4 1.5tb hdds (around £70 each) (can add em as needed)
Although with backing everything up in mind, i think this may be a little limiting in terms of future proofing. Preferably i'd like a similar system to the above but with space for maybe 8 or more hdd's if anyone knows of one?
So any suggestions / thoughts on the idea?
Summary of idea:
1) needs to be always on - so run very cool and be power efficient
2) needs to be cheap as possible
3) needs to have the potential for as much hdd space as can physically be crammed in to one computer :p
(this would be linked up internally via gigabit switch connected with a router which would supply the wireless and internet's (may invest in a wireless n one for this if the build goes ahead)
*this is purely speculative for now because i cant yet afford it :p