How to spec a Gaming/Media/File Home Server

Ctrlaltdenied · May 15, 2015

Howdy folks,

I am now looking into building a fairly powerful home server to achieve the below goals:

1. Host game servers (usually modded Minecraft, maybe some FPS etc)
2. Serve media out to TVs, PC, Laptop, Phones in the home at either 720p or 1080p.
3. Store large files and serve as a cloud for my property and externally if I wish to grab files while away.

I have an external capture card currently but am looking to get an internal dual HDMI card in the future to capture my gaming PC and my Xbox One footage to the server directly, negating any impact on my PC.

Should I lean towards a consumer build in a tower or can I go for a more slim, small form factor build? How would you spec a machine to cover these needs?

EDIT: Just to add, I have built gaming rigs before but I would like to custom build a rig with weighting towards CPU, and data speed i.e PCIe SSDs, fastest hard drives you can get for the storage (like 15k enterprise drives with large caches etc).

EDIT2:

I would also likely use this to store and host VMs, (Mac, Linux, Android etc).

Money isn't really a consideration right now, I would like to get an idea of the types of hardware I could use, benefits of them over consumer grade hardware etc.

pcgaming98 · May 15, 2015

Is this server computer going to be file hosting and game server hosting simultaneously? If so, you'll of course want a massive hard drive. 3-4TB? Depending on the amount of fame servers you'll host, you'll want maybe 4GB RAM for one server. A cheap FM2 Athlon Quad Core can also so the trick. The most important part of the build would be the gigabit Ethernet. You'll want the server's MIC to be as fast as possible, regardless of whether tour network can fulfill it's full speed or not. Your Intel Xeon i500 300 core won't mean anything If the NIC is bottlenecking network access. You'll still lag.

pcgaming98 · May 15, 2015

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Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD A10-7700K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad770kxbjabox) | $89.99 @ Micro Center
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaf2a78md3h) | $56.99 @ SuperBiiz
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbxl) | $49.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e500bam) | $197.98 @ OutletPC
**Storage** | [Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e500bam) | $197.98 @ OutletPC
**Storage** | [Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e500bam) | $197.98 @ OutletPC
**Storage** | [Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e500bam) | $197.98 @ OutletPC
**Case** | [Rosewill STEALTH ATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-case-stealth) | $69.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-100b10500kr) | $37.99 @ NCIX US
**Wired Network Adapter** | [TP-Link TG-3468 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/tp-link-wired-network-card-tg3468) | $12.90 @ Amazon
| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1119.77
| Mail-in rebates | -$10.00
| **Total** | **$1109.77**
| Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2015-05-15 10:01 EDT-0400 |

Ctrlaltdenied · May 15, 2015

pcgaming98 :

Most usually it would be potentially serving web pages (going to create an internal intranet of sorts for the media it stores) and serving video at the same time. It might on occassion be hosting multiplayer games at the same time also. So it needs enough horsepower for this.

I see you went for a standard case build, any reason for that? Are the small form factor builds simply not powerful enough yet?

Would I be better modifying a gaming build and just go for a Micro ATX sized tower?

pcgaming98 · May 15, 2015

Ctrlaltdenied :

I went with a full tower because you're going to need as many expansion bay slots as possible. You always want more space for HDDs. Mini ITX / Micro ATX cases have way too little expansion bays.

I think it would be good to mod a gaming PC as long as you have one to sacrifice.

Ctrlaltdenied · May 15, 2015

pcgaming98 :

Technically I do, this rig I am on now has an i7-3770k processor, H100 AIO watercooler, 16GB ram, and currently has a PCIe SSD (Revodrive 3 X2).

I was thinking of building an actual server, would you say it would be enough for my use by re-tasking this rig? I have my eye on some Samsung 850 Evo's that can go in a 5.25" drive bay (4x 2.5" with an adapter) which means I could get 4 lots of this per bay (not planning on using an optical drive) which is a potential 16TB of SSD storage with 4 drive bays. My motherboard is mATX (Maximus V Gene) so I guess I could fit that in a small form factor case or some such.

Because I will be taking my GTX 690 to my new rig I can then still use a PCIe SSD (maybe even one of those spanking new Samsung 2GB read M.2s with a PCIe adapter).

Have to get a new case though, preferably small form factor.

Still, having said all that, I would definitely like more opinions on spec, how they would spec a machine to suit the tasks mentioned, just incase I do decide to build one from scratch and leave this as a backup machine.

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How to spec a Gaming/Media/File Home Server

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