server PC

[trencin]

I have 3 computers currently in my house where 2 are being used and the third one will be upgraded to run as a server. I am wondering what DO I Need for the computer to run as a server like do I need to have 2X250 GB HDD or maybe more ?and I am wondering if I would need like a C2D or somehing that can be on 24/7 and be silent. is there also some program that I will need o set it up into a server to back up my other 2 PC's- can it be linux if so because i dont want to waste money on an OS if I already got one. budget is around $300- only thing i need is ram, hdd. (This PC currently is a sempron AM2 3000, 1 GB DDR2 G.Skill, 40 gb HDD, 500Watt roseweil PSU, and has windows xp home.) If i need another Cpu and mobo let me know but I dont think It is that crucial in this server build i just need it to run couple HDD's nicely cooled so it could back up my other systems.
thanks for anyones help.

 

[Mondoman]

If you want to use it to backup files (which is what it sounds like), you'll probably want to add one or more bigger hard disks, but otherwise, it sounds fine. Go ahead and use Ubuntu.

 

[trencin]

ok ill try ubuntu but i have no experience with it. Any link where i could get some insight into how to set it up as a back up ??? so windows home wont let me set it up as a back up file PC?
thanks

 

[Mike_Timmins]

Might i recomend making sure you have a realy good ethernet connection, some very large very fast harddrives, I would recomend 500GB+ total, heck you could even go for 1TB or so. CPU and MOBO shouldn' be to terribly important, if you notice some pretty bad lag then you would wanna go for some faster stuff. Also, you want it to support SATA and make all your hard drives SATA, to aid in the speed, and I would say to speed up the whole proccess you could even put them on a RAID 0, wich requires SATA of coarse. I don't think you need to do anything diffrent for your op system.

 

[trencin]

alrighty thanks. so do i still need Linux or could I set it up with windows?

 

[Mondoman]

Might i recomend making sure you have a realy good ethernet connection

It would be nice to go to gigabit ethernet, but it depends on your budget. You can get decent gigabit ethernet cards for $20-30 per computer, and a small 4-5 port gigabit ethernet hub should run around $40.

... very fast harddrives

Hard drive speed doesn't matter, since even the slowest will be much faster than the network connection.

... Also, you want it to support SATA and make all your hard drives SATA, to aid in the speed

There's no speed difference between SATA and PATA, just use whatever your MB supports.

... to speed up the whole proccess you could even put them on a RAID 0

As noted above, even single drives are more than fast enough; if anything, for data security, you might consider going with RAID 1 or RAID 5. There was an interesting article a while back on building a cheap NAS: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/27840/77/

... RAID 0, wich requires SATA of coarse.

Nope, RAID doesn't require any specific interface.

If you want, you can certainly set it up using normal Windows file sharing.

 

[trencin]

wow thanks for the help. I am wondering if i need the gigabit ethernet cards because All of my PC's have a gigabit port on the motherboard and I am using D-Link Gaming router GL-4300

if all this is fine the only thing I need is HDD's which I am not sure about because the PC that i want to set as a storage is Biostar 6100 from newegg

I got 2 SATA available and i am using PATA 40 GB Hdd currently hooked on one of the IDE slots and other has a dvd burner.
Any suggestion on which hard drives I should get ??

 

[Mondoman]

Nice router! Yes, you've got gigabit ethernet already, so just a nice big hard drive. I'd just get a Seagate 320-500GB drive (Seagate has nice 5-year warranties); you can add a 2nd drive later.

 

[trencin]

soo its gonna be a PATA seagate HDD ?? since you can not have SATA in slave mode ^_^

 

[Mondoman]

???? SATA, PATA, whatever you want. Since you have 2 free SATA connectors, I'd go with SATA.

 

[rickpcnerd]

U might want to use Win Xp if u dont have linux experience. Linux is not for everybody, must be at least intermediate command user, and programming experience. Or else you will have headaches. For Example to install a package (# tar xvzf package.tar.gz
# cd package
# ./configure
# make
# make install)
if u are still willing to use linux i recomend Ubuntu or Suse 10.0 or later.Suse is my favorite for server. Welcome to a new world of computing.

 

[trencin]

haha alright thanks