Home Media Storage & Server - Hardware

[vandros]

Its been years since I built a computer, eg ATA 133 was new......

Looking to put together a Media storage / Server for home, for a few laptops & HTPCs (XBMC) + VPN
Looking to consolidate data from all the PCs around the house.
Been playing with Win 2012 Server Essentials lately so will give that a try for a start.
Need about 4TB+ of space and would like redundancy as backing up 4TB of non critical data is costly (thinking RAID5)

Would like to get thoughts on the below (cost vs performance)

Already have left over from work
i5-3570k CPU
Intel 520 SDD - 240G
miTX case http://www.playtech.co.nz/afawcs0139235/CATID=183/ID=18258/SID=330381882/productdetails.html

So what can i build around these parts and requirements for say $700USD

Having a look around this is what I came up with
Asrock Z77 iTX Mobo http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77E-ITX/index.us.asp
3 x 3T Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 http://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/docs/pdf/en-GB/datasheet/disc/barracuda-ds1737-1-1111gb.pdf
2 x 4G RAM 1600 - Kingston
A reasonable 500W PSU & UPS which i'm sure i can dig out of the back room

70% of the cost is the HDD hence why i would like to put them in RAID5 (looks like I can run 2 on SATA2 & 1 on SATA3 from the Z77 bridge)

 

[vandros]

Other thoughts
Were to take advantage of the mSATA and use a mini board with 64GB rather than waste the 240G SSD to run the OS.
If a E3 1240V2 wouldn't be more suitable with hyper threading etc

Not fussed about write speed to the storage so long as I can get 100-150 MB/s read will be suitable.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

I'd suggest one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231544
You can never have too many SATA ports.
The 3570K is more than powerful enough.
There's no mSATA port on the board you linked, and if you have a 520 you might as well use it.
I wouldn't suggest most Kingston RAM as it's 1.65V - this is 1.35V http://pcpartpicker.com/nz/part/kingston-memory-khx1600c9d3lk28gx

 

[vandros]

Thanks

 

[vandros]

Best answer selected by vandros.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Just realised I had the wrong page on the clipboard - I meant to have this mobo instead of the Ares: http://pcpartpicker.com/nz/part/asus-motherboard-p8h77i
It has all six sata ports on the board.

 

[vandros]

Ah that makes more sense, good call, H77 is fine and extra SATA ports will help.
Doesn't even have that stupid vertical power board the other Asus iTX boards have.

The Asrock iTX definitely has a mSATA (though only SATA2) on the bottom of the board, which is a nice feature to stick your OS on. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77E-ITX/index.us.asp?cat=Specifications

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Yes, but it's only half length and I don't think you could fit a SSD there. You'd also lose the WiFi. (assuming i'm looking at the right slot on the image).

 

[vandros]

Think your looking at the mPCIe (wifi usually) on the top side there's actually a mSATA one on the bottom of the board.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Ah. That would do it. Found a picture of the underside.