bryce

So, I've got about 11 ext. hard drives for my work that my boss gave me. They're all from the 240gb to 1tb range and I would like to put together a small file server just for them. My boss is interested in doing this to, but wants to see how I do it. So, would it be better to get a server up for it all or just get better, faster, bigger ext. drives?

Note, these are hooked up only to the iMac I've got for Final Cut Pro and all. If I go the server route, I'd like to have it so the iMac, eMac, and my Windows PC could access it and use it. Now, I don't have a lot of cash to spend, but the hard drives is one thing I won't be skimping on.

Any advice on how I should do this? If I go the server route, should I keep the ext. drives for a second, archived backup just in case or what? Is there a way to link all these ext. drives together to be one or no?

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tagurtoast

yeah the server would be a good idea then run some linux distro on it and have the server be like some thing running of a atom processor.

with the hdds try and put all the smaller than 1tb drives onto 1tb drives and from now on only buy like wd caviar green 1tb drives and put em in the server.

you would also want a raid card because atom mobos dont have many sata ports and that would cost 100-200 bucks.

with the 1tb external hdds take them out of there cases and put them into the server box running by ide or sata. if they are ide you will need some ide to sata converters (20 bucks for 1 drive).

for the server case i would suggest whatever u find that holds lots of hdds

Captain Han

the first thing that comes to my mind would be just build a cheap server, raid the same size drives, and jbod the rest. You can use the raided ones for very fast file input output and jbod ones for backup or other use

if you don't know what jbod or raid is, click here

and just network the computer so other can access it, note the filesystem though if you are sharing between mac and pc

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tagurtoast

also look at these drobo boxes they are more expensive (1.5 grand) but they own
http://www.drobo.com/products/drobopro/index.php and with this i would suggest buying only 2tb drives and just keep adding more as you go so say start of with 2 or 3 2tb drives and later add more

bryce

I'll def. show that drobo site to my boss. He might want it lols.

So, how cheap could I get the main server parts for you think? I'm guessing maybe $100-200 on the basic computer parts and then slowly adding some 2tb hard drives as I need em.

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Captain Han

it wont be $200 lol likely alot more, if thats your budget consider used parts

heres what i can think off for a low cost:
mobo with 8 port sata with raid - ~$120
4gb ram $~40
cpu ~$60-100
4 port sata controller ~$70-100
case and psu, and if you are running 24/7 you are gonna need a good psu ~$100

you can use newegg's advance search option to look for mobos with specific amount of sata ports

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bryce

I'm going to try and get my boss to paid for it lols. If that's the case, I'll likely be getting a more pricey sata controller that can hold a LOT more drives then. Just gotta convince him the usefulness of a central file server rather than several ext. drives. Shouldn't be to hard to do.

Get a nice server built that can hold about 30tb of data and just have it networked to my work computers and his work computers via the internet and we're done.

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Captain Han

dude this is a serious build i thought it was just a low budget server lol

get a 4u rackmount, and while your at it why not just op for all server parts? you know a supermicro board some fbdimm and xeon cpu

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bryce

It'll only be a serious build if my boss agrees to it, otherwise, I'll have to skimp on a few things, make that a lot of things lols.

I've got about 11 externals here and he's got around 40 externals, and his other employee has around 10 externals. So, yea, huge build if he agrees to it and pay for it LOL. After all, it's a business expense. I could just go ahead and tell em I'll make it a web server for his site and email, etc.

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tagurtoast

man GO WITH THE DROBO if your budget is ok with it because it does the 1 thing that owns raids ass.
it lets you raid drives of different sizes AND you can change / add drives without having to copy all the data somewhere then copy it back which is boring as hell