Hi everyone,

I'm trying to select components to build a file server to backup my current PC daily to because my PC files are critical. All this will be local on my own network at home, this will not be a datacenter system.

I will be the only one backing up to this server, no other computers or anything.

What I want is a RAID backup server. What I need the board to have is built in NIC card (fast) and RAID support.

I don't really care if I go Intel or AMD. My current PC is AMD and it works well, something with a large cache I suppose would be good? I think Xeon would be overkill for a simple file server eh?

- Video card is not really necessary (can be very low end)
- Sound doesn't matter
- Ram should be reliable

Can anyone please recommend me some hardware and a case (mid to full tower) for this?

Thanks!

Case: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-121&depa=1
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=19-103-418&DEPA=1
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-917&depa=1
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-131-478&DEPA=1
HD: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=22-152-011&DEPA=1
Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=14-170-041&DEPA=1
CD-RW Drive: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=27-151-031&DEPA=1

Total = $416

-Greg

Forgot to mention, mobo has onboard sound card and NIC card. You don't need anything fancy for just a file server, nice big HD for all the backups.

-Greg

note he wanted RAID, check out the 3ware 7500 cards you can pick them up for relatively cheap on ebay the megaraid i4 can also be had for cheap on ebay these are TRUE HARDWARE ide/ata raid cards... get yourself a slamm'n raid5 setup :)

Sorry, forgot about that. Just get more HDs then :D

-Greg

any purticular reason you can't just attach a backup device, such USB based external HDD to your PC to do the job?

a 'server' for just doing files backup and nothing else seems overkill even it can be rather cheap.

or you can do a RAID-1 on your PC for hardware redundancy, and attach a USB HDD for OS/app/data pretection.

cwl,

when you can pickup a megaraid i4 for under $100 and it supports 8 drives why not go with it and do raid 5 or raid 10 if you really want performance with some level of redundancy....

a dedicated RAID-10 server for just backing up a home network?
then why not do the 6x HDD RAID-50 with 2x hot-spare? well, it's his money.....

your performance would be better on raid 10 however it would lack the benefit of the redundancy and hot-spare of the raid 50... it all depends on what you need.


I personally have a megaraid i4 with 8x200g (6xRaid 5 w/2 Hot-Spare) which provides 1TB useable space that I keep in my house that I use for off-site backups of my servers...

Thanks for the feedback everyone!
I would probably only have 2 hard drives to start, maybe add another in a year , SATA or IDE.

For the Motherboard - A7N8X-E Deluxe, how many drives can I have with that in a RAID configuration?
I think this supports RAID 0 and RAID 1?

How compatible will this be with Linux such as Fedora? My local PC uses XP Pro but I'm thinking of using Linux for the server to protect from Windows related viruses and worms. The other option is to have XP Pro or Win Server on the backup machine.

I'm new to this whole RAID thing you see. RAID 0 seems to redundant for what I need, I mean the backup server is for backups, I don't need that backed up as well to yet another drive.

The thing I don't like about RAID 1 is that if any drive fails all data is lost but I like the idea I can keep adding disks to it as times passes to increase my storage block.

I think you got it reversed. RAID-1 is mirror redundancy (with quite a performance hit), and RAID-0 is just stripping for performance, but 0 redundancy. RAID-5 is just about right: redundacny+performance, but it requires 3x HDD minimally.

usually any on-board SATA ports (RAID or not) has very poor linux support, so is nVidia chipset for that matter. for Linux box, stays with VIA chipset for AMD based, and Intel chipset for Intel based.

Yeah I was worried about the support for Linux for something like this and thinking to forget Linux altogether and just stick with a Windows based system to keep configuration and install easy and quick as possilble.

I noticed most onboard RAID cards ony offer 0 or 1 support. I guess I'd have to purchase a RAID card controller separetly if I wanted 5 support?

What about RAID 0+1?

Thanks

Hmm maybe I can just scrap the whole RAID idea entirely, seems pretty expensive and almost overkill for a simple PC backup no?

That sure would make life easier for me. Maybe then I could even get a little Shuttle system that wouldn't take up much space in my office room either :D

What's the chance that your backup server & your computer's HDs will die at the same time? I don't see a real reason for RAID. I'm about to setup either an old Dell PII 350Mhz or 500Mhz (I think it's 500mhz, don't have it here with me though) computer with a 200GB drive for backups.

You can get large HDs for cheap pricing, keep your eyes open for rebates through places like Computers4Sure, TigerDirect, BestBuy, and CompUSA. WesternDigital runs promos all the time. Because of some great promos, we have a WD200GB HD, a WD160GB HD (installed already), and a Seagate 200GB HD lying here in the office waiting to be installed. :) Got them all at dirt cheap prices.

- Matt

Originally posted by Ramprage
Hmm maybe I can just scrap the whole RAID idea entirely, seems pretty expensive and almost overkill for a simple PC backup no?

That sure would make life easier for me. Maybe then I could even get a little Shuttle system that wouldn't take up much space in my office room either :D
that's exactly my point stated in earlier posts in this thread.

U do need to use hardware RAID card for RAID-5/10 configuration which can add up pretty quickly in term of costs.

appreciate the input guys, thanks!

Do you have any experience with barebones mini pcs like Shuttle systems? Or know where I can read some reviews on them?

http://www17.tomshardware.com/search/search.html?category=all&words=shuttle

Click the search button when you get there.

go with dell poweredge they good

I to have run into a similar issue on how to backup my files. I have come to conclude that a server would be the best thing to use. As far as setting up linux / fedora your going to run into some issues with the mamba client. It is supposed to work so your xp computer can see your linux machine and vice versa. I have found it to be a real headache and it was easy for me to see my files from linux but to see the files from windows was another story. In my opinion you would be better off setting up a little server with windows 2000 server. I think I will be purchasing a new motherboard for the new server since the old server just died.

Just my thoughts.

I decided to buy a cheap barebone from https://www.maincomp.com the total for a XP 1700 + motherboard ram and case came out to 144 I will be plugging in a 1 gigbabit ethernet card into it along with a 200 gig hard drive and cdrecorder. I am still debating on whether or not I want a dvd recorder for it. I looked at DELL prices and they were a little high for what I needed. SUPPORT THE LITTLE PERSON!

I don't really need the extra cost for a Dell system... your mostly paying for the name and not the components, well for what I want to do anyways. I think I'll just build a bare bones PC from a local comp store and grab like you mentioned a 100 gig or so + hard drive with gig ethernet onboard - shove it in the corner of the office and we're good to go!

I also agree now that I will also use Windows for the backup system instead of Linux. I don't want to tinker with much or spend much time on this so I'm just going to stick Win 2k server or similar on it :)

Now that I've selected my OS. What kind of backup software can you guys recommend for this kind of thing? I'd like to backup select folders daily.

Thanks

Originally posted by Ramprage
I don't really need the extra cost for a Dell system... your mostly paying for the name and not the components, well for what I want to do anyways. I think I'll just build a bare bones PC from a local comp store and grab like you mentioned a 100 gig or so + hard drive with gig ethernet onboard - shove it in the corner of the office and we're good to go!

I also agree now that I will also use Windows for the backup system instead of Linux. I don't want to tinker with much or spend much time on this so I'm just going to stick Win 2k server or similar on it :)

Now that I've selected my OS. What kind of backup software can you guys recommend for this kind of thing? I'd like to backup select folders daily.

Thanks Why do you need a Gigabit Ethernet port in the backup computer? I know that on 98/XP to 98/XP transfers (using Windows file transfer, not having a FTP server on one), I get about 65 Mbps maximum if I zip up all of the files and transfer it in one chunk. Also, if you don't need a ton of processing power, and can find a compatible motherboard, NewEgg has some AMD K6-2 500Mhz chips in stock for $15 - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-166&depa=1 .

Thanks for the tip, I just want to make sure the system will last a bit of time but I realize now that I'm completely overkilling it :)

Cheers