So being somewhere between bored and lazy (waiting for job applications to come back and yet not wanting to do the house work I should) I decided to start a new series on building your own home network.
Please note, those wishing to try this it is slightly advanced stuff (or rather well be) and I'll do my best to make it simple. That said having your own home server is a great thing as in the end you can access files whereever you want even from outside your house, can house your own wiki, blog or even a website. By having your own home server you can show off pictures, videos, music without having to carry around a flash drive or an enclosed harddrive. When I was doing my master's (before I had to stop because of money) I used mine to store documents I needed to have access to both at my apartment and on campus.
Before you follow me over the fold, a disclaimer: Vol 1 is about hardware and building your own server and thus is mostly hardware. It is not strictly necessary (you can buy servers and network back ups), however it's my opnion that you save money by doing this from the ground up and it's easier to add on or even fix (as you did it not someone else).
Now let's get started.
As I said up above this section will be concerned with hardware only as you have to have that before we can actually get into setting up the server.
Now then, a computer server is basically the same as a computer in terms of basic hardware but has very specific needs. And because of those specific needs one can build a pretty efficent server with lots of expandablity for a relatively cheap price as we can focus on what we need and then be cheap with the rest.
For those without experience building computers, don't despair; modern computers and computer parts are fairly easily to put together and generally just require you to read the manual.
There are 5 major components that we need to talk about computer case, motherboard, power supply, RAM, video card and CPU (I have not forgotten the harddrive (HD) but as the point of a server is to be a massive bank of HDs I'll talk about that last).
Now then, for a computer case you're going to want something big. I use a Chieftec Server Case, which I've included a picture of:
It really doesn't matter what brand you buy, you're looking for only one thing; size, it has to be big (mine has 7 bays plus 2 for HDs plus 2 for floppies that I use for HD). It shouldn't matter but also make sure any case you buy has at least three fan slots; I have never seen a probelm with that, but there always is a first time.
After you have your case, it's time to start putting stuff into it. The first thing you have to add is the motherboard. For those unfamilar with computer building the motherboard is simply the base component which links all the other compnents (ie it's what you put everything else on). With the motherboard, frankly almost any current motherboard will do no matter how cheap. The only thing it must absolutely have is SATA for your HDs (more on that latter), it's preferable but not needed to have at least 3 PCI expansion slots. Of course you need to take manufacturer into account but even then you can buy a motherboard that suits your needs for just around 50 dollars (for example)
A quick note, despite having alot of flexibility here first time users be careful here. Your motherboard is like the foundation of a building and make sure (ie triple check) that the compontents you buy are compatible with your motherboard, or that your compontents are compatible with your motherboard. It's not hard, but it does require some reading and of course if you make a mistake you can always return the item so please don't be deterred.
Now that we have the motherboard it's time to start adding the basic things needed. First up we'll deal with the CPU (centeral processing unit), this isn't that big of a deal. Generally I'd say you can avoid quad core or any of thing of that nature. Just like the motherboard, you can buy a cheap one. Because the exact type of motherboard you buy influences your choices here there are not much specifics I can offer. However continueing the above example, here's what I would buy
Next up let's deal with the video card, here there's a little bit to think about. If you're going to think about streaming you might want about a mid level video card (ie a card that runs about 70-140 and you might even want to consider a AGP 2.0 card). Personally, I didn't bother with that and even though sometimes I have probelms I was and am fine with a lower end card. Continuing the above, here's what I would choose. To be truthful, while I've been told that I should use higher grade cards, I've never noticed a probelm.
Now that we're done there (and almost have a fully functional server)let's deal with RAM (random access memory). Here we're back to simplicity. My advice is buy the lowest frequency RAM in as large a stick as you can (ie if you have a choice between 2 sticks of 1 gig RAM or 1 2 gig stick, take the 2 gig stick). There really should be no need though for more then 2 gigs of RAM. Here's my choice (I do favor Ultra as in almost a decade of building computers I've never had a probelm with it and they have a life time gurantee).
Last (but certainly not least) is the power supply and here is where we have to think alot more then we have previously. See everything, even HDs take up power, and while that might be obvious what is probably not so obvious is that the bigger a HD is the more power it needs. Now there do exist tools online that allow you to estimate how much power you'll need but the answers will vary. Myself I tend to prefer to overestimate that way the system can be expanded in the future. No where is this more true then with a server, because where you may start with only 1 500 gig HD in the future you might want to have several terrabyte drives going (maybe even higher as HD space is almost literally exploding). Thus my advice is nothing lower then 650 watts, personally I say 750 is a good number (and given how little you'll need for everything besides HD if you exhaust that much power then you're likely out of space anyways for further expansion). Here's my pick
There is 1 detail I've forgotten (though on purpose) and that is DVD drive, thing is there's nothing really special about it. Any will do, I tend to read the reviews and buy the cheapest one.
Finally it's time to talk HDs and here things can get interesting. Because we build our own server, we're not obligated to start out with any specific brand of HD or size. Personally I prefer Seagate though I tend to shop around and pick the best reviewed drive I can afford. Because we have plenty of space there's no need to go out and buy a huge drive or even alot of drives at once you can upgrade as needed. I will say that you probably want to get a smaller HD (around 40-70 gigs, smallest you can find) to put your OS on so that you're not sharing system files even indirectly and then from there buy bigger HDs to use as your storage. Here's what I would use for the OS HD (as I call it) and here's what I would use as your first storage drive
Oh hell, I forget your mouse, keyboard and monitor, again buy something cheap, you will not need them often after you're done with setup. Or you can do what I did, and use your desktop keyboard, mouse and monitor to setup the server's software and then upplug it (this is especially true with the monitor) as none of that is really needed to make the computer function. Of course if you have the money you might want to just buy your own as if something goes wrong it becomes annonying to move things around.
That covers Vol 1, I'll be around for questions or things I might have missed for a bit. Hope you enjoyed it.
PS. On where to get parts, there's amazon.com; tigerdirect.com and newegg.com (just to start with) that I shop from.