File Servers

[forbiddenx]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if anyone has their own file server or HTPC. I'm in the process of putting a budget one together.

All I plan to use it for is mostly for backing up my media. I'll probably have A LOT of pictures in the future as I'm starting to shoot RAW. I don't really need HD streaming or any sort of transcoding/encoding.

I'll also need it to download torrents. Which is one of the questions I have, how does downloading torrents on the machine actually work? Will I have utorrent on my desktop and just save the file into a folder in the server? Or is there a special web interface I use to tell it to download the file?

I only plan on having a monitor hooked up to it when I configure everything, after that it'll just be sitting in the corner of my room.

Which OS is better if I plan on using it for what I've stated? Would Windows Server 2008 be alright? Or is a Linux distro a lot better?

I'll be building the server around a AMD Sempron LE-1200 that I got a while back, maybe a year or so ago. Would it still be viable to use this as the CPU or should I get an AM3 processor with an AM3 mobo and DDR3 ram?

I know I can build an AM2 system for < $100 which is perfect because I plan on spending the most money on the hard drives. Looking at getting around 3-4TB for now, 1 TB + 2x 2TB. And maybe just 1-2GB of ram. This would suffice for what I need right? Or is it a bit too little?

Thanks!

 

[redline]

Not sure about the torrent stuff, but I use FreeNAS for my home file server. It supports a bunch of different protocols, but I only use CIFS to map to it as a network drive from any PC on my network. I keep my photos, music, and backup documents on it mostly. You don't even need to have a monitor connected to it once you get it configured, you use a web interface for administration. I'm using an old PC I had lying around for my server. I just added a big hard drive and a gigabit NIC for fast data transfers.

 

[BigPopov]

if you're just using it for a file server as you say, the old CPU will work perfectly fine. The only thing you should be concerned with is HD space. 1-2GB of RAM is perfectly fine.

As far as torrents go, the most robust way to do it is have the PC setup with Remote Desktop Connection. It's easy to do, Google it. You remote into the PC on your local network (or use a free LogMeIn account), and you run the torrent program on the fileserver. This way your main PC doesn't have to be on and the HTPC will still be downloading, if you have a laptop you can leave the house and not interrupt downloads.

Just use Win XP.

 

[frivertex]

Yes, you could use Windows Embeeded. Now did you think about the noise issue? It is really hard to make a silent HTPC and at the same time to keep it cooled down. You need to think about power supply, case, graphic card, HDD almost everything. But making a fanless HTPC is not a good idea, cause components get hot and as you know this is not good for electronics.