Bandwidth Place 2

A little background info:

I have a 750GB Western Digital mybook. It started life as a 500GB Western Digital mybook and i have since replaced the WD 500GB HDD with a 750GB Seagate HDD because I landed a sucker punch on that thing that shook tokyo. Actually I smacked it across the room on accident (yes really it was an accident). I plugged the drive back in to find that it no longer would work. It would start to spin up and shortly after it would go "TICK TICK TICK TICK" loudy... which means I trashed the drive.

So I cut my losses (around 300GB worth of personal data, torrent stuff, music, movies, family photos, backups). I ordered a 750GB sata and reacquired almost everything I lost through one mean or another.

About a week ago I was transferring some of the downloads on my XPS laptop over to the mybook and I accidently knocked it off the table. I think it was unplugged though. However when I go to plug it back in the drive came up as "uninitalized" although it spun up fine and didn't make TICK TICK noises.

After trying nearly everything I stumbled upon a post to try a MBR recovery prorgram. IT WORKED!!! I had saved myself from loosing 350+ GB worth of data!!!

I vowed after that I would build a home file server... I had no need for the portability and this was almost the second time I got burned. I have files on here that I can't get back. For example a complete laptop backup for someone that paid me to fix their laptop. Well now they need it fixed again and I almost lost their backup. They didn't pay me to or ask me to but they were very happy to find I had kept the backup data. I tell everyone I do repair work for that its a prevention method and it actually makes me a good bit of money in tips.

So now I need to build this home file server. I will be reusing my old rig.

It has an AMD Opteron 165 at 1.8ghz, 2 GB of DDR memory, dedicated graphics, 500W PSU and should be great for a file server... plenty fast.

I plan on taking the 750GB drive out of this mybook and putting it in the file server. This drive will not be an OS drive... just a data drive. I have a 320GB drive already in the machine that I will use for an OS drive.

I can install windows XP or windows 7 on this machine. Now here are my factors for choosing the OS:

I want this to be as easy as possible to implement with at least 2 of the computers I have already at home. One runs windows 7 and one runs windows vista. In the future I will be building another machine which will run on windows 7.

I have a wireless router. I want any machine connected to that router (via ethernet or wireless) to be able to access the file server's hard drives (not OS, just stores drives).

If possible I would like to be able to have access from computers running windows XP, windows vista and windows 7. (although vista and win7 are my main concern).

Also I would like the ability to restrict the access to the file server. Meaning I want anyone who can get on the network to be able to "see" the file server but not necessarily be able to get on the file server.
This is entirely optional but I would like it if it is possible to do this.

To recap and sumarize:

I want to build a file server out of an old machine (still fast for "old").

It will be accessed via my wireless router, either by ethernet or wireless

I can use any windows os but would prefer either XP or windows 7

The file server should be able to be accessed by machines running XP, Vista and Win7.

I would like to not use any software I have to pay for.

I would like the ability to be able to easily add new storage disks to the file server machine at a later date.

This machine preferable will be "headless" (no monitor). How can I manage it from another machine (most likely my XPS running win7).

Would like the ability to restrict control to the file server. Sorta like user accounts or along that line.

I just use Ubuntu 9.10 Server 64bit for my 2TB home server. It has no GUI at all and the OS installation takes 1.2GB with 450MB RAM usage idling after 15 days. In other words, your system is overkill if you go this route. An Atom-based board for <$80 + RAM and selling much of your Opteron system is probably a better idea. BTW, have you seen how much Socket 939 parts sell for?? If you're not impressed, compare those prices to better AM2 parts and wonder why you aren't profiting off this mayhem.

With Samba, linux has all the SMB support you will ever need. The server will appear just like any other network shared Windows computer.

By default it restricts access by making you enter your set username and password for the server every time you access it through anything like samba, so there's your access restriction. I personally don't want to do any logins so I got rid of that requirement completely.

It has very nice SSH support and has replaced my flash drive virtually completely. I find it much easier to just SSH into my server while outside to download my homework and such (especially if I forget) as well as upload updated copies. Eliminating the flash drive middleman is very nice.

It is headless, all I ever have plugged into it is power and ethernet.

It is freeeeeeee, legally!

Adding a new disk = editing two config files through SSH command line (since its headless). One to mount the disk, another to tell samba to share it.

You'll be doing any other management through command line too, since its headless, which is the point where I decided I didn't want to make a Windows-based server. Windows doesn't even have native SSH support to manage in a headless fashion in the first place, not to mention how much Windows has ditched the use of command line.

P.S. I envy your "350GB+" data usage :[ Look at the free space I have left on my networked (server) drives.
http://www.mylilsite.net/images/hddspace3.png

Where are you finding the prices for socket 939 parts? I didn't think they would be worth anything?

I may do that if I can profit anything decent.

You'll need to log in and I'm not sure how long the link itself will last.
http://completed.shop.ebay.com/i.html?L ... 520Opteron
Opteron 165 on ebay is about $65. After considering shipping and taxes, look what that can get you at retail price: Athlon 64 X2 6000+! You can seriously sell your 939 stuff, rebuild an AM2/AM2+/AM3 system for less and it will still be a nice upgrade in all areas. But really you don't need something like that for a home server.

After selling your 939 stuff, I suggest you just get something like an Atom D510 based combo which will take like 20% the power of a normal desktop and IMO is already overkill in the CPU department. I chose it because the single core versions don't tend to have gigabit ethernet. The problem with that board? 2 SATA.

I've read that I can mount the ITX board in an ATX case? Is that true?

I don't like the heat of an ITX case... I would rather use a case that can have 120mm fans. It won't be near me most of the time so I don't care how loud this box is, I just want superior cooling for it.


It seems I can get about $60 for the opty 165, 60$ for the ram (2GB) and probably around 70$-$90 for my DFI lanparty motherboard.

That leaves me a budget of about $200 to build this thing.

I was looking at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I can run the primary OS drive from an IDE and then have the two sata's free.

Patriot Signature 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory Model PSD21G6672

Shouldn't need more then 1GB of memory in a NAS box

re use the enermax 500w psu?

Yeah ITX fits just fine, its four screws match up with the smallest square of screws for ATX
http://www.mylilsite.net/images/NAS01/sdinnerall2.jpg

IMO you should get one with passive cooling.. Why did you choose that one in particular? This one looks pretty awesome, multiple card slots, more SATA, and still IDE.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product
But it's ECS so eh.

And I assume you had to use a monitor to install ubuntu server ?

Yes temporarily, just so you can get to the point where you can SSH to the server. After that it can be headless.

BTW NOTE: Linux seems to use the wrong driver for the realtek ethernet chip (8111), the board you're looking at is 8112 but I bet the same thing will happen. The connection is unstable with that incompatible driver, but theres a script that can fix it up for you if the problem happens.