Build Guide: High Capacity $300 Budget Media Server

re: Build Guide: High Capacity $300 Budget Media Server

Carl — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:10:33 GMT

Very useful. I'm just looking at building a media server from an old PC using an Asus M2N-E m/b and AMD 4200 x2. Probably going to run a copy of Server 2003. The one thing I'm not sure about at the moment is what the best RAID option would be. I intent to have 2-3 1TB drives to start with and increase over the next few months. What RAID option would you choose to maximise storage space with the least chance of losing data?

re: Build Guide: High Capacity $300 Budget Media Server

Tim — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:10:33 GMT

I am about to build my own media server - I started thinking about a NAS and then thought I might as well extend the software and set it up as a media server. There are a number of options running on Linux. What particular OS and software have you decided to use

re: Build Guide: High Capacity $300 Budget Media Server

Joe — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:01:37 GMT

What OS did you end up using with each of these builds?

re: Build Guide: High Capacity $300 Budget Media Server

fbonzo — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:12:14 GMT

Lots of good grist for thought here--thanks. I'd like to expand this a bit into a minimal HTPC w/Blu Ray and good audio processing (and maybe a slightly glitzier case so I can tell what's going on w/a glance). Wonder if the built-in HDMI on the recommended ASUS board will be adequate? And do you know anything about power draws for mid-lo-end audio boards? Again, thanks for what's here already.

re: Build Guide: High Capacity $300 Budget Media Server

Mike — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:12:32 GMT

Just the info i was looking for. THANKS!!!!

re: Build Guide: High Capacity $300 Budget Media Server

Benny — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:25:57 GMT

Good guide. Thanks for the work. Looking at building a media server for my house and this has given me alot of info.

Thanks again

MikeL_HH — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:25:01 GMT

I did consider using an Atom setup. Actually, that was my first thought and I mentioned this in the processor section already. I decided against it for this guide since many home servers aren't strictly file servers and may be used as a media server where the media is processed on the server. A lot of people also use their home server to rip and encode media, which would be more of a pain on an Atom vs the 4850e. Desktop atoms are also only available with the 945GC chipset at this time, which is a pretty awful chipset for a low power build considering it chews up 22W on its own.

There is no way this particular build would idle at anything near 80W total for the whole system. Perhaps 80W at full-load. The 4850e gets a TDP of 45W and the real-world power consumption is likely closer to half that, especially when idle. Then consider the 780 chipset which draws less than 15W total. The 780 northbridge actually idles at less than a watt! The numbers simple don't add up to 80W, any way you stack them.

I also explained why I didn't choose an even smaller chassis in the body of the blog post already. I didn't choose a smaller cube-style or ultra-slim mATX chassis or ITX simply because they don't have enough expansion space for more than 1 hard drive. Many ITX chassis don't even support 3.5" drives. I wanted this server build to be easily upgradeable and the one thing most likely to be upgraded is the storage capacity.

re: Build Guide: High Capacity $300 Budget Media Server

RayH — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:45:35 GMT

This is quite a technically powerful system for a simple server. Did you consider the standard Intel Atom 330 (2xCore) board as that has Gigabit Ethernet. My main concern with your design is the power consumption, particularly at idle over 24x7x365, have you made any wattage measurements?

In the UK power is relatively expensive about $1.50 for each watt/year, so if this used say 80 watts at idle the whole life cost over 5 years could be high. Also, having lived in Dallas TX, I know that US houses tend to have a lot of closet space. I would find it hard to find the space for such a case in my UK house.