Once again about hardware for a home server? Is it possible to choose something according to the existing requirements

Question

Do it yourself

I have been studying the issue of a home server for a long time (including regularly reviewing Q&A on Habré), and the question is getting bigger and bigger. I used to use a router + a cheap nas + an external drive as a small file server / torrento rocking chair at home. Now I'm going to assemble a new home server - there is a need for new functions /
So, the functions for the home server:

1. Torrent downloader.
2. file sharing server.
3. Media server for movies and photos from the camera.
4. I would like to rotate on Linux due to the possibility of flexible configuration.
5. The ability to organize an automatic regular backup of some folders on the server (the requirement is not at all mandatory, since of course it can be done programmatically with scripts under linux as a cheap and angry backup, but enlighten on the backup issue - can RAID support be used to mirror the data being written?).

This gives rise to the following hardware requirements.

1. The ability to connect at least a pair of HDDs (for increasing disk space, and / or the ability to store a backup on a physically isolated medium).
2. WiFi (b / g / n I don’t want to pull the wire from the router at all).
3. SD card reader for a camera card or enough usb ports to connect it.
4. A sufficient processor to play movies in good quality (now FullHD seems to be good quality?) On a TV.
I'm also going to take a new TV, so there is a second option: TVs now, as I understand it, can themselves act as media players, i.e. take over the decontamination process. How much is enough? Maybe there is no point in chasing power for a home server in this aspect? Also for a TV, the first thought is to take a TV with Wifi, will the Wifi channel of the home network be enough for real-time playback of movies in good quality? the router keeps b / g / n, as I understand it, this is 54Mb / s in the limit. In this point, in general, the greatest uncertainty.
5. Minimum power consumption, small size, passive cooling.
6. As usual, cheaper. :)

Here are the requirements. I mainly look at mini-PCs like Miniand, CuBox, Raspberry PI, but there is a problem with a full-fledged HDD connection to them: only CuBox has sata, it seems it should not become a bottleneck, but I don’t know what to think of to power the HDD - you need some kind of external a case that will connect to miniPC via sata, I don’t know if there are any, besides, CuBox does not have Wifi, you can solve it with an external usb adapter, but maybe there is something already with sata and wifi.

Answer 1

I have been experimenting with different mini PCs for a long time. As a result, I have a normal computer on core i5, with reduced power consumption. The only parameter that I paid attention to when buying was the presence of a sufficient number of SATA ports and a RAID controller. I don't trust dynamic disks, but mirroring mode and cheap home controllers work well.
Of the advantages, we have:
- the ability to put any axis
- any software for it
- to spin more tasks than expected at the stage of purchase (I later added a version control system, a database server, software for transcoding video to a phone, storage for backup laptops and more little things)
- the ability to expand with any necessary hardware (the same WiFi adapter can be plugged into any PCI Express)
Of the minuses
- size
- noise
- price
I defeated the size problem by buying a narrow case that fits very well into the apartment and does not bother anyone.
The noise is defeated by buying a cheap 64GB SSD for the system and auto-disconnecting all drives when idle. Plus good quiet fans and a nice big heatsink on the rock
The price will be biting compared to the Raspberry PI. You can't buy it for $25. But all the same, investing in infrastructure with a margin is right, it allows you to save money later, when the range of tasks grows.
In 802.11n, the theoretical limit is 300Mbit\sec. My real ceiling is about 120Mbit\sec.

Answer 2

The first thing to understand is that a raid is not a backup, it is a means of increasing online storage.

Answer 3

I do a lot of things from this list on my HP ProLiant Microserver N40L (now there is already a more modern N54L model). It has FreeNAS and 4 SATA drives. FreeNAS boots from an internal 8GB USB stick.
My goals (which were fully achieved):
* Network file storage.
* Network automatic backup.
* Torrento rocking chair.
* Watching movies goes from this server to XBMC (XBMC itself is a separate Intel Atom + NVidia ION2, which pulls FullHD).
* Quiet server (only the SATA drives themselves can be heard a little, but you have to listen).
The server itself sits on the wire, since the file washer will work slowly and sadly on WiFi.

Answer 4

My homemade solution:
pentium4 3GHZ s775 + 4Gb DDR3 + 1Tb HDD + WiFi router (I bought pci wifi, not fire)
freebsd+mediatomb+transmission+samba -> TV with smartTV via DLNA
pulls both fullHD and 3D. with MKV, it’s true that it’s a hassle, I haven’t finished it yet.
In terms of noise, I installed a radiator on heat pipes on the CPU (it is “hot” by itself) and hooked up a 5V cooler. I don't hear at all.
so on modern hardware any solution will pull, focus on low power consumption and noise.

Answer 5

I use an old Dell Latitude D510 laptop as a home file server and torrent downloader , it has a Pentium M 1.8 GHz processor with a TDP of 27 watts (very productive and very economical). An external WD Essintials 3 TB drive is connected to it via USB (the volume of which, by the way, is correctly determined in Windows XP 32 bit due to the non-standard cluster size). I connected this laptop to the router with a twisted pair cable (all other computers on the home network work via WiFi). you won’t get normal Wi-Fi-> Wi-Fi speed even with N mode (because to transfer data, you will first need to transfer them via WiFi to the router, and then from the router via WiFi to this server). Although if you plan for this server to act as a router itself, then this is a completely different matter, of course.

Answer 6

Of course, not what you need, but until I decided to assemble a server for myself, I installed Zyxel Keenetic Giga, and I am generally satisfied. has 2 USB ports for connecting disks or other devices, a twisted pair cable goes to the TV set. On it, torrents are dragged, ftp just in case. Basically I have enough. Gigabit ports are pleasing, now there are no problems with transferring large volumes to file storage.
I didn’t measure the data transfer speeds by wire and air, but it’s better than on the free poop that the provider gave.
In connection properties writes:
MAC-address IP-address Name Signal St-rt Shir. Mbps Connected
1 tu:tm:oy:ma:ka:eu:eu 192.168.1.33 g460 -57 dBm 11n 40 MHz 135 1 hour 49 minutes