hi all
i built a total custom built home server,.

my main server died on me from over heating, so i needed to do somthing

my new server holds 20 drive and 1 for system

i can do a full review if anyone is interested

@ c_owl - first off, welcome to the gang

That is definitely a very unique looking server. I am sure everyone would be very interested to see what components went into the build and why you chose that form factor.

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Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Did you build that case yourself or is it available commercially?

Please do share all the details of the build, we'd love to hear about it and see more pictures if you have them.

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins? If so, be sure to Rate them at WeGotServed.

hi everyone thanks for your support.
first i want to talk about how i came abot doing my server..

i have around 2500 dvds and 3000 music albums. all taking up lots of room in one of my bedrooms and on top of it i need the room for my new baby daughter. so i went about building a large server to store everything so i could box all my cds up in the loft.
i have built many systems from media station to full on web servers.
i didnt have a lot of cash so i started with somthing simple some old bits i had in the loft. 4 drives on a 3000 amd motherboard. nothing special but i had streaming problems and power use was a big problem. big bills not good costing £££££££££..
i then i looked at the The new Intel D945GCLF2 mini-itx main board. these boards were my startng point for low power server in my home. i have 2 setup and running today as backu servers..

after playing with the D945GCLF2 motherboard i found that it was ok with server 2 computers but peeked, and that got me thinking of what else was on the market for my build.
i then came across the Asus ATOM 330 AT3N7A-I Mini ITX Intel Motherboard and these motherboards for low power are animals for what i needed. i have streamed 2 hd dvd and copied to the system at the same time.i found my heart the Asus ATOM 330 AT3N7A.
so i loaded the Asus ATOM 330 AT3N7A with 4gb 880 memory. so i didnt have any problems with streaming.

so now i have choase my board and memory i need to look at what storage to use and how im going to set this part up.
for power i used a 660w power pack nothing special..

ok so i need somthing raid in way of storage.
i tryed about 4 ways but ended up with 4 Port SATA II Card, Low Profile Option, RAID Function, PCI from lindys
this is a 32bit card with 150mbs transfer rat and port forwarding. the important bit turns 4 ports into 20 using 5 Port SATA II Multiplier Bridge Board, RAID Function.
so now i have shose my pci card and 4 x 4 port warders to give me my 20 bays.

now comes the design, without paying through the nose for a topend server box i could not for the life of me find somthing good to use.
i so asked a compan from ebay that supplys plasic if they was interested in helping me if i supplyed the drawing in detail.
i was in look they was ok with it. they have now done me 4 boxsto my specs. i just had to make them up..
remember dont be in a rush on the planning as it saves time and money at this stage..



the plasic to build my server cost £180ish. ..
motheboard and memory about £160
pci raid card and port forwarder £500ish
power supply £40
battery backup system (ups) £80, theres nothing like a power cut to kill the system

so now were at drives.
i use green drives as there only about 5w as normal drives use about 8w to 10w

because i chose the atom board at the start and green drive the total system runs at abou 130w with 10 drive installed and still more to add

os

well its up to you what you use .
i have installed xp, server 2003, whs, server 2008 and windows 7 on this system all works very well. i stuck with server 2008 because of its foot print and network security.

i must say this system is a killer when it comes to storing stuff. i now have 13tb the system some on raid and some not. rememeber i have another server that backup the stuff not on raid.

so over view .................
so i now have 2 laptops, 3 servers and 5 pcs on my system with wiress router.
my router got hacked and i was about 3seconds from melt down.
so im working on a gatway using server 2008 and the D945GCLF2 as the motherboard. this will track just about everything on my network aswell as being the door to the internet...
this gateway will also have sql server for web servering and emergancy wireless if my main wirless dies.(thats happended before)
i can post more if anyone interested in this project...

i forgot to mention the whole system is on gigabit switches and wirless 300mb router

sorry for the grammer spelling wrote it while on the

Very cool, thanks for sharing the build pics, and I love that it's on wheels.

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins? If so, be sure to Rate them at WeGotServed.