My new file server, May 2009

[Armydude771]

Linux!!!!

[WeAreTwoDoorsDown]

LOL! The days of IDE

[ComputerJunkLab]

what is the name brand of this case please? like to get one.

[Maxxarcade]

@ComputerJunkLab I'm not sure who actually made it, but I think it used be be an Avid Unity Lanshare video server before i got it.

[ComputerJunkLab]

@Maxxarcade-- ok thank you sir.

[KlagesNewMedia]

The world awaits an update video :)

[Maxxarcade]

@KlagesNewMedia I've actually been running this server 24/7 since it was built that day. Right now it is powered down while I repair the UPS from surge damage, and do some upgrades. Should be a video in the next week or so that will show the current status.

[KlagesNewMedia]

@Maxxarcade Hope your insurance does kick in and helps you out. I was also wondering whether you could make a video about your APC UPS (once you got them repaired or replaced) because I bought a bunch of old APCs on eBay and could use some guidance on handling them. Do you use Apcupsd btw?

[Maxxarcade]

@KlagesNewMedia I'll be making an update video this weekend hopefully. And I'll look into Apcupsd too. Haven't heard of that.

[Thatboy1980]

better get that ram up to par or it's just a waste linux good choice and if you get a chance check out filezilla

[isilder]

You can run dual socket motherboards with only one socket populated..... But you can't use the memory slots on that side if there is no CPU.

[NYz3R0dAY]

i always wondered. are those CPU fans by any chance, Sanyo-Denki ones? i have one of those in my current PC build.

[jetmike747]

you mind asking where you got those 3MWare raid cards? and how are they working out for you

[Maxxarcade]

@jetmike747 Got them on Ebay for cheap. Haven't had any problems with them yet. I think they are available with up to 12 ports, but the 8 port ones are my favorite.

[jetmike747]

@Maxxarcade cool thanks, i have all these IDE drives laying around and I think i finally figured out what I'm doing with em

[NightWolfEditing]

IDE is still good stuff. Both my servers still use IDE. no problems whatsoever.

[BlasterProduction09]

ain't it a misuse to have two dualcore xeon processors to run naslite?!? you cn run it on a single pentium 3 processor and have a just as good server!!

[Maxxarcade]

@BlasterProduction09 Yep, though I haven't been able to find a single-CPU board that has two PCI-X 66Mhz slots. Either they are too close together, or they are only 33Mhz, which bottlenecks the RAID cards.

The motherboard is actually the original one to the case. It used to be a high-end Avid Unity video server.

[MixerVM]

How much did you get it for?

sorry I just like to know

[Maxxarcade]

@MixerVM Got the system for $100, and added my own drives that were laying around.

[Ltb0b]

Oh IDE.... How I hate you so much

[dizid10]

@Maxxarcade Ok, i assumed this was recent, didn't look at the date :).

Do you use any (SAN?) software? How do you configure 16 disks, as 1 big disk?, RAID?

[Maxxarcade]

@dizid10 Using a pair of 3Ware 7506-8 RAID cards, configured as 4 logical drives. Software is NASLite-2.

[dizid10]

Nice hobby, but: 16x 250 GB = 4 TB.

So, if you buy 2 standard 2TB SATA drives into your standard PC you have the same amount of storage for about $200

[Maxxarcade]

@dizid10 Yes, but I built this for ~$100 a couple years ago, when 2TB drives were very expensive. I also do not want to share my PC drives with other users :-)

[BigtimeJimmy21]

Man Alive! That's some serious storage bro..

[Lil306]

Christ man that's a hell of a sized system, 3 PSU's :0

I didn't even know they made hot swappable IDE drives, must be along the same times as SCSI

[Maxxarcade]

@Lil306 The RAID card provides the hot swap capability, as long as the operating system and software supports it. I wasn't aware of hot swap IDE either until I built this.

[grimlord5654]

wow nice video quality and so clean.

I LOVE IT!

[carlanton593]

you know of a god card that accept more SATA harddrives to the motherboard?

[Maxxarcade]

3Ware does make SATA RAID cards, but they are pretty expensive. Look on Ebay first.

[aelooser]

Omg What the hell :D good HD !!!

[a2freaky]

damn why u need all that in ur home what kind of work u do with this file server ???

[tech33012]

I have a question where did u get this server for 150$? i would like to purchase one since it's going to fit my budget.

[Maxxarcade]

Ebay. I already had the drives, so the rest was cheap.

[tech33012]

with or without the case cause that case looks pretty sleek to me

[Maxxarcade]

I bought the case and motherboard together as one item, and installed my own drives. It came with two dual core Xeon CPU's and 2 gigs of RAM.

I also installed two 3ware 7506-8 RAID controllers, which this system was designed for.

This uses IDE though, which is why it was cheap. Newer file servers use SATA or SAS.

[tech33012]

Nice!! i got Sata drive so i just need to get a Sata raid card which i may buy from Ebay.. maybe a Areca ARC-1680iX-20 depending if i can find one at a low price cause my budget is 300 w.o the drives cause i have then lying around... :D looks good i like it +5

[Maxxarcade]

This particular model case won't work with SATA drives, but you could probably find one similar to it that has SATA hot swap bays. Won't be cheap though.

[tech33012]

I've been finding it on ebay for sata compatible there is some server at those price but i still want to price hunt. Also since your running IDE what raid are u running it on? 1? 5? :D

[Maxxarcade]

I have 4 different arrays. One is RAID 0, the rest are RAID 5. Total capacity is 3.2 TB.

[tech33012]

Does it take any CPU power? since your running raid 0 or 5? The reason why is cause I want the Areca is cause it contain a built in CPU and 2GB ram (mini PC inside a PC)

Sorry about my grammar it's one of my weakest point.

[Maxxarcade]

The 3Ware RAID cards I'm using have their own CPU's onboard. I think any 3Ware card will have it's own processor. Cheap cards that you see online are usually software based, and will hog CPU.

[WilReid]

@Maxxarcade Software RAID is plenty fast with modern processors. We overcame the absolute need for hardware based RAID solutions several years ago when consumer processors were in the 1 to 2 GHz range. You should give it a try again sometime.

[Maxxarcade]

@WilReid I've tried it before with hardware of this era, and didn't care for it. Though some of the latest motherboards have nice RAID on board. I might try it on my desktop PC eventually.

[audiopixel]

How much was this?

[Maxxarcade]

Around $150, since I had the drives already.

[audiopixel]

Oh, not bad. Not bad at all.

I'm considering doing something similar myself, the problem is that I'm in Sweden. And finding cases that aren't way overpriced is hard as hell..

[NolanHunter18]

so how's your new file server coming along ?

[Maxxarcade]

It's been running 24/7 since I took this video. I just never got any more video footage since it was installed in the rack. The last clip I uploaded was "Hard Drive Spindown", which was taken right before I installed it into the rack.

Only recent failure I had was one of the Seagate hard drives, but no data was lost because of the RAID controller. I put in a new drive, and it's still going strong today.

[NolanHunter18]

My next question is, why not use a HP MediaSmart Server ? Unless i'm mistaken your just using your server for file storage etc throughout your house. power consumption and noise etc would be a lot lower with the MediaSmart thing. Just curious =)

[Maxxarcade]

I got this server for $100, and it holds over 4 TB. Noise isn't a factor because it's in a rack with 3 other servers anyway. Also has enough power to saturate a Gigabit LAN during file transfer. And redundant power supplies are a plus too.

Plus it's just fun to build and work on :-)

[1638490]

were

[mikelboi87]

wow! looking way awesome! cant wait to see more vids of it. :)

[extremtek]

Very nice clean setup.

If you ever think about expanding your storage I would suggest that you get a JBOD case.

They have all teh equipment you need such as controllers adn power supplies.

The only thing you might need is a fibre channel or infiniband cable.

[retrochad]

Looks great! What is the linux distribution you will be running on it? I have a much more primitive setup for audio only but that sounds real interesting to be able to store video files on a server like that.

[sheps999]

I think he mentioned NASLite.

[Maxxarcade]

Ya, most likely NASLite. Unless I find something that will take more advantage of the hardware.

[weasel2htm]

So what will become of the old PIII server?

[Maxxarcade]

The case will be used for my Home Theater PC, and the hard drives are going in the new server. Not sure what I'm going to do with the old motherboard yet.

[agntroboy1995]

you will give it to me :D

[thwinecone]

lol fourth comment

[Organgrinder010]

Impressive!

[genmac1]

wow talk about an upgade, can you play video games on it?

[Maxxarcade]

Servers like this don't have video card slots, but if it did, you can bet I would have some fun with it first :-)

[genmac1]

lol i would too

[DatKirbyGuy]

Looks like it's going to be a monster! How much of an improvement do you expect to get with this setup compared to your current setup?

Your new video format is great too. The HD version of this video is super clear!