Inside my file server (October 2008)

[Fincut81]

Are the front-handles and rackmount-angles removable??

[Maxxarcade]

@Fincut81 I think so, but I can't remember for sure. I think this case is still sold at Newegg, maybe you could look it up. It's a 4U-500.

[TheGenesisfreak]

What do You use this for?

[Maxxarcade]

@TheGenesisfreak Backing up all the computers in the house, and media storage.

[TheInternetWanderer]

At 1:40 - "one point thirteen"? Sorry, that's not correct. It is in fact "one point one three", the correct way to express a decimal number.

[TheGenesisfreak]

@TheInternetWanderer lol wut

[TheInternetWanderer]

@TheGenesisfreak - Obviously, it would take too long to explain it and I can’t draw pictures.

[TableWolfMusic]

Nice case! And great use of DVD drive & floppy drive for nas lite 2. Would also be great on old motherboards which don't not have sata, thereby saving a whole load of IRQ bandwidth for further expansion cards such as Audio cards for realtime audio effects processing & signal encoding. That's something one cannot do with a off-the-shelf NAS solution.

Thanks for uploading this great video.

[ThePCgamer1989]

how did you manage to connect up that amount of hard drives? did you use up the IDE slots, then add some Sata drives too?

[Maxxarcade]

@ThePCgamer1989 Using an 8 port 3Ware 7500-8 RAID card.

The server I am using now actually has 16 drives, using a pair of 7506-8 cards. I may dismantle it soon to build something with SATA though.

[ThePCgamer1989]

@Maxxarcade yeah ive found some ide raid cards on ebay to enable me to conenct more hard drives, but with a raid card, do you need to have the drives setup in a raid setup? i would like to buy a raid card just to allow me to connect more drives, with no raid setup

[Maxxarcade]

@ThePCgamer1989 The 3Ware cards can run in JBOD (non-raid) mode. Not sure why you would want to do that though, unless all your drives are different sizes and speeds.

[ThePCgamer1989]

@Maxxarcade yepp thats exactly why mate, just stickin loads of random size hdd in there, im not fussed about any raid setup, just want something to store my stuff on over a secured server in my home, so me n my wife can access it.. it wont b on 24/7 so no need for raid incase of drive failure

[Maxxarcade]

@ThePCgamer1989 BTW, if you get a 3Ware 7500-8, they can work in a standard 32 bit PCI slot. They go really cheap on Ebay these days.

What OS are you going to use?

[ThePCgamer1989]

@Maxxarcade im going to be using ubuntu gutsy gibbon mate.

that 3Ware 7500-8 thing, allows me to just add more drives without raid?

thanks for your help

[ThePCgamer1989]

@Maxxarcade im going to be using ubuntu gutsy gibbon os mate, is that any good for it?

[MrTpengineer]

Btw if you do go sata don't use a controller on that board, I found out they kill chip sets :(

[Maxxarcade]

@MrTpengineer I no longer have this system... I should probably make a note in the description :-)

[MrTpengineer]

@Maxxarcade Oh ok.

[MrTpengineer]

Are thoes pentium 3's special? Because the Xeon p3's don't go that high I think, I hyad one that maxed out and about 1,100 mhz.

[Cameron9242008]

@NightWolfEditing....Windows XP for a server? Not that is ballsy.

[NightWolfEditing]

Hmmm... I dont see how this is any better than my server: 2.54 GHZ Celeron CPU, (This is a dell dimension B110 or 8110), Windows XP home, 80 GB boot drive, 2 TB external storage drive, Intel 10/100 Mbps NIC (for LAN activity), D-Link 10/100 PCI NIC (for internet activity). So how is this better? Im really confused. :S

[Maxxarcade]

@NightWolfEditing Umm, when did I say it was better? LOL. And this video is like 3 years old now. I'm running a totally different system now.

[NightWolfEditing]

@Maxxarcade Your new one like is even better than my gaming PC. lol

[xBruce88x]

do you still have that dual socket 370 board layin around? awesome build with it btw.

[Maxxarcade]

@xBruce88x I gave it away some time ago. My new server is a dual Xeon.

[HackerinyourPC2008]

a raid 0 for Backups >.<

[Maxxarcade]

@HackerinyourPC2008 This is old... I'm now using RAID 5.

[andyskater94]

I'm really curious. What operating system are you running to do a file server? And are you using special software or just windows networking?

[Maxxarcade]

@andyskater94 It runs on NASLite-2, which I have installed on a 32MB Compact Flash card.

[DimmeDriver]

Those barracudas let me down...

[Maxxarcade]

@DimmeDriver I hear ya. I had to replace one last June. The 2 Western Digital drives that were the oldest in the system (almost 6 years now) are still running 24/7 to this day.

This is my old server. I moved these drives into a much larger enclosure with a big dual Xeon board some times ago.

[DimmeDriver]

@Maxxarcade I have a 250Mb WD from the 90s, it still runs today.

[jp96815]

Download a file server

[DreiHundertftw]

Love this system

[Maxxarcade]

@DreiHundertftw Heh, this is my old one... The one I use now has 16 drives and 2 dual core CPU's :-)

[lazyinaz]

killer use of older parts

[JewFro9197]

Hey dude nice server :D I have that same motherboard, love it!!! Pentium 3's are awesome for servers.I don't have that many hard drives though xD

[MichaelKhanTV]

I'm currently waiting for this case to come in the mail! I bought it just to put it on my rackmount for my studio. Looks like mine's going to be very empty compared to this. Though how does the power button work, since it's a switch? and are the stock fans somewhat loud?

[Maxxarcade]

@MichaelKhanTV Sorry for the late reply, I was gone on vacation. Have you received the case yet? The power switch is a momentary rocker switch that works the same as a button.

Only thing I can't figure out with this case, is what kind of motherboard would use the Fan Fail LED. It has an odd connector.

[MichaelKhanTV]

@Maxxarcade Yes I have recieved it. And yeah I left the Fan Fail LED out actually as well...

[hansnielsen1989]

what is called hard drive with ide?

[produKtNZ]

R5 performance is?

[produKtNZ]

@produKtNZ Still waiting...

[MrPcmaker]

wait server like you host and people pay you?

[Maxxarcade]

No, this just operates on my local network, basically like a big external hard drive for all computers in the house to share.

[HelmetVanga]

no mention of topologies here? how are the stations if any connected to this server ?

[Maxxarcade]

It uses standard Gigabit LAN. No need for a local monitor/keyboard.

[haz939]

that 8 port raid card must have cost a bit. Can you run 2 hdds from 1 port like on most IDE setups or is it just one?

[Maxxarcade]

One drive per port, which allows for much higher performance.

They can be found pretty cheap on Ebay actually.

[Thepaddster]

can you find a link? not sure if there more common in the US but i cant find any bigger than 3 port at all if i find any, Willing to pay highish shipping too

[Omellykim]

nice tits i mean....heat sink ya heat sinks and hard drives

[Captnuendo]

Hey! i could do that with SCSI raid. I got a dual xeon @ 2.8Ghz . HP Proliant m370G3 im happy with it (it's super loud!) and yes PCI-X is neat.

[produKtNZ]

Those pci-X slots run at 266 mhz :D, they're like a double data rate (ddr) pci slot :D

And i have a similar machine, but a Intel STL2 mobo with 2x 1.3 ghz cpu's and 6 hdd's on a Sata raid card (Adaptec 2610SA)

On top of all that, it live's in my closet with the door shut most of the time :D - and it's still going :)

Shame i wouldn't be able to do that with Xeon 3.6ghz server cpu's :(

[dongiea]

Why are you keeping your backups on a RAID 0

[defendant420]

What an evil machine, looks like it's got enough space that if you take the red pill your sucked inside that sucker

[crazyrocker1989]

wicked file server man iv always wanted an awesome comp like that

[dave5708]

Nice vid mate, looks like some solid hardware. Like the choice of PIII's even though NASLite advises the chip PIV, but the amount of power PIV's use is crazy in comparison. I use 2 seperate 2.5 GHz PIV file servers, and you can really see their effect on the electric bills =S I'd like the same storage as you have, but cant afford new drives, both my file servers are made from old salvaged parts =] 10 8.4 Gb IDE's in one, 12 6.2Gb IDE's in the other =] Still, does the job =]

[Maxxarcade]

I am actually getting ready to upgrade this system to a 16 bay hot swap case and a dual core Opteron 170 system. I'll still be using the same drives, just adding some more with a second RAID card. NASLite should really fly on it :-)

[zundapp70ccflaka]

Great info!!

I'm planning to do the same, also in a codegen 19" chasssi. Alot of disc space but only 500mm deep.

Do you think Asus is the choice for me too?

[lawnside82]

damn that thing is sweet!!

[moosjawskachywan]

That thing ain't no joke...

2 years constant uptime...you mean it's never been turned off the whole time?

[thfmadmax]

Why the hell do you use raid0 for backup?

[Maxxarcade]

To get the most speed and space from the 2 drives I had available at the time. It is not a mission critical backup, it is only used for convenience. Anything really important, I keep multiple backups with various media.

[ghelyar]

I agree with this comment. Raid 0 for backup is just silly. It's like backing up to a hard drive and then putting that drive in an alligator cage.

If you use mirrors, you don't need multiple backups.If the files aren't important then don't back them up at all.

Dual socket seems a bit overkill for NAS too even though the CPUs aren't great individually.

Other than that, nice :)

[AMDkicksass]

02:57 thats asus quality for you

[Maxxarcade]

Asus did have some great boards, especially server boards, but I mainly use Gigabyte for desktops these days.

[AMDkicksass]

gigabyte is pretty good i used to think they were a cheapo mainboard company untill i owned one and all i can say is their great mainboards but i think whoever developes their mainboards have a capacitor fetish mine had almost 50 capacitors lol

[weasel2htm]

NASLite, I may need to look into that. For fun I might have to make a video of my ghetto file server, but not until next week.

[Silverwolfstarz]

how much ram you run in it

[Maxxarcade]

2 gigs of PC133, ECC registered.

[Silverwolfstarz]

2gigs SDRam ECC front side bus 133

wow that pretty good