Question on hardware/server purchase

[Jonas]

Edit; maybe this fit the wrong section - feel free to move the topic :S

Hi all

I have some hardware leftovers, and I thought of making some kind of server experiment, and learning some about setting up a server. I can't make up my mind about how to do, think I settled with the budget version with learning.
My main requirements are simply learning how servers work and if possible have a file/FTP/ streaming server running at home(pushing music to my mobile phone /HTC hero). With a slim budget and with what items I already have.

So I thought of upgrading my 'main' system (in sign) and make use of that as a server. Thinking of keeping the graphics card and make those other bits and pieces to a home server (note just for fun and learning). Do the hardware in the sign make a server?

I have a intel dual-quad processor as leftover, so I thought I use that for my new main system(and keep budget) so I need a motherboard socket intel 775 and some pricey yet fairly good ddr3 1333 rom

For motherboard I thought of this Asus P5P41T LE http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=489410 (in swedish) Socket 775 and ddr3

so the 2 machines are;

Main system;

• Intel Duo-Quad socket 775 (-dont know much more as I got it from a friend who motherboard broke down)
• Asus P5P41T LE- to be bought
• memory DDR3 - to be bought
• any harddrive ~500ish GB- to be bought
• Asus Geforce 9600GT Matrix
  

Server system;

• ASUS M2N -MX SE
• AMD 64 X2
• 2x1 GB RAM - DDR2
• 2 Harddrives ~1 TB (?) in Raid - to be bought
• Radeon 1950 Pro (- do I need a graphics card?)

I have a old samsung 250 GB sata HD that (for budget) I'd like to keep,, would this go better or worse with the server system or not? Neither system will have to 'perform' (crashing is acceptable)

For the HDDs on the server; how important is there to have 1 or 2 HDDs in raid in a "experimental learning" server system compared to budget. Budget is slim - 2500 sek /395 USD /283 Euro

Aims with the project
1. Learn (- if none of the below, thenlearning satisfy my needs)
2. Push music streaming or downloading to mobile phone (should be possible with Android)
3. #2 or Run music and movies thru XMBC or likewise a TV at home

As you can notice I'm a complete newbie on servers and such, thinking about running ubuntu server as I know K/ubuntu. Any other suggestions? - (newbie) links to setting up a server to meet my demands are very welcome

Many howto's that I have found feel technically advanced (to me), so sorry if this is the 'general question' on servers :S

Best Regards
jonas

[oshunluvr]

Re: Question on hardware/server purchase

No expert here but I have setup and use my own home server.

Quick notes on my setup: 8 or so computers and other devices regularly access my home server through my network. My server holds 6TB of storage media, hosts two printers, scanner, fax, a voip device, handles torrent downloads, streams hi-def video and audio and photos to windows, apple, linux and other output devices, holds backups, and that's about it. The server has no keyboard, mouse, or monitor and therefore no desktop installed at all. This helps keep workload off of the CPU and prevents desktop based problems from happening. I access all functions via browser based utilities or ssh.

I use a Mini-ITX Atom N330 with 2gb RAM for this. Bottle-necks are always and issue so I use hard drives with better than average specs, disk formats designed for the use of the partition, dual gigabit ethernet ports using aggregation (aka bonding) and a gigabit switch that supports jumbo frames. All this makes up for the relatively "soft" cpu.

How much "power" you need really depends on the workload and uses you're planning. For example, torrent downloads aren't very cpu intensive. Transcoding video is. I remotely access the server and use it to download torrent files but transcode on my desktop (see sig below for specs). Printer access is relatively rare in a home environment but if my wife wants to print a recipe, she doesn't have to worry if my desktop is down or not as the server is always up. In a "green" sense, the lightweight CPU and lack of monitor helps keep the power consumption to a minimum.

What you're looking for is the Ubuntu Server Edition install CD and a LAMP walk-through to get started. Everything else is easy.

Post back what you're looking to do and we'll help you through it.

[sithlord48]

Re: Question on hardware/server purchase

here is how used to set up my server, maybe it might help you
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...1969.msg171088

now i mainly start w/ the server version of ubuntu and use ssh to admin the machine. like oshunluvr my server also has a print server and runs without kbd/mouse or monitor. your server will not need a new video card.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Question on hardware/server purchase

I have several servers at home. My main one is a 1GHz something or other (I honestly don't care) with 512MB of ram. For http, ftp, and music recording, it is more than adequate - at last it's faster than the net. It takes a little reading to set up virtual domains for apache, but apart from that, after you stick in a Ubuntu Server CD you should have a working system in 20 minutes. I suggest you try this first so you get the feel for it.

After you enable wakeonlan in the BIOS (if you want that) and set it to not stop on errors, then you can take out the video card and use it in something else. After setup, there is really no practical use for a console since telnet/ssh is preferable anyway. Once you're up, you can stick the box in the basement, closet, attic, or wherever, and just forget about it's location.