Moving from NAS to PC Server - Parts check

[Trey22]

Have a LG N1A1 1TB NAS, and looking to move to a 2TB Win 8 Media Server. 2TB is more than enough space for all my media and backups. Just wanted to see if there were better parts for my use:

1. Use.

- Media server to share docs/pics/vids with 1 Win 7 laptop and 1 MAC laptop. Streaming (mostly mkv's) to DLNA LG Blu Ray player.

Backup Win & MAC laptops.

2. Budget.

- $500, but flexible.

3. Country.

- US online stores.

4. No brand preference.
5. Existing parts - Mouse, keyboard, LCD, speakers, Win 8 Pro 64-bit.
6. Default speeds.
7. Resolution - N/A, will be headless server.
8. When - now


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COOLER MASTER RC-120A-KKN1 (Mini-ITX) $49.99

ASUS P8H61-I R2.0 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX $85.99

CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE $39.99

Intel Pentium G630T Sandy Bridge 2.3GHz LGA 1155 35W Dual-Core $74.99

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR120GB 2.5 120GB SATA III $89.99

G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 $33.99

2 x Western Digital WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5 $79.99x2

[Ken g6]

Case: OK.

Mobo: I'd get a B75 for $5 more. It can use more recent processors, and it has a USB 3.0 header that can attach to your case's front panel.

PSU: Argh, too much power. But it's hard to find good low-power PSUs. Probably just step down to the CX430. Or get a different case with a low-power PSU built in.

CPU: You have no cooling issues in that case. Just get any cheap LGA1155 CPU.

SSD : Hm. You don't really need high performance here. I'm tempted to point you to a $60AP Crucial V4, but their (Phison) controller reliability is unknown. If you want a good, fast SSD, you could get a Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 for about $100. But I tend to think that, since you can have three disks in your case, you ought to just use a spinning disk.

RAM: Fine.

HDDs: You want 2TB? Why not get one 2TB disk? Get a second if you need/want more space. Or upgrade your MOBO and RAID-1 two of them. RAID is not a backup, but a RAIDed backup can't hurt, right?

[wirednuts]

i dont know if this interests you, but im moving to a modular raspberry pi server. basically, it will be a cluster of pi's all doing their own chores. need your server to do a new task? just add a pi.

extremely low power, very robust in case one pi goes down its not your whole server tanking, and easy to recover in case of crash (at worst, just swap in a new sd card)

[mfenn]

Originally Posted by wirednuts

i dont know if this interests you, but im moving to a modular raspberry pi server. basically, it will be a cluster of pi's all doing their own chores. need your server to do a new task? just add a pi.

extremely low power, very robust in case one pi goes down its not your whole server tanking, and easy to recover in case of crash (at worst, just swap in a new sd card)

Also a hell of a lot more complicated.

<--- Administers computer clusters all day long at work

[mfenn]

Originally Posted by Ken g6

Case: OK.

Mobo: I'd get a B75 for $5 more. It can use more recent processors, and it has a USB 3.0 header that can attach to your case's front panel.

PSU: Argh, too much power. But it's hard to find good low-power PSUs. Probably just step down to the CX430. Or get a different case with a low-power PSU built in.

CPU: You have no cooling issues in that case. Just get any cheap LGA1155 CPU.

SSD : Hm. You don't really need high performance here. I'm tempted to point you to a $60AP Crucial V4, but their (Phison) controller reliability is unknown. If you want a good, fast SSD, you could get a Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 for about $100. But I tend to think that, since you can have three disks in your case, you ought to just use a spinning disk.

RAM: Fine.

HDDs: You want 2TB? Why not get one 2TB disk? Get a second if you need/want more space. Or upgrade your MOBO and RAID-1 two of them. RAID is not a backup, but a RAIDed backup can't hurt, right?

Agree.

Also, you can cut the price of Windows completely out of your budget if you go with something like FreeNAS. It supports pretty much ever file sharing protocol out there and can do DLNA.