Advice On Home Server

Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
server hardware help

I want to put together a home server soon but do NOT know how to go about it.

What is the cheapest hardware/ base unit I can get that uses relatively less power?
Also as I run all three OSs, what would be the best SERVER OS?

Any advice would be very greatfully received.
sir_jct
 
OP
S
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I want to put together a home server soon but do NOT know how to go about it.

What is the cheapest hardware/ base unit I can get that uses relatively less power?
Also as I run all three OSs, what would be the best SERVER OS?

Any advice would be very greatfully received.
sir_jct
 
Joined
Dec 23, 2007
Messages
847
Reaction score
20
Points
18
Location
Claremont, Ca
Your Mac's Specs
iPod Nano 4gb, 20" 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of ram, ATI HD 2600 pro
You need to decide on what type of server you want, as in print server, file server or web server. Then that would decide what type of hardware you should be looking into, as in 10,000 rpm hard drives or go for massive storage space. Your not going to see much in as in low power usage because of two factors A) hardware and B) the amount of time the server will be on.

As for OS I would suggest either Window server 2k8 or your choice of linux server as centOS or red hat etc.

A little bit on hardware, I would suggest running an intel based server, with a touch of ram and a raid hard drive setup that backups the first drive. I would say a raid level 5 should do great with your home server. You would also need to decided on either a rack mount or tower server, the tower would work better for a home.

Remember you make the server with the software and home network is what defines what your server is, your computers will be easily be able to connect to your server with the right setups.
 
Joined
May 15, 2009
Messages
1,096
Reaction score
8
Points
38
Your Mac's Specs
White MacBook. iLife '09. iWork '09. Mac OS X 10.6
As I understand it, Leopard server is fairly easy to set up, I'd go with that.
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
Note: Merged duplicate threads.
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
25
Reaction score
2
Points
3
For an inexpensive server, I would get a good used Mac or Intel desktop. These are cheap. If you are skeptical about used equipment, get the cheapest desktop you can find. A fast processor and lots of memory are not priorities for a server as they are for a workstation (laptop).

The speed of a server is usually bottle necked at the network and not the disk i/o or memory or CPU speed.

In choosing server ask yourself how you will use it. You can always add hard drives are your needs demand through USB ports for example.

If what you want is to store and share files as the servers sole function, then you can get a network drive array, such as the Buffalo network storage devices. There are many brands of these things. Different sizes and prices

Also, you can add hard drive(s) to some routers that have USB ports for that purpose.

If you want a web server, you will need a computer.

As far as the operating system, I high recommend Linux, especially Ubuntu. Ubuntu Server is the same as Ubuntu Desktop with out the GUI. And there is a very good online forum / discussion group for help. Ubuntu will run on a Mac G4 (PowerPC). It is what I use.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top