File server recommedations

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greggpb

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My file Server is finally giving up the ghost... keeps overheating and shuttting down...

Spec
1.3 celeron with 512meg ram and 2X 500gb sata HDD


Looking for recommened spec's for a new one..

probally need a new box / powersuple/ ram/processor + 2 more hdd for the new one what would you guys ercommed around budget mobo's that handle lots of drives
 
was running win2k3 server in the past... probally stick with it.. box doesn't do anything but server files and backups
 
You don't need a beast, what I would do is get a nice entry level machine, preferably one that has hardware RAID. Depending on the level of redundancy you need set up either RAID5 or if you need the performance and have the budget, RAID10.

On the OS I would get a copy of Ubuntu and to the 'file server install' or get any other flavour of Linux and set up Samba on it. It is really simple to configure and is nice and stable.

If you want the REALLY simple option, just buy a RAID NAS which is in essence a file server which can be accessed via a browser to fine tune all your settings. It is pretty much plug and play, offers redundancy, simplicity and is very cost effective.

I would try and stay away from Windows as a file server as it will get costly having to buy licenses for all the machines connecting to it.
 
This is the NAS device I would recommend
DLINK DNS-323

Here are some of the features which it has:
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Port
USB Print Server Port
Built-In Fan Included
Two Hard Drive Bays for 3.5" SATA Hard Drives of Any Capacity
Simplified Hard Drive Installation Process - No Tools Required
Four Hard Drive Configurations: Standard, JBOD (Linear), RAID 0, and RAID 1
High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Connectivity (Up to 23/15MBps or 184/120Mbps Read/Write)
Built-in FTP Server for File Access from Over the Internet
Scheduled Downloads from Web or FTP Sites
Full or Incremental Backups
Real Time Backups With the Included Backup Software
Users and Groups Can Be Assigned to Folders with Read or Read/Write Permissions
Quotas For Users and Groups
Automatic E-Mail Notifications
Scandisk and Defragment Utilities
Power Management for Conserving Energy and Extending Hard Drive Life
UPnP AV Server for Streaming Music, Photos, and Video to Compatible Media Players
iTunes Software will be able to automatically find and play music directly from the DNS-323
Built-in USB Print Server for printing from any PC on the Network
D-Link Easy Search Utility
Configurable by Web Browser
 
I can recommend the above, have it at 2 clients, and works like a charm!
Individual accounts, logons, torrent client, daily backups, and ftp downloads is quite cool.

You're looking at about R2000 excluding drives...

Definitely something to investigate.
 
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