How to build a terabyte file server for $500

by Jordan Running Mar 28th 2006

I've been through three motherboards in the last four years, but somehow the whole time I've been on the same old 80GB hard drive. I've thought many times about upgrading my storage, and Information Week's Fred Langa's guide to building a complete terabyte file server for under $500 puts a bit of a twinkle in my eye. What would I do with 1TB of storage? Probably hold entire seasons of my favorite TV shows ripped from their DVDs, keep all of my favorite games installed at the same time, and stop worrying about how much space my photos are taking up. Langa's guide is comprehensive down to the last detail, from choosing your drives, motherboard, and case, to configuring the OS (he picks Puppy Linux but discusses over Windows as well), and there's plenty of photos, too. Highly recommended reading if you're feeling the drive space crunch.

Tags: howto, nas, storage

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Troy Gates said 12:49PM on 3-28-2006

I have a similiar system that I built years ago using an old PIII system. I have 4 x 120GB drives and a floppy drive. I use NASLite which runs from a floppy disk. You can find NASLite here http://www.serverelements.com/naslite.php

DeepKeeper said 1:05PM on 3-28-2006

Heh)

I have 480 + 960 GB, which costed me additional $100*2 + $175*4 (cause prices in Russia are higher...) :)

and I need more space... any idea?

Fabulo said 2:24PM on 3-28-2006

- No SATA.
- $500 does not buy you windows, which he is running.
- No name HD with only 6 month warranty for $81, when you can get a 3 year warranty SATA drive for $85 (b4 shipping) from Newegg.com
- $500 does not include shipping/handling
- How about backup, redundancy, protection? How about RAID? You have 4 HD but you have no CD/DVD?
- The OS is installed on one of the 4 drives. Eeek.
- The worst thing is the last screenshot, all those drives sliced in tiny partitions of 48GB. Ewwwwie! http://www.informationweek.com/1082/langa26.jhtml

This article falls in the "close but no cigar" category.

Adora said 2:47PM on 3-29-2006

I have to agree with Fabulo's points, but the article does kinda lean towards the author using a $500 price mark to prove a point. I've been considering building a similar box as a house movie dump, so the post is definitely inspiring.

:: Lisa
:: adora [at] techslut [.] net

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