home server options

[Nic H]

hi there

 

im not very technically minded and iv got to the point where i need to set up a small server at home. i have access to a decent farm at work but that is often busy and i cant always use it!

 

connected to the server (at the moment) will be my i7 workstation, plus a dual 8 core xeon render node. i want it to be somewhat future proof

 

i had thought an i5 cpu, 8 gb ram, and 2 x 3tb harddrives (in a RAID 5 configuration?) plus an extra 3TB storage drive. would a 500w PSU be OK? all connected together by a 8 port switch.

 

my library would be on the server box along side my project files, also running backburner manager.

 

i use fusion, 3dsmax and premiere generally and work with a lot of video (i have a extra local SSD on my i7 for live edit material however)

 

does anyone with any knowledge of this kind of thing have any comments or suggestions. a smallish footprint is somewhat important (thus the dual xenon over a 3-4 box i7 array)

[Dimitris Tolios]

An i3 will most likely be more than enough.

So would a 400-450W PSU (even if it was an i7 with 3-4 drives).

RAID 5 requires a minimum of 3x drives committed in the array.

With just 2x identical drives you can do RAID 1 (mirror).

[Nic H]

ah ok thanks a lot Dimitris for your input - I didnt realise (stupidly) that I would need 3 drives for RAID 5...

 

Would it OK performance wise without a RAID solution?

Otherwise I guess Ill do RAID 1 and a spare drive for backup.

 

Are there reliability issues with RAID 1?

[Dimitris Tolios]

Don't judge yourself so harsh.

 

Both RAID 1 than RAID 5, using modern 1-3TB drivers (both 5400rpm or 7200rpm) should be faster than what you can get from a 1GBit LAN network in real life.

In theory, the 1000 Gbit/sec / 8bit per byte give us around 125 MBytes / sec, but in my experience you won't see often more than 60-65MB/s sustained.

 

RAID 1 is "good enough" for a home server solution that won't exceed the capacity of the drives used (the single drive that is).

 

RAID 5 is valuable only if you plan on extending your library past 2 or 3TB, adding multiple drives.

In a RAID 5 array, the data are distributed to all drives, so should one fail, the user can replace it and the array will be repaired using the parity data in the rest of the disks. In its simplest form, RAID 5 with identical drives will have a size of: N-1 * single drive capacity, where N the number of drives and N>=3. So for 3x 3TB drives the RAID 5 array will give you 6TB usable, 4x drivers will give you 9GB usable etc.

[Nic H]

thanks for the explanation

 

i will bite the bullet and get this and put in a 3 x 3TB RAID 5 setup...I dont anticipate needing more than 6TB live data all the time.

Edited March 12, 2013 by nicnic

[Nic H]

having trouble getting a straight answer here - even from shops....!?

 

Will I need an extra dedicated RAID card to run RAID 5 with 3 x 3TB drives as a server for my projects and libraries (with the win7 O.S on a 64gb SSD)

 

Do I even need RAID for what Im doing?

[John Dollus]

Personally, I feel RAID5 is overkill for a home setup if you have a good backup/archiving schedule.

If you have 2 rendering systems (for now), I'd recommend you look at Deadline as your queue manager instead of backburner.

Deadline is free for 2 rendernodes.

You can certainly get a motherboard that supports RAID5 onboard but I'd suggest getting a separate controller if you do go that route

[Nic H]

john thanks for the reply

my budget is moving that way as well - i did think it might be total overkill when i found out yesterday out work server isnt 'raided' at all.