Home Server - Advice/OS

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by BLEH!, May 8, 2013.

  1. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    6,402
    Likes Received:
    421
    GPU:
    Sapphire Fury
    Hey Guru's.

    I'm (trying to) rigging up a home server/NAS/torrent box from spare bits I have lying around. Figured I'd get your opinions/experience before I go ahead and set this thing up. Hardware side:

    P4HT 2.8 GHz (800 MHz FSB) w/Zalman CNPS cooler (Al and Cu one)
    1 GB Hi-Speed (500 MHz, CAS2) DDR RAM
    Intel D875PBZ mobo (gigabit ethernet onboard)
    GeForce MX400
    400 W Antec PSU
    Old gaming case w/4 x Sharkoon golf ball fans
    80 GB IDE boot drive
    2 x 1TB SATA HDDs (RAID 1)

    Just wandering the best course of action with regards to OS to use, given my main rig is 7 ultimate, and i've had nought but issues trying to get XP and 7 to communicate/share drives in the past. If there's an easy way to use XP for a home server, that's no issue, but I have no spare copies of 7 left, other than that, i guess i'd be looking at linux.

    Suggestions please!

    Thanks

    BLEH!
     
  2. deltatux

    deltatux Guest

    Messages:
    19,040
    Likes Received:
    13
    GPU:
    GIGABYTE Radeon R9 280
    I would install CentOS, Debian, FreeBSD, OpenSUSE, or Ubuntu Server as the server OS. Personally, Linux (or FreeBSD) is always the way to go for servers unless you need Microsoft-specific applications). I would do Debian since you get the apt-get repository which is probably the easiest to do and doesn't require constant upgrading like Ubuntu to catch up to its release cycle.

    All you need is a Linux torrent client, there are tons, some of them even give you a web interface, and you need Samba installed so that you can access it as a normal Windows share.

    deltatux
     
  3. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    6,402
    Likes Received:
    421
    GPU:
    Sapphire Fury
    Cool, thanks delta. I've been wary of Ubuntu ever since the newest one due to the requirement for PAE, pretty much nerfing it's ability to run on older hardware. I'll give Debian a go assuming it's not the same.
     
  4. deltatux

    deltatux Guest

    Messages:
    19,040
    Likes Received:
    13
    GPU:
    GIGABYTE Radeon R9 280
    PAE is only required if you need more than 4GB of RAM and using the 32-bit version. PAE is otherwise not used.

    Ubuntu is just a heavily modified Debian lol. I've ran Ubuntu on non-PAE systems just fine lol.
    http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/how-to-install-ubuntu-1210-on-non-pae.html

    deltatux
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2013

  5. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    6,402
    Likes Received:
    421
    GPU:
    Sapphire Fury
    Oh good. I'll find out shortly. It's nearly finished DLing, my internet is damned slow.
     
  6. deltatux

    deltatux Guest

    Messages:
    19,040
    Likes Received:
    13
    GPU:
    GIGABYTE Radeon R9 280
    If you're going Debian, just stick with it lol. I'm right now investigating if kfreebsd is a good alternative to Ubuntu Server which I have running for my home server lol.

    deltatux
     
  7. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    6,402
    Likes Received:
    421
    GPU:
    Sapphire Fury
    It's hanging on "detect network hardware" on the installation. No idea why. LAN chip is enabled in the bios and the light is on if I plug a cable in to my switch. Doing it connected and not connected to the network.
     
  8. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    6,402
    Likes Received:
    421
    GPU:
    Sapphire Fury
    OK so my old demo version of Win7 goes on fine... Linux just hangs, no matter which one I try...
     
  9. deltatux

    deltatux Guest

    Messages:
    19,040
    Likes Received:
    13
    GPU:
    GIGABYTE Radeon R9 280
    Last edited: May 9, 2013
  10. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    6,402
    Likes Received:
    421
    GPU:
    Sapphire Fury
    Problem solved: add-in wifi card was screwing things up, working better now :D
     

  11. sverek

    sverek Guest

    Messages:
    6,069
    Likes Received:
    2,975
    GPU:
    NOVIDIA -0.5GB
    if you didn't do it already, use Putty on your main machine and just SSH to your server.
    That how my home server looks like btw.
    No need for monitor, gpu, keyboard and other nonsense. All I need is net cable :p
    for the log, I have it in case now.
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11068560/P1010033.JPG
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2013
  12. deltatux

    deltatux Guest

    Messages:
    19,040
    Likes Received:
    13
    GPU:
    GIGABYTE Radeon R9 280
    I think most people do this lol. I know I do. Thought technically I still have a screen for it since my home server is a VM running on top of my HTPC which is connected to my TV lol.

    Which WiFi card did you have?

    deltatux
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2013
  13. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    6,402
    Likes Received:
    421
    GPU:
    Sapphire Fury
    The chip says RTL8185L. It's one I grabbed from a working machine at work, where it worked, but seemingly not here. Worked fine with Win7, somehow.
     

Share This Page