Hello, I'm setting up a server to LAN host UT3 and L4D2, and for file sharing between friends that come over, and other computers that are part of our house's 'network'. So I have an 80GB VelociRaptor that I'm not using anymore and I'm just wondering if there's any real benefit of using it over a standard 7200RPM HDD in terms of dedicated gaming server (the file server will be on a 7200). I'm gunna set it up on Windows Vista Home x64 (only license I have free atm) and I figure it should out perform the 7200? The other specs in the system are: Pentium D 840 (3.2) 4GB DDR2 667RAM So with those in mind, would I be bottlenecking the performance of the Raptor? Thanks
hmm.. if it's just a 'b.s.' server with nothing of consequence on it, just use whatever is laying around. Otherwise, get 2 drives of common size (1tb), and mirror them. That way you will have some reliability. -scheherazade
You could just use something like robocopy. Simply schedule a regular timed event in control panel to run the clone, to keep the second disk auto-cloned. You don't need to actually raid to have redundancy. -scheherazade
Use whatever you have. I run my home server in a virtual machine. However, I'm not a fan of Windows servers as they have a GUI which adds more security problems, and adds more performance over head. I'd just run your server as a Linux box and both UT3 and L4D2 have Linux versions for servers. You also save your license for other better uses too. deltatux
Your not going to bottle neck your Raptor, if that is all you need space wise, than go for it. Having said that, if you need more space and durability, the Samsung F3 or WD Black Drives are hard to beat for the price.
Unfortunately I don't know anything about Linux. I have tried Ubuntu a few times and it's not that difficult to pick up. That being said I've got my Vista box all setup now, and things are moving along well-enough ... So maybe in the future when I have some more time I'll dig into Linux. Would you recommend the Ubuntu server? The Robocopy feature I'm just starting to learn/implement, so that and some weird disconnect issues on the L4D2 portion are my tasks this evening!
windows can make software raid1. No need to be supported. Altho if you make it you can only have one OS and maybe only works with windows?
It can do software RAID 0 as well. In Vista it used to be a bad idea but in 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate it's safe and sound.
Yep, Ubuntu Server is a great server distribution. I use it a lot for school work, it beats Fedora for sure. Linux isn't that hard to learn if you take the time to learn and read the documentation. Knowing Linux (or other UNIX) is a good thing to know since they're literally everywhere from cell phones to routers to computers. Heck, my router runs DD-WRT which is a router firmware running a Linux kernel. deltatux
