2010-07-06, 09:06
Hi all,
Sorry for this post - it may have been covered here, there are certainly many posts about people building there own servers, but I couldn't find an answer to my question.
I now have an XBMC setup I am very happy with (touch wood), and am turning my thoughts to building my own back-end dedicated server. I use to run WHS on a small form factor PC with a couple of drives in it, but now I am reaching the limit of HDD space I think I am best to build something from scratch.
I want to build something that will cope with the demands of storing videos, music, photos, install sets, etc for many years to come, so to me this means lots of hard drives. This is not a question on software, but more on hardware.
How do you build a machine that can handle say 8 or more drives? What do I need to look for, and what are the catches or pitfalls I should be wary of? Its the mundane physical things I am unsure about here - in the past (around 3 years ago now) when I built my last PC I remember that the MOBO I used could only handle a maximum of 4 SATA drives, and the power supply had a limited number of SATA power connectors as well. So do you need special equipment built to work with a large number of drives, or are the "expansion" modules you can get that allow you to add additional capacity to the system?
Any pitfalls with MOBO, CPU, powersupply, etc that I should be careful of? Cases also I would assume need to be really large to handle a large number of drives. Any recommendations? Any software issues I should be aware of?
Many thanks for any advice.
Sorry for this post - it may have been covered here, there are certainly many posts about people building there own servers, but I couldn't find an answer to my question.
I now have an XBMC setup I am very happy with (touch wood), and am turning my thoughts to building my own back-end dedicated server. I use to run WHS on a small form factor PC with a couple of drives in it, but now I am reaching the limit of HDD space I think I am best to build something from scratch.
I want to build something that will cope with the demands of storing videos, music, photos, install sets, etc for many years to come, so to me this means lots of hard drives. This is not a question on software, but more on hardware.
How do you build a machine that can handle say 8 or more drives? What do I need to look for, and what are the catches or pitfalls I should be wary of? Its the mundane physical things I am unsure about here - in the past (around 3 years ago now) when I built my last PC I remember that the MOBO I used could only handle a maximum of 4 SATA drives, and the power supply had a limited number of SATA power connectors as well. So do you need special equipment built to work with a large number of drives, or are the "expansion" modules you can get that allow you to add additional capacity to the system?
Any pitfalls with MOBO, CPU, powersupply, etc that I should be careful of? Cases also I would assume need to be really large to handle a large number of drives. Any recommendations? Any software issues I should be aware of?
Many thanks for any advice.