thefinalrune
New member
Intro
As a kid I loved Dreamcicles. I don't know if anyone else enjoyed them, but they're these orange popcicles with a vanilla ice cream middle. My grandfather was the first person to ever offer me one. They made lovely summer snacks for a hot day.
That aside, it is the dreamcicle that I've chosen as a sort of inspiration on what I want to accomplish with my next build project. I need to move data off my ridiculous array of external and internal HDDs attached to my home PC that serves as the media server for the rest of the devices in the home. So, I'm planning to build my own handmade wooden PC case to serve as a new NAS Media Server.
I actually meager out a small living repairing and maintaining PCs for my small rural town and my eventual hope is to get into making custom built handmade cases and PCs as a business model. But, as my experience with case building is currently zero, figured best to start some projects of my own instead of trying to market them from the start.
What I'm looking to create is essentially a piece of furniture that's also the housing for my media server. I found this image on google that comes fairly close to the idea I'm going for. Only I plan to have cleaner looking lines and a more modern look to the finish.
Rig Specifications
Its here that things fall apart for me, LOL.
Reading the reviews for various HDDs I'm honestly a bit out of my element. I know the home model basic bargin-bin parts and I know the fun high end stuff, but what I'm completely new to is the idea of long term storage with more or less constant read use for the foreseeable future of any drive I use.
From what I understand, NAS drives outlast standard drives, and enterprise goes a step beyond NAS. What I really need is someone to explain like I'm five and help me weigh out the options to maximize both reliability and performance while hopefully minimizing cost.
This media server will house everything my family enjoys. Our movie and TV show collections, music files, images and our ebooks.
As a child of dial-up I love having a home server over streaming. As a rural ISP customer, having a server is practically a necessity as Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll and the like crawl on our connections. During a typical day data gets streamed from 2-3 drives anywhere from 2 to 18 hours a day (depending on the current show obsession my family falls into).
Without a doubt I want to have an integrated backup system but I don't know exactly what RAID would suit me best. I read over Matt Hunter's RAID for Rookies but I still don't quite understand RAID 5 or what its strengths are over RAID 0+1 (which is what I plan on using atm).
My questions so far...
1.) Can RAID 0 arrays be partitioned as separate drives like a standard HDD?
2.) How do I run/access a linux controlled media server (not sure which distro yet) from a windows device?
3.) Any and all recommendations for HDDs. Bluer or greener the better. I want longevity and reliability over speed.
4.) Any and all recommendations for other components. Aside from streaming 1080p videos the performance demands will be minimal, but the server will need a responsive system that can handle multiple demands simultaneously. System will be hardlined directly into our home network, but I'd like to be able to manage it remotely from any device that can attach to it.
5.) What security concerns do I need to take beyond simple wi-fi encryption and router passwords? Since these drives contain my digital files for everything entertainment that's not gaming I don't want to accidentally create some snooper's smorgasbord of material to spread about the web.
6.) Sounds and vibrations suck. I really want to make this as quiet as possible. Its meant to look like an artistic piece of furniture, not a whirring box of vibrating drives and fan motors. What can I do to best limit noise when building with wood?
-TFR
As a kid I loved Dreamcicles. I don't know if anyone else enjoyed them, but they're these orange popcicles with a vanilla ice cream middle. My grandfather was the first person to ever offer me one. They made lovely summer snacks for a hot day.
That aside, it is the dreamcicle that I've chosen as a sort of inspiration on what I want to accomplish with my next build project. I need to move data off my ridiculous array of external and internal HDDs attached to my home PC that serves as the media server for the rest of the devices in the home. So, I'm planning to build my own handmade wooden PC case to serve as a new NAS Media Server.
I actually meager out a small living repairing and maintaining PCs for my small rural town and my eventual hope is to get into making custom built handmade cases and PCs as a business model. But, as my experience with case building is currently zero, figured best to start some projects of my own instead of trying to market them from the start.
What I'm looking to create is essentially a piece of furniture that's also the housing for my media server. I found this image on google that comes fairly close to the idea I'm going for. Only I plan to have cleaner looking lines and a more modern look to the finish.
Rig Specifications
Its here that things fall apart for me, LOL.
Reading the reviews for various HDDs I'm honestly a bit out of my element. I know the home model basic bargin-bin parts and I know the fun high end stuff, but what I'm completely new to is the idea of long term storage with more or less constant read use for the foreseeable future of any drive I use.
From what I understand, NAS drives outlast standard drives, and enterprise goes a step beyond NAS. What I really need is someone to explain like I'm five and help me weigh out the options to maximize both reliability and performance while hopefully minimizing cost.
This media server will house everything my family enjoys. Our movie and TV show collections, music files, images and our ebooks.
As a child of dial-up I love having a home server over streaming. As a rural ISP customer, having a server is practically a necessity as Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll and the like crawl on our connections. During a typical day data gets streamed from 2-3 drives anywhere from 2 to 18 hours a day (depending on the current show obsession my family falls into).
Without a doubt I want to have an integrated backup system but I don't know exactly what RAID would suit me best. I read over Matt Hunter's RAID for Rookies but I still don't quite understand RAID 5 or what its strengths are over RAID 0+1 (which is what I plan on using atm).
My questions so far...
1.) Can RAID 0 arrays be partitioned as separate drives like a standard HDD?
2.) How do I run/access a linux controlled media server (not sure which distro yet) from a windows device?
3.) Any and all recommendations for HDDs. Bluer or greener the better. I want longevity and reliability over speed.
4.) Any and all recommendations for other components. Aside from streaming 1080p videos the performance demands will be minimal, but the server will need a responsive system that can handle multiple demands simultaneously. System will be hardlined directly into our home network, but I'd like to be able to manage it remotely from any device that can attach to it.
5.) What security concerns do I need to take beyond simple wi-fi encryption and router passwords? Since these drives contain my digital files for everything entertainment that's not gaming I don't want to accidentally create some snooper's smorgasbord of material to spread about the web.
6.) Sounds and vibrations suck. I really want to make this as quiet as possible. Its meant to look like an artistic piece of furniture, not a whirring box of vibrating drives and fan motors. What can I do to best limit noise when building with wood?
-TFR
