Building a small home server.

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by adinunzio10, Mar 22, 2012.

  1. adinunzio10

    adinunzio10 MDL Novice

    Mar 16, 2012
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    Hey, So i am building a small home sever to centralize everything at our house (3 iPhones, 2 iPads, 3 Laptops, Ps3)
    Nothing too serious so don't need to spend a lot of money on it. I have an old Dell Dimension 4500 that still works and thought about using that to run it. The only problem is it has no hard drive/memory/graphics card. So i was going to look for some cheap replacements off newegg. Is all this worth the trouble or Am i better off buying one or building one my self?

    I have built quite a few computers and am quite experienced in the area. Not only doing this for the sake of our house having a server,but as a learning experience as the business I work for is starting to think on having me build set up and manage a server for them in the near future.

    So just want some user input and suggestions about what you guys think i am best off doing.

    I was also most likely going to run a linux distro on it.

    Any advice would be great!
    Thanks
    Alfredo
     
  2. SOCRATE_MMXII

    SOCRATE_MMXII MDL Expert

    Jan 25, 2012
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    If you want to run a linux distro on it, I suggest to use KANOTIX. You can run it as a live-DVD and configure it as you like and if you want, you can install it on HDD.
    Good luck, and keep us up to date with your project. ;)
     
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  3. adinunzio10

    adinunzio10 MDL Novice

    Mar 16, 2012
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    Good to know, i was hearing Kubuntu was also good for linux distro networking. The most experience i have with linux is Ubuntu/Linux Mint. And another Distro that took me half a week just to get the kernel going >_< But was worth knowledge and experience! which is what it's all about.
     
  4. redroad

    redroad MDL Guru

    Dec 2, 2011
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  5. adinunzio10

    adinunzio10 MDL Novice

    Mar 16, 2012
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    Sorry for taking a week to respond was on vacation, and thank you for the response!
    For the house all i do want is a cheap lil thing just to help central storage/backup along with sharing our devices, and just getting our network to run more smoothly.And of course as a learning experience for when I do buy a server for my work.

    So this is what i want out of a server

    Home -
    File Sharing / Centralized Storage/backup / device sharing / Also hope to install a media center for my parents to watch movies and shows I get them easier. (I have a box with the capability) Also for now plan to run my personal business website off it instead of a hosting company. and what ever other cool features a small home server will bring me.

    Work -
    We are willing to pay more for this. I have my eyes on a server from microcenter for about 2000, with a 3.4 ghz processor, 8 gigs of ram, and 2tbs of hard drive space. But Still looking all over and want to know what exactly it is we would even need.

    This server I plan to have to do all the same things as the home server minus the streaming. We have 4computers/4users right now, more to come in the future. We are currently have godaddy for our email/web hosting and rackspace/jungle disk for our filestorage (cloud) Would like to replace all that with this dedicated server. Also to allow them to share files within each other and other clients with ease. Also the ability to control all there computers from my computer as an admin would make it easier for me at work or not at work to manage and fix any issues that might come up at work. (Easier then using a VNC with less lag and latency)

    Let me know if that is enough information in order to help.

    Thanks,
    Alfredo