Building server for a friend

[Influencer]

A friend of mine was visiting recently and I told him about my setup. He is currently running everything through one PC, using it for watching movies, storage, ripping, the whole nine yards. Since his case is so small he only uses external drives via USB, and has 6-7 external harddrives lined up across the top of his desk.

 

After seeing I have twice the storage neatly tucked away in a single case out of sight, he decided he MUST have this.

 

I'm not 100% sure on what to purchase for him, so I'm asking here,

 

Here are his wants/needs:

Nice looking. He actually wanted a LCD but I think I talked him out of that. I have been meaning to try and setup lcdproc but I don't want to get into that on his build.

 

Hold atleast 10 harddrives, preferably more. I'm thinking somewhere around 15.

Stable

Can stream full 1080p without a hiccup

Run Plex and be able to transcode since he's out of town a lot.

Quiet, right now he's living in a smallish house, he'll be building a house next near but for now noise is an issue.

 

I was thinking an I3, but the budget he gave me will require some cuts somewhere.

 

He wants it done for around $500, and I have to move quick on this as he is taking vacation in 2 weeks and after that will be out of town for quite a while.

 

He is decent with computers but isn't the most tech savvy person, so I need a very stable build or I'll be on the phone with him every day helping him through stuff. I'm already planning on installing openvpn so I can connect to his server to do anything maintenance wise.

 

It would be nice to have hotswap bays for ease, but its not a must, and with $500 I think it will not happen. I was looking at the Zalman MS-1000 HS2, with that case I could install his current harddrives in the 5.25 bays internally and leave the 6 hotswap bays for him to be able to add drives easily.

[batt01]

You can lake a look at my rig for a sub $500 system.

I went for the TriCore AMD to be able to support several Plex transcodes at once.

Case: Nexus Prominent 9 $99.95[

http://www.amazon.com/Nexus-Prominent-9/dp/B0057JAJT6/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355805472&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=promient+9

Motherboard: ASRock - 880GM-LE $59.95

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157292&Tpk=880GM-LEHot Swap Bay: Norco SS-500 (5 Bays) 89.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133030&Tpk=norco%20ss-500

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 455 - 3.3 GHz $69.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103911&Tpk=Athlon%20II%20X3%20455http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820139463

PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 500W $59.95

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027Cost: 409.95

This price includes one Norco bay.

 

The Zalman is a nice case, but pricey for a box thats going to sit in the corner or in the closet. The Prominent 9 looks goods and is half the price. If you go with the Norco would will want to replace the noisy stock fan, prior to install. The rig is quiet, from six feet away you cant hear it. This is fan I replace the stock Norco with. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IG5HFW/ref=pe_259560_27313420_email_sim_1_ti

 

 

[jeff.lebowski]

Another case option is the Fractal Design Define XL. Ten 3.5" bays, plus four 5.25" bays up top. That's fifteen disks with a single 5 in 3. Or fourteen with a much lower cost 4 in 3. Downside is all disks require a power cable, unlike the 5 in 3 cages. In addition, the 3.5" bays are side mounted.

[ZeroK]

Look at Newegg's Shell shocker this morning, a nice system for $235, includes everything except a supermicro controller and the 4in3 cage.  Case supports 8 drives, plus 4 at the top with a cage, the motherboard with the supermicro controller has enough sata ports to support all 12 drives, it's an apu so video is no issue as well and should have plenty of processing power for everything he needs.  If I was building an unraid system for someone I would buy this.

[jeff.lebowski]

The biggest drawback I can see is the dual rail PSU. Other than that, smokin' deal. That case looks great.

[Influencer]

He pulled the trigger on that shocker deal. Right now he'll only be powering 4 drives, so it'll be fine with that PSU. Once he needs to add more drives we'll replace the PSU with a single rail.

 

Got the combo deal + a SuperMicro Saslp, a 4 in 3 and the forward breakout cables needed. Total after all discounts + shipping was $363, not a bad deal at all.