Windows 7: New Build Spec For Back Up's only

I want to build a system which is just for backing up work from my laptop.

I don't want to use the PC for anything else other than backing up my work to, and then using this machine to then upload all files to online storage.

I am thinking that the only thing this PC should be strong on is SATA ports on the mobo i.e. the mobo should have as many as possible for any HDD's that need to be installed.

Would it therefore be alright to use a pretty basic cpu, and not to have to max out the RAM, and would it also be okay to just rely on the onboard video for a machine for this purpose.

Regards AF

You won't need more than about 1GB of RAM for a basic file server. Onboard video would be just great.

The only hesitation I have with this, is you need to also backup your server because if your house burns down, or somebody breaks in, they could steal the laptop and the server both or both could be destroyed and you would be left with nothing.

The machine I am going to be building is then also going to be used to upload files to online storage.

I do agree it would be very silly of me to go through all that trouble only to not use off site backup.

Also do you know whether Dell online back up is any good? I am currently using sugar sinc which seems fine, but was wondering about Dells version, or are all these online backups more or less the same?

I don't use any online backups as my uploads are too limited to make it effective. I just keep some external hard drives offsite and rotate them through and sync them regularly with my server shares.

Probably an Atom based machine with 2 2TB drives in Raid 1 would be fine for your needs.
How much DATA do you think you will need to backup in the next 24 months?

It isn't going to be a great deal, but I was thinking about maybe 3* 2TB HDD's. One for a direct daily backup from my laptop, one to do weekly backups of the daily backups, and one to do monthly backups of the weekly backup. 2TB is way more than I will need, but it will mean I can keep everything I back up as it will always be handy to keep hold of, and it will also mean that I should not exceed my my back up limits.

Regarding RAID though, I have heard that it is very unstable and you are prone to losing data as a result so was just planning on having 3 separate HDD's set up as I said above.

I just picked up one of these recently and so far it's great!! 4 drive bays + if you decide not to put in a CD/DVD drive you can put a 5th up top for your OS, and use your 4 for a nice RAID or JBOD if you wanted.

I need a file server that will allow me to upload any files to online storage, what you have there unfortunatly wont allow me to do that, although it would be much cheaper.

Why would that not allow you to do what you want? It's a raw hardware platform fully ready for any operating system and storage setup that you choose to throw at it. I don't understand.

How much data are you talking about? Do you have an online provider that you really really trust with your data?