Turn Inspiron 530 (Desktop) into server

[cclloyd9785]

Turn Desktop into server

Is it possible to take my old Insipiron 530 desktop, and turn it into a server?

If so, what kind of hardware do I need, and what are the recommended specs for streaming video, and copying 1-25GB files? I want specs, not products please.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

The Inspiron 530 is a good starting point for a home server. More powerful, actually in terms of processor and ram than pre-made home servers [like HP's MediaSmart for example].

I am going to assume you will be streaming HD video. The most vital pieces would be storage space and your NIC. whatever's onboard in that tower may do alright but I would want to go gigabit via pci-e, personally.

An hour of 1080p video is roughly 2-4GB based on the encoding. My copy of Transformers in 1080P is 7GB with 5.1 AC3 audio at 2 hours 23 minutes. I usually take that as an extreme when I calculate how many hours I can store. So for this purpose I figure 50mb per minute or 6.25mb per second including audio.

I would go with at least 1TB for storage and a 2nd drive of a smaller size for the operating system. OR two 1TB in a mirrored raid.

Again, I stress gigabit ethernet if it is possible for the rest of your setup because of the wider throughput capability for streaming.

When streaming a video from a source over the network, unless the source is transcoding it for the recipient, you don't really need to worry about the processor's performance. When I am streaming my movies from my laptop to my console, they don't need to be transcoded so the console can just play them as if they were stored locally on it.

10/100 vs 10/100/1000

The on-paper max of gigabit is 990mbps. Cut that by 8 and you get 124MB per second max of pipe to play with. With megabit (10/100) you have (100mbps / 8) - ~10% overhead for a total of 11mb of pipe. In my experiences, I have be able to transfer at roughly 7-8MB per second on my 10/100 network here where I live. So if you plan on multitasking with that server, gigabit wins.

In regards to ram, 2-4GB is sufficient. It's DDR2 is so cheap you might as well max it out.

It's late and I feel I've jumbled around a lot with my information, but I hope I've given you a starting point.

If you have more questions, please ask!

Thanks!

 

[cclloyd9785]

Yea so far I planned on getting a 1x PCIe 10/100/1000 LAN card, and replaced the hard drive thats in it, with 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD for norton ghost, and 2 1.5TB seagates for movies and whatever else we want.

And am i correct in saying that I need to buy a server CPU to replace my old one? If so is this a good one? Newegg.com - Intel Xeon E3110 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Yea so far I planned on getting a 1x PCIe 10/100/1000 LAN card, and replaced the hard drive thats in it, with 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD for norton ghost, and 2 1.5TB seagates for movies and whatever else we want.

And am i correct in saying that I need to buy a server CPU to replace my old one? If so is this a good one? Newegg.com - Intel Xeon E3110 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

You can if you feel so compelled to. The Xeons are beastly in comparison the the Pentium E2220 that's in your machine now and will DEFINITELY give you a crazy-ass leg up in terms of the server's ability to handle requests from client machines.

But, unless you plan on running a web server off of it as well [Apache, PHP, MySQL, etc, etc] You may not need it. I would give it a run like you have it now and see if it's performing fast enough before you add it in.

 

[cclloyd9785]

Ok and one more question. I went on Microsoft.com, and when I went to buy Windows Home Server, on newegg.com there was only a x32 option. Is the 3.25GB of RAM enough?

And my last question. Can I use it to either install Norton Ghost on it, or tell Norton Ghost to back up to it?

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Ok and one more question. I went on Microsoft.com, and when I went to buy Windows Home Server, on newegg.com there was only a x32 option. Is the 3.25GB of RAM enough?

And my last question. Can I use it to either install Norton Ghost on it, or tell Norton Ghost to back up to it?

Yes and Yes.

You should be fine with 3.25 gb of ram. There is also a version of WHS in the works [now in public beta, I believe] that is has a 64-bit flavor. Wanna Peek at the Next Version of Windows Home Server? Check out the new public beta for Windows Home Server, Code Name ?Vail? - Windows Home Server Blog - The Windows Blog

You cannot install Ghost ON the current version of WHS [upcoming I am uncertain of] but you can install it on your client machines and have it back up to the server.

If you didn't want to install ghost ON the clients you can use just the disc and create an image to send to the WHS provided you use Ghost to create custom Symantec Recvoery Disc with the lan drivers for the computer in question.

Make sense? I have a hangover so I apologize if it doesn't.

 

[cclloyd9785]

Ok that is good enough. As long as I can put the backups on the server and restore from it.

 

[acurasd]

THIS IS MY SERVER COMPUTER. IT IS STRONG BUT NOTHING FANCY WITH THE VIDEO CARD.
JUST SOMETHING STAND ALONE. THE RAM IS THE THING THAT I STRESSED ON.

EVERYTHING IN MY HOUSE IS GIGABYTE ROUTED SO IT RUNS PRETTY FAST AND EFFICIENT.

SiSoftware Sandra
Computer
Model : HP-Pavilion NP192AA-ABA p6140f
Workgroup : WORKGROUP
Host Name : AcuraServer-PC
User : Administrator
Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz
Speed : 2.33GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 4x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 2x 2MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
Computer
Mainboard : PEGATRON CORPORATION Benicia
BIOS : AMI 5.39 05/06/2009
Bus(es) : ISA X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3
Chipset
Model : HP P35/G33/G31 Processor to I/O Controller
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 333MHz (1.33GHz)
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3
Shared Memory : 8MB
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 400MHz (800MHz)
Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Samsung M3 78T5663QZ3-CF7 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-6-6-18 3-24-6-3)
Memory Module : Samsung M3 78T5663QZ3-CF7 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-6-6-18 3-24-6-3)
Memory Module : Samsung M3 78T5663QZ3-CF7 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-6-6-18 3-24-6-3)
Memory Module : Samsung M3 78T5663QZ3-CF7 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-6-6-18 3-24-6-3)
Video System
Video Adapter : Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family (8 SP 400MHz, 8MB DDR2, Integrated Graphics)
Graphics Processor
Storage Devices
WDC WD10EADS-65L5B1 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 932GB (C (D
Generic-Compact Flash (USB) : N/A (F
Generic-SM/xD-Picture (USB) : N/A (G
Generic-SD/MMC (USB) : N/A (H
Generic-MS/MS-Pro (USB) : N/A (I
WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 (1TB, USB/SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 932GB (J
Seagate ST3320820AS (320GB, USB/SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 8MB Cache) : 298GB (K
HP Officejet 6500 E (USB) : N/A (L
HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH40L (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (E
Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C : 918GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD10EADS-65L5B1 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache)
My Book (J : 931GB (FAT32) @ WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 (1TB, USB/SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache)
Kevin.Ballsd1 (K : 298GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST3320820AS (320GB, USB/SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 8MB Cache)
FACTORY_IMAGE (D : 14GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD10EADS-65L5B1 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache)
Removable Drive (L : N/A @ HP Officejet 6500 E (USB)
Optical Drive (E : N/A @ HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH40L (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : HP (ICH9) LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : Asus F8000
Audio Device : HP (ICH9) HD Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semiconductor 888 High Definition Audio
Disk Controller : HP ICH8R (ICH8) SATA RAID Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : HP FW322/323 IEEE1394 OHCI FireWire Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus
Printers and Faxes
Printer : Amyuni Document Converter 300 (2400x2400, Parallel, Colour)
Printer : HP Officejet 6500 E709n Series fax (200x200, USB, Colour)
Printer : HP Officejet 6500 E709n Series (1200x1200, USB, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Printer : Brother HL-2170W (1200x1200)
Scanners and Cameras
Scanner : Hewlett-Packard Officejet 6500 E709n (Scanner, 4800x4800, USB)
Peripherals
Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.20) (Ethernet, 1Gbps)
Network Adapter : TeamViewer VPN Adapter
Network Adapter : Gbridge Virtual Private Network Adapter (Ethernet, 1Mbps)
Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line
Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7600
Platform Compliance : x64

 

[cclloyd9785]

Ok. So it runs fast for you. But all the computers in my house will be using 802.11b/g wifi, or 10/100 LAN. Will it still run as fast as yours with only a 2 GHz 2 core CPU, and half the memory?

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Ok. So it runs fast for you. But all the computers in my house will be using 802.11b/g wifi, or 10/100 LAN. Will it still run as fast as yours with only a 2 GHz 2 core CPU, and half the memory?

I think you'll be fine. In your case, I would probably stagger the ghost backups on different days [like mon,tues,wed,etc] but still on a pattern since you only have 10/100 lan and b/g wifi so your network does not get congested too often. If you made the switch to gigabit you could probably do them all at once.

What Acruasd has is a tower straight off the shelf [even down to the ram; the 8GB Samsung chips come standard in the p6140f for $699 USD I believe]

I did a large transfer via 10/100 a while back of around 60gb and I remember it taking somewhere in the ballpark of a couple hours. Remember this is just MY experience, yours might be better.

 

[acurasd]

Ok. So it runs fast for you. But all the computers in my house will be using 802.11b/g wifi, or 10/100 LAN. Will it still run as fast as yours with only a 2 GHz 2 core CPU, and half the memory?

I think you'll be fine. In your case, I would probably stagger the ghost backups on different days [like mon,tues,wed,etc] but still on a pattern since you only have 10/100 lan and b/g wifi so your network does not get congested too often. If you made the switch to gigabit you could probably do them all at once.

What Acruasd has is a tower straight off the shelf [even down to the ram; the 8GB Samsung chips come standard in the p6140f for $699 USD I believe]


I did a large transfer via 10/100 a while back of around 60gb and I remember it taking somewhere in the ballpark of a couple hours. Remember this is just MY experience, yours might be better.

yeah I didnt change a thing in the computer.
It really is just how you set the computer up.

If course the main thing that i did first was get all the crap that comes with an HP computer and took off the computer and made sure that everything was up to date.

I turned off the system restore becuase that thing is as useful as my ex wife's vacume cleaner.

The main thing you want to do is get a very good back up program. You could use umm synctoy if you like and set it up to sync during the mid nights during when you sleep so it doesn't bother you or something like Norton Ghost which will comepress it into a file. Good thing with Norton Ghost, it has its own Boot Loader to restore a whole computer back to default on the last save. But you will be paying money off the shelf for that program.

I have a few programs that start up with the computer:
1. PS3 Media Server
2. iTunes
3. Steam Power
4. IIS
5. Gbridge

Other than that, everything is pretty much standard.

Also since I am the main user. I put everything into the MAIN ADMIN account.

LIke the elevated command prompt:

net user administrator /active:yes

admin account

lets face it, unless your working with domain... i steer clear of permissions. I have one password for everything and if i am logged into the computer with this password on any computer. I have full access and the network knows that.



For my Network:

I have TWO:
Linksys EG005W
Switch

• Gigabit desktop networking for up to 5 devices. Speeds up to 1000 Mbps
• Auto-sensing ports automatically optimize for each connected device
• Automated error correction technology

My Router is the:
Linksys WRT160NL
Wireless-N Router



Then everything in my house is running CAT5e cable.

One you got the hardware... then its just tweaking the software the way you want.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

So it's safe to say you've got some great starting info here!

Let us know how things go, bro!

 

[acurasd]

This is a LAN Test of a 100 Meg file on a GIGABYTE network.

This is not going through any router. Just switches.

The firewalls are software base.

 

[cclloyd9785]

Ok ill let you guys know how it turns out.

Final specs are going to be:

3 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDDs 7200 RPM
Add a PCI-E 10/100/1000 lan card
Since there is only 2 SATA, im adding one with a PCI-E card
Intel xeon 3.00 GHz
Am going to wait for Vail to come out as the OS

Clients:
10/100 LAN or b/g wifi.
5400 RPM drives (cept one)
All Windows 7 x64 (cent one vista x32)
Xbox 360
Samsung LED TV

 

[acurasd]

Like I said... You are going to want to elevate all the accounts on the computers or you will have alot of needless sharing permissions especially for a home user.

If you have been working on one account and you have alot of stuff on that account, you can make the admin account and copy the profile over.