jonpeck.blogspot.com — Step-by-step directions on how to quickly and easily configure a cheap Dell GX150 into a fully functional headless file server using LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) with Samba for accessible network shares, phpMyAdmin for MySQL administration, and TorrentFlux for BitTorrent transfers.
Nov 19, 2006 View in Crawl 4
rarkaiNov 19, 2006
I've been using a 100gb hdd with an athlon thunderbird for 5 years..... (p4 wasnt out when the t-bird was)The bios and file system are the only thing that matters, not the processor
nessupNov 19, 2006
A "file server" and a regular "server" are two different things.
h4lofourt33nNov 19, 2006
If you need a cheap PC for something like this, you should check out a site I posted awhile back called Retro Box. www.retrobox.com, huge selection and it seems like you'd get a better deal then this guy.
rogersmjNov 19, 2006
My file server is a 500MHz P-III with an Asus mobo from the same era, and I have 6 drives totalling 1.6TB in it (400, 300, 300, 250, 250, 160). The best use of really old equipment is to make it a home file server, because you don't need much horsepower, and you don't have to worry about it not working with large hard drives as several of us have said. That's pretty lame to discount this article because of that. Do your research.
lilrabbit129Nov 19, 2006
I think that problem is closer to P1-P2. I have 733mhz P3 that ran a 100GB HD. I do remember that it had issues using lilo, but grub worked fine. File serving can easily be done on something like a 500mhz P3, at that point you run up against the bandwith issues of your network faster than your processor (on a 10/100Mbs network, Gigabit might be a different story). Personally I'm running a small file/web server off a 1.3Ghz Tbird with 384MB of ram and its running like a champ.
aximbigfanNov 20, 2006
lol... i can get a dell gx240 for $50, with a 2.2ghz p4, preoaded with 128mb of ram and a highspeed cdrw drive... even better psecs for $30 less....
pauljaroszewskiNov 20, 2006
using this tutorial, would i be able to access my server from anywhere in the world and download mp3 files/etc ? how does that work...do i just enter domain name/ visit my site and then put a login/pw into the interface? go easy, im a noob to this, thanks.
madivadJan 6, 2007
I followed the 15 minute install when I did my installation for a file/web server and although a very good and detailed procedure, I think this is just as good because it details the procedure followed by someone else to achieve a slightly different end. And 45 minutes is not bad by any standard when considering the headless install, extra xomponents and whatever else. Good work.
madivadJan 6, 2007
Headless does invoke some savings and I admit he seems to only want to include the server to save him having to leave his main PC on all the time. But by the same token, I too have several PC's running at home, with various tasks being conducted by each PC. It obviously chews MORE power, but that's not my main concern. My file server is restricted from the internet (both in and outbound), my download box is restricted from my file server, my main PC is for me to use and not any other apps that would be better served elsewhere. What I mean to say is, I find having other PC's doing the more mundane tasks, it free's my main PC for doing what I want to do and with little CPU usage getting in the way, ie, the CPU usage of torrent downloads (inc hard drive activity), file servers, web servers, mail servers (which works overtime due to spam attacks) and the like.
kiwirussMay 23, 2007
I use FreeNAS. its got most of this already and runs of a CF card