Home Server / Network / WiFi Setup

[ethan.redstone]

Hello everyone.

Just to preface this, I have little to no experience in this field, and am looking for any RELEVANT advice that anyone can provide!

I am looking to build a (cheap) Server PC, that I can store files on, that I can access files from, on other machines (other PC's).

Being a streamer, I have a lot of video files, clips, etc. I am looking to be able to transfer these from different network locations (I think that's it?), and be able to access them from different computers.

I am also looking to use wired connection on most things. I believe I need a router, network switch, and a few other things for this. I want to be able to transfer files quickly from computer to computer, and once again, provide wired, fast internet speed on devices.

I am looking to ALSO build a network / server rack (part of the whole network / server setup), so could anyone recommend some equipment I could use for this, and what things I would need to complete this.

I appreciate any comments, but please be helpful - don't give me any sarcastic answers.

 

[failboat]

Xeon E3s w/gpu with ECC ram are good and inexpensive. 3.5'' low power hdds with ssd cache. How cheap are we talking? You can get away with non-ecc if you restart it every other week, but the stuff made for ecc is more reliable in general and comes with 2+ NICs.

I personally like using proxmox. It's very easy to use and deploy some vms. I use turnkey file server, pfsense, and zfs for my router/firewall and NAS requirements.

What's the distance from where the server would be and your computers that need fast connections.
10Gbs point-to-point is actually very cheap <$120. The drives won't be in order to hit those speeds. Getting a wire between them can be the issue.

 

[bill001g]

Unless you happen to have a old computer laying around it is likely just simpler and cheaper to buy a NAS device. Your other option is to just put more disk drives in one of your current machines and share those drives.

There really is little advantage to using a actual server unless you need some other functionality beyond simple file sharing.

 

[failboat]

Be careful with old server equipment. The prices look good, but they have lots of downsides.

power consumption - 100-250W
size/noise - huge and loud, designed to be in dust filtered rooms, 1U and 2U fans are very loud

You can find some aftermarket cases for ATX/mATX with dust filters and 4U size which helps with size/noise issues.

an old dell r710 with 2 Xseries cpus may have 24 threads but its multithread is probably around the same speed as a new i7 and it's single won't even touch it. The r710 will pull 250W+ compared to 70W from an i7.

 

[ethan.redstone]

Unless you happen to have a old computer laying around it is likely just simpler and cheaper to buy a NAS device. Your other option is to just put more disk drives in one of your current machines and share those drives.

There really is little advantage to using a actual server unless you need some other functionality beyond simple file sharing.

This is going to sound like a very beginner response. But is there a way to setup a NAS, and in File Explorer, there is a "Network Locations" tab, with network locations under it, is there anyway to set up a NAS / Server PC and have the folders showing there?

Also, how would I go about this, do I need an Ethernet Card or any special software?

 

[ethan.redstone]

Be careful with old server equipment. The prices look good, but they have lots of downsides.

power consumption - 100-250W
size/noise - huge and loud, designed to be in dust filtered rooms, 1U and 2U fans are very loud

You can find some aftermarket cases for ATX/mATX with dust filters and 4U size which helps with size/noise issues.

an old dell r710 with 2 Xseries cpus may have 24 threads but its multithread is probably around the same speed as a new i7 and it's single won't even touch it. The r710 will pull 250W+ compared to 70W from an i7.

Many thanks for the response. Like bill001g said, is it easier to setup like a network location?

This might also NOT work whatsoever, but is there any possibility of having a secondary PC, for livestreaming, whilst also using it to store files, and access them under the 'network location' tab?

https://gyazo.com/68bab0b39356bb65fa737c561d1a0003 - Screenshot of the 'Network Location' tab, if you're wondering what the hell i'm talking about.

 

[failboat]

Be careful with old server equipment. The prices look good, but they have lots of downsides.

power consumption - 100-250W
size/noise - huge and loud, designed to be in dust filtered rooms, 1U and 2U fans are very loud

You can find some aftermarket cases for ATX/mATX with dust filters and 4U size which helps with size/noise issues.

an old dell r710 with 2 Xseries cpus may have 24 threads but its multithread is probably around the same speed as a new i7 and it's single won't even touch it. The r710 will pull 250W+ compared to 70W from an i7.

Many thanks for the response. Like bill001g said, is it easier to setup like a network location?

This might also NOT work whatsoever, but is there any possibility of having a secondary PC, for livestreaming, whilst also using it to store files, and access them under the 'network location' tab?

https://gyazo.com/68bab0b39356bb65fa737c561d1a0003 - Screenshot of the 'Network Location' tab, if you're wondering what the hell i'm talking about.

Yes, depending on how the program works. If it's hardware based it's fairly complicated to passthrough a PCIE device to a VM. It the software can connect via the network then it won't know if it's a VM or not. A Xeon E3 can handle multiple VMs. If the encoding is cpu based it would work well with a properly sized cpu. If it's gpu based then it would need PCIE passthrough likely.

A dedicated windows install might be best if it's not purely cpu based and that's the main feature you want.

 

[ethan.redstone]

Be careful with old server equipment. The prices look good, but they have lots of downsides.

power consumption - 100-250W
size/noise - huge and loud, designed to be in dust filtered rooms, 1U and 2U fans are very loud

You can find some aftermarket cases for ATX/mATX with dust filters and 4U size which helps with size/noise issues.

an old dell r710 with 2 Xseries cpus may have 24 threads but its multithread is probably around the same speed as a new i7 and it's single won't even touch it. The r710 will pull 250W+ compared to 70W from an i7.

Many thanks for the response. Like bill001g said, is it easier to setup like a network location?

This might also NOT work whatsoever, but is there any possibility of having a secondary PC, for livestreaming, whilst also using it to store files, and access them under the 'network location' tab?

https://gyazo.com/68bab0b39356bb65fa737c561d1a0003 - Screenshot of the 'Network Location' tab, if you're wondering what the hell i'm talking about.

Yes, depending on how the program works. If it's hardware based it's fairly complicated to passthrough a PCIE device to a VM. It the software can connect via the network then it won't know if it's a VM or not. A Xeon E3 can handle multiple VMs. If the encoding is cpu based it would work well with a properly sized cpu. If it's gpu based then it would need PCIE passthrough likely.

Alright, thanks. How might I find out about settings up this folder that I can access across computers in 'Network Locations', is there a program or something? If so, is there a program that runs while I could use the computer to also run OBS to live stream?

Thank you for your support!

 

[failboat]

Be careful with old server equipment. The prices look good, but they have lots of downsides.

power consumption - 100-250W
size/noise - huge and loud, designed to be in dust filtered rooms, 1U and 2U fans are very loud

You can find some aftermarket cases for ATX/mATX with dust filters and 4U size which helps with size/noise issues.

an old dell r710 with 2 Xseries cpus may have 24 threads but its multithread is probably around the same speed as a new i7 and it's single won't even touch it. The r710 will pull 250W+ compared to 70W from an i7.

Many thanks for the response. Like bill001g said, is it easier to setup like a network location?

This might also NOT work whatsoever, but is there any possibility of having a secondary PC, for livestreaming, whilst also using it to store files, and access them under the 'network location' tab?

https://gyazo.com/68bab0b39356bb65fa737c561d1a0003 - Screenshot of the 'Network Location' tab, if you're wondering what the hell i'm talking about.

Yes, depending on how the program works. If it's hardware based it's fairly complicated to passthrough a PCIE device to a VM. It the software can connect via the network then it won't know if it's a VM or not. A Xeon E3 can handle multiple VMs. If the encoding is cpu based it would work well with a properly sized cpu. If it's gpu based then it would need PCIE passthrough likely.

Alright, thanks. How might I find out about settings up this folder that I can access across computers in 'Network Locations', is there a program or something? If so, is there a program that runs while I could use the computer to also run OBS to live stream?

Thank you for your support!

You can probably find a guide for the ideal budget streaming computer. If you don't need many features besides that then it's likely going to be the best for you. A VM box will allow you to do nearly anything, but it's not always simple. Getting network shares up is pretty easy. It's different based on where the drives are stored.

On the network if your router is 1Gbs already and you don't need more ports, just use that. If you need more ports an unmanaged 1Gbs switch will work.

 

[ethan.redstone]

Be careful with old server equipment. The prices look good, but they have lots of downsides.

power consumption - 100-250W
size/noise - huge and loud, designed to be in dust filtered rooms, 1U and 2U fans are very loud

You can find some aftermarket cases for ATX/mATX with dust filters and 4U size which helps with size/noise issues.

an old dell r710 with 2 Xseries cpus may have 24 threads but its multithread is probably around the same speed as a new i7 and it's single won't even touch it. The r710 will pull 250W+ compared to 70W from an i7.

Many thanks for the response. Like bill001g said, is it easier to setup like a network location?

This might also NOT work whatsoever, but is there any possibility of having a secondary PC, for livestreaming, whilst also using it to store files, and access them under the 'network location' tab?

https://gyazo.com/68bab0b39356bb65fa737c561d1a0003 - Screenshot of the 'Network Location' tab, if you're wondering what the hell i'm talking about.

Yes, depending on how the program works. If it's hardware based it's fairly complicated to passthrough a PCIE device to a VM. It the software can connect via the network then it won't know if it's a VM or not. A Xeon E3 can handle multiple VMs. If the encoding is cpu based it would work well with a properly sized cpu. If it's gpu based then it would need PCIE passthrough likely.

Alright, thanks. How might I find out about settings up this folder that I can access across computers in 'Network Locations', is there a program or something? If so, is there a program that runs while I could use the computer to also run OBS to live stream?

Thank you for your support!

You can probably find a guide for the ideal budget streaming computer. If you don't need many features besides that then it's likely going to be the best for you. A VM box will allow you to do nearly anything, but it's not always simple. Getting network shares up is pretty easy. It's different based on where the drives are stored.

On the network if your router is 1Gbs already and you don't need more ports, just use that. If you need more ports an unmanaged 1Gbs switch will work.

So effectively to sum up, you're saying to:

- Build a budget streaming computer (what I had in mind) - decent components, not overkill.
- Setup 'network shares' which will allow me to access the hard drives from my 'streaming computer' on my main computer
- Get an unmanaged switch, to allow all my devices to run ethernet connection.

Do I need some sort of PCI / PCIE card in my 'streaming computer' to be able to access the drives from it, on different devices?

 

[failboat]

OBS for a single stream doesn't use a lot of cpu. Have you tried getting it going on your current gaming pc? If you don't have a lot of latency there may not be a need to buy more equipment.

 

[ethan.redstone]

OBS for a single stream doesn't use a lot of cpu. Have you tried getting it going on your current gaming pc? If you don't have a lot of latency there may not be a need to buy more equipment.

Streaming from my current PC decreases my FPS by a significant margin, and with a 144Hz monitor, I can't afford to lose FPS like that. Also, I experience some screen tearing when streaming. I think my best option is to build a budget streaming pc, with a decent processor that I can stream off (which will give me optimum FPS, and cause my components to stay cool)

 

[failboat]

OBS for a single stream doesn't use a lot of cpu. Have you tried getting it going on your current gaming pc? If you don't have a lot of latency there may not be a need to buy more equipment.

Streaming from my current PC decreases my FPS by a significant margin, and with a 144Hz monitor, I can't afford to lose FPS like that. Also, I experience some screen tearing when streaming. I think my best option is to build a budget streaming pc, with a decent processor that I can stream off (which will give me optimum FPS, and cause my components to stay cool)

Getting the wires in is the hard part of 1Gbs networking. If you don't need any of the features that the expensive software has then you don't really need anything special. For wires stay away from CCA and put riser rated stuff in the walls. Check to see if the wire is POE rated if you plan on using a POE wireless AP.