Upgrading: Path of least resistance?

whowantstwoknow

Hi all,

Right, firstly I've no HW experince so am here looking for advance on what is the best way to proceed. I'll explain what I have and then where I'm trying to get too.

Whats at Home
===========
1) Home Desktop: Its running on a Medion 8800; spec'ed below. Its an XP OS used mainly for internet, MS office and connecting mobiles (for upgrades etc), camcorders/cameras, CD ripping to Itunes, ie your typical workload. I just think I can be getting more out of the HW

2) HTPC: Is this kit. The main data disk has since crashed and now am looking to put in a more robust recoverable solution.

3) Old Home Desktop: Its setup is in the attached pdf. Quite old as you can see.

What I'd like
=========
As the HTPC data disk is gone I'd like to replace and make sure I can recover from in the future. So would like to setup a windows Home server for storing all my media files and being able to recover from disk failures. (house fires will be another task in the future to consider!!!).

So I think the 8800 would make a suitable WHS, but I'd really like to keep the existing XP OS (as I've quite a few 3rd SW installations). I'd really like to take the 8800 sata system disk and throw it into another rig (& repair). Can this be done? Or am I fooling myself and just re-install XP on the new rig?. So With the Old Home desktop could I either:

1) get a sata/ide adapter to connect and boot from the sata HDD? Is this possible. Would it be too underweight for the activity

2) Replace the mobo with something suitable. Any suggestions? Would I need a new PSU also? and continue with 1) above

Any advice and guidance would be very much appreciated?

Regards
W.

Medion 8800
=========
Intel Pentium D Dual core 830 processor @ 3 GHz
2 x 1 MB L2-cache, 800 MHz FSB
BTX shaped, optimized airflow, heatpipe cooling
3GB DDR2 SDRAM with 533 MHz 64-bit dual channel memory
NVIDIA GeForce 6700XL videocard with 128 MB memory (SDDR3/1100MHz)
250 GB 7200 rpm Seagate (S-ATA 150)
Dual TV function: record one channel while watching another
2 x DVB-S digital satellite TV receivers
2 x Analogue TV/cable-TV receivers
Sony 16x Dual layer multistandard DVD/CD burner
Sony 16x DVD-ROM
54Mbits WLAN
Built-in 8-in-1 USB 2.0 card reader
6 x USB 2.0 ports (2 x front, 4 x back)
2 x Firewire ports (1 x front, 1 x back)
Dolby Digital 8 channel Intel High Definition Audio
V.90 PCI data/fax/modem
Integrated 10/100 Mbit ethernet controller

whowantstwoknow

I suppose I really need to take this one step at a time, so to focus the feedback, can anybody suggest suitable part(s) to upgrade the old desktop machine with the aim to either reinstall XP from new or plugin the 8800 system disk and get it working (via a repair process?)

Thanks

W.

uberpixie

whowantstwoknow wrote: »

I suppose I really need to take this one step at a time, so to focus the feedback, can anybody suggest suitable part(s) to upgrade the old desktop machine with the aim to either reinstall XP from new or plugin the 8800 system disk and get it working (via a repair process?)

Thanks

W.

Your old, old PC is not worth upgrading......
It's a very old P3., it does have the advantage of being very low powered and wouldn't be a bad choice for a server......

1) leave your modern desktop alone and leave it as your every day pc. If you are worried about loosing the install buy some imaging software, clone the install and store the backup image elsewhere. Also your modern pc is a Pentium 4 D, this eats electricty and is not ideal to be left on all day for a server.

acronis is quite good. (it tends to throw in the kitchen sink and it does have scheduled backups as well which you might be interested in for your media etc...)
http://www.acronis.eu/homecomputing/

2) buy a fresh disk for the HTPC (very cheap to do)

3) Regarding backups you have a number of options....

a) You could try wedge in the max amout of disks into your old dell and use that and maybe aadd a sata controller addin card to lob in a few more.

Real limit is the case for the old dell.

b) you could try transfer the old parts from your old dell to a bigger case and pop in a good quaility modern power supply that will run a large number of harddrives BUT.... Old Dells have a nasty habbit of coming with non standard power connections and motherboards meaning you cannot easily use non Dell cases and powersupplys..... This is something you would need to test with sapre parts.

c) NAS box but these are/can be quite expensive, they do have the advantage of small foot print, power usuage and can be setup for RAID easily, but the good ones cost a couple of hundred euro and you need to buy harddrives on top of that, you also are limited in somes cases in that a NAS will only support harddrives up to a certain size, so future proofing is not great in some ways. But some of the fancier ones can do lots of stuff such as host websites, share out music libaries through itunes/media centre etc...

d) Build a basic pc in a standard large ATX case (ATX cases should take a mini atx mobo), get a 4 or 8 port raid controller and lob in a load of harddrives, network it up and use this for backups. Try shoot for a very low power CPU in this case. Servers don't need a huge power CPU at all, not for a home user.

Have a look on this website : http://www.mini-itx.com/

They specalise in low power ITX motherboard and CPUs (ideal for a file server), they also have a few cheap 4 bay NAS style cases as well along with server style cases you might want to have a look at as well.


EDIT:

this case witha low powered atom cpu and motherboard with x4 sata ports would be a good starting point if you wanted a small tidy box.
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=42

whowantstwoknow

Anyhow still no further with my project of making sure any future disk failures dont result in losing valuable personal content.

I've read elsewhere of people running Windows Home Server in a VM environment such as windows 2008 RC2 (with hyperV).

This idea appeals to me in terms of being more flexible. I'd like to build my WHS on VAIL but I know it hasnt been RTM but shouldnt be a problem I guess?

I've no ideal for a hardware setup to accommodate Windows 2008, WHS and my future needs; basically looking to use WHS to provide backups for HTPC (OS) & XP desktop and then sharing and providing redundancy for personal content of DVDs, itunes, pictures etc. I'd say 4TB initially would cover me.

I guess with the exception of monitor, mouse and keyboard I need everything else. My budget would be around €800-€1000 and ideally I would like the component provider to build the box as I dont feel comfortable doing it myself.

I know its alot to ask, but would any kind system builders out there by will to spec a suitable configuration for me to purchase and configure?

Thanks

W.

uberpixie

www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/07/23/how-to-build-a-nas-box/1

read this article. This gives you an idea on the kind of things possible if you build youself or get someone else to do it for you.

For your needs: buy a NAS box. The most you have to do is fit the hard drives. OS is already loaded on the box and you access this via web browser on any pc on your home network.

Have a look at this nas in particular: synology diskstation ds 410 four bay nas.