I've had this up and running for about 3 months now. Very reliable and problem free, after initial configuration that is.
The case:
Fractal Design Array R2 Black Mini ITX Storage Computer Case. This is a very plain mini-ITX case that supports 6x3.5" drives and 1x2.5" drive. The drive management could be much better but it is a very small case for the functionality. It's also made of lightweight aluminum.
Similar case options include:
Lian Li PC-Q08 ITX Cube Case
Lian Li PC-V354 Aluminum Mini Computer Case
Note: These cases have much better drive management. They are also cheaper but lack power supplies.
The motherboard:
Supermicro MBD-X7SPA-HF-O Intel Atom D510 Motherboard. To put it plainly, this is the perfect mini-ITX server motherboard. It has 6 internal SATA II ports and supports a USB flash drive directly on the motherboard. (More on that later.) A 2GB Kingston ValueRAM SODIMM was installed.
The drives:
6xWestern Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB SATA2. I highly recommend fully configuring the drive bays using the Fractal case. Other cases have better drive access so it may not be necessary.
The operating system:
CentOS 5.5 (now updated to 5.6.) OK, its Linux. I know you probably hate Linux. But Redhat RHEL 5 is the best server OS out there, bar none and CentOS is the free version of RHEL 5. Yes, it takes some Linux knowledge to configure and maintain. Sorry about that. I looked at other solutions. They all had problems. Even some other popular Linux distros have problems. CentOS/RHEL 5 just works perfectly out of the box and is rock solid.
The boot drive:
Patriot Xporter XT Rage Quad Channel 25MB/S 8GB USB2.0 Flash Memory Drive. Reasonable price, fast enough for this application and it plugs directly into the motherboard. Another nice thing about CentOS/RHEL 5 is that it can boot and install from a USB drive (flash or ROM disc) and install directly to a flash drive. It boots from the flash drive and emulates a standard hard drive. You won't find many Linux distros that do all that and Windows certainly won't. An SSD drive would be better but then you either need to forfeit a hard drive or figure out how to add an extra SATA II port.
Configuration:
Partitioning and drive alignment was performed using fdisk. A 6 drive software RAID 5 array was configured using mdadm. An EXT3 file system was then created using mkfs. VNC also needs to be configured if remote management using the GUI is desired. That takes some studying of the appropriate man pages. (You didn't think I was going to make it too easy did you.
) SSH or PuTTy can also be used for command line system maintenance.
Total cost was about $430 for the base system and $480 for the drives for a grand total of $930. That can be reduced, especially with today's drive prices. There is a slightly cheaper version of the motherboard (MBD-X7SPA-H-O) and a slightly cheaper case could be used. If being tiny is not a requirement, a cheaper mATX motherboard and case could be used.
The case:
Fractal Design Array R2 Black Mini ITX Storage Computer Case. This is a very plain mini-ITX case that supports 6x3.5" drives and 1x2.5" drive. The drive management could be much better but it is a very small case for the functionality. It's also made of lightweight aluminum.
Similar case options include:
Lian Li PC-Q08 ITX Cube Case
Lian Li PC-V354 Aluminum Mini Computer Case
Note: These cases have much better drive management. They are also cheaper but lack power supplies.
The motherboard:
Supermicro MBD-X7SPA-HF-O Intel Atom D510 Motherboard. To put it plainly, this is the perfect mini-ITX server motherboard. It has 6 internal SATA II ports and supports a USB flash drive directly on the motherboard. (More on that later.) A 2GB Kingston ValueRAM SODIMM was installed.
The drives:
6xWestern Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB SATA2. I highly recommend fully configuring the drive bays using the Fractal case. Other cases have better drive access so it may not be necessary.
The operating system:
CentOS 5.5 (now updated to 5.6.) OK, its Linux. I know you probably hate Linux. But Redhat RHEL 5 is the best server OS out there, bar none and CentOS is the free version of RHEL 5. Yes, it takes some Linux knowledge to configure and maintain. Sorry about that. I looked at other solutions. They all had problems. Even some other popular Linux distros have problems. CentOS/RHEL 5 just works perfectly out of the box and is rock solid.
The boot drive:
Patriot Xporter XT Rage Quad Channel 25MB/S 8GB USB2.0 Flash Memory Drive. Reasonable price, fast enough for this application and it plugs directly into the motherboard. Another nice thing about CentOS/RHEL 5 is that it can boot and install from a USB drive (flash or ROM disc) and install directly to a flash drive. It boots from the flash drive and emulates a standard hard drive. You won't find many Linux distros that do all that and Windows certainly won't. An SSD drive would be better but then you either need to forfeit a hard drive or figure out how to add an extra SATA II port.
Configuration:
Partitioning and drive alignment was performed using fdisk. A 6 drive software RAID 5 array was configured using mdadm. An EXT3 file system was then created using mkfs. VNC also needs to be configured if remote management using the GUI is desired. That takes some studying of the appropriate man pages. (You didn't think I was going to make it too easy did you.
Total cost was about $430 for the base system and $480 for the drives for a grand total of $930. That can be reduced, especially with today's drive prices. There is a slightly cheaper version of the motherboard (MBD-X7SPA-H-O) and a slightly cheaper case could be used. If being tiny is not a requirement, a cheaper mATX motherboard and case could be used.