Hardware Requirements
So now you have an idea of what type of hardware you should be using. Now you will need to put together a server to run the hardware. In most cases, a server is nothing more than a normal computer with a server operating system or software running on it. In all technicality, if you’ve ever shared a folder across your network or used BitTorrent, you have run a bit of server software. While certainly not an exhaustive or complete list, here’s a decent list of server operating systems, broken into categories:
Windows Server Operating Systems
| Name | CPU Requirements | Memory Requirements | Harddrive Requirements | Cost |
| Windows Server 2003 R2 | 133MHz/550MHz | 128MB/256MB | 1.5GB/10GB | $399 – Web Edition, $999 Standard Edition, more editions available |
| Windows Server 2008 | 1GHz/2GHz for 32-bit 1.4GHz/2GHz for 64-bit |
512MB/2GB | 10GB/40GB | $469 – Web Edition, $971 Standard Edition, more editions available |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | 1.4GHz/2GHz, 64-bit capable processor | 512MB/2GB | 10GB/40GB | $469 – Web Edition, $1029 Standard Edition, more editions available |
| Windows Home Server | 1GHz | 512MB | 80GB | $100 |
Linux Servers Operating Systems
| Name | CPU Requirements | Memory Requirements | Harddrive Requirements | Costs |
| Ubuntu Server 9.10 | 300MHz | 64MB/256MB | 500MB/4GB | $0 |
| Debian 5.0 | 300MHz | 64MB/256MB | 1GB | $0 |
| CentOS 5.4 | 500MHz | 256MB | 2GB | $0 |
| Fedora 12 | 400MHz | 256MB | 10GB | $0 |
| OpenFiler (rPath Linux based) | 1GHz 32-bit/1.6Hz 64-bit | 512MB/1GB | 1.5GB/3GB | $0 |
| OpenSuse | Pentium 1 or above | 256MB/512MB | 500MB/3GB | $0 |
BSD (Unix) Server Operating Systems
| Name | CPU Requirements | Memory Requirements | Harddrive Requirements | Costs |
| FreeBSD | Intel 486 | 24MB | 150MB | $0 |
| OpenBSD | Intel 386 | 16MB | 512MB/4GB | $0 |
| NetBSD | Intel 386 | 4MB/16MB | 20MB/1GB | $0 |
| OpenSolaris | 1GHz or UltraSPARC, SPARC64 | 256MB/1GB | 2GB/6GB | $0 |
| FreeNAS (FreeBSD based) | Intel 486 | 128MB/256MB | 32MB/128MB | $0 |
Now you understand the hardware requirements of each system, it is time to move on to picking the software that is best for you. Check that out on the Intro to Home Servers (Part 2) [coming soon!].
About Josh Gachnang
