Help. I need a home server. What do I do?
 

I've been bringing in so much damn footage and editing like a damn fool these past few weeks that my machines can't keep up.

I have 4 machines now. (all humming. I love that sound by the way)

1) P4 1.8, 512 Ram, and 2 HD's @ 160, and 120 gigs
2) P4 3.06, 1 gig ram and 2 HD's @ 120 & 250 gigs
3) P4 2.8, 1 gig ram, and 2 HD's @ 80 and 160 gigs
4) P4 3.0, 1 gig ram, and 3 HD's @ 80, 80, and 120 gigs
and a 160 external.

I'm not sure if this is how you calculate it but I have 1.3 terabytes of storage, and I'm out of room.

The problem isn't so much the room as is the file locations. When I bring in footage from one client, the machine I bring it into holds all the footage, the psd's, the veg files, the promo content, the trailers, and the special info that they request.

When, I'm done editing and I start to render the main movie, I jump on another machine, open the veg file and start cutting the trailer and promo content. The problem is now the files get saved to the new machine and before you know it I have files everywhere.

Every machine has the same set of clients and client files. What I want is ONE machine that can hold ALL the footage, and ALL the files and just use the 4 machines to edit and render and encode back to the server. I want it so that when I hit render the file doesn't get rendered to the machine that's working the project. I want it saved back to the new server machine. But will it take forever to send thru a network cable?

I relly don't know about servers or that type of stuff. Can anyone offer advice?
I wanna go to Pcclub or some other computer store and get one today as soon as I can.

[IMG]http://bootybone.com/gfy/bump.gif [/IMG]

What about using some big ass external drives?

like the Lacie 500gb:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ist&sku=308782

Does anyone else have trouble transferring a file bigger than 2 gigs thru firewire? I do. I have never been able to do it.

you could try tape drive's they are slow but hold a lot and are failry small
or a NAS its basicly a bank of hot swapable hard drives

where do I get this NAS that you speak of?

3ware.com

get a 8 port serial ata controller and a nice case pop in 8 250 gig hard drives and use it as your main storage array.

then get yourself a gigabit switch you can find cheap ones now for like $100 each a 5 port and put $20 gigabit network cards in all your comps so you can transfer data pretty quick off the server onto the system that needs it.

NAS stands for Network attached storage ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64072&item=5721211 502&rd=1


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64072&item=5720637 966&rd=1

Ebay is a nice place to start but if you want new try contacting dell they have a very wide range in storage space and prices

could also buy the stuff and build your own for cheaper

biggest one on ebay at the moment is 6 terabytes donno what your needs are

Gigabit network cards are cheap

Go with gig network and you can save to drive on different machine. It is next fastest solution to saving to local drive..

wow.

bump just for the sheer computing power that you are burning.

rock on. :GFYBand