12 21 2009-06-03T12:55:11-04:00 NormanWalsh 2009Norman Walsh I've always wanted to pick out the components and build my own computer. Maybe the time has come. I've always wanted to build my own computer, but I've never done it. For years, my primary computer has been a laptop and it's not really practical to home-build one of those. For servers, I've just muddled along with spare boxes and cast-offs. Extra disk and memory in almost anything running Linux will get you a long way. My current cobbled together setup involves a slow, noisy desktop box in a closet and a handful of USB enclosures on my desk. Not making me happy. So what do I want? I'd like a walloping big slug of disk space, in some sort of redundant/RAID configuration for storage and backups. I'd like the system to function as a media server (for some vague definition of what media server means). It'd be nice if I could stream music to my laptop and video to the PS/3 in the living room. I'd like it to be able to build applications on it. That is, it should run a web server and ideally MarkLogic Server. I'd like it to be quiet and consume only reasonable amounts of power. Naturally, I'd like it to be not too expensive. That's probably the order of priority, too, though quiet is pretty important and I'm pretty cheap. I'm following what AdamRetter is building. DavePawson is building one too (and pointed me to Tom's Hardware for more ideas). Coincidentally, I see from this month's Linux Journal that the Western Digital My Book World Edition is a hackable NAS. That might be the least expensive way to go. But I still lean towards a Solaris box with four (or more) drive bays running ZFS. I wonder what the right answer is?