Hardware and Operating Systems

Hardware Selection

CPU and GPU

Storage

The amount of storage required in your server will depend on what kinds of media you intend to store, how much media you will be storing, and the quality if your media. Additionally, less storage is necessary if you compress media from its original state. Below is a list of the storage required for several common types of media:

Media Type Storage Required
Photo 1-10 megabytes
eBook 1 megabyte - 1 gigabyte
Phone Video 40-500 megabytes/min
CD 700 megabytes
VHS Tape 1-15 gigabytes/hr
DVD 4.7-8.5 gigabytes
Blu-Ray 25-50 gigabytes
4K Blu-Ray 50-100 gigabytes

Based on the numbers above, here are a few use cases and the amount of storage I would recommend:

  • For backing up photos and videos from your phone or camera, it’s unlikely you’ll need more than 1 terabyte of storage.
  • Similarly, if you back up CDs to your server, you shouldn’t need more than 1 terabyte, unless you have a very extensive collection.
  • If you will be backing up DVDs and/or VHS tapes, 2-4 terabytes should be enough storage; Extensive collections may require 6-8 terabytes.
  • Archiving Blu-Ray discs to your server will require a lot of storage. A small to medium collection would require about 10-20 terabytes, while an extensive collection may require at least 50 terabytes.

Other System Components

Operating Systems

Windows

Linux