Looking to expand your knowledge on networking.
Looking to expand your knowledge on networking.
I own five computers that I regularly use at home. Over time I've bought different storage solutions for each, but now I'm thinking about consolidating everything into one home server. I enjoy playing games on all of them and thought about using an old 1155 or FM2 board, connecting five 7200 1TB drives via SATA 3 ports (leaving one for a small SSD with Windows 10 Pro). I'd set them up in RAID0 and install everything centrally. I'm concerned about latency since I've hardlined each network router to 100Mb/s. I don't know the actual speeds across the network beyond typical internet rates, which are around 80Mb/s each. I'm wondering if this setup would affect performance compared to having local drives on each machine. Given my experience with computers for over two decades, I value your guidance.
Based on the amount of data you possess, using "RAID" 0 isn't ideal. Initially, losing a single drive can wipe everything away, making it difficult to restore everything if you have a large collection. These tools are also not designed to be network aware—installing Steam locally while keeping your libraries online is possible.
I believe the most helpful tip is that a game performs better and more consistently on local drives rather than networked ones. While network files simplify the overall number and variety of files across machines, they also add complexity by forcing all devices to retrieve data. This creates more points of failure. On the other hand, sharing only essential files can still be practical.
I chose RAID0 simply because I already own the drives and need maximum storage capacity. I’m not saving anything critical, so the only risk is leaving the computer running overnight while I transfer everything again. It’s a bit frustrating but doable. Regarding the library, I’m checking if local programs support network access and whether playing games would cause delays.
This made me wonder why I was interested. It looks like a solid concept in theory, but I don’t want to end up stuck with slow games or lag because of network issues.
It's likely there will be some issues, but the real concern is how much stress you can handle. My backup machine is currently offline (I damaged the motherboard by flashing it), so I’d run a simple test on my network to check if it’s even possible. According to that article, it might be feasible.
The problem lies in the fact that the network will always lag behind and become unstable compared to a local storage solution. There would be no real benefit in terms of speed or reliability. It would simply mean you need your gaming experience to depend on the network functioning optimally rather than just being acceptable.