On 30/11/12 09:52, Mark Rogers wrote: []
It's a pretty old 3GHz Pentium D. It's already a file server (software RAID5 across 4 SATA internal disks), and the only other thing it's going to be doing is the backups.
[] With caching: I would have assumed that the worst case in the event of power loss would be loss of the backup that was still cached, but a quick Google suggests that the whole array could be corrupted? That would kinda defeat the point of using it for backups, so I'd appreciate advice on that.
I can't comment on the backup corruption, but if it's a file server, and a backup server, then I suggest an uninterpretable power supply (UPS). I'm sure you'll be able to pick one up on ebay without breaking the bank. Change the batteries at least every 2 years, yearly if you can afford it. APC is a good make, and with that, you can install APCUPSD (APC UPS Daemon) which will safely shutdown the PC a configurable time after a power failure. It should be able to supply power to your external raid too if required.
HTH
Steve