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ghostdunks
n00b
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2011
- Messages
- 30
Hi all, I'm looking to build my own NAS and would appreciate some thoughts or comments on my proposed build. Am posting this in several forums which all have their own specialty(ie. silent computing specific, network, australian, etc..), so looking to collate everyone's thoughts and hopefully come up with a good system. Been lurking around and reading all sorts of threads and articles and these are my thoughts so far.
I haven't built my own computer for a while, so forgive me if I'm asking particularly stupid or newb questions, as technology seems to be advancing faster than I can keep up. I've done quite a bit of reading on this on a lot of different sites, so hopefully I'm asking the right questions.
Basically, I'm looking for a NAS that I can build myself with a minimm of 5 hard disks, that will run relatively quiet and is power efficient, as it'll be on 24/7. Will be running the starting point of 5 disks in RAID5, hooked up to a gigabit LAN and I want to go with software raid of some flavor rather than hardware raid.
System specs so far:
CPU:
Been hearing a lot of good things about the new sandy bridge processors, especially with regards to power efficency and also because they come with integrated video(a must for me for low power consumption). So I've basically picked the cheapest SB processors(LGA 1155) which looks like they're more than powerful enough to run a NAS.
i3 2100T
i3 2100
G620T
G620
Still doing my research on the T models(the designated ultra low-power processors) and whether it is worth the price premium over a normal chip. A lot of opinions on the web I've seen seem to indicate that the T versions aren't worth it, mainly because the SB chips all seem to idle at the same power consumption, and that the normal chips can just be undervolted or underclocked to match the T versions. Also, tossing up between the Core i3 processor or the Pentium G620 processor line. As I think the Pentium G620 chip seems to be more than powerful enough, I'm leaning towards that one as its the cheapest.
Am I right in thinking that any Socket 1155 motherboard that will accept a Core i3 chip will also accept a G620 chip, or are they fundamentally different other than clockspeeds and cache ram, and I need specific 1155 motherboards that will accept them?
RAM:
Was just going to whack any old sticks of 2 2GB DDR3 RAM in there for a total of 4GB, which should be plenty I think.
Case:
I was initially going to go with the Fractal Design Array R2(http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=42) but I think I'm leaning more towards the Fractal Design R3(http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=48) or even the XL version(but that might be overkill). Reasons why I picked the much bigger Design over the Array,
- The Array seems purpose built for a DIY NAS box, and has room for 6 HDs, but to me, it seems that all the drives are all crammed into a small space. Having lost HDs in the past due to heat issues, I'm erring on the side of caution and putting my HDs into a much bigger case where its easier to cool quietly. Also, with the Design case, it means I can expand the number of disks in my array a lot easier as there's room for 10+ HDs. As this NAS box I'm building is not going to be anywhere near the TV or living area, I don't mind if its a big box I can just toss into the corner somewhere out of the way
- The Array is significantly more expensive than the Design, especially in Australia
Hard drives:
Was just going to get a bunch of Western Digial Green 2TB hard drives(WD20EARX, the SATA3 versions, no particular reason other than they aren't much more expensive than the SATA2 versions). Everyone has their likes and dislikes of particular brands, but I've had HDs of pretty much every brand fail on me before, so much of a muchness. Mainly looking for low power high capacity drives, so these will do for now. Have been reading though that the WD green drives aren't particularly suitable for NAS so I'll have to research that a bit more.
Motherboard:
Now this is where I'm completely out of my depth... would appreciate any advice on this. Looking for the following features,
- low power and power efficient. From what I've read, Intel made boards use the least power, is this true?
- sata ports - Need at least 5 internal SATA ports so I can hook up 5 2TB drives to it. Would love to have more but doubt many motherboards out there have more than 6. I'm assuming that if I want to add more drives to my RAID later, I'll have to buy an addon PCIE SATA host adapter card that provides more SATA ports?
- esata - would like to have one esata port
- USB3 ports
- gigabit ethernet - that supports jumbo frames
- integrated video - for low power, I'm assuming then, that it has to be a H67 or H61 board.
- would be nice to have firewire but not a dealbreaker
Any suggestions on this would be great, at least as a starting point.
Power Supply:
Again, no idea on power supplies other than I want to get one that's silent, efficient, and powerful enough to run at least the CPU, motherboard, and 6 internal SATA drives, and it would be good if it could ultimately run 10 drives(if I add more drives later)
OS:
Was just going to toss freenas or ubuntu a spare usb disk and boot off that. Not much experience with either but I think it'll be good experience to try both and see what they're capable of. Any other suggestions here too would be good.
Not sure if its possible but would be good if a rig like this is capable of running 20-30w in idle.
Any and all feedback and comments would be appreciated!
Would also be a lot easier if the parts are easily sourced in Australia(although I'm probably going to buy the cpu/hard drives in HK while I'm here), but if need to get them from US, thats still an option.
I haven't built my own computer for a while, so forgive me if I'm asking particularly stupid or newb questions, as technology seems to be advancing faster than I can keep up. I've done quite a bit of reading on this on a lot of different sites, so hopefully I'm asking the right questions.
Basically, I'm looking for a NAS that I can build myself with a minimm of 5 hard disks, that will run relatively quiet and is power efficient, as it'll be on 24/7. Will be running the starting point of 5 disks in RAID5, hooked up to a gigabit LAN and I want to go with software raid of some flavor rather than hardware raid.
System specs so far:
CPU:
Been hearing a lot of good things about the new sandy bridge processors, especially with regards to power efficency and also because they come with integrated video(a must for me for low power consumption). So I've basically picked the cheapest SB processors(LGA 1155) which looks like they're more than powerful enough to run a NAS.
i3 2100T
i3 2100
G620T
G620
Still doing my research on the T models(the designated ultra low-power processors) and whether it is worth the price premium over a normal chip. A lot of opinions on the web I've seen seem to indicate that the T versions aren't worth it, mainly because the SB chips all seem to idle at the same power consumption, and that the normal chips can just be undervolted or underclocked to match the T versions. Also, tossing up between the Core i3 processor or the Pentium G620 processor line. As I think the Pentium G620 chip seems to be more than powerful enough, I'm leaning towards that one as its the cheapest.
Am I right in thinking that any Socket 1155 motherboard that will accept a Core i3 chip will also accept a G620 chip, or are they fundamentally different other than clockspeeds and cache ram, and I need specific 1155 motherboards that will accept them?
RAM:
Was just going to whack any old sticks of 2 2GB DDR3 RAM in there for a total of 4GB, which should be plenty I think.
Case:
I was initially going to go with the Fractal Design Array R2(http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=42) but I think I'm leaning more towards the Fractal Design R3(http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=48) or even the XL version(but that might be overkill). Reasons why I picked the much bigger Design over the Array,
- The Array seems purpose built for a DIY NAS box, and has room for 6 HDs, but to me, it seems that all the drives are all crammed into a small space. Having lost HDs in the past due to heat issues, I'm erring on the side of caution and putting my HDs into a much bigger case where its easier to cool quietly. Also, with the Design case, it means I can expand the number of disks in my array a lot easier as there's room for 10+ HDs. As this NAS box I'm building is not going to be anywhere near the TV or living area, I don't mind if its a big box I can just toss into the corner somewhere out of the way
- The Array is significantly more expensive than the Design, especially in Australia
Hard drives:
Was just going to get a bunch of Western Digial Green 2TB hard drives(WD20EARX, the SATA3 versions, no particular reason other than they aren't much more expensive than the SATA2 versions). Everyone has their likes and dislikes of particular brands, but I've had HDs of pretty much every brand fail on me before, so much of a muchness. Mainly looking for low power high capacity drives, so these will do for now. Have been reading though that the WD green drives aren't particularly suitable for NAS so I'll have to research that a bit more.
Motherboard:
Now this is where I'm completely out of my depth... would appreciate any advice on this. Looking for the following features,
- low power and power efficient. From what I've read, Intel made boards use the least power, is this true?
- sata ports - Need at least 5 internal SATA ports so I can hook up 5 2TB drives to it. Would love to have more but doubt many motherboards out there have more than 6. I'm assuming that if I want to add more drives to my RAID later, I'll have to buy an addon PCIE SATA host adapter card that provides more SATA ports?
- esata - would like to have one esata port
- USB3 ports
- gigabit ethernet - that supports jumbo frames
- integrated video - for low power, I'm assuming then, that it has to be a H67 or H61 board.
- would be nice to have firewire but not a dealbreaker
Any suggestions on this would be great, at least as a starting point.
Power Supply:
Again, no idea on power supplies other than I want to get one that's silent, efficient, and powerful enough to run at least the CPU, motherboard, and 6 internal SATA drives, and it would be good if it could ultimately run 10 drives(if I add more drives later)
OS:
Was just going to toss freenas or ubuntu a spare usb disk and boot off that. Not much experience with either but I think it'll be good experience to try both and see what they're capable of. Any other suggestions here too would be good.
Not sure if its possible but would be good if a rig like this is capable of running 20-30w in idle.
Any and all feedback and comments would be appreciated!
Would also be a lot easier if the parts are easily sourced in Australia(although I'm probably going to buy the cpu/hard drives in HK while I'm here), but if need to get them from US, thats still an option.