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Hello... edit... long freaking post
I have tried to do a fair bit of research for this project, but I am basically lost when it comes to what hardware I need, or what option I should pursue (I'm guessing WHS will work fine, but a NAS with RAID 5 would probably also be adequate)
Purpose:
- Store/Stream/Backup music, movies, downloads, and documents (Some of the content would be high definition)
- May want to make backup images of my computer (but this I really don't care about as I'll probably have a RAID 0 setup on my main computer that will be solely used for OS and programs, so if the main computer dies, I won't lose anything of value)
- Doesn't need to run 24/7 as the content that is being used by me frequently will probably still be on my main computer... I would back it up onto this system though
- I'll be the main user for now (one computer), but I may want to stream to multiple devices, systems, or computers, so that's why it has to be NAS (and not DAS)
My criteria:
- Easily expandable:
I want to have at least 4 SATA harddrives connected to the system, but I want to be able to add more (that way I could keep adding 500GB harddrives as they get cheaper, as opposed to having to swap harddrives... 1 TB to 1.5 TB, etc...).
- Energy efficient and/or able to wake on lan: The heart of my problem
I have looked into building an Intel Atom (I think it'd be the most efficient and powerful balance?) system, but then most of those motherboards are butchered, so I'd need a gigabit LAN Card, and a SATA controller card to have more harddrives, and considering these motherboards usually only have 1 PCI (some may have 1 PCI-E instead), it's difficult to go this route.
I have seen some other builds on this site, and on other sites... they seem to be using very beefy systems, which maybe is required for what I need, but this is my first time in this area, so again, I'm not sure if those systems necessarily are required to meet my demands.
Why not Pre-Built? Basically because I want it to be easily expandable, and most systems that I have come across are either incapable of doing that (or would cost a lot to do that), or expensive enough for me to think I can build something cheaper and control every component that goes into the system and make it worthwhile. I guess I want to hand craft this machine to suit my desires 100%.
Budget: I'm Canadian, so my wallet will hurt no matter what. I guess I won't mind putting up, let's say $700 (excluding harddrives) to build the system. I need to get everything... Case, Power Supply, Motherboard, CPU, fans, cables, not sure what else. It will be a headless system, so on-board video is fine with me since I'll probably only need during the initial setup.
Speed/Expectations: I have some high definition content that I may want to stream, but speed wise, I guess I'm willing to accept anything on par or above the speeds of a single regular hard drive as long as it can stream that content. Gigabit LAN anyways... not really about speed, but backup/streaming capabilities
Hopefully you guys can help
... Sorry if this is all nooby questions/requests, but the hardware combo that I need is frustrating me
My primary issue here is finding a suitable motherboard and processor that have the required slots and capability for expansion. I might need a full blown ATX motherboard, which is fine, but I don't want it to be a power hungry beast because really, it's just for storage, and streaming/viewing (music/movies)... when I need it of course. I won't be installing programs onto this system that I would need to access from my main machine constantly (just backing up files to view/stream). I think I have already found an acceptable SATA controller card (doesn't need any RAID capabilties in the card itself... SuperMicro or something like that has a 8 drive card for $100, so that should be taken care of).
Thanks in Advance
I have tried to do a fair bit of research for this project, but I am basically lost when it comes to what hardware I need, or what option I should pursue (I'm guessing WHS will work fine, but a NAS with RAID 5 would probably also be adequate)
Purpose:
- Store/Stream/Backup music, movies, downloads, and documents (Some of the content would be high definition)
- May want to make backup images of my computer (but this I really don't care about as I'll probably have a RAID 0 setup on my main computer that will be solely used for OS and programs, so if the main computer dies, I won't lose anything of value)
- Doesn't need to run 24/7 as the content that is being used by me frequently will probably still be on my main computer... I would back it up onto this system though
- I'll be the main user for now (one computer), but I may want to stream to multiple devices, systems, or computers, so that's why it has to be NAS (and not DAS)
My criteria:
- Easily expandable:
I want to have at least 4 SATA harddrives connected to the system, but I want to be able to add more (that way I could keep adding 500GB harddrives as they get cheaper, as opposed to having to swap harddrives... 1 TB to 1.5 TB, etc...).
- Energy efficient and/or able to wake on lan: The heart of my problem
I have looked into building an Intel Atom (I think it'd be the most efficient and powerful balance?) system, but then most of those motherboards are butchered, so I'd need a gigabit LAN Card, and a SATA controller card to have more harddrives, and considering these motherboards usually only have 1 PCI (some may have 1 PCI-E instead), it's difficult to go this route.
I have seen some other builds on this site, and on other sites... they seem to be using very beefy systems, which maybe is required for what I need, but this is my first time in this area, so again, I'm not sure if those systems necessarily are required to meet my demands.
Why not Pre-Built? Basically because I want it to be easily expandable, and most systems that I have come across are either incapable of doing that (or would cost a lot to do that), or expensive enough for me to think I can build something cheaper and control every component that goes into the system and make it worthwhile. I guess I want to hand craft this machine to suit my desires 100%.
Budget: I'm Canadian, so my wallet will hurt no matter what. I guess I won't mind putting up, let's say $700 (excluding harddrives) to build the system. I need to get everything... Case, Power Supply, Motherboard, CPU, fans, cables, not sure what else. It will be a headless system, so on-board video is fine with me since I'll probably only need during the initial setup.
Speed/Expectations: I have some high definition content that I may want to stream, but speed wise, I guess I'm willing to accept anything on par or above the speeds of a single regular hard drive as long as it can stream that content. Gigabit LAN anyways... not really about speed, but backup/streaming capabilities
Hopefully you guys can help
... Sorry if this is all nooby questions/requests, but the hardware combo that I need is frustrating meMy primary issue here is finding a suitable motherboard and processor that have the required slots and capability for expansion. I might need a full blown ATX motherboard, which is fine, but I don't want it to be a power hungry beast because really, it's just for storage, and streaming/viewing (music/movies)... when I need it of course. I won't be installing programs onto this system that I would need to access from my main machine constantly (just backing up files to view/stream). I think I have already found an acceptable SATA controller card (doesn't need any RAID capabilties in the card itself... SuperMicro or something like that has a 8 drive card for $100, so that should be taken care of).
Thanks in Advance