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Home NAS Build

M

MikeyD

n00b
Joined
Jun 14, 2013
Messages
9
Hi All,

First off thank you all for providing such great info. I've done a lot of reading in my last 24 hours as a new member : ).
So last weekend my 1 TB (2 x 500gb SEAGAE PIECE OF CRAP Raid 0) drives decided to let one of the disks crap out on me (2nd Seagate in less than 2 years).......ya....SUCKS! So needless to say I lost everything!!! So the wife has permitted me to build something that will keep pictures, videos, Itunes stuff all safe. I would like to stay on a budget of under $700.
Please see answers to questions below, if I miss anything please ask away. I would like to buy the stuff by this weekend if possibl:

1. What will you be doing with this HOME NAS?
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I will host 2-3 users on it who will save Music, HD Video, Documents Word/Excel etc, Pictures etc.. My users will have a Laptop, IPAD Retina, Iphone, Android, Home PC all connecting to it to save or pull from the NAS.
From what I've learned after looking online for a few weeks, I do want a Mini-ITX though I'm not 100% sold on it Mini-ITX, I believe it would be a small enough box not to be a large item in the way. I want it to be as low power consuming as possible I don't need my Electric bill to go up another $20/month lol.

2. Will you be overclocking?
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Nope.

3. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included in this budget? Is your budget flexible? Is cost a driving factor in component selection?
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Would like to stay under $700...if tax/shipping could be included that would be great if not then maybe or I can always tweak something small to save on. Cost is a driving factor.

4. Where do you live? Do you have any big B&M (brick and mortar) computer chains nearby (e.g. Microcenter, Fry's, etc)?
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USA, california. Fry's and they'll price match microcenter & Amazon/NewEgg. Only problem with Fry's is they only have 3 mini-itx Motherboards.

5. What exact parts do you need for that budget?
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I would like to buy just 2 x 3tb WD Red drives and have them setup as a RAID 1 for now until i can afford more drives later. Well I do have a full size atx case, but like I mentioned earlier, I'd like to go down to mini-itx if that makes the most sense so I don't have to find a new home for such a large case. I will need all the parts as the extra board I have is a old Asus A7V133 board with a crappy processor I think 800 or 900mhz? So I figured I really couldn't use it and might as well by new stuff.

6. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
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None

7. What specific features do you need in a motherboard?
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Would like to have several Raid options 1,5,10 to be specific, 6 x SATA 6/gbs for future expandability since I think I can only get 2 x 3tb RED drives for now and then I would like to eventually have a RAID 5 or 10 setup later. I will probably buy a 2 port Intel Ethernet card.

8. Will you be streaming music/hd video from this NAS?
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Well first off I think it would be silly to try and build a HTPC & a NAS out of this. This is what I plan on doing and please tell me if incorrect - I have a somewhat powerful home PC that I built a while back with a Intel Q9650 Processor/ 4gb Ram/ 128gb Velociraptor C: drive/2 x 500gb Seagate drives that were raid 0 and one has failed/ ATI Radeon HD 4800 video card, Win 7/64-bit, blu-ray burner etc... and I use Mezzmo to stream to my Xbox 360 and it works great so far I haven't really had any complaints. So the real question which I really haven't looked into is if I store my HD movies/Music on this new Home NAS system, should I continue streaming movies through my home pc as I pull from the nas or would that just be to much or not make sense? I figured since I'm going mini-itx, it might not be powerful enough to stream directly from the home nas and then I run into the hybrid NAS/HTPC deal again. BTW I am only on a 100mb Home wireless/wired system that I'll be looking to upgrade as well to 1gb.


9. Does this system need to fit into a particular space and do you need an optical drive?
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Just would like a small mini-itx case if possible, optical drive....not unless you say I do.


10. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring?
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Custom Case...would prefer to buy a nice case like the Lian Li PC-Q25 etc..


11. How important is the noise/silence of this sytem?
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Somewhat important....I would like to have it near or close to silent as possible, but keeping in mind that the drives do need to be cooled properly.


12. How mobile does this system need to be?
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Not important.


13. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
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No....was looking into FreeNAS plus any other tool like that out there that would benefit me that you recommend.


14. When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
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This weekend as a Father's Day gift to myself : )
 
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Since your budget is good enough and you don't have any required parts... Look into something from Qnap or, even better, Synology. Then all you need is to buy the hard drives.

The UI's from both vendors are *very* user friendly, have well-thought features, an ecosystem of optional apps (e.g. media services, headless cloud backups, UPnP, DLNA, virus scan, etc.), has a small footprint, and the software is regularly upgraded and enhanced.

(And I agree with your comment on keeping a potential HTPC separate from the storage device.)
 
I actually did look into Qnap and Synology as well as Iomega and Buffalo but was not satisfied with the spaced/performance offered. For that same price I was seeing only 2-bay systems and if they were 4-bay diskless I couldn't afford the 2 x 3tb WD Red drives. Unless I'm missing something I honestly see the cost benefit of building my own?

Any further info. would for sure help!

Thanks PTNL!!
 
So I'm in sac and going to Fry's in about 1hr. Can anyone recommend anything I can buy there?
 
MikeyD said:
I actually did look into Qnap and Synology as well as Iomega and Buffalo but was not satisfied with the spaced/performance offered.
Click to expand...
I understand your concern of the realized throughput. Forget Iomega and Buffalo (as well as Netgear and some other SOHO offerings). However, the non-ARM-based machines should be fine, and even some of the lower-end procs do well. For example, I can get about 45-55 MBps (yes, MB) between my HTPC and Qnap box (TS-219PII) over GbE and my Netgear switch.

FreeNAS is a capable OS when you are just thinking of file storage, and offers some similar capabilities for streaming/distributing content. But many of those packages, from my time spent, are not as good when compared to those in the Synology ecosystem (e.g. AirPlay compatibility, Plex, etc.). Qnap's app ecosystem is pretty good, but I'd probably go with Synology if something ever happened to my Qnap box.


MikeyD said:
For that same price I was seeing only 2-bay systems and if they were 4-bay diskless I couldn't afford the 2 x 3tb WD Red drives.
Click to expand...
Just keep in mind that if you are going to baby step with a two disk RAID-1 array before moving up to a 4+ disk RAID-5 or RAID-10 (assuming RAID 1+0), you'll still need to break the array before rearranging things. This will require offloading the content temporarily.

As for the array type, I'd suggest RAID-5 instead of RAID-10. You'll ultimately have more capacity with RAID-5. The only situation I can think of doing RAID-10 would be for frequent write performance that demands the speed; though for a typical file share environment, I don't see the writes being that frequent once the initial data seed is completed.

Also, is hot-swap of drives important to you? That would affect your DIY build estimate.
 
Excellent info thanks! OK so maybe I will look at those options. Having lunch then heading over to Fry's. And specific models you can recommend from what you mentioned? Also are you saying get just the 2-bay model instead of 4-bay?

Thanks again!
 
If you do go with one of those prebuilt NAS, I highly recommend a four bay Synology for the reasons that PTNL stated. As PTNL noted, they really do have an awesome interface and are pretty easy to use. With that said, in terms of price to performance, yes those prebuilt NAS are pricey for what they are. But the sheer ease of use makes up for that performance difference IMO. I'd look at the Synology DS413.

But if you don't mind getting your hands dirty so to speak and still want a DIY NAS for far greater expansion capability, let us know. As for the DIY NAS' you posted, they're not entirely that good. We could do better.
 
Do you have to shop at Fry's or can you order online? Yes Fry's will price match but they don't have the parts I would recommend for a NAS sometimes.
 
Whichever solution can fit in the small Lian Li PC-Q25 System Cabinet style and uses the least amount of power since it will be on 24/7 of course....or biggest bag for my buck.....you can give me 2 solutions if ya want :)
 
I was thinking about it, but really can't at this time. I want to see how good of a build I can build at what I'm at and then decide. If I do increase it, it won't be until Nov/Dec time frame.
 
You can start out with mini ITX, with a few caveats:

$125 - Lian Li PC-Q25B
$121 - Intel Core i3 3220
$101 - Asus P8H77-I
$40 - Patriot PSD38G13332H 8GB DDR3 1333 DIMM
$60 - Corsair CX500M (included $5 instant discount promo code JCMPT5, expires 6/16)
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$445 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or other rebates/discounts)

Here are the caveats:

- NewEgg seems to be the only place selling the Lian Li PC-Q25B.

- Fry's seems to have the best deals on the motherboard and memory. NewEgg has a modular PSU on sale this weekend. If they're unavailable, you could easily spend (at least) another $50 at different locations (or on replacement parts, if not both).

- Buying two Western Digital Red 3TB HDDs with the above setup would burst your budget. While you can find cheaper 3TB drives -- Western Digital Green or Seagate Barracuda -- they may not be ideal for your plans. Could you live with 2TB Reds for the time being?

- You only have one PCI-E x16 slot. While it can support lower-powered PCI-E (x1, x4, x8) components, you only have one slot.

- If you truly want RAID 5 support, it's best to go with an add-on card. However, a good RAID card can be expensive.

- I went with Ivy Bridge as Haswell hasn't released any dual-cores yet. However, the above board only has two SATA 6Gb/s (or SATA III) ports. It's not a deal-breaker as most HDDs can't fully utilize the SATA 1.5Gb/s (or SATA I) bandwidth.

- If you want dual (Gigabit) Ethernet ports without giving up your PCI-E slot, you need to look at the Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI. However, it only comes with four SATA ports (two 6Gb/s, two 3Gb/s) and the Ethernet ports are Realtek, not Intel. The lack of SATA ports may necessitate a SATA (RAID) expansion card sooner rather than later.

(OK, that was several caveats... but I didn't want to miss any potential pitfalls.)
 
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tiraides said:
NewEgg seems to be the only place selling the Lian Li PC-Q25B.
Click to expand...

Here's another mini ITX case to consider:

$86 - Fractal Design Node 304

Is it safe to assume that you have an optical drive or a USB flash drive on hand to install the OS?
 
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@OP

If you can wait to the Nov/Dec time, then I suggest you do. There is a refresh of parts on the horizon. And given that you want low power consumption, the new parts will surely give you that. For the time being (5 months) I would use 1 or 2 external drives. Yes, it'll be a nuisance, but you seem to be putting yourself in a corner with your budget and current build recommendations.
 
I'd forget a NAS....just build yourself a decent server, it'll do anything/everything a nas can do and still offer unlimited upgrade/expandability. Stick with your current case (for now)....anything around an e7400 should be able to handle everything you'd throw at the server. Based on current pricing, I'd recommend 2-3 2TB drives for now. Run whs2011 and spend the $30-ish on DrivePool.

You should be able to put together a fairly awesome server and stay within your stated budget if you leverage parts you already have in hand, pick up cpu/mobo/ram on the forums, get a copy whs2011 and drivepool.

Just an alternative approach to consider.
 
scbesterman said:
I'd forget a NAS....just build yourself a decent server, it'll do anything/everything a nas can do and still offer unlimited upgrade/expandability. Stick with your current case (for now)....anything around an e7400 should be able to handle everything you'd throw at the server. Based on current pricing, I'd recommend 2-3 2TB drives for now. Run whs2011 and spend the $30-ish on DrivePool.

You should be able to put together a fairly awesome server and stay within your stated budget if you leverage parts you already have in hand, pick up cpu/mobo/ram on the forums, get a copy whs2011 and drivepool.

Just an alternative approach to consider.
Click to expand...

NAS stands for network attached storage, right? What the OP is building is essentially what you're suggesting: a network attached file server.

metril said:
@OP

If you can wait to the Nov/Dec time, then I suggest you do. There is a refresh of parts on the horizon. And given that you want low power consumption, the new parts will surely give you that. For the time being (5 months) I would use 1 or 2 external drives. Yes, it'll be a nuisance, but you seem to be putting yourself in a corner with your budget and current build recommendations.
Click to expand...

What, specifically, is coming over the horizon?
 
Have you ever considered a DroboFS? I bought one at Microcenter last year and have been happy with it. I think I paid about $500 for the device and then added hard drives to it (I recycled some from a failed Windows Home server box - hardware failure).

I have three desktop computers, 2 iPad's, and a laptop running off the Drobo.

I have 5 hard drive slots in my Drobo. Believe I can now use 4TB drives (currently have it full of 2TB drives). I think you can run a Drobo off of 1 hard drive - 3 or more is better as it gives you more fault tolerance.
 
The Drobo generally isn't recommended over in the Data Storage subforum due to its proprietary nature (if it dies, you have to get another Drobo if you want your data back) and its relatively low performance.
 
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