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Stand Alone NAS or Full PC driven NAS?

B

boasist

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 23, 2005
Messages
1,479
i'm trying to decide right now if i should go for either a stand alone nas, like the infrant nas nv, buffalo terastation, or any other gigabit NAS.

Or should I go with a full pc that functions only as a NAS? i'm talking either my system lying around which is a XP1700, or should I pick up a nice dual core rig for $400 with the 11 drive capacity.

With the NAS its cheaper, yet expandibility is lost, with the PC it can get VERY expensive yet expandibility is endless really, with no proprietary things stopping me from upgrading. At this moment i'm looking at the areca SATA II controller card, the 12 port version, which apparently has great transfer rates, which is a great plus yet its 600 bucks.

either way let me know what you think and get back to me.
 
Dual core is major overkill for any type of network file server. You can efficiently server a large amount of files with a p3 500, alot of ram, and a good harddrive setup. You do not need massive cpu power to serve files.
 
I bought a Hawking Technologies HNAS-1 enclosure w/ a 250GB Maxtor Diamondmax 10 for my XBMC setup in my home theater. I have to say that I'm not that impressed with its performance and will be building an all-in-one HTPC / fileserver in the near future. According to DUmeter I can only write to it at ~3.5MB/sec and read from it at ~4MB/sec. Pretty pathetic considering its on a 100Mbit connection with a fast drive w/ 16MB of cache.
 
i agree for the dual core overkill, yet the price is right, and future options are enticing, selling if off later etc.


I was looking at HTPC cases further, and found the silverstone lc17, full atx mobo, and a 6 HDD capacity. with that I could easily go 1 or even 2tb right in the box. sounds nice to me.

like a 6 drive raid array, then put a system drive in the other 5.25 bay, as i will not be using it.

6x250 after raid 5 should be about 1.25TB. might start off small and grow from there.

think there would be any advantage to a raptor system drive? speed speed speed is the name of the game for me.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101220-12&banner=fw
 
i would be very wary of an htpc/fileserver.

Lots of HD's can make for lots of noise, which isn't very conducive to movie watching.
 
ahh thats a point i had looked over, especially when i was going for silence.

guess its back to the HTPC, and a NAS somewhere off in the house. that should save money on a case as well.

any socket a boards with pci-x?
 
TheTMan said:
i would be very wary of an htpc/fileserver.

Lots of HD's can make for lots of noise, which isn't very conducive to movie watching.
Click to expand...


Actually I'm that individual selling the dual core machine to boasist, and I can confirm that it is very quite, in fact I had to check several times if it's online. My regular computers completley overthrows its noise so I'd have to either check the LED or stick my hand back there to feel warm moving air.

As for boasist question regarding PCI-X socketA boards, that would only be able to be attained using MP boards... then you can run one cpu in there.

As for the comment regarding the Hawking NAS, I also have one and yes it is very slow for larger files, however I use it for small text documents and favorites so it's more than enough for me.

Also, for the dual core comments that it's overpowered, try upconverting to 3 network dvd players at the same time on a P3 500.... I dare you.


A standalone system is the best if you want nothing other than performance and speed, if you want power consumption limits or if you want to run smaller files, then a store bought appliance is the best bet since it's silent and can run in harsh conditions... also smaller.
 
Ockie said:
Also, for the dual core comments that it's overpowered, try upconverting to 3 network dvd players at the same time on a P3 500.... I dare you.
Click to expand...

At that point you are no longer a file server. My statement still holds true for fileservers. A file server only serves files, it does not re-encode, upconvert, downconvert, broadcast video/audio streams. It serves files for a straight copy from one system to another.

The OP mentioned nothing about dynamic conversion of anything, only that he/she was looking for a NAS, networked attached storage device, for his lan.

I'm not trying to prevent you from making a sale but dual-core for a file server is overkill. Ram and a good disk subsystem are all that is really needed. It's better for the OP to be correctly informed so they are happy about their decision later on down the road than for someone to make a few dollars selling of hardware.
 
perhaps i should have listed my original intentions

hosting movies for viewing on my HTPC
hosting pretty much all media, music, movies, photos, storage for the TV recording
then for LAN's with patches, updates, iso's dedicated servers.

stand alone is great for everything but dedicated server, which is where the dual core comes into play, probably will go that route, yet trying to find an affordable 12 port SATA II card at the moment to seal the deal.
 
defakto said:
At that point you are no longer a file server. My statement still holds true for fileservers. A file server only serves files, it does not re-encode, upconvert, downconvert, broadcast video/audio streams. It serves files for a straight copy from one system to another.

The OP mentioned nothing about dynamic conversion of anything, only that he/she was looking for a NAS, networked attached storage device, for his lan.

I'm not trying to prevent you from making a sale but dual-core for a file server is overkill. Ram and a good disk subsystem are all that is really needed. It's better for the OP to be correctly informed so they are happy about their decision later on down the road than for someone to make a few dollars selling of hardware.
Click to expand...



When your faced with a solution that can do all that vs one that can't for a similar price... you have to think of your options ;) $400 for an entire dual core rig with raptor and all its pretty damn good if you ask me.

You always have to look at the plusses and minues of each machine and you can't look at it as a prespective on ones viewpoints only, you have to look at each one as a whole. You don't compare a ferarri which was strictly designed for the road to a suburban which can go offroad... you look at each one and you weigh the options. You can't neglect the speed of the ferarri just because the suburban can't do that and visa versa with the seating in the suburban.


Anyways, as for the price, nothing can touch it and it can do much more. Initially I had the idea of taking it to lans as a game server, however I keep taking too much to LANs so I cut back and this is just a spare machine laying around, lol.
 
defakto said:
Dual core is major overkill for any type of network file server. You can efficiently server a large amount of files with a p3 500, alot of ram, and a good harddrive setup. You do not need massive cpu power to serve files.
Click to expand...

This is true as long as you aren't encrypting transfers. Encrypting transfers = lots of cpu.
 
you know i was thinking again.....and realized that is pretty much pointless to go for the sataII drives and card on this. my gigabit connection is limited 1g, and i won't be using this as a desktop machine, strictly network for the most part.

so i've now decided to go with the dual core machine, just could not beat that deal on that setup, amazing offer so i had to snag that. 11 drive capacity case, amazing, very excited.
 
boasist said:
you know i was thinking again.....and realized that is pretty much pointless to go for the sataII drives and card on this. my gigabit connection is limited 1g, and i won't be using this as a desktop machine, strictly network for the most part.

so i've now decided to go with the dual core machine, just could not beat that deal on that setup, amazing offer so i had to snag that. 11 drive capacity case, amazing, very excited.
Click to expand...

With that much computing power, why not software RAID?

Windows Server 2K or 2K3 have it and any of the *nix distros have it.
And all of those OSs have various other server apps for media that will run on them.


 
I'd stay as far away as possible from Windows' software raid. LSR is plenty stable and fast, though. I'd be glad to help you set it up, or stop by the Linux subforum of OSes and they'll help you out.

 
yeah looking at even a sata I card 12 port is still the same price as the SATA II, might as well go for it then. yet still that is 700, i'm not familiar at all with linux, and i have access to server2k3 etc.

i'll probably go with hardware raid still, and stick with xp pro at this point anyway.

still comparing drive setups, 250gb, 300gb, 400gb, 500gb, anywhere from 38c/gb to 58c/gb
 
PC driven NAS will probably make a noticeable dent in your power bill. Standalone NAS hopefully not so much.
 
How are you liking your machine?


Also, I do not think that controller will work in that board for the reason is that those 1x slots aren't slotted. I will look around to see if I can find anything that may work with that setup.


You can either go smaller pci controllers or go PCI-X Controllers which most will run in those 32bit pci slots, or you might be able to put in a PCI video card and use that 16x slot.
 
boasist said:
think there would be any advantage to a raptor system drive? speed speed speed is the name of the game for me.
Click to expand...

if "speed speed speed" is the name of the game, then you will _not_ want RAID-5, but rather RAID 10 or 0+1. Both options are likely to outperform a RAID-5 setup on writes.

Questions is: will the network be a bottleneck? - I see you reconsidered.

movax said:
PC driven NAS will probably make a noticeable dent in your power bill. Standalone NAS hopefully not so much.
Click to expand...
Undervolt the CPU!
 
You can pair the Highpoint RocketRaid 2320's together to create a 16drive array(according to the manual at least, I only have 5 drives on my controller.) It's PCIe x4, so bandwidth is a non-issue (1GByte/sec synchronous). Get a SLI/Xfire board, use a PCI video card, and you're set.

The RR 2320 is $265 shipped from ZZF.
 
machine is running great, everything is top notch thanks again.

now i just need that raid card......thanks for looking.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=132239

too bad those will not fit in the x1 slots that i have on the board, i wouldn't mind running 2.

i have not found any x16 pci xpress raid cards, ultimately, this machine will all be handled remotely after setup, yet i guess i would still need a video card just for that purpose.

back to the research.
 
PCIe is upwards compatable. I'm running my x4 2320 in a x16 slot (x8 because the board is in SLi mode) right now.
 
ahh nice, so any x4,x8 card can simply pop into my x16 slot and function with no issues?

i'll just have to get that pci video card as mentioned before and i'll be all set.

thanks
 
Yep. It is even downwards compatable(just not physically). That is why you can run x8 on a x16 card. If you were to hack the end off a x1 slot, you could put a x16 card in it and it would work(provided the card didn't have any components in the way)
 
Ok, so i bought the areca 12 port x8 pci card. sold the graphics card, and a pci card is on its way. raid card comes with the 1gb upgrade, so should be really nice to have that.

newegg also has a special on the seagate 3g 500gb drives, coupon code seagate500 gets you another 20 bucks off for 275 shipped each.

i took the easy route, and just have 3 of the drives for now, enough to build the raid 5 array, then add drives as they come to me every so often.

thanks for the help everyone.
 
Nice choice on your set up.

I just got the Areca 1220 (8 port card) and 6 Seagate 500gb drives.
 
if you don't mind me asking, did you have a good source for the drives at a killer price?...or did you pay retail.
 
I got a couple off of ebay for around $285 each and just got a few more from Outpost.com for $230 after rebate.

Here's the link
Linky
 
per sku per household, does that mean i can order several at a rebate price?
 
You'd have to place seperate orders to different addresses to be safe for the rebates.
 
i'll just have to do that then. thanks for the linkage.

so are you going rad 5 or 6? i have had a raid 5 array before and lost 2 of the drives, so for that reason raid 6 looks nice, yet since i'm using this for reads mostly than writes, i will most likely go for the raid 5 level, and just keep my fingers crossed i guess......not much else i can do other than backups, which is another issue, how are you going to handle that, just use windows backup, set it up properly, and get it going? i have a program that keeps an iso of your array on another drive, entirely, at a supremely compressed rate, so 5.5tb might go down to 1gb or so, i'll have to wait and see.
 
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