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Thread ID: 129197	2013-02-09 05:10:00	NAS in a box or build my own?	Tukapa (62)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1327230	2013-02-10 07:49:00	Thanks for all your suggestions. Looks like build my own it is! I remembered I have a Coolermaster tower case floating around here with the following guts in it; AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.71Ghz Dual Core CPU Asus M2N-MX SE Plus motherboard 2GB DDR2 Ram 250GB Hard Drive DVD-RW Drive Coolermaster 450W PSU I have a couple more DDR2 sticks floating around so can bump it to 4GB easy enough. The case also has room for five HDD's, plus three spare 5.25" cages which can be adapted obviously to take another three HDD's further down the track. The only two issues (due to age of the motherboard) I have with it are; It only has two SATA connectors - presumably I can add a PCI expansion card to give me more SATA without any issues for the NAS box (would this cause speed bottleneck issues?); and It has no USB 3.0 (which I wanted for adding external hard drives in the future - just in case) and I see all USB 3.0 expansion cards are PCI-e which this motherboard doesn't have. This is something I could probably live without but would have been a nice to have. I guess the only other thing I would be worried about would be the noise of this tower running. It is currently running 32 bit Vista Home Premium.	Tukapa (62)
1327231	2013-02-10 08:33:00	change the fans if your worried about noise	jonovw (16835)
1327232	2013-02-10 09:20:00	2GB of RAM for something like FreeNAS or Linux is *HEAPS*! Yes you can add a PCI SATA card. It won't be your bottleneck. You can easily add in a gigabit network card too if you want faster network speeds. To be honest, USB2.0 peaks at 480mbps, and most networks are 100mbps, so USB3.0 isn't *really* that much of a big deal for most people. Start with what you've got, see how you go before your plans get too lofty. Another thing you can do for speed is set up a RAID array. Again, this is much easier to do in FreeNAS than it would be in Vista. Highly recommend you download FreeNAS, it's tiny and easy to install. If you have a secondary HDD lying around you can pop in temporarily to give it a shot, then it's well worth spending an hour trying it out :)	Chilling_Silence (9)
1327233	2013-02-10 18:01:00	Thanks Chill - hadn't actually picked up that mobo only has 10/100 LAN - will definitely pop in a gigabit card. With a PCI SATA card and a PCI gigabit network card that's both the available PCI slots populated. Perhaps I'm better off flicking off this machine and putting the funds towards the new build I referenced in my first post. At least that way the mobo comes with plenty of SATA, USB 3.0 and gigabit LAN all on board. I've been reading up on FreeNAS and that i the intended path for this project. Thanks.	Tukapa (62)
1327234	2013-02-10 19:43:00	2GB of RAM for something like FreeNAS or Linux is *HEAPS*! Not to be disagreeable, but to allow FreeNAS to take full advantage of ZFS, you really need 6 - 8GB of RAM.	inphinity (7274)
1327235	2013-02-10 20:34:00	That's *IF* you want to go with ZFS ;) Also I believe that's only for a specific feature or two like file de-duplication or something? Start with what you've got and if you find you've quickly outgrown it, then you can always replace it :)	Chilling_Silence (9)
1327236	2013-02-10 21:53:00	I'd also say DIY. I built one a few years ago. Actually just converted my old PC when I bought a new one. Installed Debian without a GUI, set up samba and as backup storage I was away. After a while I went for a Synology 108j - which was good, in a way, but when I got big ideas about setting up websites and remote access etc. I found it just didn't cut the mustard. I think the operating systems in NAS's are generally pretty limited. If they had a proper linux system installed they'd be far more "tweakable". I wouldn't put them down totally, but if you want flexibility then build. I have, again, lot of fun doing it, a total learning curve and the cost of the new machine I think would be cheaper than what I paid for the Synology about 4 years ago - it's sitting in a cupboard at the moment while I figure out what I'm going to do with it:D. I took the hard drive out of it to use in my new project. That's quite an old NAS, DSM 4.1 will do VPN/Remote access via Pinhole& DDNS/webserver stuff. There are a bunch of apps for it too, can even use it as an Asterisk box.	Alex B (15479)
1327237	2013-02-10 22:14:00	That's *IF* you want to go with ZFS ;) Also I believe that's only for a specific feature or two like file de-duplication or something? Start with what you've got and if you find you've quickly outgrown it, then you can always replace it :) Yeah, de-duplication, pre-caching, and RAID-Z are all fairly RAM-intensive. Surely if you're bothering with a NAS you want some sort of data protection (mirroring or parity) and decent performance, though, right? ;)	inphinity (7274)
1327238	2013-02-11 06:01:00	After reading all the advice I've made my mind up (I think!). I am stripping out the guts of this one; AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.71Ghz Dual Core CPU Asus M2N-MX SE Plus motherboard 2GB DDR2 Ram 250GB Hard Drive and putting it in another older tower case I have here. I will flick that off with the Vista OS that is installed and I will put the coin I get from that towards this motherboard (www.ascent.co.nz), along with the AMD A4 5300 (www.ascent.co.nz), and 8GB Ram. I will chuck the new stuff into the generic Coolermaster case I have here which has 5 x 5.25" bays and 5 x 3.5" bays so heaps of room for adding more hard drives in future. That case has a Coolermaster 460W PSU which should handle the NAS power needs. The mobo comes with 6 x SATA 3 connectors and 4 USB 3.0 connectors as well as built in gigabit so all my wants are covered. I will chuck FreeNAS on a spare 500GB 2.5" laptop drive I have here and see how that goes. Thanks for everybody's advice!	Tukapa (62)
1327239	2013-02-11 07:22:00	IIRC you can run freenas from a USB stick.	Alex B (15479)
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