Originally posted by: Team Spicoli
Originally posted by: MalVeauX
Heya,
I have several 1TiB WDD HDD's, both external and internal. I filled several with DVD images (.ISO). I hate removable `media' so I digitize everything possible. I like "two clicks" and it just shows up. I put my internals in a headless FreeNAS box and it serves my DVDs and other stored files over my gigabit network (mainly to my gaming/HTPC machine).
Very best,
Hey Mal,
what brand/model FreeNAS box do you have, or recommend?
FreeNAS is the OS. It's free.
www.freenas.org
There are specific NAS devices that you can buy, that are very expensive for the sake of being very small, very limited, all-in-one solutions with very little expandability and often times do
not have gigabit network adapters. You'll find NAS devices (with no drives!) for $100+ easily. Well, you can
build your own NAS for that, and it will have WAY more connectivity, expandability and options. Any computer can become a NAS. So long as it has hard drive space and a network connection, it can become a NAS. You don't need anything special. Windows can be a NAS box. Or you can load something light like FreeNAS.
For someone who wants a NAS that is always on and always available, a light FreeNAS machine would be perfect. For someone who only wants to access the NAS sometimes, like only during the day and it's just them, they can easily just have any old machine function as a NAS while running Windows, Linux, or whatever else you may prefer. The point of FreeNAS is to have an OS that runs headless (no monitor/display), and no input devices required (no keyboard, no mouse), and you just access it via the web (it has a web gui, you control the machine remotely over your network). It's meant to be on all the time like this. Not everyone needs that. So a simple machine with Windows or just any free version of Linux even can be a NAS `server' if you will, just by being on and sharing HDD space (very simple to setup). But, those OS's need input to control and shut down (unless you activate remote desktop and do it like that, available in windows, which you can do!).
With NAS you could even use RAID to setup a massive capacity storage, or just let the drives be separate and individual for access. RAID5 is a great way to have a big capacity and uptime in a NAS box. Personally, I would just go for separate disks though, because you can't expand a RAID array without rebuilding it, and after a few terabytes you may just not want to have to deal with moving it around to rebuild an array. I add gigs of data per month, so I don't use RAID for my NAS--I just let the disks stay separate and access them as individuals.
Here's an example of a very expandable NAS machine (build it yourself, save tons of money, get tons of expandability and options):
Great NAS motherboard @ $55
CPU @ $57
Optical Drive @ $24
2GB of RAM @ $24
Good 500W PSU @ $40
Good NAS Case @ $50
There's the machine itself. It's just a computer. But, select specific parts for the job. The case has 6 internal 3.5" bays for hard drives and supports ATX or MicroATX. The motherboard supports up to 6 SATA drives. The motherboard has built in video, so you don't need a separate videocard. The cpu selected is powerful and cheap, with it's own heatsink & fan. Good memory for cheap. The motherboard also has gigabit lan, so it supports 10/100/1000 (and you want 1000mb) for NAS, so that you can transfer files fast. At gigabit speeds, it'll work over the network as fast as an eSATA drive would, easily, so it's great speed.
So $250 for the actual NAS box.
Again, any old computer would do. If you have an old computer, you can bring it to life just by putting some HDD's in it and setting it up as a network accessible storage unit. The one I setup here is $250 because I went for lots of connectability. 6 built in connections for HDD's and way more CPU/RAM than you would actually need, ever, for a NAS. I would do that because you never know when you might want to actually use that Computer for something more, like Home Theater (as it could instantly be used for that, having everything it needs for that too actually!). So that computer above is both an HTPC and NAS if you wish--very handy.
From there, you need a gigabit capable router.
And then it's just time to add your HDD's and whatever OS you're going to use.
Here's the HDD's I would use:
WD10EADS, 1 Tb @ $120
The drive is an update from it's previous version, a green drive, great performance, low power usage, and a good price. Just add them as you need them. Prices keep going down.
As for the OS, you can run FreeNAS as listed above (Freenas.org) or you could just run something like Windows and enable remote desktop so that you can control it headless with another computer (to shut it down, etc).
Very best,
