Advice on build your own NAS.

[joe_H]

I'm going to build a home NAS box mainly for system backups, and serving DVD/Blu-ray/mkv rips to my WD HD LIVE's attached to my home network.

I'm going to be using an old micro-ATX case.
I'm going to be using 2 2TB Samsung SATA drives for storage:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-NA-_-NA-_-NA

I'm going to be using an old 320GB IDE HDD for the OS drive.
I'm going to be using Windows Home Server.
I'm not going to be using RAID.

Basically I was thinking about going with the Gigabyte D510 setup
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ords%29&Page=3

as it has 4 SATA ports, onboard video, and Gigabit LAN.

The Newegg reviews have given it great marks and have stated it's reliable, however, I want to make sure that the Atom processor is more than capable of moving the data without bogging down. Otherwise, what is a good, reliable, low wattage CPU/MOBO combo?

I'm up for suggestions on power supplies. I've read about the PICO psu's which go up to 150 watts, but the pictures only show 1 IDE and 1 SATA connectors. My system will have 1 DVD drive, 1 IDE drive, and 2 SATA drives to start, so I want to make sure there is enough juice. Should I go with a standard PSU instead?

I'm planning on getting 2GB of inexpensive RAM for it.

I'd Like to keep the system to around $200 if possible, and obviously the lowest wattage output possible as it will be running 24/7.

Does anyone have any better suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[mfenn]

Atom should be plenty for WHS as long as you don't do too crazy with the plugins.

 

[JackMDS]

Welcome to AnandTech Forums.

May be his thread can further help, http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2040351

 

[Modelworks]

Before you do the build make a list of all the task you want the server to perform. That will help define the hardware requirements. If you just build it with serving files in mind then later want to add other applications you may find the hardware lacking.

For just a file server I recommend NAS boxes from dlink, netgear, linksys instead of building one. The power usage will be lower than anything you can build and the cost is low as well. They also are easy to set up.
Dlink 321 is a good by at $120. Install your drives and you are done.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822155009

 

[rudder]

Atom should be plenty for WHS as long as you don't do too crazy with the plugins.

Dual core atom with gig nic is around $90. Can't beat it.

 

[joe_H]

Before you do the build make a list of all the task you want the server to perform. That will help define the hardware requirements. If you just build it with serving files in mind then later want to add other applications you may find the hardware lacking.

For just a file server I recommend NAS boxes from dlink, netgear, linksys instead of building one. The power usage will be lower than anything you can build and the cost is low as well. They also are easy to set up.
Dlink 321 is a good by at $120. Install your drives and you are done.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822155009

I initially saw the Dlink 321 at Newegg, and considered it until I read that it saved everything as Ext2. I'd rather save off my data as NTFS so I can use it in any Windows machine in case of emergency/recovery.

Here are the 3 tasks I want:

1. Store backups of all client PC's attached.
2. Stream CD/DVD/MKV rips to my network attached WD HD LIVE
3. Possibly run my Playon server from it to the WD LIVE (although I've heard that is a pain to try and set up).

The 3 setups I'm considering: (I've ordered the 2 2TB HDD's today).

1. DLink 321
2. Gigabyte D510 combo with 1 GB DDR2 ram

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ords%29&Page=3

3. Athlon II X2 240 chip paired with a Foxconn AM3 MOBO, and 2GB of ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186189

If I go with #2 or #3, I'll be installing WHS on it.

The box will be on 24/7 as said before, so I'm looking for reliability and low power usage.

JackMDS: Thank you for that link as well.

Anybody have experience with the DLink 321 or the other two setups?

 

[mfenn]

I initially saw the Dlink 321 at Newegg, and considered it until I read that it saved everything as Ext2. I'd rather save off my data as NTFS so I can use it in any Windows machine in case of emergency/recovery.

Here are the 3 tasks I want:

1. Store backups of all client PC's attached.
2. Stream CD/DVD/MKV rips to my network attached WD HD LIVE
3. Possibly run my Playon server from it to the WD LIVE (although I've heard that is a pain to try and set up).

The 3 setups I'm considering: (I've ordered the 2 2TB HDD's today).

1. DLink 321
2. Gigabyte D510 combo with 1 GB DDR2 ram

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ords%29&Page=3

3. Athlon II X2 240 chip paired with a Foxconn AM3 MOBO, and 2GB of ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186189

If I go with #2 or #3, I'll be installing WHS on it.

The box will be on 24/7 as said before, so I'm looking for reliability and low power usage.

JackMDS: Thank you for that link as well.

Anybody have experience with the DLink 321 or the other two setups?

Regarding Ext2 support for Windows: http://www.fs-driver.org/
Also, any Linux LiveCD would let you grab the data.

 

[abaez]

I had the DLink 321 but only used it for like three days because it's too slow to stream my uncompressed bluray mkv rips.

Anyone wanna buy it?

 

[joe_H]

I had the DLink 321 but only used it for like three days because it's too slow to stream my uncompressed bluray mkv rips.

Anyone wanna buy it?

Ugh...if it's too slow to stream blu-ray mkv's, then it's definitely out of the running.

I guess down to either the D510 or the X2 240.

 

[Brutus04]

oe_H,

I was all set to build a NAS server then realized I had sold all my spare parts...Have you thought about FreeNAS instead of WHS? An extra $100 could go to something else. Here is a link FYI... http://freenas.org/freenas

Just an idea...all the best!

 

[mfenn]

oe_H,

I was all set to build a NAS server then realized I had sold all my spare parts...Have you thought about FreeNAS instead of WHS? An extra $100 could go to something else. Here is a link FYI... http://freenas.org/freenas

Just an idea...all the best!

Good suggestion. You can get really fancy with BSD software RAID and ZFS.

 

[Modelworks]

I had the DLink 321 but only used it for like three days because it's too slow to stream my uncompressed bluray mkv rips.

Anyone wanna buy it?

The 321 is a bit picky about the config but can easily stream blu ray, the 321 tops out around 10MB/sec , bluray is only 7MB/sec at most.

A good comparison of NAS is here:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190/

 

[Modelworks]

1. Store backups of all client PC's attached.

Just about anything can do this.

2. Stream CD/DVD/MKV rips to my network attached WD HD LIVE

I've done this with a p3-933 loaded with 384Mb ram and ipcop running also as a router and firewall . Doesn't take much to read data off a drive and send it out.

3. Possibly run my Playon server from it to the WD LIVE (although I've heard that is a pain to try and set up).

This could be a problem. Playon transcodes a lot of online content. Transcoding takes cpu power and quite a bit of it if you are going to do it in real time.

If I go with #2 or #3, I'll be installing WHS on it.

The box will be on 24/7 as said before, so I'm looking for reliability and low power usage.

If you drop the transcoding requirement then you have a lot of options like freenas or any linux distribution which will allow you to lower your hardware requirements a ton.

The lowest power usage is going to come from embedded chips designed to do just file serving, those only use about 7watts + whatever the drives uses you are not going to reach that with a pc format motherboard, but if power is important I would pick an atom or via c3 processor.