I like my NAS's

[Doomer]

Say what you will about building your own by a NAS greatly simplifies things. I have 3 serving 3 different purposes and all 3 are totally maintenance free. Once set up I never have to screw wit them again. One is a Synology, one is a Thecus and the other is a Zyxel. All 3 work as advertised and all 3 require zero attention, they are always available and always do their jobs.

In the past I have rolled my own but they always require intervention of one kind or another. These do not.

 

[aigomorla]

Hostname: Akihime.Harem
Build: FreeNAS-8.3.1-RELEASE-p2-x64 (r12686+b770da6_dirty)
Platform: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 540 @ 3.07GHz
Memory: 16256MB
System Time: Fri Oct 25 19:10:41 PDT 2013
Uptime: 7:10PM up 53 days, 2:09, 0 users
Load Average 0.00, 0.02, 0.00
Connected through 192.168.1.60

:T

The uptime would be longer had i not accidentally pulled the wrong power plug off my ups... :X

I dont think i could ever buy a prebuilt NAS after playing around with DYO's.
For a synology unit of that spec... it would be very very expensive....
Having spare parts laying around, and freeware makes the DYO NAS pretty darn cheap....
This unit also runs headless...

i dont understand what you mean about intervention.
I have yet to do anything on Akihime that would require attention after initial setup...
What NAS software were you using which required you to play around with to get working?

 

[Doomer]

I tried all the SW NAS's and found all to be lacking in one way or another. Limited features and power consumption are the main things that differentiates the PC based NASs from the commercial NASs but idiosyncrasies and lack of features are also factors plus all PC based NAS's consume way more power than commercial NAS's. This may not be important to some but it is to me.

 

[Red Squirrel]

While the prebuilts may be nice they are very expensive per disk slot compared to DIY and you don't know what you're going to get till you look at the admin interface. Ex: does it have NFS, SSH, iSCSI etc... with DIY you know you'll be able to do all those things.

For a small setup that does not have a lot though, it does sometimes make more sense to just go with a pre built provided there's no plans to expand past 4 bays.

 

[code65536]

How much do these prefabbed NASes idle at? In particular, one that can do RAID5/6?

My box (Ivy Bridge G1620, 8GB of RAM) idles at 22W (as measured at the wall by my Kill-A-Watt). Mine's bit of an unorthodox setup, as I'm using Windows 8.1 Storage Spaces. The 6 onboard motherboard ports are filled with a SSD (for the OS), an old 2.5" spinner (as a kind of a staging area for DVR and P2P), and four 4TB drives in a parity storage pool (12TB data, 4TB parity; I get 70-80MB/s writes and 250-350MB/s reads). But by using Windows, the machine also fills other roles (DVR through Media Center, P2P, and an Apache server for local testing) that a NAS-only box can't fill, so power-wise, it works out in the end, since I've essentially consolidated two machines into one this way.

 

[Doomer]

Just in case some of you haven't noticed, the humble NAS is is quietly merging with the Media Server. Thecus already has a line of NAS devices with HDMI and audio out. Others are sure to follow suit. This will be the killer NAS app. They can already run XBMC but even tho not ready for prime time yet, tomorrow will witness the birth of a totally new class of devices. The HTPC will prove to be just a transient phase.

 

[beginner99]

Just in case some of you haven't noticed, the humble NAS is is quietly merging with the Media Server. Thecus already has a line of NAS devices with HDMI and audio out. Others are sure to follow suit. This will be the killer NAS app. They can already run XBMC but even tho not ready for prime time yet, tomorrow will witness the birth of a totally new class of devices. The HTPC will prove to be just a transient phase.

Why would I want the NAS with possible noisy fans and HDDs anywhere near where I watch movies and listen to music?

What would be a good feature is on the fly transcoding in the NAS either based per user request or on bandwidth limitations.

 

[Red Squirrel]

How much do these prefabbed NASes idle at? In particular, one that can do RAID5/6?

My box (Ivy Bridge G1620, 8GB of RAM) idles at 22W (as measured at the wall by my Kill-A-Watt). Mine's bit of an unorthodox setup, as I'm using Windows 8.1 Storage Spaces. The 6 onboard motherboard ports are filled with a SSD (for the OS), an old 2.5" spinner (as a kind of a staging area for DVR and P2P), and four 4TB drives in a parity storage pool (12TB data, 4TB parity; I get 70-80MB/s writes and 250-350MB/s reads). But by using Windows, the machine also fills other roles (DVR through Media Center, P2P, and an Apache server for local testing) that a NAS-only box can't fill, so power-wise, it works out in the end, since I've essentially consolidated two machines into one this way.

Woah how did you manage that? Even my Atom environmental control server uses about 80w or so. Unless my measurement method is way inaccurate... not sure if my clamp meter is true RMS or not. Once do my DC power upgrades I'll be able to measure on the DC side which will probably be more accurate.

 

[aigomorla]

Even my Atom environmental control server uses about 80w or so. U

:hmm:

my smoothwall atom d2500 with 2.5inch HDD only draws 25W loaded...
something is definitely wrong with your setup... The TDP for an atom alone is 10W!!! how is your setup eatting 8x the TDP of the chip itself?
Or the PSU ur using is very inefficient for an atom...

RS try using a picopsu with a power brick.

Just in case some of you haven't noticed, the humble NAS is is quietly merging with the Media Server. Thecus already has a line of NAS devices with HDMI and audio out. Others are sure to follow suit. This will be the killer NAS app. They can already run XBMC but even tho not ready for prime time yet, tomorrow will witness the birth of a totally new class of devices. The HTPC will prove to be just a transient phase.

You still havent shown why the prebuilt is greater then the DYO....

I can do all that on a HP Microserver for probably 1/4th of the overall price over a thecus and have it be the same or simular box size and power draw.
I can also upgrade the RAM and install whatever NAS software i wish, without any hassle.
Also since its a HP microserver, it means its enterprise class, or business class, which will most likely be more durable then a non enterprise NAS.

And what if i wanted a NAS greater then 6 disks... have u noticed they start at 1000 dollars diskless?
For 1000 dollars i can build a 6 disk NAS with FREENAS + load it up with drives and a gignormous ram supply.... and have it run Raid-Z flawlessly.

And no the HTPC will never be a transient phase... if anything, them getting smaller will end up being a standard feature on future televisions.
Some people game with their HTPC... and adding a gaming class gpu for a NAS is FAIL on every level.

 

[Red Squirrel]

:hmm:

my smoothwall atom d2500 with 2.5inch HDD only draws 25W loaded...
something is definitely wrong with your setup... The TDP for an atom alone is 10W!!! how is your setup eatting 8x the TDP of the chip itself?
Or the PSU ur using is very inefficient for an atom...

RS try using a picopsu with a power brick.

I'm talking about the whole machine though so not sure how much the motherboard itself uses, the ram, the hard drive etc. If I recall I measured it at about 65w. Though, now that I think about it, when I originally tested it, it also had the fibre channel card in it, wonder how much power that used on it's own.

Still though, I'm surprised at ivy bridge (which is as high end as i7 right?) using less than 100w. My i7 machine uses like 300w. (has a high end VGA though)

Eventually if I go to a rectifier based setup and not standby, I want to look at pico PSUs. I think they even make -48v ones, which is the standard I would go with. For now I just have a standby 12v system though.

 

[aigomorla]

I'm talking about the whole machine though so not sure how much the motherboard itself uses, the ram, the hard drive etc. If I recall I measured it at about 65w. Though, now that I think about it, when I originally tested it, it also had the fibre channel card in it, wonder how much power that used on it's own.

Still though, I'm surprised at ivy bridge (which is as high end as i7 right?) using less than 100w. My i7 machine uses like 300w. (has a high end VGA though)

Eventually if I go to a rectifier based setup and not standby, I want to look at pico PSUs. I think they even make -48v ones, which is the standard I would go with. For now I just have a standby 12v system though.

RS my numbers are total power draw the entire unit uses only 25W when im doing a heavy torrent with greater then 1000 peer connections..

This is basically my entire setup + 1 2.5inch laptop HDD.
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-D2500CCE...=atom+dual+lan

FCAL CONTROLLER!!!
OK i see where all your power is going...

 

[yinan]

I love my 8bay Qnap. it is small, and quiet, and supports every protocol that you could possibly want to use. I have also had 0 problems with it and do not have to do any maintenance to it, unlike the DIY situation that requires attention.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Once you set up the DIY, they really don't need much in the way of attention. Unless your housemate turns them off. *facepalm*

And my 3-bay (sort of) NAS cost less with disks than a Synology 2-bay costs without disks. If I want to upgrade to a 4+ bay, it'll cost me <$100 for a new, larger enclosure and a SATA card - as opposed to buying a new $600+ Synology? No thanks.

 

[SheHateMe]

Say what you will about building your own by a NAS greatly simplifies things. I have 3 serving 3 different purposes and all 3 are totally maintenance free. Once set up I never have to screw wit them again.

....I built mine and I don't have to screw with it either.

I threw my NAS together in 20 minutes with about 6 hours to prep all 5 of the drives I started with. I have enough power and memory to do what I want...I've had zero problems, and you will find that most people have had no problems with their DIY NAS. I use Unraid and I think its awesome. I have Plex, SB, CP, SAB, and a bunch of other things running off of this little box. She knows how to take care of herself, too.

If she has a problem that needs my attention, she will send me an email. Haven't gotten one yet.

unlike the DIY situation that requires attention.

It requires as much attention as the thing you paid for.




There's way too many misconceptions out there about DIY NAS boxes. Its quite silly. People should give it a try. Its pretty rewarding to build something that works better than something you have to pay $800 for. I get better specs than a pre-built NAS at a lower cost.

Plus, DIY projects are great learning opportunities!


Specs:

NAS: Lian Li Q25B | Asus P8H77-I | Intel Celeron 540 | 4GB RAM | 21TB | UNRAID Pro --> Cost without the drives: $320 With Drives: $620 (I already had most of them as storage drives in my main PC)


Speaking of which, I need to get 3 more 3TB HDDs for her. After that, I am thinking about building her into a bigger box....

 

[LurchFrinky]

It requires as much attention as the thing you paid for.

+1
I don't get the notion that either one requires more "attention" than the other. I do get that some people like to fiddle with their gadgets, and I suppose you can give more attention to a DIY NAS by it's nature, but the only thing a NAS requires is a plug and an ethernet cable.
After reading Aigomorla's post, I decided to check my uptime and it was at 203 days. But the best part is that I literally forget that it is there - even when I am accessing it!

 

[SheHateMe]

After reading Aigomorla's post, I decided to check my uptime and it was at 203 days. But the best part is that I literally forget that it is there - even when I am accessing it!

Yup, my uptime is going on 3 months. I considered getting a Synology before all this, but I couldn't justify the cost knowing that an Unraid License + all the hardware would cost less than a Synology box.

 

[Chapbass]

+1
I don't get the notion that either one requires more "attention" than the other. I do get that some people like to fiddle with their gadgets, and I suppose you can give more attention to a DIY NAS by it's nature, but the only thing a NAS requires is a plug and an ethernet cable.
After reading Aigomorla's post, I decided to check my uptime and it was at 203 days. But the best part is that I literally forget that it is there - even when I am accessing it!

I feel that the idea of needing attention is not quite comparing apples to apples. For example:

I have two NAS's, one is running Openfiler with 4x1TB drives and providing more SAN like services (iSCSI to my VMWare farm as well as a LUN for my desktop). This thing has been rock solid ever since I built it, I haven't had to touch it from a maintenance standpoint (only for things like adding LUNs, which I would have to do on any system).

On the other hand, my other NAS is a 16 drive unRaid setup. Does it need some maintenance? Yeah, when a drive dies...which is a lot more common on 16 drives than it is on some 2 drive prebuilt NAS.

My point is that most people who roll their own NAS' (especially the ones that seem to need maintenance more often) tend to be larger in size and scope than a prebuilt, because a prebuilt NAS at that size is going to be $$$.

 

[aigomorla]

My point is that most people who roll their own NAS' (especially the ones that seem to need maintenance more often) tend to be larger in size and scope than a prebuilt, because a prebuilt NAS at that size is going to be $$$.

i have to totally agree with this comment.

had i needed to build a 1 or 2 disk nas, i would of most definitely gotten a prebuilt.

However as the array got larger with disk cap, the DYO option seemed more viable due to the customization in hardware / cooling / addons.

And finally adding to the fact i have knowledge in building a PC as well as servicing and maintaining it all on my own, the DYO route is a no brainier.

If i didnt have that skill, i could see the op's case of going prebuilt.