NAS for home user

[codingfreak]

Hi,

I might be asking the old question .. sorry if I am doing so.

Currently I do have multiple external and internal harddisks for storing the media. I was looking for a CHEAPEST and simple solution to keep all my devices properly connected. I know we can use a OLD DESKTOP but I feel you need to have good knowledge of assembling one with low price and less power consumption.

I felt NAS would be the best solution (I am new to NAS even). Can anyone suggest me CHEAPest and simple NAS solution for home user with atleast 2 Bays (I felt with atleast 2 I can swap my internal harddrives very easily rather than power off the whole machine to do so)

If there are any other best ways please suggest.

Thanks 🙂

 

[fffblackmage]

Pogo plug. It's a cheap, low power, little Linux box that you can attach a few external HDDs to and it'll let you access them over the network.

Something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-POGO-.../dp/B0033WSDR4

I have one that I picked up for cheap (not the pink, I have a black model). I haven't really given it much use, since I have my own custom NAS box, but it's pretty cool. Not sure if you can set it up as a network-attached drive rather than having to access files through a web browser and up/downloading files via ftp though.

 

[mfenn]

Pogo plug. It's a cheap, low power, little Linux box that you can attach a few external HDDs to and it'll let you access them over the network.

Something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-POGO-.../dp/B0033WSDR4

I have one that I picked up for cheap (not the pink, I have a black model). I haven't really given it much use, since I have my own custom NAS box, but it's pretty cool. Not sure if you can set it up as a network-attached drive rather than having to access files through a web browser and up/downloading files via ftp though.

Sources say yes. It is apparently, really easy to get SSH access to the thing.

Alternatively, any cheap G530, H61, 4GB of RAM system is more than sufficient for NAS duties.

 

[LurchFrinky]

If you have an old desktop, just download and install FreeNAS to test it out. Lots of people repurpose their older machines as NAS as a way of saving money.
A NAS machine can be a regular PC, so if you are comfy with the software and assembling your own rig, you can just build a new, low power (cheap), machine and call it NAS.

 

[billyb0b]

Cheap and hot-swappable do not go together in the NAS world

 

[codingfreak]

Thanks for the replies guys ...

I agree cheap and hot-swappable do not go together .. its ok for me if it is not hot swappable.

pogoplug seems cheap but it only lets u connect external harddrives so I cant use my internal harddrives which are more than 4.

Even a custom build machine sounds a nice idea .. any suggestions of hardware ? As mentioned my requirements are minimal just save the data, acees music and other videos .. I dont need to run any other servers in it ... 🙂

ATOM processor seems reasonable for my usage with least power usage - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Atom

 

[mfenn]

The problem with Atom boards is that they usually have a lack of SATA ports. A fully-fledged 1155 build doesn't necessarily use that much more power or cost much more, but is a lot more flexible. Check out my build in this thread.

 

[codingfreak]

The problem with Atom boards is that they usually have a lack of SATA ports. A fully-fledged 1155 build doesn't necessarily use that much more power or cost much more, but is a lot more flexible. Check out my build in this thread.

Yeah you are right .. from last 2 days I am searching for a mother board with ATOM processor and >2 sata ports and I hardly made any.

AMD Fusion boards sounds promising but worried of the HEAT issues.

The specs which you have shared of a intel celeron processor it has power usage of 35w ..

 

[mfenn]

Yeah you are right .. from last 2 days I am searching for a mother board with ATOM processor and >2 sata ports and I hardly made any.

AMD Fusion boards sounds promising but worried of the HEAT issues.

The specs which you have shared of a intel celeron processor it has power usage of 35w ..

Huh? The G530 has a TDP of 65W, not 35W. TDP doesn't mean much in relation to idle or near-idle power draw though. I'd expect the whole system to idle down in the low 30W range, and that's mostly due to the drives and PSU inefficiency at such low loads.

 

[codingfreak]

Huh? The G530 has a TDP of 65W, not 35W. TDP doesn't mean much in relation to idle or near-idle power draw though. I'd expect the whole system to idle down in the low 30W range, and that's mostly due to the drives and PSU inefficiency at such low loads.

So the G530 needs a fan to cool it down (some more power) as it gonna generate good amounts of heat. Only plus point I see when comparing an ATOM with CELERON is TDP for ATOM is very less below 20W and it might not need a fan to cool it down and less noise.

 

[LurchFrinky]

So the G530 needs a fan to cool it down (some more power) as it gonna generate good amounts of heat. Only plus point I see when comparing an ATOM with CELERON is TDP for ATOM is very less below 20W and it might not need a fan to cool it down and less noise.

After re-reading this thread, I think you may have missed an important point - the cpu in a NAS server hardly does any work and anything faster than an atom will never get close to 100%. For this reason, considering TDP is pointless as you will never get there. What you are interested in is the idle power draw as the NAS will spend 99%+ of time at idle. Modern cpus have excellent power saving features when idle.

As a point of reference, my Sempron 140 (45W single core) has never been above 15% usage while in my NAS.

 

[mfenn]

So the G530 needs a fan to cool it down (some more power) as it gonna generate good amounts of heat. Only plus point I see when comparing an ATOM with CELERON is TDP for ATOM is very less below 20W and it might not need a fan to cool it down and less noise.

TDP is meaningless for this application. I personally run a VMware ESXi server (much more intensive application) based on a Core i3 with only a single fan in the whole machine and temps are fine. Even an Atom box is going to need at least one system level fan, otherwise the HDDs will roast.

 

[ControlD]

Yeah you are right .. from last 2 days I am searching for a mother board with ATOM processor and >2 sata ports and I hardly made any.

AMD Fusion boards sounds promising but worried of the HEAT issues.

The specs which you have shared of a intel celeron processor it has power usage of 35w ..

Why not use an Atom board with a cheap SATA PCI card? My unraid server is built around an Intel D510MO board which only has two SATA ports, but I just plugged in a 4x SATA card and everything works well. As long as you don't need blazing speed the solution works fine.

Last time I checked the system pulled something like 22W with all of my drives spun up.

 

[Jimmah]

Why not use an Atom board with a cheap SATA PCI card? My unraid server is built around an Intel D510MO board which only has two SATA ports, but I just plugged in a 4x SATA card and everything works well. As long as you don't need blazing speed the solution works fine.

Last time I checked the system pulled something like 22W with all of my drives spun up.

You can get the Intel D510MO for about 80-100$ ish depending on location of course, plus RAM it'd be about 120-135$ for 4gb DDR2.

Another option would be a Celeron G440, Foxconn ITX board and 4gb DDR3 for about 110$. Similar power levels, much more processing power.

Lastly, an E350 is about the same cost and power as the Celeron, so it all comes down to personal preferrence.