NAS Server

[sorcerermerlin]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for:

A 24/7 Network Attached Storage server. I also plan to run a Transmission daemon for Bit Torrent downloads, a fully functional web server stack (Apache2/PHP/MySQL) capable of handling a decent amount of traffic for a WordPress blog I want to host, able to serve up over 4TB of movies and pics over DLNA (likely thru Plex or XMBC), and a few other silly *nix projects of mine. I plan to mostly use it headless over SSH, but I would still like a decent video interface so I can use the GUI as needed. It needs to be able to handle all this at once and not get bogged down. I am preferring a small type of case and either Micro ATX or Micro ITX boards. I'd like to set up a basic RAID config for data redundancy. I intend to use Ubuntu 13.10 Server to do all of this.

2. What YOUR budget is:

$250 to $400

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from:

USA

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from:

NewEgg.com

5. IF YOU have a brand preference.

Intel.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

I have two 1TB 6GB/s hard drives that I plan to use in this build. However I would like to expand my storage at some point. Any ideas for bigger hard drives that will work well for this are welcome - and don't need to be included in the build price as I am not planning to buy them up front.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

No overclocking. I want it to be stable for 24/7 use.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

1280x1024 or better

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

In the next month.

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system.

No it will be totally open source software.

 

[piasabird]

Plan on purchasing a RAID Card?

 

[sorcerermerlin]

Possibly. I'm not sure yet if I even wanna mess with RAID. Some of the motherboards I had looked at had RAID controllers built in.

 

[mfenn]

I would go with normal Linux md RAID here. A hardware RAID card isn't worth the expense given your budget, and the Intel mobo FakeRAID is horrible in Linux.

I would also use one of the LTS versions of Ubuntu, the newest is 12.04 LTS. Reinstalling or dist-upgrading your server every 6 months might seem cool now, but trust me, it will get old quick.

As for hardware:
Pentium G3220 $70
ASUS H87I-PLUS $110 - somewhat pricy, but has 6 SATA ports in mini-ITX
Crucial DDR3 1600 8GB $70 - single-channel is OK for now and gives you room to upgrade
Corsair CX430M $40 AR
Fractal Design Node 304 $70 - support for 6 HDDs
Total: $360 AR

When it comes to buying new hard drives in the future, my selection criteria is basically "what is the best cost per gig drive from Toshiba, Hitachi, Seagate, or WD". Most of the time, the largest capacity isn't going to be the best cost per gig, it's usually one step below (3TB drives right now).

 

[dave_the_nerd]

..

Hmm...

...

I'll second what mfenn said. Basically. You might be able to save a few bucks if you go with a micro-ATX rig. But it'll be bigger and more obnoxious.

Something like this for a case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163223

And this for a motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135356

For a NAS, you'll presumably be using spinning hard drives for storage and not SSDs, so having SATA-II ports is not really a bottleneck.

After moving to an all-ITX household and ditching all but one slimline optical drive, I am experiencing something of a falling-in-lust-again period with external 5.25" bays, since they can be refitted with things like this and this. Grass is always greener, I guess.