Need a new NAS

[boomhower]

My Acer went belly which is a shame because it did everthing I wanted perfectly.

This one is going to be homebuilt. I tried a qnap and it was utter crap.

Needs:
1. back up my photos, music, and video
2. stream said items via my WD Live streamer, playing nice with a PS3 is an added bonus.
3. Quiet and low power consumption but enough horsepower to do encoding for my mobile devices would be nice but that's not critical.

Software:
I'm inclined to just use WHS 2011 even though it strip Drive Extender, my favorite feature of the whole darn thing. I want easy to use and know absolutely nothing about Linux.

Price isn't as important as it being done right. I don't want to have to touch this thing other than to change hard rives but obviously, the cheaper the better.

 

[mfenn]

Come on, everyone has a max budget. 🙂 If you really don't, I can recommend some quite excellent NetApp boxes. What's your desired capacity?

 

[boomhower]

I'll say $500 but would prefer $400 or less, not counting HD's. Whether or not the OS used can live with different drives will ulitmately determine that. I can get by with 2TB's for the time being. I've given up on a video collection. It's pretty much just music and pictures. I have one 2TB WD Green and a 1TB WD Green and would like to reuse those. The old WHS had a couple 1.5TB Seagates but they are on the way out. That reminds me, I need to check the warranty on them.

 

[splat_ed]

I had a quick question for you OP, what did you find to be so bad about the QNAP? I've been thinking about one of those (TS-419P+) or a homebuilt.

 

[boomhower]

The interface sucks. WHS was just very easy to use. Installing apps and just moving files is a pain. Trying to copy a folder of folders results in a bunch of empty folders with no files. My WD box doesn't see it correctly, only a few folders are visible. I don't have the time toscrew with it, I want something that just works.

 

[Zap]

I've given up on a video collection. It's pretty much just music and pictures.

If you were still doing video, I'd recommend a Core i3 of some kind. Otherwise, for just music/pictures you only need basic file serving. Here are my recommendations for something that is small, attractive, flexible and power efficient.

ASUS E35M1-I motherboard $125
Has six native SATA 6G ports and gigabit Ethernet. Oh yeah, it also comes with a dual core CPU that is power efficient yet more than powerful enough for file serving, plus is in a mini ITX form factor. It also is passively cooled.

Kingston 2GB DDR3 $14
2GB should be more than enough for WHS. The motherboard/CPU combo I suggested only supports single channel RAM, so no benefit to a matched pair over a single stick.

Fractal Design Array R2 $203
This is the expensive part. I choose this case because it is small at 13.78" x 9.84" x 7.87" yet it can hold six hard drives using grommets and cooled by a huge 140mm fan. The PSU is 80Plus rated and has more than enough juice for six HDDs (motherboard has six SATA ports, COINCIDENCE???) plus a much more powerful CPU. It can even hold normal sized expansion cards, in case you want to go crazy and get a hardware RAID card.

Alternate cases are ones like the Chenbro NAS cases but those have drawbacks of holding only four 3.5" HDDs, plus some reports of iffy PSUs. Also, motherboard clearance and ventilation is tight.

Lian Li PC-Q25 is cheaper and holds more drives, but it doesn't come with a PSU and it is bigger.

 

[boomhower]

If you were still doing video, I'd recommend a Core i3 of some kind. Otherwise, for just music/pictures you only need basic file serving. Here are my recommendations for something that is small, attractive, flexible and power efficient.

ASUS E35M1-I motherboard $125
Has six native SATA 6G ports and gigabit Ethernet. Oh yeah, it also comes with a dual core CPU that is power efficient yet more than powerful enough for file serving, plus is in a mini ITX form factor. It also is passively cooled.

Kingston 2GB DDR3 $14
2GB should be more than enough for WHS. The motherboard/CPU combo I suggested only supports single channel RAM, so no benefit to a matched pair over a single stick.

Fractal Design Array R2 $203
This is the expensive part. I choose this case because it is small at 13.78" x 9.84" x 7.87" yet it can hold six hard drives using grommets and cooled by a huge 140mm fan. The PSU is 80Plus rated and has more than enough juice for six HDDs (motherboard has six SATA ports, COINCIDENCE???) plus a much more powerful CPU. It can even hold normal sized expansion cards, in case you want to go crazy and get a hardware RAID card.

Alternate cases are ones like the Chenbro NAS cases but those have drawbacks of holding only four 3.5" HDDs, plus some reports of iffy PSUs. Also, motherboard clearance and ventilation is tight.

Lian Li PC-Q25 is cheaper and holds more drives, but it doesn't come with a PSU and it is bigger.

Thanks! It will still do video, I was just refering to the storage needs as I am not doing massive video storage anymore, just download watch and delete. I had been eying those Chenbro cases but hadn't seen the Fractal before. It's looking good even at that price.

 

[Zap]

The Fractal has the better PSU (not just higher wattage, but higher quality and efficiency), more drive bays, better cooling and is probably easier to do a build in. The Chenbro has the hot swap capabilities. and is smaller.

 

[brownstone]

Wow, this thread was timely! Thanks for the recommendations Zap.

 

[mfenn]

If you were still doing video, I'd recommend a Core i3 of some kind. Otherwise, for just music/pictures you only need basic file serving. Here are my recommendations for something that is small, attractive, flexible and power efficient.

ASUS E35M1-I motherboard $125
Has six native SATA 6G ports and gigabit Ethernet. Oh yeah, it also comes with a dual core CPU that is power efficient yet more than powerful enough for file serving, plus is in a mini ITX form factor. It also is passively cooled.

Kingston 2GB DDR3 $14
2GB should be more than enough for WHS. The motherboard/CPU combo I suggested only supports single channel RAM, so no benefit to a matched pair over a single stick.

Fractal Design Array R2 $203
This is the expensive part. I choose this case because it is small at 13.78" x 9.84" x 7.87" yet it can hold six hard drives using grommets and cooled by a huge 140mm fan. The PSU is 80Plus rated and has more than enough juice for six HDDs (motherboard has six SATA ports, COINCIDENCE???) plus a much more powerful CPU. It can even hold normal sized expansion cards, in case you want to go crazy and get a hardware RAID card.

:thumbsup: To this. It's pretty amazing that an entire PC can be 3 SKUs these days!