New to NAS (but hooked already)

[deniro0311]

I decided to take down my server since I no longer have a need for it's webserver functions. I was going to turn it into a dedicated file server, but then I read about NAS. After some research I am hooked, but I have a few questions.

1. I plan on using NASLite-2 USB, but I would like some info form people who have actually used it. Reviews I have read all say FreeNAS is still too buggy. I am still willing to go either route, but I would like to here form people on this forum (as opposed to guys getting paid to write reviews) that I can converse with. Also, would it be better to go cd or usb?
2. I plan on getting a 4-port sata raid card, upgrading parts of my net to giga., and eventually getting bigger drives. The only thing is that I would hate to waste good hardware on something that requires much less. The way I understand it, these NAS solutions require next to nothing to operate, much like my ipcop box. I was using an opteron 175/dfi nf4 ultra-d/4 gb ocz plat. xtc. on my server. I would rather save all this for something else. What would you all recommend for mobo/cpu. I have seen some pretty decent looking mobo/cpu deals on newegg for around $90. I am assuming my 550w psu will be fine for a raid 5 with 4 drives.
3. Is there any security features in these NAS solutions, or will I just need to leave that up to my firewall/router?

I am thinking of doing the following....

1. Get raid card (ebay) to use with my 4 120gb sata's (upgrade to bigger drives later)
2. Use my 550w psu
3. Use pegboard for case and hard drive/psu rack I made
4. Throw in old agp card and 512-1gb mem I have sitting around
5. Buy the following mobo and cpu...

mobo
cpu

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Madwand1]

I'd go with a MB with onboard GbE that's not on the PCI bus, onboard SATA to start out simply, and an available largish PCIe slot for a higher-end RAID controller down the road. I'd prefer on-board video, but would go with a drop-in PCI video card if needed.

With a Linux build, you have the option for Linux software RAID. For this I'd look for as many on-board SATA ports as possible, and to help things out further, put the OS drive on PATA.

 

[Stan]

I'd go with a MB with onboard GbE that's not on the PCI bus,

So its on the IDE bus? AGP bus? What are you talking about. Onboard Ethernet is always on the PCI bus. Most onboard ethernet (realtek anyways) on consumer motherboards is crap. I can't count the number of consumer gig-e boards I have used that didnt even offer frame bursting.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: Stan
So its on the IDE bus? AGP bus? What are you talking about. Onboard Ethernet is always on the PCI bus.

Have you not heard of nVIDIA NICs or Intel CSA or even PCIe?

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://download.intel.com/design/network/papers/25245102.pdf">ftp://download.intel.com/design/network/papers/25245102.pdf</a>
http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce4_ultra.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

 

[deniro0311]

Thanks for all the info guys. My goal is to do this as cheap as possible. Plus, like I said earlier, I would hate to waste good hardware when the OS doesn't require it. However, maybe I should use what I have now (opteron 175, dfi landparty ut nf4-ultra d). This way, if I end up hating the NAS, and I decide to stand-up something that requires better hardware, I won't have to worry about changing out parts.

Madwand1, you stated "I'd go with a MB with onboard GbE that's not on the PCI bus". Then you posted a link to nvidia's nforce4 ultra page. Am I suppose to assume that my mobo falls into this category (GbE thats not on the PCI bus). I have one marvell and one nvidia nic if that helps, and its's a little over a year old. Also, what are the basic benefits of it not being on the PCI Bus. Forgive me, I am a bit of a noob in this area.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: deniro0311
Madwand1, you stated "I'd go with a MB with onboard GbE that's not on the PCI bus". Then you posted a link to nvidia's nforce4 ultra page. Am I suppose to assume that my mobo falls into this category (GbE thats not on the PCI bus). I have one marvell and one nvidia nic if that helps, and its's a little over a year old. Also, what are the basic benefits of it not being on the PCI Bus.

Yes, the nVIDIA NIC would be off the PCI bus; the Marvell NIC is not.

Performance is generally better when the NIC is off the PCI bus, especially when there are other high bandwidth devices on the PCI bus (e.g. a storage controller). This doesn't matter much at the lower end of performance, and can be mitigated somewhat by using jumbo frames, but I'd recommend it as a good design choice when available.