Planning home-built NAS, old hardware, cheap and with quite a lot of uncertainty.

[LaForce]

Hello,
I am thinking of building a home NAS with the main purpose of redundantly storing my family's pictures and important info.
Will also probably use the thing for other daily activities, as for example - I have 2x 1TB Seagate Baracudas that I run in a RAID-0(motherboard controller) in my PC (which has a SSD for the OS). this array is used as a general storage/unimportant programs/games install space, which I intend to morph into RAID-5 (or smth like this) on the NAS with the same purpose.

Budget: not important -the disks I will buy and the PCIe cards/ RAM etc. are not important for my other questions.


I have an old box, which I wish I can use for my future NAS, with P5Pl2 Asus motherboard (2 GB - max), a Celeron(32bit) 1 core CPU @ 2.3MHz, 4 S-ATA connectors on the motherboard, 450 W corsair PSU.

I am thinking of a build around the freeNAS OS(but am not very familiar with any such OS), but it needs 64 bit and 8GB RAM for streaming, which is impossible to have in my old box.

I am thinking of buying 3x TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 3TB HDDs as they are best at $/MB per $/MB for a RAID-5 (or the freeNAS equivalent of it). And maybe another 1TB HDD for another RAID-5 with my current drives, or just transfer the 2 1TB RAID-0 to that NAS.

I also have old 2,5 in HDDs (a 200 GB and a 320 GB and maybe some other) that I might include... as I hear freeNAS has such a capabilities.

I use 2-3 local PCs on Windows mainly, some phones and tablets (Android), but the storage will be used through the web from some other computers (for backup of pictures and such). I intend this not to be very intensely used machine but it will be on 24/7, although I am guestimating no more than 4-6 hours of daily usage.

So my questions:

1. Will such a hardware setup work at all?
2. Will I be able to stream video from such a setup (given the connection speeds are good enough)?
3. I understand that the latest freeNAS won't work but there are older versions running on 32bit CPUs, is it likely to run older version without the RAM-hungry ZFS and still stream video?
4. Better OS for my purpose maybe?
5. I intend to use a PCI to S-ATA card for another 4x S-ATA connectors to have like up to 8 HDDs in the box - is this a good idea?
6. What about managing and using different (speed, size, etc., etc.) HDDs on a single NAS - any thoughts on that?
7. What about using different arrays in the same NAS?
8. And finally, an almost random one, does a GPU presence improves the streaming capabilities of such a setup?

Any toughs are welcome as I feel a little lost right now (I am in the phase of the intensive reading to find those answers but maybe you have them ready

Thanks in advance.

 

[XavierMace]

1. Will it technically function? Yes. Will it function well? No.

2. Standard SD video with no transcoding? Yes. 1080p with transcoding? No. Multiple streams? No.

3. When you are talking about finding older versions of an OS just to get it to run on your hardware, you need to reconsider the hardware you are using.

4. FreeNAS is very good at what it does. I've had several FreeNAS boxes over the years. Running a Solaris based box now because I "needed" features FreeNAS didn't have.

5. Plain PCI will be ungodly slow. I would recommend a good used PCIe SAS HBA from a server. Good ones run about $100 on eBay.

6. Don't. Is it possible? Depending on your setup, yes. Doesn't mean it's a good idea.

7. Depends on why you are running multiple arrays. If you are running multiple arrays just to cram in a bunch of older drives, no.

8. No.

Not trying to be a negative nancy, but the level of performance you would get from that box would struggle to match even the cheapest of prebuild NAS units and they're running a minimal OS designed solely for that purpose. If you budget doesn't allow for purchasing more suitable hardware, my recommendation would be to just keep your current setup of having the drives in your primary system.

 

[LaForce]

@XavierMace, 10x for the advises.
I guess you are right.
I just didn't want to scrap those old parts

 

[ronbo613]

I have 2x 1TB Seagate Baracudas that I run in a RAID-0(motherboard controller) in my PC (which has a SSD for the OS).

Running Seagate Barracudas in RAID 0 is a good way to inject uncertainty into your life.

I would agree with the previous poster and suggest you buy a prebuilt NAS and get on with it.

 

[XavierMace]

Yeah, believe me, I get that. In the past I was a bit of a hoarder of old electronics, especially when it comes to my server lab. I literally had an entire closet, almost two really, full of old electronics.

But, finally one day I realized I could get a new computer that was faster than the ones I was hanging on to for $100, maybe less. The new system used less electricity to boot. I've given away just about all of my old hardware at his point.

That doesn't factor in the reliability concerns as well. The older equipment is, the more likely a failure is. The more equipment there is, the more likely a failure is. Lots of old equipment is asking for a failure and when said equipment is housing all of your data, bad things happen, especially if you don't have proper backups. This is especially true with hard drives. The idea of tossing all your old hard drives into one system sounds great. The problem is what happens when one or more of those drives inevitably fail.

Not saying you HAVE to spend tons of money. But if you value your time and data, you're far better off in the long run with a bigger up front investment.

If spending money on more suitable hardware is an option, I and others here can certainly provide advise. Here's two quick prebuilt units.

This prebuilt box at $270 has about the same grunt as your hardware (less RAM, faster/more efficient CPU) but has a nice small little case with a preinstalled OS which takes most of the work out of the picture. It also has a few other niceties, dual GbE network ports and 2 USB 3.0 ports. The latter is great if you're going to be copying data onto it from thumb drives or external drives.

This 4 bay unit is a substantial setup up in performance, but obviously a substantial step up in price as well.

Those aren't meant as "best option" recommendations, just general ideas to ponder.

 

[smitbret]

@XavierMace, 10x for the advises.
I guess you are right.
I just didn't want to scrap those old parts

P-shaw....... you can use your stuff just fine. Build an unRAID box instead of FreeNAS. People are running them with old, single core Semprons and 1GB of memory. For what you say you'll be doing, it will work fine. unRAID is built for exactly what you have described.

www.lime-technology.com

I would probably opt for PCIe -> SATA instead of PCI for speed sake, but PCI will work a little more slowly.

unRAID let's you mix and match HDDs of different sizes and speeds. It won't affect array performance if you have old slow drives in the same array as new, fast ones, either.

Streaming video won't be a problem, either, unless you are wanting to transcode. That's a whole different ball of wax. At that point, a GPU that could make a difference would be entirely dependent on what software is doing the transcoding.

 

[XavierMace]

I'd take a Sempron over a 775 single core Celeron. And I would love to see an unraid box transcoding on that hardware.

 

[twinrider1]

Hello,
I am thinking of building a home NAS with the main purpose of redundantly storing my family's pictures and important info.....

Will any of your storage devices be located off site? Having all your backups under one roof leaves you at risk.

 

[smitbret]

I'd take a Sempron over a 775 single core Celeron. And I would love to see an unraid box transcoding on that hardware.

OP never mentioned transcoding. Sempron 145 has a Passmark of 802. Celeron 925 is 692. For unRAID use it won't matter.

My only question was the "other daily activities" and whether it's just a file repository or if they will actually be using it as a workstation.

 

[Ranulf]

Ditto on going with unraid to mix drives or some form of linux server OS. Maybe OpenMediaVault. FreeNas is not worth it with the old hardware. But I'm also not a fan of FreeNas on modern hardware.

 

[XavierMace]

OP never mentioned transcoding. Sempron 145 has a Passmark of 802. Celeron 925 is 692. For unRAID use it won't matter.

My only question was the "other daily activities" and whether it's just a file repository or if they will actually be using it as a workstation.

He said streaming and also (separately) mentioned Android tablets.

I'd guess probably 50% odds they are actually looking for transcoding even if they don't know it yet.

 

[smitbret]

He said streaming and also (separately) mentioned Android tablets.

I'd guess probably 50% odds they are actually looking for transcoding even if they don't know it yet.

Nice catch. You are probably right.

 

[LaForce]

@smitbret - wow, 10x for the other option you tossed.

The point of the "redundantly storing" thing is that this will be a backup and not main storage holder. Every member of my family has its own storage and backup, but this NAS will be the secure holder of the pictures and video etc. (the last resort, a second backup etc.) - for this purpose, I intend to create an array of new HDDs (by design it should be inactive for the most of the time but if it can stream comfortably I hypothesise some "users" may use it for viewing of videos eventually).

The streaming thing is just a luxury - as in: why not

The "other daily activities" are storing torrents, dl-ed installs etc. etc. and installation space for games and other not important software, for which purpose I am currently using said 2x 1TB raid0. I intend to move this storage capacity to the NAS in a separate array and maybe add other old HDDs in some sort of stripes, as a failure of this info is not a concern but the speed is (this will be a more intensively used space - "daily" - but overall, even in weekends, 4-6 hours is longer than the average current usage).

As for the "transcoding" - I don't have any idea will I be using it as I don't know what this is


It all boils down to this:
the intensity of the usage of this hardware is so low, that I don't see why I should invest in anything newer. This box is 9 years old at least and it still works just fine - the reason I bought a newer machine is because of chrome's RAM-thirsty dark soul (and for gaming ). But even now it is all used for 1-2 hours evenings...
I already have a backup - which is less reliable than raid5 in any case but nevertheless, I have the important info on at least 2 locations.
So I want to use the old hardware as a good owner and in an effective way and create new capabilities most efficiently.
Everyone can just buy ready made whatever (but this is not primarily about the money). I want to use what I got and still get a comparable effect.

 

[XavierMace]

As for the "transcoding" - I don't have any idea will I be using it as I don't know what this is

There's basically two types of streaming. Streaming a video to a client device is easy enough, IF the client device can read the media file in the first place. However, when the client device can't read the media file, media servers have the option to transcode the video (in real time) into something the client device can read.

If you're just streaming from Windows PC to Windows PC, you're fine. But if you're wanting to stream to your Android devices or a game console, the odds are much of the media files aren't playable by those devices. Therefore you'd either have to manually convert all the media files into something they can read, or your media server needs to be able to transcode them.

Transcoding takes a substantial amount of CPU grunt.

 

[nerp]

Honestly, you're almost better off just using carbonite. No worries about HD failure, energy usage, nothing. If you have a box that's already on 24/7, just throw a few HDs in there, use Windows 10 storage spaces to make a large volume, share that on your network and use carbonite to backup that share. It will be automatic and require no thinking on your end. And if all your hardware blows up at once and your house burns down, it's all sitting there in the cloud waiting for you. Carbonite has no storage limit for personal users.

 

[ultimatebob]

I'll bet that Nas4Free would work on that older hardware if you just wanted to play with building your own NAS.

 

[mvbighead]

I think that all anyone here really needs to say is that you get what you pay for. Your performance won't be top notch on that old gear. You may be more likely to see a bad stick of RAM as it is 9-10 years old.

Others mentioned Unraid, which is a popular solution for mismatched drives. However your CPU sounded like it was an x86 variant, so you'd be looking at the Plus version at a minimum for $89, as the basic key only applies to version 6.

In your situation, I'd definitely consider using what you have for FreeNAS or NAS4Free. Add a pool of 3 TB drives in RAID5 for your primary storage. Other drives can be added to separate RAIDs for different purposes (RAID1 with your 2 x 1 TB drives).

I would not try to use the NAS as the storage for extra applications and what not. Putting any sort of fairly active load on older hardware is not a great idea. Reading a file is one thing, but loading apps is another.

Honestly, I'd give it all a shot with what you have and download the software. If you like it, use it and know the limitations. If you like it but want more, then figure out what you need and read the docs on how to bring those drives over to a new box.