NAS: Build a server/NAS or buy a packaged HW NAS?

Believe me, Synology is The answer. forget about others / f**** around with DYI nonsense...
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/features/index.php

Quote:I personnaly have an atom based mini itx computer with win7 installed.

Yes, this is probably what I want. Potentially it could also be cheap.
Question is if I buy an mini itx with integrated CPU, how much can it take?
I will have to add a SATA (or SATA RAID) card to increase the number of SATA channels.

The cheapest solution would be to use an itx with external (and included in the price) PSU but how many disk can it run?

vikjon0 Wrote:Yes, this is probably what I want. Potentially it could also be cheap.
Question is if I buy an mini itx with integrated CPU, how much can it take?
I will have to add a SATA (or SATA RAID) card to increase the number of SATA channels.

The cheapest solution would be to use an itx with external (and included in the price) PSU but how many disk can it run?

It's up to you to decide the solution you need versus your budget.

The main choice to do will be the mobo.
Either you get a mobo with at least 4 SATA Ports and an integrated raid controller (like this one : ASUS AT3IONT-I). It costs around 110€.
Or you get the cheapest MOBO with only 2 sata. You can then do software raid, or add an additionnal board for storage. An intel D410PT can be found at 50€ in france. The additionnal storage RAID0/1 controller can be found at 30€.

Next is the box and PSU. if you need sometrhing quiet, you will have to spend money !
If you just need 2 disks, a small box with integrated psu (80-120W) will do the trick. You can get one for about 50€ (this is what i have).
If you need more disks, go for a standard tower. Some are really cheap, like 30€, but you might find them noisy. For the PSU, considering that the mobo/cpu will be ultra low power, you can go with a 400W, it will be enough, even with a lot of disks.

For the drives, 2TB Models seems to offer the best price per GB.

vikjon0 Wrote:... but how many disk can it run?

A quick search on the web reveal that an atom platform with 2GB RAM and a 3.5' HD won't ask more than 40W of Power at full charge.
Modern Hard Drives are rated around 7W Max.

So, consider that the MOBO + CPU + RAM needs 50W.
One disk need 10W.

So Any PSU Rated more than 100W should be enough.

Quote:It's up to you to decide the solution you need versus your budget.

Well, it is not about budget. It is about not building something you can by cheaper and better.

Quote:So Any PSU Rated more than 100W should be enough.

Thats very interesting!

I am looking at some integrated cpu mb, 2xSATA and 1xPCI is a common config. You can build something very cheap with that. The limitation is of course that we cannot add a second RAID array. Will keep looking and see if what I can find.

The next question is of course how much services I will end up running.. If we start looking at transcoding or recording it is a different game. My ION 330 that is doing all the work now is getting a bit tired since I added sb & cp.

I have owned drobo, not a good experience. Closed system, no logs, shite experience to install anything and a forum you have no access to unless you own the kit.

Own a qnap now, its super. Access when out and about. Apparently i can even stream media to my ipad when away from home. Have not tried that yet.

A constant throughtput of 60MB/s.

vikjon0 Wrote:EDIT: Lets not start the never ending discussion about RAID and filesystems. Limit it to discussions about customization.

I understand the difference, but how good /easy is the commercial NAS if you want to install stuff?

MYSQL
NFS
Samba will be supported I bet
HTTP
FTP
Router sw
Sick beard etc

What else could I possibly want to install and how easy is it on e.g readyNAS?

A server would be eaiser to deal with but I guess power will be an issue?
Easy-to-use HW RAID another pro for the NAS.

The con is of course limitation for expansion and customization. But I see on the google it is possble. Limitation and which one is best?

I spent ages trying to work out which NAS to buy - all of the ones with good reviews, that did what I wanted, with room for expansion seemed very expensive for what they did, and had features that I'd never use (hot-swap drive bays, etc) so I built my own NAS:

Tower case with power supply, 6 x 3.5" & 4 x 5.25" drive slots (£25)
ASUS E35M1-pro with 5 sata connectors (£100)
2 x 2TB 3.5" HD (£120)
1 x 2GB ram (£25)
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (£0)

Total: £270 (£225 + VAT) which is $370 + sales.

The motherboard & ram were just bits that I had lying around, so if I were building from scratch I might have chosen a cheaper and more industrial embedded board with more sata connectors. But anyway, for £270 I had a 4TB NAS, easily expandable to 8TB, and almost as easily expandable to 16-20TB.

I'm using software RAID1 (so only 2TB of actual storage), but then it's serving video & audio to a couple of Media PCs in the house, not running a million visitor/hr website. The ubuntu installer made setting up the raid pair a matter of clicking a few options.

The whole system uses 50-60w, and re-encodes DVDs/BDs in it's spare time (although quite slowly). Although even the monster machine I used to rip the bulk of my videos only used 120w at tick-over.

The box is in the cupboard under the stairs, so I can't see or hear it, the bios is set up to boot the machine when the power comes on, in case of power cuts.

Oh, and a couple of weeks ago I installed an STB card, so now it streams live satellite TV as well (though not to xbmc yet).

For cost and flexibility, I think it's hard to beat a self built NAS.


Simon.