[one918]

So I have thoroughly confused myself in researching a NAS. What I have learned is NAS is NOT backup, but simply storage. So now I find myself wondering do I buy a prebuilt NAS such as Synology DS212J, or build a NAS (FreeNAS or Unraid).

Buy buying a NAS everything is pre-configured. It will run about $200 out of pocket for a 2 bay (not including drives). To my understanding if the NAS dies, I have to buy the same brand (poss model) to get the drives running again. Otherwise to get the data off the drives, they would have to be connected to a box running Linux.

Buy building it myself, it will run give or take $300 for a 4 + bay (not including drives). To my understanding if something dies in the box, I can simply replace the bad part, Ie:motherboard, cpu, power supply, to get the drives running again. I have an extra ATX motherboard/CPU, memory, PSU. However, I want a smaller footprint for my NAS. I would just use my old case and components, but I am thinking about something like this case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811123173 . Will this work installing the components in the same case and running FreeNAS or Unraid from a thumb drive?

What are the pros and cons in mirroring drives. I was thinking of mirroring at first, but if the NAS is not a true backup, would I just be wasting extra storage space by mirroring the drives?

Lastly I am planning on using the NAS to share files (Movies, Music, Photos) across multiple computers in the home (wireless N) and streaming to my HTPC (also Wireless N) via XMBC.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[problaze]

You will get much faster speeds from a self built although it won't be as power efficient as a pre-built...

Self-built can run any O/S you choose so adaptability/expandability is HUGE -> I recommend FreeNAS or if you're not comfortable Amahi
i.e. I have mine host my xbmc database to multiple boxes!

If you want file transfer speed for backup do ensure you have gigabit ethernet the transfer speed through put is tremendously better...
Although that said 100mbps ethernet "should" handle 1080p rips...

If you can avoid wireless it just isn't reliable enough really...

Looked at the HP Proliant Microserver? In the UK at least its on special and is a great deal mine runs flawlessly

Hope this helps!!

[Kirky99]

Wireless across several pcs most likely isn't going to cut it. Think wired...

RAID isn't a backup, it's more redundancy and performance. I would say many of us dont care so much about the redundancy than we want a large storage location accessible all over the network. Once you start putting 3 or 4 drives into the mix, one more for a little peace of mind does't matter so much.

I'm running 8 TB (4x2TB) worth of drives, but only 6TB is for real storage. Many will argue that RAID for a media collection is not necessary. It's not bad, it's just overkill. I like to overkill..

[protocol77]

i actually have taken my old computer (Intel Q8400 4gb ddr3 1333mhz) and put it into a new server case with a ton of drive bays which i have used coolermaster 4-in-3 5.25 to 3.5 converters and installed about 7 hard drives i then have simply installed windows xp pro sp3 and networked it between my new pc and my two htpc's running Openelec and it works great i decided on windows xp as i have no experience with linux and did not want a raid setup as i don't trust having my entire movie and tv show collection in a raid array so i have instead kept offline mirror backups off all the drives which every week i load into my external docking station and run a program that just copies new or modified files to the drives when finished i simply remove them and store them back in their anti-static bag they came in

so at most if anything went wrong with the server the most i would lose is 1 weeks worth of stuff not really a big deal i prefer this over running a raid array and if something goes wrong and i cannot recover the files i lose everything

plus being windows xp the interface is familiar and easy to use unlike all that linux terminal commands nonsense plus the benifit of being able to run my NZBDrone and Sabnzbd software to grab all my shows each day

i know a lot of linux fans will say about virus problems with windows or windows having to be restarted every so often i have not experienced this though as the only time the server access the internet it is only to download tv shows from usenet and installed avast free antivirus on there which downloads virus definitions and that is it so it is not going to dodgy website or anything so shouldn't have any problem i also set the ip to a permanent ip using my Billion 7800n gigabit router and did the same for the htpc's as well

as for windows having to be restarted up until about 1 day ago when i had to restart after installing a piece of software on there i have had it running a week and a half and was still running fine i had xp set to spindown drives after 25 minutes of inactivity so when it is just idling i use about 69 watts which is pretty good considering there is about 8 hard drives installed including a 2.5 inch laptop drive for OS and about 4 120mm fans running


also as mentioned above if possible go with a wired setup with some cat 6 cables i tried wireless and it was terrbile for this purpose constant buffering problems so i bought 2 20m Cables and worked out a path to the machines with the least amount of times the cable has to cross a pathway in my case only one and is much better and more reliable that wireless

that case you mentioned above is for a mini-itx setup which means you need a mini-itx board and it wont have much room most cases like that will only hold 1 or 2 hard drives at the most i would suggest working out how many hard drive you will need now and in the near future and buy a case big enough to fit them

this is the one i bought

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3/lia...A11-01.jpg

http://www.maestrokomputer.com/2008/11/0...se-review/

it has 12 x 5.25 drive bays plus 6 x 3.5 drive bays for a total of 18 bays more than enough if you look at the second link it will show you inside of the case


i hope this helps just remember the simpler option sometimes work just as well as the complicated setups

[Bstrdsmkr]

Yes, as you've worked out, NAS is not a backup plan in and of itself. With that being said, most NAS setups come with some kind of backup software. I had to do a LOT of research for a gov't funded small business client on the most effective solution and in the end I couldn't recommend anything over unRAID. The drawback to unRAID is you need to be willing to get your hands dirty and do some research. If you take the time to do your research on hardware, you can build a dirt cheap unRAID setup that does everything you could possibly want and is rock solid. flexRAID is something that has come along since then and looks to offer all the same benefits as unRAID, but also runs on top of other OSs. The advantage being that if you're not familiar with Linux, you can run it on Windows.

My solution and the most effective I've found?
1. Find a friend in a similar situation
2. Both you and your friend build unRAID servers
3. Setup Crashplan to back up everything important
4. Setup your friend's Crashplan as a remote backup destination and vice versa

Now you have a virtually failure proof mass storage server that can run all your services, such as sabNZBD, torrent clients, transcoding software and etc, and a redundant off site backup.

Eskro posted a nice sub $200 unRAID build that will beat the pants off anything you can buy pre-fab.

The general consensus is there's only one reason to buy pre-fab: convenience. If you want something you can just pull out of the box, plugin, spend an hour setting up and forget about, pre-fab is what you're looking for. Fair warning though, you're going to pay for that convenience. The answer to pretty much any problem with a pre-fab NAS is throw money at it.

[one918]

So because I wanted a smaller footprint for my NAS, on a whim I bought the HP Proliant N40L. Seemed like a decent price for 240 shipped after tax for a 4 bay unit. Also a lot of good reviews. (I bought it first at Insight for $111, but figured my order would prob be canceled so bought it at New Egg just to be safe. We'll see what happens. Lol)

I assume I can run FreeNas or Unraid instead of WHS?

The reason I mentioned streaming via wireless earlier is because I had issues trying to stream via Ethernet over power line. Switched to wireless (G no less) and didnt have any issues streaming from my desktop via SMB.