NAS - a needless expense?

bangshi · 30 Jan 2013 at 22:48

Hello,

I have a few hard drives, and like a noob I don't have backups.

So I figured I should look into solutions.

I started looking at NAS servers, but these seem to be very expensive.

Would it not be cheaper to build a PC and RAID them up in a similar fashion to a purpose built NAS server?

I require around 8tb of usable space, so I'd be looking at the 6 or 8 bay servers which are quite a jump from the 2-bay ones!

inogen · 30 Jan 2013 at 22:56

I've currently got 10TB of spinning disks in my PC. It's a tiny (Lian Li A05NB) thing too.

I think where NAS comes into it's is if you've got serveral computers on the network all wanting to connect to shared data - be that their own backups or shared media. A NAS box will consume less power than a PC and requires less maintenance. I've never found it's worthwhile... yet. Especially now you can quite easily get 3TB disks.

One · 30 Jan 2013 at 22:59

Well a NAS is a pc basically. If you can make a low power consuming PC for less than a NAS then obviously go for it. There is plenty of threads out there about making your own NAS.

unleashed · 31 Jan 2013 at 07:18

If you have some redundant hardware lying about you could repurpose and build a Windows Home Server for very little. Brilliant for automatic nightly backing up of client PCs.

mranderson · 31 Jan 2013 at 07:23

You can get a good, fast NAS for as low as £50 which is probably less than what you would pay for a dedicated pc.

paradigm · 31 Jan 2013 at 08:22

I'll stick with my Synology rather than build one. The native apps for iOS and android are great for media access.

PaulyD · 31 Jan 2013 at 09:21

HP Proliant N40L is about £120 after cashback, will consume about 50w of power I would imagine so cheaper than a PC and far less power hungry. Throw on your distro of choice and sorted. Is what I would recommend if you need that many HDD's in your machine

Got an old Zyxel NSA-220 at the moment with 2x1TB drives in there. Does the job nicely and only sips a tiny amount of power. iPhone, iPad, Apple TV all stream from it, used for backups, shares though only a 2 bay one. Agree the price does leap up on higher bay NAS's

Kidge · 31 Jan 2013 at 13:27

PaulyD said:
HP Proliant N40L is about £120 after cashback, will consume about 50w of power I would imagine so cheaper than a PC and far less power hungry. Throw on your distro of choice and sorted. Is what I would recommend if you need that many HDD's in your machine

Got an old Zyxel NSA-220 at the moment with 2x1TB drives in there. Does the job nicely and only sips a tiny amount of power. iPhone, iPad, Apple TV all stream from it, used for backups, shares though only a 2 bay one. Agree the price does leap up on higher bay NAS's

What are these servers like for upgradability compared to if you were to build you own from spares or a 1115 mobo + G530 combo?.

I'm guessing there is very little other than storage and RAM but unsure?

Resident · 31 Jan 2013 at 13:37

I looked into getting a NAS a while back but then realised I had enough spares to build a low spec machine with a couple of HDDs.

Downloaded OpenMediaVault for the OS and it works superbly. It doesn't have massive HDDs in but the point for me was more "Can I do it?" rather than anything else.

SilentScarlett · 31 Jan 2013 at 15:18

Needles expense, depends on how much storage you want and what you consider expense. There are quite a few easy to use, quick set up and fairly priced NAS' out there. And more rcently some good offers on 4 bay enclosures - which give you plenty of storage with 3tb drives. If you want more than that It's probably cheaper to build a pc given even some 5 bay devices cost circa £600 before the drives.

bangshi · 31 Jan 2013 at 18:29

SilentScarlett said:
Needles expense, depends on how much storage you want and what you consider expense. There are quite a few easy to use, quick set up and fairly priced NAS' out there. And more rcently some good offers on 4 bay enclosures - which give you plenty of storage with 3tb drives. If you want more than that It's probably cheaper to build a pc given even some 5 bay devices cost circa £600 before the drives.

Yes, this is the thing.

2-bay NAS can be found for bargain prices, some 4-bays are quite cheap (the HP one recommended above for example) but as soon as you get to 5-bay, it jumps to silly prices!