Help with NAS Components

George Hincapie · 24 Oct 2013 at 14:23

I want to build a NAS for use at home. I have the SATA drives and FreeNAS, but am not sure how best to go about it from a hardware perspective.

I was going to buy a HP G7 N54L 150W PS ProLiant Micro Server, but the cash back offer is gone.

I have some spare parts at home (AMD Phenom IIX4, 4 GB RAM and suitable full size ATX motherboard from a recent PC upgrade) and thought about just getting a cheap case, PSU and throwing them in, but that just seems like massive overkill.

Any suggestions?

Doco · 24 Oct 2013 at 16:14

Been looking into this over the last we while myself tbh and am interested in getting a NAS running (had a go at running freenas on my old pc and everything worked fine), only issue I've been dealing with really is the best cpu mobo compo (mainly for power usage as its going to be for home use) - I'l keep an eye on this thread and steal some ideas

- did come across a few things though that might be of help - http://www.servethehome.com/powered-intel-cpus-htpchome-server-builds/
http://blog.brianmoses.net/2013/01/diy-nas-2013-edition.html

George Hincapie · 24 Oct 2013 at 23:50

Come on! Someone must have done this surely?

ASE001 · 25 Oct 2013 at 08:54

You need specify what you plan to use it for?

For example if it just as a file store then a low spec'd system will do. If you are planning on using it as a media server then you then a medium spec'd server will do.

For example, I run ESX on mine with a NAS4FREE VM, pfsense VM and trunkey domain controller VM. This runs ok on a x4 AMD processor with 8Gbytes of RAM.

George Hincapie · 26 Oct 2013 at 18:19

ASE001 said:
You need specify what you plan to use it for?

For example if it just as a file store then a low spec'd system will do. If you are planning on using it as a media server then you then a medium spec'd server will do.

For example, I run ESX on mine with a NAS4FREE VM, pfsense VM and trunkey domain controller VM. This runs ok on a x4 AMD processor with 8Gbytes of RAM.

I should think it would run OK. Your setup seems hugely over powered for the tasks it is being used for.

Mine is going to store files and pass media files on to my WDTV to watch on my TV in the lounge.

booyaka · 29 Oct 2013 at 14:19

Any old bits and bobs will do.

I currently run a P35 board, E2160, ati 6450 and 2gb of ram in an old coolmaster case in my garage as a server.

Runs backups/streams 1080p content via XBMC/torrents etc etc. It's struggling a little but so a cheap upgrade to a E8200 and 4gb of ram is in order.

5 drives, totalling 8tb's.

The bits you had left over sound ideal for it.