How cheap can I build a NAS for?

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SBD

SBD

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Hi guys I was wondering how cheap I could build a NAS for. I have some DDR2 RAM knocking around and I was wondering how cheap it would be if buying second hand. Not sure what spec I would need I have the hard drives, got windows 7 or server so it is really just the hardware that needs sorting.

I want it to use as little power as possible is there much difference from using an Atom vs an under clocked AMD / Intel 775? I assume I could maybe set the server to wake on Lan? If so maybe the power saving wouldn't matter too much. The server is going to host about 1Tb of movies and some songs and then file backing up for all the PCs / laptops in the house about 5 including media centres.

If someone could tell when what sort of prices I should expect to pay that would be great :D
 
Second hand, a dual core athlon I/II or similar PC should be no more than £150, you may need to buy extra drives for your needs, look for 4 sata ports minimum. preferably 6 for upgradeability.
If you are accessing via web interface, you do not need screen or keyboard, just the box. A dvd drive only for software install, can be removed.
 
I'v been looking at some atom boards they don't come up for sale often and a lot of they only have 2 sata ports :(

I was thinking about using remote desktop to access the server if I needed to which will mean no screen or keyboard :D

Just got to price this up because if it starts to cost too much I might as well upgrade my current pc and use those parts for the server...
 
I had this decision to make a few months ago, and found the performance of most NAS's to be lacklustre. Combine that with the fact that for around £250 you can put together a very respectable mini-ITX rig that will double as a media centre, with excellent performance, much more flexibility, and a similar physical footprint, and I went for a new build. Can't say I've been disappointed either.

That said, it depends what matters to you. You could pick up something like an Icybox NAS second hand quite cheaply if you just wanted something as a store, but their performance is lacking. For a quick NAS, look at QNAP products, but you're then paying a premium for that performance.

All depends what your priorities are :).
 
My priorities are:

Cheap
Fast
Cheap to run or the ability to wake on Lan, assuming this allows the server to be in sleep mode until data is needed.
Size isn't a problem I was just thinking about having a normal cheap tower case and leaving it on the landing plugged into a power line Ethernet adapter.

I have seen this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-177-NG&groupid=46&catid=1834&subcat=

At £70 it looks good, only has space for 2 hard drives which is a bit of a pain as I have 2 Samsung 1TB F3s which when full I would just like to add more. I will look at some reviews but I have a feeling it just isn't for me.
 
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190 That's a useful link.

You're not going to get Cheap and Fast together in a NAS.
Low running cost is a given, nearly all have a spin-down timer on the drives, and a miniscule power draw.

That Stora will work fine, but bear in mind that you're not going to get "Fast" out of that. You'll get 20-30mb/s max. Compare that to around 70mb/s from a PC over gigabit, and you're taking a fair performance hit, it just depends how much transferring you're going to be doing on a regular basis.
 
try members market for some 2nd hand stuff.

Built a server about a year ago myself

G31 gigabyte board - £20
2gb ram - £10
E2160 - £25
psu - old one knocking around - free
case - old one knocking around - free
pci-e gfx - X2600 or something - £10

Only major cost was the drives - 2x1.5tb for £90

Drives all spin down when not being used, cpu underclocked and running 0.95v, speedstep enabled - minimum power draw as well

Windows 7 copy already in hand - job done

you could always use freenas or alike as well for nothing.
 
Most of the transferring taking place is just going to be media streaming but I would like to be able to stream maybe up to 3 PCs at a time.

I think I will go down the PC route just because I already nearly have 1TB of media and I would like to have at least 2TB of space with another drive or 2 for redundancy because if my drive failed it would take me hours and hours to back up all my DVDs/ Blu rays :(

So looks like I will have to stump up some more cash but I think it will be worth it,

So what do you think the second hand prices for:

Dual core CPU
motherboard with 4-6 sata ports
Ram - I have 2Gb so sorted :D
PSU - can't really go for a cheap one as it needs to keep the server alive :p
Case - can be really cheap will probably just keep an eye out as it would be hard to get a specific case.
DvD drive might get an IDE drive to leave the Sata ports free.

I think that is all will keep the hard drives separate from cost as I have 2 already and will add more when I need to.

Is it best to use windows Server or is windows 7 fine can get either as I'm a student :D
 
Cheers booyaka that pricing was just what I needed :D

I have a 7600GT around somewhere so I can save a bit there.

Just have to hope that the MM will be kind to me over the next few days ;)
 
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £41.99
(£35.74) £41.99
(£35.74)
Gigabyte GA-MA74GMT-S2 740G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)
Corsair CX 430W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUK) £36.99
(£31.48) £36.99
(£31.48)
OcUK RaidMax Simplex Gaming Tower Case - Black £32.99
(£28.08) £32.99
(£28.08)
Western Digital RE2 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000YS) £25.99
(£22.12) £51.98
(£44.24)
OCZ Gold 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Single Channel Module (OCZ3G1333LV2G) £24.99
(£21.27) £24.99
(£21.27)
Sub Total : £194.84
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £35.93
Total : £241.27


Starter box with accessible drive bays, 2Gb ram, 2 x 500Gb HDD, Athlon processor, on board graphics. Suitable for NAS.

Add more hard disks, memory to suit.

A similar spec second hand should be half price or less.

andy
 
Cheers nkata :)

My main aim is to get it down to less than £100 not including the drives and then I will be a happy man so second hand it is :D
 
Ok just posted in the wanted section so fingers crossed!

Just wondering does it matter on the size of the hard drive used to install the OS? I herd that the OS might use the hard drive for swaping or something :confused:
 
i've got OS on 120gb drive and then all data on 2 x 1.5tb and 1tb drive. no particular reason just that it's simple to keep os and data seperate for me
 
booyaka said:
i've got OS on 120gb drive and then all data on 2 x 1.5tb and 1tb drive. no particular reason just that it's simple to keep os and data seperate for me
Click to expand...

^^^I do it this way too^^^

Great believer that the OS on a completely seperate drive is safer. Can easily replace drive/ re-install OS etc. and Data is all safe and snug elswhere.

One thing I've done (which is totally OTT to be honest but I had some of the bits hanging around) is to use a proper 3Ware SATA RAID card. Just means its probably a little more robust running raid5 than using soft RAID.

Downside to that? Power usage, as far as I'm aware, there's no way to get the drives to spin down in this config. To be honest my box is more of a home server than NAS, its a dual socket dual core Xeon with 4 Gig of RAM 3Ware hardware RAID Dual Gigabit LAN all running Fedora core 13. I wince everytime I think of how much electricity this box eats running 24/7...... But I had some hand me down server bits and I just got a bit carried away....

E-I
 
Just an update:

Got an Antec 900 and a 500W OCZ PSU for £44 posted which I am happy with. I know the Case is a bit of an over kill but at least I can add a crap load of hard drives :P

Just after a CPU and motherboard but there aren't many cheap ones knocking around in the MM atm :(
 
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