How viable are Rasp Pi's for cheap NAS solutions ?

Minusorange · 28 Aug 2018 at 19:24

As the title, I was just looking at NAS options saw that Raspberry Pi can be used, I'm just curious how viable they are as a budget option to NAS, would I still be able to have RAID options and the redundancy that comes with it ?

Also how would I go about connecting the drives as obviously a Pi runs off an SD card and doesn't have any Sata connections ? Would it be Sata->USB->Hub->Pi ?

I figure doing it this way would be more beneficial to learn the workings of NAS as opposed to buying a plug and play option from the likes of Synology, plus if it does the same job and is cheaper that's a bonus also

Armageus · 28 Aug 2018 at 19:30

Both having to use usb->sata and the "slow" ethernet on pi's makes them largely unsuitable, as file transfer will be slow.

That said, it is doable and if you only need it occasionally or are already running a pi for something else then hanging a usb hard drive off one may be useful.

d_brennen · 28 Aug 2018 at 19:35

The USB hub is the bottleneck, it would be excruciatingly slow for large transfers and days if you moving a large dataset that's already in place

Edit: as above as a learning experience, if it can be done on the cheap, then it'd be worth doing in addition to a proper NAS

Minusorange · 28 Aug 2018 at 20:51

Is a better option just going with a cheap mobo/cpu/ram + case then to avoid the USB slowness ?

It wasn't a lot I needed to backup just 3TB at the moment but I'll be needing more at a later date so may as well jump ahead of it and future proof myself by knowing how to do it all, so I'm not stuck when I do really need it

AyeAyeAhoy! · 28 Aug 2018 at 22:05

Minusorange said:
Is a better option just going with a cheap mobo/cpu/ram + case then to avoid the USB slowness ?

Yep, that plus a copy of UnRAID would do you.

You can find half decent 2nd hand i3 bundles for next to nothing these days

DarkBahamut · 29 Aug 2018 at 12:25

A Pi isn't ideal, but there are other SBCs that will work fine. I use an Odroid XU4 as a NAS/cloud server and have no trouble maxing out the network as it has Gigabit ethernet and USB3 ports.

I prefer the SBC approach as they are pretty cheap and very low cost to run. My XU4 idles along at a mere 2 watts whereas a low spec PC will be at least an order of magnitude higher than that. It all adds up when running 24/7. Even just saving 20 watts adds up to over £20 in a single year.

Armageus · 29 Aug 2018 at 12:45

Depending on your usage old thin clients can also be repurposed that will get closer to the power consumption of a Pi or other SBC, whilst retaining a standard x86 processor.

Stuff like the Dell FX160/FX170, HP T5740/T610/T620, can be had reasonably cheap, offer a standard x86 processor (albeit the lower spec atoms might be underpowered for some usage), standard sata ports, full performance usb ports and in some cases (e.g. hp plus models) expandability via a pci-e slot.

HP Microservers are another option

Some useful info on thin-clients here:
https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t5740/index.shtml
https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t610/index.shtml
https://forum.openmediavault.org/index.php/Thread/14892-My-new-thin-client-NAS/

Minusorange · 29 Aug 2018 at 13:34

Cheers guys, the XU4 option looks pretty good, do you just run your drives through a hub so you can get past the 3 USB port limitation ?

Will have a look at cost options for Dell stuff too or try my luck with getting something suitable off the MM

AyeAyeAhoy! · 29 Aug 2018 at 14:30

Another option is a ASRock DeskMini GTX/RX, with your choice of low power CPU (2nd hand?) and drive still plugged in via USB.
Or for slightly less, the previous model, the ASRock DeskMini 110. Only about £135 for the barebones, and uses DDR3 RAM, so all a little cheaper on the 2nd hand market.

https://smallformfactor.net/news/asrock-reveals-refreshed-deskmini-gtx-rx-z370-chipset
https://www.asrock.com/nettop/Intel/DeskMini 110 Series/index.asp

bledd · 30 Aug 2018 at 09:47

Just get a Synology.

Yes they have a price premium, but it's a very polished product. Once you've set it up, no need to fiddle at all

AyeAyeAhoy! · 30 Aug 2018 at 20:50

bledd said:
Just get a Synology.

Yes they have a price premium, but it's a very polished product. Once you've set it up, no need to fiddle at all

Yeah, that would work too

Bugbait · 31 Aug 2018 at 17:05

On the cheap you're better off with an HP micro server, especially if you time it with rebates (if they still do them).

gizmo1990 · 3 Aug 2019 at 13:36

Thought I'd bump this thread seeing that the pi4 is out and equipped with usb3. Which I would presume removes the old issue of low transfer rates?

I'm looking into the same cheap nas solution. I thought there'd be loads of straight forward guides/tutorials for this exact use but I can't any that are really authorative. I also thought there'd be nas type cases especially for the pi but no to that either.

Does anyone know of any good tutorials or guides for doing this type of thing? I'd of thought the pi4 should now make a really viable cheap nas solution?

Avalon · 3 Aug 2019 at 21:02

gizmo1990 said:
Thought I'd bump this thread seeing that the pi4 is out and equipped with usb3. Which I would presume removes the old issue of low transfer rates?

I'm looking into the same cheap nas solution. I thought there'd be loads of straight forward guides/tutorials for this exact use but I can't any that are really authorative. I also thought there'd be nas type cases especially for the pi but no to that either.

Does anyone know of any good tutorials or guides for doing this type of thing? I'd of thought the pi4 should now make a really viable cheap nas solution?

Stop reinventing the wheel and making it worse. An old HP Microserver is probably cheaper than a Pi4 + case + hub + PSU and significantly better suited.