In Need of a NAS

[_TubbZ_]

I don't really think this is the right place to ask but i am going to anyway

I am thinking about adding a NAS in my home as i am running out of storage and would like to share movies and TV series and music in my student house later this year. I would also possibly like it to be able to download stuff from it. Now what i am thinking of doing is getting a NAS box but when i saw the prices i thought i could probably do an atom build for that and stick ubuntu on it and have something a lot more flexible.

What do people reckon? Would i be better off with a NAS for power consumption and overall price or do an atom build and make a proper job of it

 

[_TubbZ_]

What did you go for case wise? Ideally i want a small case with 4 * 3.5 drive spaces but most mITX cases only have room for 1 drive. I am not too sure what route i want to go down still, I am looking at keeping it really cheap and having it as a NAS only or spending more and using it as a NAS and a Media PC.

I am looking at going with a:

Gigabyte GA-D510UD Intel Atom D510 about £70

or a

ZOTAC IONITX-G-E Intel Atom 330 about £110

For an extra £40 i get a PCIe x1 slot as opposed to PCI, HDMI port and the better Atom 330 processor. I guess the PCIe should be more useful if i want to add extra sata ports in a few years time. So i could use it as a NAS + Media PC and stick it in the front room or spend less and just go for the NAS.

They both has 4 Sata ports, but only 2 can be configured in as RAID on the Gigabyte mobo. Power wise they both draw around the same too.

Will have to have a nice long think

 

[_TubbZ_]

I'm just rebuilding my file server at the moment. I will be installing unRAID (http://www.lime-technology.com/) as the OS due to it's flexibility. It's all sitting in a X-Case 420/Norco 4020 case. Combine that with with 2 x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards and a Asus P5Q Premium motherboard and I have a system capable of growing to over 20 drives. That is a potential 40TB+ which should be enough to keep me busy for a while.

For me i think thats a few too many drives

 

[_TubbZ_]

I'm in the process of knocking up my own NAS at the moment, I'm going to go the Freenas route with software RAID5, looking at 7.5TB of available space once all is said and done.

Do some reading on FreeNAS, it looks like an option worth considering.

Yeah I have read about it and it does seem feature rich gunna wait till i move into my New place before i get it tho