ITX Nas box spec check

Nutty_Death · 3 Jul 2010 at 14:46

Hey,
I am planning on building a atom based ITX Nas box.
It will mainly be used for downloading to, backup, file storage (mp3's, films etc) and possibly some basic server stuff (ftp, MySQL etc)

I was lookg at 3 different OS to use: FreeNAS, OpenFiler or OpenMediaVault (When it is released - I think this might be my OS of choice though)

Hardware:
Fractal Design Array Mini ITX NAS Case
AsRock A330ION ITX Motherboard
Generic 1GB DDR3 Ram
2TB power save HDD (not chosen yet - will buy another for Raid backup when I have the money and then add more drives as I need)

So what are your thoughts? Any recommendations or suggestions?
I know the case is expensive and kinda pointless..... looks pretty though and has some nice features.

johnny sublime · 3 Jul 2010 at 18:38

looks fine to me but the links need to be removed

johnny sublime · 4 Jul 2010 at 00:46

also have you thought about the new lian li q08

jellybeard999 · 4 Jul 2010 at 01:43

Do you need an ION board?

There's a Gigabyte D510 board with 4x SATA ports which is much cheaper and more efficient.

Nutty_Death · 4 Jul 2010 at 02:12

johnny sublime said:
also have you thought about the new lian li q08

Yeah I have... not so keen on it. I don't like the 5.25" bay or the fan on the front.
Again I know it won't actually matter but I will have this for several years.

jellybeard999 said:
Do you need an ION board?

There's a Gigabyte D510 board with 4x SATA ports which is much cheaper and more efficient.

That's defniterly worth considering.
To be honest I don't know a great deal about what I could do with the ION.

I guess I thought it gave me a bit of flexibility if I was ever to try and mix in some XBMC (again don't know to much about this)

Your option would save a bit of money. DDR2 instead of 3 though but I guess that dosen't actually matter.

+ It dosent have HDMI connections, which would be usefull if the box was connected to a TV.

2nd + When 3TB drives come out, would I have trouble using them because of the BIOS? Should I wait to get one of the newer motherboards ?

Destination · 4 Jul 2010 at 21:57

Looking forward to seeing pictures of this.

Nutty_Death · 6 Jul 2010 at 22:59

nuthead53 said:
2nd + When 3TB drives come out, would I have trouble using them because of the BIOS? Should I wait to get one of the newer motherboards ?

Ignore my comment about bios and 3tb drives, as I won't be booting from them.

Nutty_Death · 11 Jul 2010 at 22:51

Just a thought but dose a £20 PCI Express sata controller slow things down?

I was thinking I could get a cheaper Motherboard if a went with one that only has 2 sata ports, but then spent £20 or so on a 4 Port sata card.

Nutty_Death · 21 Jul 2010 at 08:32

Possible spec below:

CFI A7879 Mini-ITX NAS/Server Case - 4 Hot Swap Bays
Jetway JNC63-330-LF 1.6GHz Dual Core ATOM + nVidia ION Mainboard
Samsung Spinpoint F3 (EcoGreen)
Kingston 2GB 800MHz/PC2-6400

I would start with 1hd to play around with and then purchase the same again when I have money and the installation planned out.

I have a spair 2.5"hd but I will try and install onto a memory card instead.

Could get a cheaper motherboard if I didn't get one that supports hardware raid 5. Not sure if its even worth it as it would probably still use the CPU?

Also gone off the more expensive cases... just a waste of money.