Itx NAS build

Boff_in

Boff_in

Boff_in

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I'm wanting to build a NAS and would like some opinions to help me figure this out. I have a Lianli 5port raid card, 4x 1tb hdd & 1x2tb.

Few Things I'm currently thinking...
Case - Lianli Q8 as it can hold 6 hdd. It is small footprint which is what I'm after but is a touch high £££ and pretty for something i will hide away.
Anyone familiar with another chassis to hold 6 hdd?

Motherboard - prolly just going for a zotac atom with the pci-e x16. Has to be ddr2 & on board video.

Psu- here is my biggest unknown. With 6hdd and a atom itx board can i use a pico psu? Do hdd's use much juice? Will I need more power than say a 150w pico? A 450w psu seems a bit over kill!?

This pc will be extracting, storing & streaming data to my other machines, nothing more. It is likely to be on 24/7 also.

Appreciate any input and advise anyone could give me with this.
 
How about a Chenbro ES34169, it costs £129 and has 4 hot swap bays and a 120w psu. I can't link as it is on a competitors site.
 
The CFI A7879 looks pretty good in terms of being a tidy itx NAS box, 4 hot swap bays and a 120mm fan fro quiet cooling
 
Fractal Design Array Mini ITX does 6 sata drives + mounting for 1 SSD also. Bit pricy at £149.98 but I splashed out on one cause my loans came in and its so pretty :) Also comes with a decent 300w PSU in it, 140mm fan, no slot for a optical drive but after installing your NAS software shudnt need it.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-FD

Motherboard - not on this site but look into the Zotac G41 mini itx board, can get it about £60 new, comes with PCI-e x16 slot, DDR2, On board video and sound but socket 775 not atom. Not too hard to pick up an old 775 chip on the members market here or elsewhere really cheap or you can use up old parts like I am.
 
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what about the zotac ion p series - Intel® Celeron® SU2300 and nvidia ion gpu (also has a 16x pcie). More than enough for a server and is about as low power as an atom in most cases according to tests

As to the case, I've spent a lot of time looking round for the same sort of case and the only small size ones I've found are the ones already mentioned.
 
Thanks for you inputs on this.

StephenLawUK said:
Fractal Design Array Mini ITX does 6 sata drives + mounting for 1 SSD also. Bit pricy at £149.98 but I splashed out on one cause my loans came in and its so pretty :) Also comes with a decent 300w PSU in it, 140mm fan, no slot for a optical drive but after installing your NAS software shudnt need it.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-FD

Motherboard - not on this site but look into the Zotac G41 mini itx board, can get it about £60 new, comes with PCI-e x16 slot, DDR2, On board video and sound but socket 775 not atom. Not too hard to pick up an old 775 chip on the members market here or elsewhere really cheap or you can use up old parts like I am.
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I do like this case and it is good on price with the inclusion of the PSU. My only question will be regarding cooling. The LianLi's open face would be more effective in my opinion.
Think I like the Fractal more though so thats the one I'm now thinking of, thanks ;)

On the Mobo front, I would like a passive ION for heat, power consumption & noise reasons.

The other cases posted are nice & cost effective but I do want use 6hdd so I am prepared to pay more to achieve this.

lsg1r said:
what about the zotac ion p series - Intel® Celeron® SU2300 and nvidia ion gpu (also has a 16x pcie). More than enough for a server and is about as low power as an atom in most cases according to tests

As to the case, I've spent a lot of time looking round for the same sort of case and the only small size ones I've found are the ones already mentioned.
Click to expand...
This board is great but it's DDR3 so not an option. I want to use some spare DDR2 I have to save money more than anything else.
I'm thinking something like http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-007-ZT for the motherboard as it does everything I need. Just need to try & source one.


I would love to run it from a PicoPSU but I'm guessing with 6hdd's this will not be possible. Anyone able to confirm otherwise on this?
 
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I run on a 150w XT pico.
Q9450 stock
2x2Gb DDR2 800mhz
Zotac nvidia itx board which has slightly higher video clocks than stock.
Xonar D2X
Samsung F3 1TB
Samsung F3 2TB eco.

I would expect my quad would use a fair whack more than your ion. It may help if your using all eco drives as storage. I cant say yours would definitely work but the Pico PSU is supposedly really really efficient compared to normal atx PSU's. I would say theres a good chance. You could always buy one and test then return it within 7 days if its not up to the task.
 
My only question will be regarding cooling. The LianLi's open face would be more effective in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Im currently running 4 1tb drives and 1 boot drive in it and cooling them seems to be fine. What you cant see well from the image is the side vents which allow for air flow, my drives seem pretty happy no different from the temps inside my normal case. The 140mm fan moves a fair bit of air and is quiet too.
 
Ah niceone zx-10r, thanks! All of the power calculators I googled looked very dated so didnt have much faith in the info.
Cheers all.
Im going to look at the fractul which includes psu.

The bad news is that im skint till jan now after reversing into a tree friday morning... Trees are harder than cars...
 
I guess they Add some head room into the calculation. Possibly a little more again if they also make psu's... Cynic!
 
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