Old PC into NAS

Sandycheeks · 1 Apr 2014 at 23:40

I am considering turning an old PC into a NAS as per the title.
Need help choosing which old PC to start from.
I have a phenom x3 8400 with 3GB of DDR2 and Vista and mobo supports sata.
Or
Core 2 duo with 1GB DDR2 and XP pro and supports sata.
Or
Athlon 64 with 512mb Ram and XP home and supports IDE.

I have a couple of IDE HDDS knocking around that I have saved from Sky boxes and old PCs and stuff...can I use a combination of Sata and IDE HDDs.

I don't need anything fancy, I just want to put it in the loft and connect it to the router.

I have seen the Freenas software so assume the OS on the old PCs isn't required anyway.

Considering the build for backing up 3 PCs and also storing movies and files etc...and also for something to do as I can't bare to throw out the old stuff cos you never know when it might come in handy.

Sandycheeks · 1 Apr 2014 at 23:49

Just another thought...
I could ? turn one into a xbmc media centre with a fair bit of storage and keep it under the TV with the rest of the stuff like SKY, xbox and things as I already have a couple of ethernet cables there anyway.
Is it even possible to do this ?

bremen1874 · 2 Apr 2014 at 02:16

It's all possible.

The main problem with reusing old kit in this way is the noise, reliability and power consumption.

A nice modern box can often pay for itself quite quickly just in lower electricity bills.

unleashed · 2 Apr 2014 at 07:55

bremen1874 said:
It's all possible.

The main problem with reusing old kit in this way is the noise, reliability and power consumption.

A nice modern box can often pay for itself quite quickly just in lower electricity bills.

Define "Quickly"

Methinks it would take a fair few years to pay for itself in lower electricity bills :eek:

feriso · 2 Apr 2014 at 09:03

I have the same idea; I have an 'old' HTPC with a couple of 1TB suitting in it not doing anything so I've been considering this for a while - will follow and see what comes up.

Nymins · 2 Apr 2014 at 09:11

bremen1874 said:
It's all possible.

The main problem with reusing old kit in this way is the noise, reliability and power consumption.

A nice modern box can often pay for itself quite quickly just in lower electricity bills.

I would agree with this.

The configurations you listed will all work and do what you want, but the power and noise would be the main issue. Not so much if you are just using XBMC and turn it on to watch something, but if its a NAS that will be on constantly, then it could be annoying.

The HTPC form factor isn't really suited to those cpus, as they'll all need fairly decent cooling all the time. You could pick up a cheap i3, motherboard and ram combo for sub £100 second hand, which would be easier to cool and have better power consumption. Or even an Atom integrated motherboard.

NAS's use Atoms and Marvell CPUs for the sole purpose of keeping noise, temperature and power levels as low as possible, because they are designed to be on all the time.

Uhtred · 2 Apr 2014 at 13:48

Stick freenas on it and give it a try. People will shout at your and say you need 398734872304GB of RAM but for small drives and the occasional backups it will work just fine.