Spec me a DIY NAS

MartynB85 · 15 Jul 2013 at 16:47

Hi
I have a QNAP TS-219p NAS that i use to backup my home server. But now i need more capacity so i thought i would sell the qnap, and build my own nas using a pc and nas for free.

Now i don't want to spend a great deal, and will add disks as i go (i have 4 2TB drives already).

I need some help with the hardware, i want it to be as power efficient as possible. I have a be quiet 350 watt psu already, what cpu, mobo and ram would you recommend?

Also i'd like a case with 7-8 hard disk bays if possible, the only cheapish one i can find is this...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-012-XG

teppic · 15 Jul 2013 at 16:59

The higher end FM2 boards have 7-8 native SATA 6 ports, and a very cheap APU (e.g. A4-5300) would do the job fine. Very low power when not under load. 2x2GB RAM will be enough. All of that should come well under £200.

Frozennova · 15 Jul 2013 at 17:00

YOUR BASKET
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G) £55.99
1 x MSI B75MA-P45 Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £53.99
1 x Intel Celeron G550 2.60GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £31.99
Total : £153.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Or

YOUR BASKET
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G) £55.99
1 x Asus F2A55-M LE AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £46.99
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £37.99
Total : £151.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).

Both offer enough oomph for a file server and use low power cpus (65W) and a marginally similar price point so it just depends if you would rather AMD or Intel.

Only issue is both only offering 6 Sata ports.

Here is what I use for my ESXI/FreeNAS server albeit with different RAM.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G) £55.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £36.95
1 x AMD Sempron X2 190 2.50GHz Dual Core Processor (Socket AM3) - Retail £29.99
Total : £133.43 (includes shipping : £8.75).

I'd recommend 8GB of ram if you are using ZFS as it does like lots of ram

MartynB85 · 16 Jul 2013 at 12:12

Thanks guys for your input. I have a i5 machine running esxi already so this one is purely for storage, so the cheaper it is to run the better.

The other option i have is to use an old core 2 duo e7500 machine with a perc 6 raid card, but i don't know if the raid card will play nicely with nas for free. Plus being an older machine, it may be a little more power hungry?
Thanks