Can I build a NAS with this PC?

[MissFangs]

I've asked this question on this forum before, so my apologies if you're returning to help me yet again! Anyway, I've been looking to build a NAS from a pre-built computer. I found this one on eBay today and it looks like a perfect fit - the price is right, as well. Do you think it would make a good NAS build?

 

Thanks in advance,
Erin Joan

[FloRolf]

Well anything can be a NAS. 

This will work fine for pure data storage but if you want to stream movies with plex it might be too slow. 

 

Also you have to check the motherboards expansion capabilities because I don't think you want to build a NAS with just 320gb of storage? 

 

For a beginner I'd actually recommend a Synology instead though. 

[Pixel5]

the short answer is no.

 

The long answer is this is a 65W CPU with barely and performance to speak of on a motherboard that only has 6 Sata ports and they are only Sata II so half the speed of Sata III

 

What exactly do you play to do with this NAS, maybe a pre build from Synology is better or at the very least buying up to date hardware for the system so its much more energy efficient.

[mahyar]

i have a nas with a pentium e5200 1GB of ram and 160GB of storage so if you add some drives it will be very good

[MissFangs]

2 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

Well anything can be a NAS. 

This will work fine for pure data storage but if you want to stream movies with plex it might be too slow. 

 

Also you have to check the motherboards expansion capabilities because I don't think you want to build a NAS with just 320gb of storage? 

 

For a beginner I'd actually recommend a Synology instead though. 

The storage interface section on the motherboard's specs states "SATA-300 -connectors: 6 x 7pin Serial ATA." My understanding of this is that there are 6 SATA connectors, which you can see on the images of the MB. I'm going to buy some NAS drives to put in there.

[MissFangs]

1 minute ago, Pixel5 said:

the short answer is no.

 

The long answer is this is a 65W CPU with barely and performance to speak of on a motherboard that only has 6 Sata ports and they are only Sata II so half the speed of Sata III

 

What exactly do you play to do with this NAS, maybe a pre build from Synology is better or at the very least buying up to date hardware for the system so its much more energy efficient.

 

I'll use the NAS primarily for storage of video editing footage. I might pull data directly from the NAS to use in my projects, if needed, but it will mostly serve as a backup. I want the option of expandability and a pre-built NAS simply can't offer that unless you're willing to empty your pockets. I was wondering about the SATA connectors because they're listed strangely on the MB specs... In the picture of the MB, the SATA connectors are listed as SATA3G. Is this not SATA III? 

[MissFangs]

7 minutes ago, Pixel5 said:

the short answer is no.

 

The long answer is this is a 65W CPU with barely and performance to speak of on a motherboard that only has 6 Sata ports and they are only Sata II so half the speed of Sata III

 

What exactly do you play to do with this NAS, maybe a pre build from Synology is better or at the very least buying up to date hardware for the system so its much more energy efficient.

 

PS. I've heard that my internet will be the bottleneck, if anything. On this thread they say that SATA II speeds weren't fully utilized because of their internet connection. Do you think this is accurate?

[Pixel5]

15 hours ago, MissFangs said:

I'll use the NAS primarily for storage of video editing footage. I might pull data directly from the NAS to use in my projects, if needed, but it will mostly serve as a backup. I want the option of expandability and a pre-built NAS simply can't offer that unless you're willing to empty your pockets. I was wondering about the SATA connectors because they're listed strangely on the MB specs... In the picture of the MB, the SATA connectors are listed as SATA3G. Is this not SATA III? 

no thats a trick they like to use Sata II have up to 3 Gigabit/s of transfer speeds so most people see the 3 and assume its Sata III in reality Sata III has twice the bandwidth.

15 hours ago, MissFangs said:

PS. I've heard that my internet will be the bottleneck, if anything. On this thread they say that SATA II speeds weren't fully utilized because of their internet connection. Do you think this is accurate?

If you would transfer all your files via the internet this would be true but you are doing it via your local networth which is much faster.

Also having higher theoretical transfer speeds means you will be able to transfer with full speed via the network and still have bandwidth available for stuff the NAS does internally with the files.

 

Overall the cost of the NAS itself often seem high but its actually the lowest cost, you spend way more on the hard drives than you do on the NAS itself.

 

You also really want to look at how much electricity costs in your area, a NAS is supposed to be always running so using old power hungry components can be expensive, for example i have high electricity cost, running a 50W device all day for a year would cost me 130€ in electricity.

My NAS uses more like 20W so thats saving me like 75€ a year which was worth the price to get more efficient hardware.

[Nick7]

Yes, you can run straight up NAS on that box.

SATA 2 vs SATA 3 does not matter as long as you are not using SSD's and want MAX speed from them.

However, do not expect to be able to transcode real time video on it.

For pure storage, it'll be great.