Building a home server/NAS

[Error418]

My house just keep adding computers, so I think it's time to build a NAS, however, I also want a linux box that I can play around on. I'd probably like to host a small site, as well as use it to backup our computers, have a folder that would backup to the cloud (not sure how I would do that, but I'm sure I could macgyver one). I think I want to run Ubuntu server, as I am familiar with it.

I was wondering the pros and cons of software vs hardware RAID. Should I spring for 4 drives for RAID 10?

I also want to make sure none of the items I picked should be replaced. Obviously I don't have Linus' budget, but I'm sure an extra $50 or so wouldn't be the worst. Should I add a smaller drive for the OS?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A4-3400 2.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($43.79 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: ASRock A75M Micro ATX FM1 Motherboard ($79.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Microcenter)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Microcenter)

Case: Apex TX-381-C MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.98 @ Outlet PC)

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)

Other: CyberPower Intelligent LCD Series GreenPower UPS CP1000AVRLCD 1000VA 600 Watt ($113.99)

Total: $532.70

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-30 18:30 EST-0500)

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/AizG

Thanks!

[wpirobotbuilder]

Don't go with black drives for RAID. Use Red drives instead, they are designed specifically for NAS.

Consider the power your system will consume and ways to reduce it (it will be on 24/7 so you want as low power as possible. Get a small SSD (64GB should be just fine) for your OS, and maybe go with a lower power CPU like a Sempron or a Celeron, although yours will be just fine for your computer's operation.

As far as RAID goes, hardware tends to be faster, although it introduces another point of failure into your system (if it fails, you have to get another of the same model to get your data), and they can run quite toasty which means you'll need good airflow. Software RAID depends. You should check out Windows Storage Spaces (although you said you wanted to run Ubuntu server), or FreeNAS which I believe supports Linux.

[azeotrope]

FreeNAS which I believe supports Linux.

that makes zero sense. freenas is a BSD based distro. If you go linux don't go the ZFS way since its not supported in mainline and could break compatibility with a future kernel.

be very careful with BSD and make sure they have suport for that AMD patform. Ive got exactly the same cpu running linux raid6 and performance is good. It also runs VMs for web development testing. If you go the software raid linux route on this box you should be happy with it.

[wpirobotbuilder]

that makes zero sense. freenas is a BSD based distro.

My bad, I lumped Linux and BSD together.