Speccing out a NAS

[tuffjuff]

As we move into the new house, I'm doing something I've wanted to do for some time - building a NAS. I happen to have a Pentium.... E8400? system lying around. Am I safe to pop some highly reviewed/rated RAM in there, along with the couple 2 or 3TB WD Red's in RAID 0 (with a separate RAID controller) and back them up once in a while to an offline drive? Or do I need to bite the bullet and order a new CPU/server mobo/ECC RAM? Literally, most FreeNAS and other general NAS discussion topics turn into a condescending argument about ECC RAM, and simple non-ECC peasants, etc.

 

I am storing medical, legal and tax documents, along with music and we'll likely eventually convert our movie collection to digital, so I don't need a ton of space. I just want reliable space. (I had a 500GB Seagate hard drive 3-4 years ago abruptly die, and that drive happened to store all this important stuff on it)

 

Money isn't a major concern, because I already have a brand new case and reliable power supply lined up, and I'm buying the drives no matter which I choose. Just not sure if I *need* to drop $300 on a G3250, 16GB ECC RAM and a server board.

[tuffjuff]

As a follow-up/edit: I'm not married to FreeNAS. The more I read, the more finicky it sounds. I just want a NAS that can operate the hard drives that hold my cool stuff.

[Aekim]

Then don't use freenas^^

Look into openmediavault, rockstor or ubuntu+samba. Unraid is pretty good but not free or Windows with storage spaces.

You don't need a raidcard either, Software RAID is fine.

Just get 4-8gb RAM and test unraid (the best to expand later and very easy to set up).

Which case and PSU do you want to use?

[beavo451]

Devolving into ECC vs non-ECC is just Internet chest thumping and mental masturbation.

Use whatever you are comfortable with. However, no matter what components and system you end up with, data is not "safe" without a backup.

[tuffjuff]

On 2/11/2016 at 6:38 PM, Aekim said:

Then don't use freenas^^

Look into openmediavault, rockstor or ubuntu+samba. Unraid is pretty good but not free or Windows with storage spaces.

You don't need a raidcard either, Software RAID is fine.

Just get 4-8gb RAM and test unraid (the best to expand later and very easy to set up).

Which case and PSU do you want to use?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome, thanks for the suggestions. As I am in need of a game server, I think I'll try using the lowly Pentium for the game server, and make my other build centered around a server board with ECC, just to be safe. I plan to back the data up to a powered off hard drive once a month or so (the data won't change terribly often).

[Aekim]

You could also turn your actual pc into the nas with unraid and a vm with windows on top, so you don't need new stuff exept for a hbm card perhaps (for more sata ports).

Linus has some videos about it how to set it up, just look into it perhaps it's something to consider (and a very cheap solution )

[beavo451]

4 hours ago, Aekim said:

You could also turn your actual pc into the nas with unraid and a vm with windows on top, so you don't need new stuff exept for a hbm card perhaps (for more sata ports).

Linus has some videos about it how to set it up, just look into it perhaps it's something to consider (and a very cheap solution )

If you do that, just use the file sharing that is built into Windows.

[beavo451]

4 hours ago, Aekim said:

You could also turn your actual pc into the nas with unraid and a vm with windows on top, so you don't need new stuff exept for a hbm card perhaps (for more sata ports).

Linus has some videos about it how to set it up, just look into it perhaps it's something to consider (and a very cheap solution )

If you do that, just use the file sharing that is built into Windows.

[tuffjuff]

I want a separate, dedicated machine to host files in a redundant RAID, like RAID1. My concern is in the stability and longevity of the setup. I assume if a motherboard fails, for example, that the entire RAID volume is destroy (or perhaps can be restored by replacing it with an identical motherboard/RAID controller?) so I want a secure motherboard, and if non-ECC RAM really messes everything up like YouTube and Google have you believe, I feel like I need to invest in ECC.

[beavo451]

You can have all the redundancy, most reliable parts, ECC, etc. in the world, but it is nothing without a backup.

 

Instead of blowing a huge amount of money on one system, you need to have money to spend on a couple backups.

 

Just look at Linus's videos about their servers. Top end parts and it still failed. With no backups. Yeah they were able to use a data recovery service, but I'm sure the cost of the recovery could have paid for the cost of having backups in the first place many times over.

[Aekim]

If you go with a Software RAID you can plug the HDDs and USB drive into a new PC (does not depend on the same hardware) and it's back up in case of a mobo failure. Just look into the order if the SATA ports and you shouldn't have a problem ;)

Freenas and unraid have this function for sure.

Backups are still very recommend for  worst case, like PSU or multiple HDD failure