Help planning a NAS?

[RangerLunis]

Hey so i'm planning on creating a new NAS for myself. Here is my part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/sDX4sJ

 

Unfortunately it is a little overpriced for a NAS compared to maybe something like a WD cloud storage for $250. It'll be using freeNAS.

I plan on having this NAS share a 10 gigabit connection between it and my rig. I got the idea from this video here: 

 

 

SO i'll be buying to 10 gigabit network cards such as the HP one included at the bottom and linking them through DA cables. 

I have a few questions on this solution though. Wouldnt my 5400rpm drives be a bottleneck to the 10gigabit connection? 

 

Besides that, any suggestions? Thanks

[79wjd]

Yes, the drives will bottleneck 10gbps (1.25GB/s). The drives can saturate roughly gigabit ethernet. And it can be made cheaper if you would be okay with mATX rather than mITX. Although, I'm assuming this will be hidden but in a somewhat prominent area since you're getting an aftermarket cooler (presumably for noise). 

 

What exactly will the NAS be used for? If you're already spending $800, maybe considering going with an i3 (for an extra $70) -- depending on your use case. Buying used is also a great way to save quite a bit of money (I got a 1230v2+supermicro X9SCM-F +32gb ecc for $350). 

 

I would also upgrade to the CX450m (for $5 more) since it is a much better PSU.

[RangerLunis]

46 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

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The NAS is going to be used for storing my work like programming and videos and other media. 

 

The thing is I want this NAS to be low power, I don't really see a use for a i3 in a NAS unless maybe something like vmware, but yeah. 

Same thing with the powersupply, seasonic is a great brand and shouldn't have any mishaps, and 450w seems a bit much for the TDP on this machine.

 

mATX doesn't have much a price difference compared to ITX. The bit of extra price for the smaller form factor seems worth it to me. 

 

Thank you though

[79wjd]

20 minutes ago, RangerLunis said:

The NAS is going to be used for storing my work like programming and videos and other media. 

 

The thing is I want this NAS to be low power, I don't really see a use for a i3 in a NAS unless maybe something like vmware, but yeah. 

Same thing with the powersupply, seasonic is a great brand and shouldn't have any mishaps, and 450w seems a bit much for the TDP on this machine.

 

mATX doesn't have much a price difference compared to ITX. The bit of extra price for the smaller form factor seems worth it to me. 

 

Thank you though

The idle power consumption on an i3 is basically the same as that of a celeron, but if you're confident it will never be used for more than basic file storage, then you can save money and get the celeron. As for the PSU, I'm not suggesting the 450w CX450m because 300w wouldn't be enough, rather the 450m is of a higher quality (and you won't notice a difference in the electric bill with either one). 

[Guest]

I feel you will be unable to see any real benefit over gigabit especially when using slow 5400rpm drives to write too. The build seems a little overkill for only two drives, wouldn't a pre-built solution be cheaper/ a better fit for this few a number of drives?

Either a 2 bay NAS attached to the home network -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108331&cm_re=nas-_-22-108-331-_-Product

or;

a higher speed USB 3.0 RAID enclosure like this (I personally use this one and it's served me for the last few years well)  -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816322012&cm_re=2_bay_raid-_-16-322-012-_-Product
 

will provide much more value for this number of drives

[RangerLunis]

11 minutes ago, VanguardScar said:

I feel you will be unable to see any real benefit over gigabit especially when using slow 5400rpm drives to write too. The build seems a little overkill for only two drives, wouldn't a pre-built solution be cheaper/ a better fit for this few a number of drives?

Either a 2 bay NAS attached to the home network -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108331&cm_re=nas-_-22-108-331-_-Product

or;

a higher speed USB 3.0 RAID enclosure like this (I personally use this one and it's served me for the last few years well)  -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816322012&cm_re=2_bay_raid-_-16-322-012-_-Product
 

will provide much more value for this number of drives

Thanks for this, I think i'll go with the RAID enclosure solution. I just really wanted a good fast connection to the NAS as it would hold my main project files to conserve space in my small SSD and I want to be able to access them relatively quickly. Do you have any setup recommendation for using the RAID enclosure? 

 

Seriously thanks that enclosure looks great.

[79wjd]

21 minutes ago, VanguardScar said:

I feel you will be unable to see any real benefit over gigabit especially when using slow 5400rpm drives to write too. The build seems a little overkill for only two drives, wouldn't a pre-built solution be cheaper/ a better fit for this few a number of drives?

Either a 2 bay NAS attached to the home network -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108331&cm_re=nas-_-22-108-331-_-Product

or;

a higher speed USB 3.0 RAID enclosure like this (I personally use this one and it's served me for the last few years well)  -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816322012&cm_re=2_bay_raid-_-16-322-012-_-Product
 

will provide much more value for this number of drives

Well, the first option is $300 + $300 of drives. So $600 with virtually no expandability and much less performance headroom vs. about $700 for a custom NAS. The only real reason to consider the synology NAS is because there is less to configure (i.e. plug and play). 

[Guest]

I've just been using my RAID enclosure as a local backup / media dump. So I've been running it in RAID 1 mode and using SecondCopy to keep everything in order. It's really simple to setup. Just drop the drives in, press a few buttons and you're off to the races. One annoyance to note is if the power goes out, you'll have to push the power button again to fire it up so keep it in an easily accessible place, otherwise it'll turn on and off with your PC. 

[RangerLunis]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

Well, the first option is $300 + $300 of drives. So $600 with virtually no expandability and much less performance headroom vs. about $700 for a custom NAS. 

Very true, but the $60 raid enclosure solution plus $300 worth of drives vs $700 for a custom nas is a much better match-up. While  I might not get the same performance, I should still have some ok expandability. I don't really see myself using anything other than a RAID 1 and I can always upgrade to higher capacity drives in the future. Seagate has announced they'll be releasing 10TB drives.

[RangerLunis]

1 minute ago, VanguardScar said:

I've just been using my RAID enclosure as a local backup / media dump. So I've been running it in RAID 1 mode and using SecondCopy to keep everything in order. It's really simple to setup.Just drop the drives in, a press a few buttons and you're off to the races. One annoyance to note is if the power goes out, you'll have to push the power button again to fire it up so keep it in an easily accessible place, otherwise it'll turn on and off with your PC. 

I'll be hooking it up with a UPS so shouldn't be a problem.

[Guest]

The other piece of fine print is that particular RAID enclosure only officially supports up to 8TB drives, so 10TB drives will be unlikely to work.

[RangerLunis]

Just now, VanguardScar said:

The other piece of fine print is that particular RAID enclosure only officially supports up to 8TB drives, so 10TB drives will be unlikely to work.

That's fine  i'm sure I won't need 10TB, 4TB should be enough for quite a few years.