Budget NAS out of an old XPS410, worth my time?

[fishnub]

 

EDIT: I have decided to go a head and give this NAS idea a shot. I will update this thread as I go along, primarily for my own sanity. 

 

 

First and foremost, I am way behind the times on technology. I found myself in need of a new computer and how no clue what I was looking at. Naturally I went to YouTube for answers and found Linus and was saved! In my house we have multiple devices and the kids are beginning to have their own storage needs as well. I have a huge problem in my house, too many storage devices. Back to LTT and I learned about this beautiful solution called a NAS . So, with that aside I never spend money that I do not have to, I want to be sure this will actually work well for my family. To test I have an old Dell XPS410 that has been in my attic for around 5 years due to a corrupt OS. As this is my first attempt I am sure I will have tons of questions. Here is what I know for sure about the donor rig:

 

 

Mother Board:  Dell E210882

Processor: Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHz (LGA775 socket and can support Pentium 4 processors, with speeds of 2.8,3.0,3.2,3.4,3.6, or 3.8 GHz)

 

Memory: 2 GB installed, but has 4 slots that can each handle up to 1GB  Compatible with PC2-3200 (400 MHz) or PCs-4300 (533MHz) DDr2 non-ECC and unbuffered SDRAM.

Maximum RAM: 4GB

Drive Bays: 2

Video card: NVidia GeForce GTS 450

Network Card: Conexant RD01-D850 56K V.92 PCI Data/Fax Modem

 

 

Goals:

 

 

1. See if I can figure out how to do this.

2. Local storage instead of 15+ separate storage devices.

3. I currently only need about 1TB of storage, not for music but for photos and documents. So 2 drives at RAID 1 would be fine.

 

 

Questions:

 

 

1. Will this work, or should I just come off the $$ and start from scratch?

2. If I am able to make this work, could it actually use FreeNAS? I know it likes more RAM that I can install.

3. This M/B has 6 SATA slots; can I use them for cache?

 

4.Is it smarter to go ahead and build a NAS out of better hardware and upgrade to more drives later down the road.

 

 

 

 

 

In the future I want to build a true NAS with multiple drives to keep video files and all the works. I merely want to use this as an educational tool before I spend a bunch of cash.

 

Here is a current Photo of the M/B taken with my trusty potato.

 

 

[flibberdipper]

1. It'll work, but it may not be the fastest thing around if it or your network aren't Gigabit capable.

2. FreeNAS will work fine, but regardless of what you use, just don't use the ZFS file system.

3. Unless there's a software option, no. Even then it would be shit cache because it's almost certainly just SATA 2.

4. Unless you need lower power consumption it'll be fine. The only bit of hardware you're going to need is a basic RAID card since that mobo almost certainly doesn't support hardware RAID.

 

Hell I'm using an HP DC5750 with an Athlon 64 X2 4600+ as a Plex server/temporary network file dump (like if I need to dump things from one PC to another but don't feel like getting out a USB drive to do it), and it works perfectly other than the CPU being weak as piss. Hell, I can even do hardware RAID on it.

[SCHISCHKA]

6 minutes ago, fishnub said:

3. This M/B has 6 SATA slots; can I use them for cache?

you mean SSD cache? that stuff is good for databases but I have not yet seen a convincing argument or actual use case that proves its worth in file storage.

7 minutes ago, fishnub said:

4.Is it smarter to go ahead and build a NAS out of better hardware and upgrade to more drives later down the road.

Your CPU and RAM is good enough for file serving, I use a A4 and 4GB RAM and its does the job. Captain Obvious says if you get annoyed at video playback then you can upgrade later. Look at power consumption cost and work out how long you should run your system for vs the cost of new hardware, that extra cost for a low power system might not work out. Environmental benefits are none because you will be creating e-waste.

9 minutes ago, fishnub said:

2. If I am able to make this work, could it actually use FreeNAS? I know it likes more RAM that I can install.

You can use any BSD or Linux. Theres plenty of tutorials out there. Because my hardware is modest I use debian.

 

Also put the OS on a USB flash drive not on the storage drives and leave room in your budget for a backup drive. If budget is constrained to just two drives, i'd rather use one as backup than use a raid array.

[fishnub]

5 minutes ago, tmcclelland455 said:

1. It'll work, but it may not be the fastest thing around if it or your network aren't Gigabit capable.

2. FreeNAS will work fine, but regardless of what you use, just don't use the ZFS file system.

3. Unless there's a software option, no. Even then it would be shit cache because it's almost certainly just SATA 2.

4. Unless you need lower power consumption it'll be fine. The only bit of hardware you're going to need is a basic RAID card since that mobo almost certainly doesn't support hardware RAID.

 

Hell I'm using an HP DC5750 with an Athlon 64 X2 4600+ as a Plex server/temporary network file dump (like if I need to dump things from one PC to another but don't feel like getting out a USB drive to do it), and it works perfectly other than the CPU being weak as piss. Hell, I can even do hardware RAID on it.

Thanks for the reply. I will have to check to see if our systems are Gigabit capable. I want to eventually use ZFS, but didn't want to spend money on a high end option if no one uses the NAS.

[Deep Fried Mars Bar]

the only thing is getting ram, that could cost a few pennies, especially if you need a replacement stick in a few years.

[fishnub]

4 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

you mean SSD cache? that stuff is good for databases but I have not yet seen a convincing argument or actual use case that proves its worth in file storage.

Your CPU and RAM is good enough for file serving, I use a A4 and 4GB RAM and its does the job. Captain Obvious says if you get annoyed at video playback then you can upgrade later. Look at power consumption cost and work out how long you should run your system for vs the cost of new hardware, that extra cost for a low power system might not work out. Environmental benefits are none because you will be creating e-waste.

You can use any BSD or Linux. Theres plenty of tutorials out there. Because my hardware is modest I use debian.

 

Also put the OS on a USB flash drive not on the storage drives and leave room in your budget for a backup drive. If budget is constrained to just two drives, i'd rather use one as backup than use a raid array.

Thank you for your reply,

 

Yes, I was referring to SSD cache. I had read about using it somewhere, I just cant recall where. As for the budget, I want to spend as little as possible on THIS setup. If it works and I understand all the inner-workings,I will justify the expense needed. Thanks for the tip of the OS on the flash drive, I assume that it will need to be permanently attached, so i will have to move the USB slot to internal. (kids......) 

[fishnub]

Thanks to some advice and further research, I will be swapping the Network card from the stock to a Gigabit compatible card. Also I may pull out the beefy Nvidia card that i have in there now (removed when picture was taken) and put a basic card in. Lastly i will be adding 4 1GB RAM sticks from my bin of parts. So far all that I plan to purchase would be the drives. For this build I will be ordering 2 WD red 2TB (P/N WD20EFRX)

 

[fishnub]

On 3/20/2017 at 7:37 PM, tmcclelland455 said:

1. It'll work, but it may not be the fastest thing around if it or your network aren't Gigabit capable.

2. FreeNAS will work fine, but regardless of what you use, just don't use the ZFS file system.

3. Unless there's a software option, no. Even then it would be shit cache because it's almost certainly just SATA 2.

4. Unless you need lower power consumption it'll be fine. The only bit of hardware you're going to need is a basic RAID card since that mobo almost certainly doesn't support hardware RAID.

 

Hell I'm using an HP DC5750 with an Athlon 64 X2 4600+ as a Plex server/temporary network file dump (like if I need to dump things from one PC to another but don't feel like getting out a USB drive to do it), and it works perfectly other than the CPU being weak as piss. Hell, I can even do hardware RAID on it.

 

One of the big draws to this setup in 2005 was the option for factory RAID. However, the only option was to run in RAID 0. I am looking to grab a cheap Raid card off amazon, as I do not have any in my bins of parts. I also looked into the power consumption on the video card currently installed. It draws 172W at idle, which i cannot justify having that running 24/7 for a setup like this. As luck will have it, none of my part that i have laying around are old enough to work in this machine, and almost everything i have is for laptops. I have not had a desktop in over 6 years.

 

Here is the list of junk i will be purchasing to finish this guy out.

(2) 1GB RAM sticks

Gigabit Network card

AMD HD6350 Graphics card

Syba SD-VIA-1A2S Raid card

(2) WD Red 2 TB drives.

 

Total Cost: $219.78

 

[flibberdipper]

7 hours ago, fishnub said:

 

One of the big draws to this setup in 2005 was the option for factory RAID. However, the only option was to run in RAID 0. I am looking to grab a cheap Raid card off amazon, as I do not have any in my bins of parts. I also looked into the power consumption on the video card currently installed. It draws 172W at idle, which i cannot justify having that running 24/7 for a setup like this. As luck will have it, none of my part that i have laying around are old enough to work in this machine, and almost everything i have is for laptops. I have not had a desktop in over 6 years.

 

Here is the list of junk i will be purchasing to finish this guy out.

(2) 1GB RAM sticks

Gigabit Network card

AMD HD6350 Graphics card

Syba SD-VIA-1A2S Raid card

(2) WD Red 2 TB drives.

 

Total Cost: $219.78

 

Jesus christ, 172 watts at idle... Oof.

 

I mean if this is just going to be a dedicated NAS, you could completely forgo a dedicated graphics card (if it has onboard graphics, obviously). Hell, my NAS has onboard ATI Radeon X300 graphics and it's fast enough to do remote desktop at 1080p which is all it needs to do.

 

Also a quick look on the ol Googles indicates that it does have Gigabit LAN, so you could drop the add-in card and save some money.

[fishnub]

6 hours ago, tmcclelland455 said:

Jesus christ, 172 watts at idle... Oof.

 

I mean if this is just going to be a dedicated NAS, you could completely forgo a dedicated graphics card (if it has onboard graphics, obviously). Hell, my NAS has onboard ATI Radeon X300 graphics and it's fast enough to do remote desktop at 1080p which is all it needs to do.

 

Also a quick look on the ol Googles indicates that it does have Gigabit LAN, so you could drop the add-in card and save some money.

Oh yeah. Max output is shocking as well. Unfortunately there isn't integrated  graphics on this mobo. Thanks for the info on the network card, I definitely didnt research it enough.