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Entry level NAS

I am looking into building an entry level NAS for my house. I do not need to move files quickly, so regular hard drives will suffice. I would like assistance in choosing a case to use (small form factor is prefered). I would like to have about 4TB of storage with, of course, redundancy. I would be grateful of any suggestions for a case, and or suggestions for what OS to use.

EDIT: also motherboards with plenty of SATA connections (also hopefully small form factor). 

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What is your budget for such a system?

Main System: Phobos

AMD Ryzen 7 2700 (8C/16T), ASRock B450 Steel Legend, 16GB G.SKILL Aegis DDR4 3000MHz, AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB (XFX), 960GB Crucial M500, 2TB Seagate BarraCuda, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations/macOS Catalina

 

Secondary System: York

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Older File Server: Yet to be named

Intel Pentium 4 HT (1C/2T), Intel D865GBF, 3GB DDR 400MHz, ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB (HIS), 80GB WD Caviar, 320GB Hitachi Deskstar, Windows XP Pro SP3, Windows Server 2003 R2

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32 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

What is your budget for such a system?

Probably around $800, but it is flexible. Right now I have a decent setup for around $1000 but I know I can get a cheaper motherboard and psu. I am going to hop on Skype with a friend tomorrow and iron out some more details. I'll keep you updated. 

Intel 7700k @stock// Asus rog strix GeForce GTX 1080// Asus rog Z-270E// Phantels Enthoo Evolv// 32gb (2x16) Corsair Vengance LPX// Corsair H100i V2// Samsung 850 Evo 250gb// Seagate BarraCuda 3tb// Corsair RM750i

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As a DIY PC and NAS builder myself

 

judging from your use case and budget

 

I will suggest getting the Synology DS416 4 BAY NAS

 

it has support for iSCSI and the dual LAN ports can be configured as LAN teaming or redundancy mode

 

it comes with in build hardware RAID 1/0 and 5 and 6 which is plenty for home users

 

deployed for home users and office use as a backup storage center with Backup Exec

Budget? Uses? Currency? Location? Operating System? Peripherals? Monitor? Use PCPartPicker wherever possible. 

Quote whom you're replying to, and set option to follow your topics. Or Else we can't see your reply.

 

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I'd recommend a QNAP 431 / 451 or a Synology DS416.

They would be the most cost efficient for building a NAS.

Currently 3TB / 4TB drives are a good deal - so you could do 3 in a RAID5, with a NAS unit for about $600-$700 giving you 6-8TB usable (depending which drives you get).

The Seagate Ironwolf are especially good value.

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Moving files quickly isn't the only reason to consider NAS rated (red-label) HDDs for your NAS. Different drives are engineered with different environments and uses in mind. NAS-rated drives are optimized for 24x7 use with multiple user technology, whereas standard desktop drives are typically rated for 8 hours a day x 5 days a week use and for single users/devices.
 

Another consideration when it comes to NAS devices or enclosures is vibration. When you put more than a couple hard drives together in these enclosures, they have the potential to really beat down each-other and cause performance and longevity issues just with the sheer force of all the moving, rotating parts involved. One way NAS drives are superior in this use case is they have firmware and sometimes RV sensors built in which are designed to manage and mitigate these vibration issues. 
 

They are also designed to handle different workloads. For example, a standard Seagate BarraCuda drive is rated to handle up to 55TB of data per year, whereas a Seagate IronWolf NAS drive is rated to handle up to 180TB per year, and the IronWolf Pro being rated for up to 300TB per year. Typically, NAS rated drives also will have a longer warranty period. 
 

So choosing drives engineered for the specific application in mind is the best way of protecting the performance and longevity of the drives you buy. If you'd like to check it out, here is a video with further information on choosing the right drive for the right job.

Seagate Technology | Official Forums Team

IronWolf Drives for NAS Applications - SkyHawk Drives for Surveillance Applications - BarraCuda Drives for PC & Gaming

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