New Mass Storage Server

[PenguinMaster]

I want a home NAS to store computer backups and random mass storage files. The HDD's & SSD's on my PC's are very large, so speed is a requirement. We are only doing Gigabit Networking from the PC's to the Switch, but from the Server to the Switch will be 10 gig, so multiple computers can hit the server at once. The budget is $300 (Used Hardware, Doesn't Include HDD's or SSD's). Does anyone have any good recommendations?

[TheBean]

use an intel nuc or something

[8uhbbhu8]

Given that your wired with GB. The max throughput you'll be able to get from each PC is ~110MB/s so everything you do will be limited by that. What OS and raid solution (if any) will you be using? Size and amount of drives? Noise requirements considering it's a home nas?

[brandishwar]

Okay... let's talk about the chassis a second. Do you want hot-swap bays? Where will this system be living - in a rack, on a desk, where? How many drives do you foresee using, and how many are you starting with? Do you already have a chassis you intend to use for this, or are you building from scratch?

On hardware, I'd say to go with an AMD FX processor with a 990FX mainboard to get as many PCI-E lanes (40 available) as possible for the least cost. This will allow room for a SAS controller (much better for cable management, especially when you get up to 8+ HDDs)  and the 10GbE card. Most should have a PCI slot as well, so you can use that for the GPU - not like you really need anything powerful for a NAS.

 

At the same time, as @8uhbbhu8mentioned, GbE limits you to about ~100MB/s maximum transfer to and from any of the connected systems. So if speed is a requirement, you'll need to upgrade all of your systems to use 10GbE.

[PenguinMaster]

6 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Given that your wired with GB. The max throughput you'll be able to get from each PC is ~110MB/s so everything you do will be limited by that. What OS and raid solution (if any) will you be using? Size and amount of drives? Noise requirements considering it's a home nas?

I will probably be using FreeNAS. Size, I would like no more than 3 Units. It’s going to be rack mounted. Noise isn’t much of an issue. 

[PenguinMaster]

4 hours ago, brandishwar said:

Okay... let's talk about the chassis a second. Do you want hot-swap bays? Where will this system be living - in a rack, on a desk, where? How many drives do you foresee using, and how many are you starting with? Do you already have a chassis you intend to use for this, or are you building from scratch?

On hardware, I'd say to go with an AMD FX processor with a 990FX mainboard to get as many PCI-E lanes (40 available) as possible for the least cost. This will allow room for a SAS controller (much better for cable management, especially when you get up to 8+ HDDs)  and the 10GbE card. Most should have a PCI slot as well, so you can use that for the GPU - not like you really need anything powerful for a NAS.

 

At the same time, as @8uhbbhu8mentioned, GbE limits you to about ~100MB/s maximum transfer to and from any of the connected systems. So if speed is a requirement, you'll need to upgrade all of your systems to use 10GbE.

I don’t need hot swap bays, they would be nice, but it’s not necessary. The system will be in a rack. Maybe 8-12 drives. Starting with 4. I would like to buy a used server on eBay. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 hours ago, Chickenfans said:

I don’t need hot swap bays, they would be nice, but it’s not necessary. The system will be in a rack. Maybe 8-12 drives. Starting with 4. I would like to buy a used server on eBay. 

How about a used dell r510 or hp dl180 g6? Then add a 10gbe card and you should be good to go.

[PenguinMaster]

10 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How about a used dell r510 or hp dl180 g6? Then add a 10gbe card and you should be good to go.

So the same one that you recommended for the PLEX build?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Chickenfans said:

So the same one that you recommended for the PLEX build?

 

yep, just use the same system for plen and nas/file server. No reason to have 2 boxes here.

[SupaKomputa]

you can buy a used sandy bridge xeon 2660 server and install Freenas as the OS.

pretty low powered (2ghz) but high threads (12).

8 drive in raid 5.

From there you can install a plex file server app.