dirt CHEAP NAS solution?

[pit5000]

i'm looking for a dirt NAS solution that i can put my own drives into

 

2-3 drive minimum for redundancy

 

sub $100 would be nice, but if that's not possible, I'll just check out whatever is available.

[Majestic]

Think you're going to have to build your own server/case... Don't think they ship a case + hardware + software for <100$.

[KingDaddyDaniel]

Think you're going to have to build your own server/case... Don't think they ship a case + hardware + software for <100$.

Building your own isn't advised, as the electricity cost of running a small PC 24/7/365 will be more expensive in the long run.

JayzTwoCents just recently reviewed a WD MyCloud EX2 and at $350 USD with drives included, this is a pretty good solution.

[Razor512]

it all depends on the specs of the system, e.g., for under $100, you can often find an older gen PC that you can use as a NAS. When a lower end PC is left mostly idle, often the power consumption can drop to around 20 watts. (just because a low end system may have a 200 watt power supply, doesn't mean that it will pull 200 watts at all times. when used as a NAS, the CPU will rarely even increase their clock speed.

 

Overall, in the $100 range, you are looking at buying an old used PC that will support multiple drives. The only limitation is the board may only support raid 0 or 1 (thus 2 drives max), other than that, you will need to run something like freeNAS http://www.freenas.org/about/features.html in order to do 3+ drives (depending on how many SATA ports it has). Keep in mind that even an older gen PC, will still be able to nearly max out a gigabit connection.

 

Other than that, you are looking at a very slow 2 bay NAS if you want to stay close to $100 http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews/32359-zyxel-nsa320-2-bay-power-media-server-reviewed

 

amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/NSA320-Performance-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B004UBU3SY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414963708&sr=8-1&keywords=ZyXEL+NSA320

 

$90