NAS/Server build

[district_11]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£49.14 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 57.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (£34.91 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Z97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£108.69 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£69.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial M500 M.2 120GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£53.38 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Red 5TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£171.54 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Red 5TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£171.54 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Red 5TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£171.54 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Red 5TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£171.54 @ Aria PC)
Case: BitFenix Phenom M Arctic White MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£67.19 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 400W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£96.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£71.60 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 50.5 CFM 120mm  Fan  (£15.59 @ Aria PC)
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 50.5 CFM 120mm  Fan  (£15.59 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1267.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-21 16:02 GMT+0000

 

 

Very early days of researching this at the minute, here's what I've come up with.

 

I was considering a dedicated 4 bay enclosure with 4 WD reds, but it'll come to about £850, and do nothing more than hold my content. Atleast with a dedicated build I could use it for much more if I wished.

 

The case is  mITX, not mATX.

 

[Hikaru12]

What will this server be holding? Your entire media or anything specific? A quick warning. Huge HDD's tend to have higher failure rates because the platters are so packed and they tend to be a bit slower as well. I usually limit my builds to 3TB for that reason. Other then that you may want to rethink your case as it won't have sufficient cooling because that particular model blocks the front ports and use the side vent method which isn't the best for cooling multiple stacked HDD's. 

 

Is there a specific reason you're going with Windows instead of something like FreeNAS? I ask because I'm also going with Windows but it's because I don't care much about parity and I have a lower startup cost but at your price point it seems like you could afford the recommended setups as suggested on the FreeNAS forums (ECC RAM, Server Board, etc.) or a Synology enclosure. 

[district_11]

What will this server be holding? Your entire media or anything specific? A quick warning. Huge HDD's tend to have higher failure rates because the platters are so packed and they tend to be a bit slower as well. I usually limit my builds to 3TB for that reason. Other then that you may want to rethink your case as it won't have sufficient cooling because that particular model blocks the front ports and use the side vent method which isn't the best for cooling multiple stacked HDD's. 

 

Is there a specific reason you're going with Windows instead of something like FreeNAS? I ask because I'm also going with Windows but it's because I don't care much about parity and I have a lower startup cost but at your price point it seems like you could afford the recommended setups as suggested on the FreeNAS forums (ECC RAM, Server Board, etc.) or a Synology enclosure. 

 

 

HD movie files

 

I'd RAID them to minimise data loss. The reliability is a concern at this point, but WD wouldn't put them out there if they were that unreliable, would they?

 

FreeNAS, and building a server/NAS box (is there a difference?) is new to me, I'll look into it. Thanks.

 

I dont want a huge case, and I would imagine cooling should not be a problem, I could add a 200mm to the front, along with the 2 120's in the top, and with no GPU I would think it would be fine.

[Hikaru12]

HD movie files

 

I'd RAID them to minimise data loss. The reliability is a concern at this point, but WD wouldn't put them out there if they were that unreliable, would they?

 

FreeNAS, and building a server/NAS box (is there a difference?) is new to me, I'll look into it. Thanks.

 

I dont want a huge case, and I would imagine cooling should not be a problem, I could add a 200mm to the front, along with the 2 120's in the top, and with no GPU I would think it would be fine.

 

That's also what I would be using my NAS for. Look at these reviews for the WD 4TB (5TB is still kind of new so there won't be many reviews): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236599

A NAS box is just network attached storage and serves little other purpose. A server can do so much more like backup your drives, download torrents automatically, transcode, etc. If you're looking for other functionality other then just serving up your files (including multiple clients like MAC and Linux boxes) you should look into Nas4Free or FreeNAS. It has a bunch of features that I won't go into here (including snapshots so anything can be rolled back in time), etc. 

 

For just serving up files you'd be better off by saving up $100 on the OS and getting FreeNAS or Ubuntu Server. Should you want to add those features in the future you can. I'm more comfortable with Windows and I have specific driver requirements for my setup so that's why Windows would be my choice for my situation.

 

As for the case it depends if you want to add more drives in the future. 5TB drives should serve you very well so I don't think you'd need more than 4 with 1 parity drive. I would just ensure you have adequate airflow in the front. You would want a classic front to back intake/exhaust airflow. I would recommend something like the NODE (the smaller ITX 6 drive one). I forget the model name. It's just a little cube so it would be about the same size as the Bitfenix. 

 

Cheers.