NAS Build

[T1TANIS]

Hey Everyone,

 

My friend recently bought a 5-bay Synology NAS for his home and after playing around with it I really want to get a NAS for myself.  I'm not new to computer building, but I have never really dealt with a NAS before so I don't really now if there's any specialized components I should be looking for, or things I should look out for.  Right now the plan is to use all the spare parts I have so that I can spend as little money as possible :)  Here's what I have at my disposal so far:

 

Mobo:  ASRock 970DE3/U3S3 AM3+ AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

 

CPU:  AMD FX-8120

 

Case:  Cooler Master HAF 912

 

CPU Cooler:  Cooler Master Seidon 120MM

 

RAM:  GSkill 8GB 1600MHz

 

So basically I think all i need is a power supply ,some hard drives, and the OS.  I was thinking of getting a pretty low wattage PSU(~400 Watts) and a couple WD Red Drives.  The last item, the OS, is what I need the most help with.  I know there's a lot of free Linux OS's out there, and I've heard Windows Home Server is a good option as well.  My basic needs are going to be file storage/backup but I would also like to set it up as my own personal cloud so that I can stream movies and music to me wherever I am.  So based on the parts I gave you can anyone make any recommendations on stuff that I need to change or what OS to use?

 

 

[terrytek]

Hey Everyone,

 

My friend recently bought a 5-bay Synology NAS for his home and after playing around with it I really want to get a NAS for myself.  I'm not new to computer building, but I have never really dealt with a NAS before so I don't really now if there's any specialized components I should be looking for, or things I should look out for.  Right now the plan is to use all the spare parts I have so that I can spend as little money as possible :)  Here's what I have at my disposal so far:

 

Mobo:  ASRock 970DE3/U3S3 AM3+ AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

 

CPU:  AMD FX-8120

 

Case:  Cooler Master HAF 912

 

CPU Cooler:  Cooler Master Seidon 120MM

 

RAM:  GSkill 8GB 1600MHz

 

So basically I think all i need is a power supply ,some hard drives, and the OS.  I was thinking of getting a pretty low wattage PSU(~400 Watts) and a couple WD Red Drives.  The last item, the OS, is what I need the most help with.  I know there's a lot of free Linux OS's out there, and I've heard Windows Home Server is a good option as well.  My basic needs are going to be file storage/backup but I would also like to set it up as my own personal cloud so that I can stream movies and music to me wherever I am.  So based on the parts I gave you can anyone make any recommendations on stuff that I need to change or what OS to use?

 

 

 

 

Get something affordable, like W7 Home Basic or Home Premium. Also for ur NAS build, get seagate barracudas instead of red drives.

[Eric1024]

Get something affordable, like W7 Home Basic or Home Premium. Also for ur NAS build, get seagate barracudas instead of red drives.

If you plan on running any kind of raid, get reds. Barracudas don't support time limited error recovery or error recovery control afaik, so they're just going to be a ticking time bomb in raid.

If you do have a brand preference for seagate though, they recently released their NAS HDD (literally just called the NAS HDD, no cute name like barracuda) and those have TLER/ERC/whatever you want to call it... linky http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/nas-drives/nas-hdd/

 

 

For the OS, I would recommend linux if you're already familiar with it and comfortable using the command line or if you just want to learn something new/be challenged. I'm using linux mint for my ZFS file server, which has been very linux-noob friendly to me, and ubuntu is also noob-friendly.

 

I would recommend not using a liquid cooler for a server, get a big tower that you can put a low rpm fan on to keep the server quiet. I would actually pick up a slightly higher wattage psu (600W or so) because the high current draw incurred with a lot of drives spinning up simultaneously can actually over-tax low wattage units and cause drives to drop out of raid arrays.

 

As far as drives, like I said pick up some WD reds or some seagate NAS HDDs... as far as number and capacity, it depends on your needs, but 8-12TB is probably a good starting point.

 

FlexRAID would be a good software raid option if you decide on windows that will allow for easy expansion and is perfect for your needs (@looney is working on a guide for it, so watch for that)

 

Alternatively if you're going to use linux, pick up some more ram and a 60GB ssd and run ZFS

[tk421]

If you plan on running any kind of raid, get reds. Barracudas don't support time limited error recovery or error recovery control afaik, so they're just going to be a ticking time bomb in raid.

If you do have a brand preference for seagate though, they recently released their NAS HDD (literally just called the NAS HDD, no cute name like barracuda) and those have TLER/ERC/whatever you want to call it... linky http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/nas-drives/nas-hdd/

 

 

For the OS, I would recommend linux if you're already familiar with it and comfortable using the command line or if you just want to learn something new/be challenged. I'm using linux mint for my ZFS file server, which has been very linux-noob friendly to me, and ubuntu is also noob-friendly.

 

I would recommend not using a liquid cooler for a server, get a big tower that you can put a low rpm fan on to keep the server quiet. I would actually pick up a slightly higher wattage psu (600W or so) because the high current draw incurred with a lot of drives spinning up simultaneously can actually over-tax low wattage units and cause drives to drop out of raid arrays.

 

As far as drives, like I said pick up some WD reds or some seagate NAS HDDs... as far as number and capacity, it depends on your needs, but 8-12TB is probably a good starting point.

 

FlexRAID would be a good software raid option if you decide on windows that will allow for easy expansion and is perfect for your needs (@looney is working on a guide for it, so watch for that)

 

Alternatively if you're going to use linux, pick up some more ram and a 60GB ssd and run ZFS

 

 I agree with Eric.  AIO liquid coolers aren't very quiet actually.  I would recommend a basic CM Hyper 212 EVO instead or something like a Scythe cooler that's intended for silence, if that's the route you want to take.  And I agree with th Red drives.  They're designed for servers and NAS set-ups like this.  They were pretty expensive when they were first released ($/GB) but they've normalized in price now.