Purchase NAS or Build NAS?

[Johnjdpower]

I was looking into whether I should purchase a NAS (only need about 4TB of data to be stored on it) or build a NAS from an old machine (Frankenstein NAS)? I am looking for a new NAS (hopefully with HDDs) that is decent in performance and under $300.

 

Use Case:

Backup my current desktop (2TB of data currently stored on it)

Torrent files

Media Home server (DLNA)

Cloud Backup to CrashPlan

 

Any feedback or alternatives would be greatly appreciated.

[Vitalius]

What you want is FreeNAS 8.3.1 in regards to your Use Case. It covers all that (I have a Media Home server running as well as a torrent plugin).

I would use what you already have along with new parts to build it. That's just my suggestion though. 

Any NAS that you buy as a complete system under $300, imo, wouldn't be worth it.

[MG2R]

There has been this thread a few days ago which handled the topic. In that thread, I made the following post, which is relevant to you as well. I suggest you take a look at the entire thread.

 

Those are two very simple questions with not that simple of an answer, it all depends on what you want.

 

You can either buy a pre-built NAS. The options suggested above are nice machines to take a look at. With pre-built boxes the transfer speed will be very much dependant on the processor used in them, so search before you buy. A NAS like this will set you back 100-500 dollars. It is recommended for people who want a set-and-forget storage system.

 

The other option is to go with a DIY NAS or a home server. This option requires more work to set up and maintain, but is quite q bit more powerful. If you have an old PC gathering dust, you might as well use that. So depending on what you already have and what you're going to use the machine for (pure file server, or maybe other services as well?), the price can range between 0 dollars and infinity dollars, depending on what parts you buy.

 

The main advantages of a pre-built NAS are:

• Most likely cheaper (unless you already have spare hardware you can use)
• Easy set-up
• Low maintenance
• Often come with pretty webUI's to manage it.

The main advantages of a DIY home server are:

• Potentially very powerful
• Maximum flexibillity
• Possibility to grow beyond a simple storage server
• You can learn something new

 

If you think a pre-built NAS is the best option for you, I'd advise you to listen to other people for suggestions. Apart from my neighbour's ReadyNAS Duo v1, I don't have any hands-on experience with those things.

On the other hand, if you're thinking of building a NAS yourself, you might want to check out Looney's 10TB+ show-off thread for ideas. You might also want to take a look at the build log of my home server, it will show that you don't necessarily have to go the predefined computer look ;) As for software, I'll point you in the direction of my Debian Home Server howto. If you would rather stick to Windows for your server, you may want to check out Looney's FlexRAID tutorial. FlexRAID is a very viable RAID solution on Windows.

 

If you've decided to build a NAS yourself and need help choosing components, just ask ;) (or head on to the build planning section of the forums)

 

Personally, I think along the lines of Vitaliius: a NAS + drives for under $300 is probably going to be quite crappy, either in terms of reliability or in terms of performance/feature set.

[Samdb]

I would definitely build my own.

[Qpm5]

Free nas has been great for me i setup freenas on an old del server that my fathers company had. It is running a pentium d at 3ghz and has 8 gb of ddr2 ecc ram. It is not the fastest but i can stream my music on wireless and video on lan to my desktop. I would reccomend building one or using an old system

[MG2R]

Free nas has been great for me i setup freenas on an old del server that my fathers company had. It is running a pentium d at 3ghz and has 8 gb of ddr2 ecc ram. It is not the fastest but i can stream my music on wireless and video on lan to my desktop. I would reccomend building one or using an old system

I'd suggest a generic Linux distro, as opposed to a distro that is designed with only file servering in mind. It allows for far greater flexibilty to go with a "fully fledged" distro, I think.

However, I have not run FreeNAS for the last two years, so I don't know it's current status.

[Johnjdpower]

There has been this thread a few days ago which handled the topic. In that thread, I made the following post, which is relevant to you as well. I suggest you take a look at the entire thread.

 

 

Personally, I think along the lines of Vitaliius: a NAS + drives for under $300 is probably going to be quite crappy, either in terms of reliability or in terms of performance/feature set.

 

I performed a search in the forums for the keyword "NAS" and it did not produce any results. Thank you for showing me this thread, I will be using that thread for the answers to my questions.

 

Thank you for all feedback provided above. I will be repurposing my old gaming rig to set up a NAS.

[MG2R]

I performed a search in the forums for the keyword "NAS" and it did not produce any results. Thank you for showing me this thread, I will be using that thread for the answers to my questions.

 

Thank you for all feedback provided above. I will be repurposing my old gaming rig to set up a NAS.

Yeah, the search can be very flaky...

I'm looking forward to seeing your setup in the 10TB+ topic, even if it has less than 10 TB.

Any ideas on the OS you're going to run?