NAS Vs Computer

[Weetbix39]

Heyo all,

 

First post, and was wondering as i have recently built my family a NAS from a couple of old computers and hooked it up with nas4free.

All is going well the specs are:

Intel Core 2 quad 2.83 ghrtz

4 GB RAM

5$ card, dunno what it is, but i bought it off trademe and installed it, didn't really care what it was.

2x 280GB HDD's in Raid1 for storage.

1x 180GB HDD for other stuff.

 

I can see it on the network and it functions as intended and all is going well so far.

 

However my older brother is saying that a dedicated NAS box is FAR better and that the system I have put together is not actually and proper NAS and doesn't work like one.

 

Is there any difference besides a slight performance increase and less power usage?

 

-Thanks

 

 

 

EDIT: oh, and the whole system cost my 5$ in total (GPU). Although price doesn't matter in this case.

[The Official Czex]

Heyo all,

 

First post, and was wondering as i have recently built my family a NAS from a couple of old computers and hooked it up with nas4free.

All is going well the specs are:

Intel Core 2 quad 2.83 ghrtz

4 GB RAM

5$ card, dunno what it is, but i bought it off trademe and installed it, didn't really care what it was.

2x 280GB HDD's in Raid1 for storage.

1x 180GB HDD for other stuff.

 

I can see it on the network and it functions as intended and all is going well so far.

 

However my older brother is saying that a dedicated NAS box is FAR better and that the system I have put together is not actually and proper NAS and doesn't work like one.

 

Is there any difference besides a slight performance increase and less power usage?

 

-Thanks

 

There's really no difference.

[KemoKa]

A dedicated NAS box is gonna be way expensive for what you get, won't be nearly as powerful, and won't have as much customizability. What you have is definitely a better deal.

[Weetbix39]

Thanks everybody so far. But may I ask what is the actual difference between them?

[dom1310df]

ECC RAM, Xeon CPU, components designed to run 24/7 and a warranty to back that up. Often they have small cases and removable drive bays on the front. Fundamentally though, any computer can be a NAS if you use it that way.

[Weetbix39]

Thanks, was wondering if there was some discrete difference that I was missing.

 

How do I mark this thread as answered?

[dom1310df]

How do I mark this thread as answered?

Click "MARK SOLVED" underneath the post next to the QUOTE nd EDIT  buttons

[Yeater]

Heyo all,

 

First post, and was wondering as i have recently built my family a NAS from a couple of old computers and hooked it up with nas4free.

All is going well the specs are:

Intel Core 2 quad 2.83 ghrtz

4 GB RAM

5$ card, dunno what it is, but i bought it off trademe and installed it, didn't really care what it was.

2x 280GB HDD's in Raid1 for storage.

1x 180GB HDD for other stuff.

 

I can see it on the network and it functions as intended and all is going well so far.

 

However my older brother is saying that a dedicated NAS box is FAR better and that the system I have put together is not actually and proper NAS and doesn't work like one.

 

Is there any difference besides a slight performance increase and less power usage?

 

-Thanks

 

 

 

EDIT: oh, and the whole system cost my 5$ in total (GPU). Although price doesn't matter in this case.

try freenas its the best out there

[Beskamir]

I'm pretty sure Nas4Free is similar to FreeNAS just that it's more open source and as a result being developed slower. As such, depending on how much you value your data, you would probably want to use ECC RAM, Nas or Enterprise grade HDD, an UPS, a decent 80+ gold psu, and an ECC compatible motherboard and CPU.

 

 

try freenas its the best out there

Not necessarily... freenas is great and I use it but it's much more corporate than Nas4Free is.

[Weetbix39]

nas4free is an earlier version of freenas.

 

The differences are nas4free is basically community maintained and nas4free supports UPS while freenas does ZPS.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there Weetbix39,

 

Pre-built NAS devices have their advantages compared to self-built ones as well as some down sides:

- pre-built ones are much easier to set up and manage

- they have dedicated support from the manufacturer

- they are optimized for the best speed/power/size/price ratios 

- they lack component upgradeability in most cases and are limited to their bay number for their storage capacity

- you don't have the ability to choose the brands and types of the parts inside 

 

It really depends on what you are looking for in a NAS. Either can be the better choice. I could suggest that you check out WD My Cloud Mirror for general storage, RAID1 ability and some useful functions: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Nv2Bsa

 

Captain_WD.