Help with first NAS

[Migit]

I want to build my first NAS, at this time I just want it to just be a media server for my home.

Something I can simply add more and more media too overtime that can be streamed to other PCs, Laptops, Phones, Tablets, TV's etc in the house, rather than USB transferring all the time.

 

I have almost no knowledge in the area, so any links to How To guides or videos, plus recommendations for Hardware and Software to optimise this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hardware wise so far I've only really looked at Case and HDD's, I don't really know what I need in terms of CPU and MoBo to allow rendering to other devices.

For a case I'm thinking Fractal Design Node 804, as its small and holds lots of drives, the 304 is smaller, but holds less drives and is only $10 cheaper, so figure 804 can't hurt.

Drives wise I'll go with WD Red's. Probably 3TB drives as they're currently the cheapest for TB/$ in my area. Though wondering if I should use a RAID set up and which type? I was thinking possibly RAID 0 as it just gives me lots of space, and I don't really need media files backing up over multiple drives? Do I?

 

Software I'll still need to look into and learn how to use the relevant things to make this work

 

Thanks for any tips/advice you have.

[Cvdasfg]

I want to build my first NAS, at this time I just want it to just be a media server for my home.

Something I can simply add more and more media too overtime that can be streamed to other PCs, Laptops, Phones, Tablets, TV's etc in the house, rather than USB transferring all the time.

 

I have almost no knowledge in the area, so any links to How To guides or videos, plus recommendations for Hardware and Software to optimise this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hardware wise so far I've only really looked at Case and HDD's, I don't really know what I need in terms of CPU and MoBo to allow rendering to other devices.

For a case I'm thinking Fractal Design Node 804, as its small and holds lots of drives, the 304 is smaller, but holds less drives and is only $10 cheaper, so figure 804 can't hurt.

Drives wise I'll go with WD Red's. Probably 3TB drives as they're currently the cheapest for TB/$ in my area. Though wondering if I should use a RAID set up and which type? I was thinking possibly RAID 0 as it just gives me lots of space, and I don't really need media files backing up over multiple drives? Do I?

 

Software I'll still need to look into and learn how to use the relevant things to make this work

 

Thanks for any tips/advice you have.

Depends.. how important is your data to you? FreeNAS is by far the safest sense it uses ZFS. BUT is also the most complicated and time pretty expensive hardware requirements. Unraid is a nice choice but isnt even close to as safe. So if your just streaming some games or holding some of your "collection" unraid would probably be fine. Pictures of your wedding or important work/documents? Yeah probably wanna use freenas.

[oskarha]

Hehe, im using a mismatch of "hand-me-down" parts from my main machine and windows server 2008 r2. Its very easy if you know windows well, but the lisence is expencive (i got mine from school) and its probably not the most safe solution either.

[Sunshine1868]

Ubuntu server, Samba, Rygel for UPnP/DLNA streaming, and hardware RAID 5 or 6. boom, done.

easy, free, redundant, and large capacity.

[Migit]

Depends.. how important is your data to you? FreeNAS is by far the safest sense it uses ZFS. BUT is also the most complicated and time pretty expensive hardware requirements. Unraid is a nice choice but isnt even close to as safe. So if your just streaming some games or holding some of your "collection" unraid would probably be fine. Pictures of your wedding or important work/documents? Yeah probably wanna use freenas.

 

The data at this point isn't super important, the set up is more for convenience but that may change in the future, so I might go the FreeNAS option.

Expense isn't really a worry, so I can make it work, but would like suggestions on a build so I don't go ridiculously overkill as well.

[Migit]

Ubuntu server, Samba, Rygel for UPnP/DLNA streaming, and hardware RAID 5 or 6. boom, done.

easy, free, redundant, and large capacity.

 

Lol have some googling to do most those words mean nothing to me

[Sunshine1868]

Lol have some googling to do most those words mean nothing to me

 

Ubuntu is a free linux operating system. it has TREMENDOUS support. you can also run ubuntu on a toaster because it is so lightweight. Rygel is a program that runs on Ubuntu (linux) that acts as a media server. RAID 5 or 6 allow for max capacity while also being redundant.

[Migit]

Ubuntu is a free linux operating system. it has TREMENDOUS support. you can also run ubuntu on a toaster because it is so lightweight. Rygel is a program that runs on Ubuntu (linux) that acts as a media server. RAID 5 or 6 allow for max capacity while also being redundant.

 

Ah okay, thank you.

You missed Samba though?

I'll still need to look into all of it, never used an OS that isn't generic Windows. And never set up/used a media centre - always just plug and played with USB or external HDD

[Sunshine1868]

Welcome to TinkerTown buddy.

 

Samba is a program that creates a SMB share. (a windows network file share)

[beau]

The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to plug a mass USB storage device into the USB port on your router.  Pretty much instant network storage to all attached devices (inc wifi if your router supports it).  Plenty of guides floating around on how to do this.

 

Unless of course you are craving the learning curve and experience of building your own NAS, which can be pretty cool.

[Migit]

So playing around with PCPartPicker

 

Hows this look for a NAS? I've never built AMD before. This will effectively be a Plex media server, so will it be able to handle transcoding to other devices if needed?

 

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/HCstMp

CPU: AMD A6-7400K 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($87.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-HD3 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($99.00 @ PLE Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($65.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($95.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($145.00 @ Umart)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($139.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1495.00

 

I don't need that much storage currently, but popular opinion seems to be that RAID 5 or 6 would be best, and for that I need multiple drives, plus cant add or subtract them (short of failures) from what I could tell, so just start with excess and never worry about it?

 

Would FreeNAS or unRAID be a better OS?
 

[Guest]

Hardware recommendations

 

AMD is not recommended for FreeNAS, and ECC memory is strongly recommended. I would let that inform your decision.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

The build seems pretty good. I would check the recommended manufacturers for the OS that you would eventually choose and the specific amounts of memory, but generally I believe this would be a good NAS. The SSD might be a bit overkill. 

The RAID type really depends on what you are after, how much fault tolerance you'd like to have and how much usable capacity you'd need. RAID6 is a great option as it can suffer up to two drive failures before compromising your data and it doesn't matter which drives fail (unlike RAID10). Kudos for going with WD Red drives.

 

Captain_WD.

[Cvdasfg]

 

The build seems pretty good. I would check the recommended manufacturers for the OS that you would eventually choose and the specific amounts of memory, but generally I believe this would be a good NAS. The SSD might be a bit overkill. 

The RAID type really depends on what you are after, how much fault tolerance you'd like to have and how much usable capacity you'd need. RAID6 is a great option as it can suffer up to two drive failures before compromising your data and it doesn't matter which drives fail (unlike RAID10). Kudos for going with WD Red drives.

 

Captain_WD.

 

 

 

So playing around with PCPartPicker

 

Hows this look for a NAS? I've never built AMD before. This will effectively be a Plex media server, so will it be able to handle transcoding to other devices if needed?

 

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/HCstMp

CPU: AMD A6-7400K 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($87.00 @ CPL Online)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-HD3 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($99.00 @ PLE Computers)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($65.00 @ CPL Online)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($95.00 @ CPL Online)

Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)

Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)

Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)

Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)

Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($173.00 @ Umart)

Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($145.00 @ Umart)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($139.00 @ CPL Online)

Total: $1495.00

 

I don't need that much storage currently, but popular opinion seems to be that RAID 5 or 6 would be best, and for that I need multiple drives, plus cant add or subtract them (short of failures) from what I could tell, so just start with excess and never worry about it?

 

Would FreeNAS or unRAID be a better OS?

 

He hit the nail on the head as far as drives go..

 

 

Anyway dont go amd. Get an actual server board along with ecc memory and a xeon. if your going Freenas you pretty much need ECC ram to be safe on it. I'd suggest a minimum of 16 and if possible 32.