Turn USB Raid Enclosure into NAS?

[paperrobots]

I have this hard drive enclosure: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003X26VV4/ref=s9_simh_gw_g147_i1_r?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=0J4JCBWXEY11ZVGNB78V&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop

 

I tried connecting it directly to my router via USB and the speeds were awful. So I ended up connecting it to my main desktop and shared via Windows. However this tends to keep my desktop from falling asleep. So I was curious if I could setup a NAS somehow maybe using a Raspberry Pi or some other small/cheap hardware option to take advantage of faster network speeds. 

 

Password protecting it would be nice but not a requirement. 

 

I mostly use it to host my movies for Plex and large music files for Audio Production stuff. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RedWulf]

a pi will be fairly slow as well but not unbearably if you have one then go for it. Honesty if you have a cheap old pc you could set it up with that. some prebuilt nas have usb ports as well. If you have a pi you can set it up as a file server and attach that but raspian doesn't support ntfs format 

on the upside if you use a pi you could to hard cable or wifi and use some other features as well, $70 will be all the pi2 and parts you need but its still only usb 2.0 if i recall and its a 10/100 fast ethernet port..

[Jarsky]

Just keep in mind that Pi's and old computers have USB2.0 - you might need to find something with eSATA - some of the old laptops ive had have had one of these - otherwise if you can't find a newer machine with USB 3.0, then you could get an old desktop and add a USB 3.0/eSATA PCI-e card.

 

You could also look at small units like the Gigabyte Brix and the Intel NUC as those have USB 3.0.

Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-Celeron-Barebones-GB-BXBT-2807/dp/B00KR0QHXW/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1456338554&sr=1-4&keywords=gigabyte+brix

[RedWulf]

This isn't exactly cheap but it will do alot better than the brick and allows for upgrading/expansion

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZQGmnQ

$200

[Jarsky]

19 minutes ago, RedWulf said:

This isn't exactly cheap but it will do alot better than the brick and allows for upgrading/expansion

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZQGmnQ

$200

 

Well, that would be better than the brix ^ hard to keep up with US pricing so didnt realise how close you could build a new machine like that. 

You could even spend $5 more and swap the 500GB hdd for a 120GB Kingston SSD, given it would be just for a NAS OS http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-SSDNow-SV300S37A-120G/dp/B00A1ZTZOG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456340494&sr=8-1&keywords=80gb+ssd

[RedWulf]

Just now, Jarsky said:

 

Well, that would be better than the brix ^ hard to keep up with US pricing so didnt realise how close you could build a new machine like that. 

You could even spend $5 more and swap the 500GB hdd for a 120GB Kingston SSD, given it would be just for a NAS OS http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-SSDNow-SV300S37A-120G/dp/B00A1ZTZOG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456340494&sr=8-1&keywords=80gb+ssd

I live in the us and i can't keep up with pricing  actually windows only  needs like 30gb and linux even less so with 120gb he could store movies or music to then stream to other devices.

[paperrobots]

Ah I was worried I just end up having to build something. I was hoping for something simpler. I feel like if I am going to build a desktop I could just keep it attached to my current desktop. Maybe I just need to find out what's keeping my computer awake.