Building a cheap NAS for home use

[dante04317]

I want to build a cheap NAS based on FREENAS , I need some hardware suggestion and is there a way to have my internet and NAS in the same network for file sharing....

[WkdPaul]

You can use an old C2D with 2GB of RAM, that's what I have as a NAS, since it uses more electricity than a NAS device I have is on a schedule, it's only on when I'm home and need it, rest of the time (1am-6am, then 9am to 5pm) it's off.

 

As for networking, just plug it (ethernet) into your router and setup an SMB share. I personally mounted my SMB share as a network storage within Windows, so it really is seamless!

[Guest]

What is your budget? and how involved do you want to get in building a NAS?

[samiscool51]

maybe get a NAS unit, very useful if you just want the NAS part and nothing else

[TopWargamer]

@dante04317

Here's my exact build for my budget home server/NAS. You can get a lot of bang for your buck if you buy old server parts.

[dante04317]

5 hours ago, VanguardScar said:

What is your budget? and how involved do you want to get in building a NAS?

My budget is somewhere around 300$ (excluding the hardrives) I'll probably end up getting three 8tb Seagate archive drives. I'm looking forward to this build very much and I would like to know if there are any kind of way access my files wireless to my phone(mostly photos, videos and stuff) while being at my house, I don't want to control my NAS over the internet I just want to access my files from anywhere in my house 

[Guest]

See below

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, dante04317 said:

My budget is somewhere around 300$ (excluding the hardrives) I'll probably end up getting three 8tb Seagate archive drives. I'm looking forward to this build very much and I would like to know if there are any kind of way access my files wireless to my phone(mostly photos, videos and stuff) while being at my house, I don't want to control my NAS over the internet I just want to access my files from anywhere in my house 

 

Cool, there are certainly ways to do it. Personally I do this all the time with a variety of methods (depending on where I am and what I'm using) (I have a iPhone, and the rest of my family uses them so everything I talk about will be in regards to iPhones, unless I otherwise mark it as not, but in general everything I talk about will be device agnostic or have a near enough equivalent on android)

So I currently have a NAS (i3-2100T, 32GB RAM, 2x3TB RAID 1, 6x2TB RAID 5) running Freenas to handle all my central services and a portable 2TB wireless drive to take out and about. 
 

On mobile;

- I use a phone-base application like File-browser. It lets me view most photos and some videos. 
- For videos and music I mostly use nPlayer. It plays all the weird(ish) file formats I use(.mkv etc), I can also download song and movies and such to this to take media with me.

- I can also take advantage of my NAS Server's ability to trans code videos over Plex when at home, which is handy for streaming to smart TV's or if I watch to watch a really weird format. 
 

On computer or laptop either connected to wired or wireless;

 

-When on my laptop I simply navigate to the shares I've setup and use them like any other attached drive in windows. You don't see anything other than the two shares I've setup so once you setup your server you can forget it, unless you want to fiddle with it or it breaks.   

So a few questions as well;

- Do you have a wireless solution at your house already? 
 

- How much experience do you have building computers?

- What parts do you have access to already? Case, CPU etc? 

- Are you comfortable buying secondhand? 
 

- Where are you? Country is fine, city would be helpful to calculate shipping. 

Edit: Forgot to quote. Oops.

[dante04317]

50 minutes ago, VanguardScar said:

 

Cool, there are certainly ways to do it. Personally I do this all the time with a variety of methods (depending on where I am and what I'm using) (I have a iPhone, and the rest of my family uses them so everything I talk about will be in regards to iPhones, unless I otherwise mark it as not, but in general everything I talk about will be device agnostic or have a near enough equivalent on android)

So I currently have a NAS (i3-2100T, 32GB RAM, 2x3TB RAID 1, 6x2TB RAID 5) running Freenas to handle all my central services and a portable 2TB wireless drive to take out and about. 
 

On mobile;

- I use a phone-base application like File-browser. It lets me view most photos and some videos. 
- For videos and music I mostly use nPlayer. It plays all the weird(ish) file formats I use(.mkv etc), I can also download song and movies and such to this to take media with me.

- I can also take advantage of my NAS Server's ability to trans code videos over Plex when at home, which is handy for streaming to smart TV's or if I watch to watch a really weird format. 
 

On computer or laptop either connected to wired or wireless;

 

-When on my laptop I simply navigate to the shares I've setup and use them like any other attached drive in windows. You don't see anything other than the two shares I've setup so once you setup your server you can forget it, unless you want to fiddle with it or it breaks.   

So a few questions as well;

- Do you have a wireless solution at your house already? 
 

- How much experience do you have building computers?

- What parts do you have access to already? Case, CPU etc? 

- Are you comfortable buying secondhand? 
 

- Where are you? Country is fine, city would be helpful to calculate shipping. 

Edit: Forgot to quote. Oops.

1. No, (cant find a single ISP in my area but recently companies started to expand there range so I'll get in the near future)

2. I can build PCs without a problem, the only problem is that I don't have much knowledge in the sector of Networking

3. My current PC has a Intel Core i3       2120, 8 Gb of ddr3 memory on a Asus H61M-CS. This PC will be  converted to a NAS as soon as I build in new rig next year when amd drops it's Vega gpu.

4. No,i don't believe it's gonna be safe

5. I'm from Bhopal, India but I'll probably get every part shipped to Canada where my cousin lives, will FedEx it to me.

 

It's not a problem if the cost just a little bit over budget. so,  you don't have to worry about shipping...

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, dante04317 said:

1. No, (cant find a single ISP in my area but recently companies started to expand there range so I'll get in the near future)

By wireless solution I meant, Do you have a wireless router attached to your home network allowing you connect to your current internet via WiFi? 

 

If not, investing in one of these would be worth your while, perhaps something like this - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA7RD3E91290&cm_re=Wireless_Router-_-33-704-265-_-Product 

 

42 minutes ago, dante04317 said:

3. My current PC has a Intel Core i3       2120, 8 Gb of ddr3 memory on a Asus H61M-CS. This PC will be  converted to a NAS as soon as I build in new rig next year when amd drops it's Vega gpu.

42 minutes ago, dante04317 said:

4. No,i don't believe it's gonna be safe

If you're planning to use your current PC later on as a NAS, and you don't feel secondhand is for you, it makes it difficult to recommend a build, as anything I try and do for under $300 will likely come out equally as powerful, or more, than that Core i3 2120, making one system redundant.

 

For Example-

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/z7Bvbj
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/z7Bvbj/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($76.98 @ DirectCanada) 
Motherboard: MSI B150M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($47.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Case: Cooler Master Elite 342 (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case w/400W Power Supply  ($84.00 @ shopRBC) 
Total: $288.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-08 03:24 EST-0500

 

This system is actually slightly more powerful than your current system. 

 

You could also consider a prebuilt NAS like this http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165611 combined with the wireless router I listed above, which would solve your criteria. 

[Guest]

 

42 minutes ago, dante04317 said:

3. My current PC has a Intel Core i3       2120, 8 Gb of ddr3 memory on a Asus H61M-CS. This PC will be  converted to a NAS as soon as I build in new rig next year when amd drops it's Vega gp

If you're going to re-purpose your old PC for a NAS anyways, how about looking at a new case instead? Something like the Fractal Design Node 804 
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352047

10x 3.5" drives, mATX form factor plenty of room for expansion. You could simply transfer your current build into that case and run Freenas on top. 

http://www.freenas.org/

 

Freenas is the NAS operating system I personally use. I have it loaded up on a boot USB and it simplifies (once you wrestle with the interface) setting up and running a NAS. It has cool little features like the ability to run add-on like Plex. 

 

 

[Guest]

 

19 hours ago, dante04317 said:

 

Is there a way to have my internet and NAS in the same network for file sharing....

 

 

So I made this little diagram about how I imagine your home network would be setup and interconnected. As you can see like this all your devices could connect to the same network and get internet access at the same time. 

However after doing up this little diagram, I realize it's possible that you might not have any ISP in your area and are running off a mobile network? Could you please confirm your current internet setup? Even running on mobile internet there are ways to fold that into a single network, by using a router or adapter like this >  http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8X036X5809&cm_re=Wireless_3G_Modem_USB-_-9SIA8X036X5809-_-Product which has a port on the rear to connect a mobile-sim modem. 

 

[FroTo]

On 11/8/2016 at 0:41 AM, VanguardScar said:

 

If you're going to re-purpose your old PC for a NAS anyways, how about looking at a new case instead? Something like the Fractal Design Node 804 
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352047

10x 3.5" drives, mATX form factor plenty of room for expansion. You could simply transfer your current build into that case and run Freenas on top. 

http://www.freenas.org/

 

Freenas is the NAS operating system I personally use. I have it loaded up on a boot USB and it simplifies (once you wrestle with the interface) setting up and running a NAS. It has cool little features like the ability to run add-on like Plex. 

 

 

 

Side note: FreeNAS needs ECC RAM. His repurposed PC doesn't use ECC Ram. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, FroTo said:

Side note: FreeNAS needs ECC RAM. His repurposed PC doesn't use ECC Ram.

This is incorrect. From the official minimum hardware requirements page of www.freenas.org/hardware-requirements/ :
 

• Multicore 64-bit* processor (Intel strongly recommended)
• 8GB* Boot Drive (USB Flash Drive suffices)
• 8GB* RAM
• At least 1 direct attached disk (Hardware RAID strongly discouraged)
• One physical network port

Image of the website;

Spoiler

ECC is only mentioned in the recommended minimum hardware.

Under the best practices guide for FreeNAS and ZFS (Found here: http://www.freenas.org/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-i-purpose-and-best-practices/) this quote can be found;
 

Quote

"...recommend the use of ECC RAM with “mission-critical” ZFS. Systems with ECC RAM will correct single bit errors on the fly, and will halt the system before they can do any damage to the array if multiple bit errors are detected. If it’s imperative that your ZFS based system must always be available, ECC RAM is a requirement. If it’s only some level of annoying (slightly, moderately…) that you need to restore your ZFS system from backups, non-ECC RAM will fit the bill."

ECC is not a strict requirement, however it can be recommended for mission-critical (i.e. business servers) scenarios. 

I can also confirm on a personal level that ECC is not required as I am currently running the latest version of FreeNAS with 32GB of non-ECC RAM and it works just fine (As in FreeNAS can see, access and utilize all 32GB of it).

[FroTo]

8 hours ago, VanguardScar said:

*snip*

 

It is highly recommended that ANY FreeNAS system has ECC memory running to prevent silent bit corruption and more. Mission critical or not, any system is just as susceptible to errors as enterprise systems. 

 

So, if in the event, one of your disks fails, you could end up resilvering your array with these errors and corrupting your whole zPool. 
 

I think this explains it every well. 

 

Just because FreeNAS is working with non-ECC, doesn't mean it is perfectly safe to use.

 

And what's to prevent that ram from going bad down the line and corrupting your data without your knowledge?

[Mikensan]

@FroTo The point he is trying to make is that even if/when a bit flips and your data is gone - you should always have a backup to restore from. Thus it is simply an inconvenience since you would restore from backup after redoing your volumes/arrays. You may never in your life see a bitflip. Do you have any data from the early 2000s that wasn't stored on ZFS with ECC RAM? Is it still intact? Congrats, you have 16 year old data that's never experienced a bit flip. It's just as dangerous on a NTFS system.

 

There's actually an article by one of the main developers of ZFS about ECC RAM and debunking the importance. Cyberjock has also replied to the developer's statement of using the debug feature as being a weak stop-gap.

 

http://jrs-s.net/2015/02/03/will-zfs-and-non-ecc-ram-kill-your-data/

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1235679&p=26303271#p26303271

 

 

 

Any, @OP - if you don't mind used equipment, also consider the Dell R710, R610, C2100 - since your cousin lives in Canada then he should have access to a large number of these systems via ebay. You only need to pickup a HBA card (LSI / IBM have some that can be reflashed).