Good case for a nas?

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

I am building a nas for home use and because I want to keep space on the smaller side I am trying to find a case that will work well. I am searching for something in the micro atx form factor.because it needs to take up as little space as possible. I am hoping to run at least 4 hard drives in raid 10. I hope to get this machine to be quite and so fans would be nice. I am not sure what the best way to approach this should be. I know I want to use a xeon and ecc memory, but other than that I am open to recommendations if somebody has a good guide.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id suggest something like a synology nas like this. https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS416j/dp/B019ZUR5WQ

 

There much lower power, smaller, and normally cheaper.

 

For drives, id run raid 5, you don't need the iops of raid 10. You don't need a xeon or ecc.

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id suggest something like a synology nas like this. https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS416j/dp/B019ZUR5WQ

 

There much lower power, smaller, and normally cheaper.

 

For drives, id run raid 5, you don't need the iops of raid 10. You don't need a xeon or ecc.

No I don't need those things, but for everything I want to use it for I was looking at building hence my question about cases.

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id suggest something like a synology nas like this. https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS416j/dp/B019ZUR5WQ

 

There much lower power, smaller, and normally cheaper.

 

For drives, id run raid 5, you don't need the iops of raid 10. You don't need a xeon or ecc.

This right here is a basic idea of what I am looking at and yes it is overkill, but I don't really like the case and I was not sure what would be a good option. I want to have more storage, but I would be fine with this as a basis.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/book0worm/saved/FnGLkL

Edited December 2, 2016 by Relaxed_Kitsune

[Guest]

I couldn't find the case I was looking for but if you have cd/dvd/blu ray drive slots you can slot one of these in there. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198058&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Accessories+-+Hard+Drive-_-N82E16817198058&gclid=Cj0KEQiAsf_BBRDMpoOHw4aSq4QBEiQAPm7DL7annkiPA-PeJ8rAnkhEAC2uwLmhhvHWX7vgRwmZKxMaAtCw8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

3 minutes ago, fpo said:

I couldn't find the case I was looking for but if you have cd/dvd/blu ray drive slots you can slot one of these in there. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198058&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Accessories+-+Hard+Drive-_-N82E16817198058&gclid=Cj0KEQiAsf_BBRDMpoOHw4aSq4QBEiQAPm7DL7annkiPA-PeJ8rAnkhEAC2uwLmhhvHWX7vgRwmZKxMaAtCw8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

I didn't realize that this was a thing and now I am going to add this to potential things I look at

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Relaxed_Kitsune said:

This right here is a basic idea of what I am looking at and yes it is overkill, but I don't really like the case and I was not sure what would be a good option. I want to have more storage, but I would be fine with this as a basis.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/book0worm/saved/FnGLkL

Is this just a file server?

 

Get a pentium, it has ecc support and you don't need that much cpu power. 

 

Don't get a wifi card. Plug this in via ethernet, and wifi access points to access it with wireless clients.

 

Id get a node 304 and then go mitx with a board like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132820

 

Id also get a single 16gb dimm.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Relaxed_Kitsune said:

This right here is a basic idea of what I am looking at and yes it is overkill, but I don't really like the case and I was not sure what would be a good option. I want to have more storage, but I would be fine with this as a basis.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/book0worm/saved/FnGLkL

I'd upgrade to 4 tb HDD. the WD models aren't much more expensive. 

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Is this just a file server?

 

Get a pentium, it has ecc support and you don't need that much cpu power. 

 

Don't get a wifi card. Plug this in via ethernet, and wifi access points to access it with wireless clients.

 

Id get a node 304 and then go mitx with a board like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132820

 

Id also get a single 16gb dimm.

I am looking at a plex media for a high traffic home and for a file server. I also plan to use it with some scripts hopefully to be able to back up and download steam libraries for lan parties and the like.

[Beskamir]

I somewhat disagree with @Electronics Wizardy . It depends what you want to do with the NAS. Do you just want it to store data securely? Then an Xeon would indeed be overkill but if you want to say run many relatively demanding VMs on it then that Xeon may end up being quite nice. From what the OP says however it seems as though they will be fine with just a Pentium. ECC ram is basically essential if you use FreeNAS but in other cases it may be somewhat irrelevant. I suggest using FreeNAS since ZFS is awesome if you set it up well.

 

RAID 5 is basically dead at this point, RAID 6 is a much better option when dealing with large capacity HDDs.

 

Now onto a case, it's tough to find a small form factor motherboard and case with support for enough HDDs for a reasonably cheap price. Personally I think a regular form factor case/motherboard would work just as well. I use a Zalman Z9 case for my server since at the time that was at a nice price when compared to alternatives.

 

Okay that build doesn't look too bad, but why 2*4GB instead of 1*8GB? 2*4 means you can only get up to 16 later without buying a new set of ram... That said 2*4 is fine, just less upgrade friendly if you want more than 16GB at some point. Decent PSU, gold efficiency will matter but I'm not sure about EVGA PSU (don't really use them myself). Overall decent setup but I'm also confused why you have a wireless card? Why not connected it over LAN? You'll get better performance over lan.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Relaxed_Kitsune said:

I am looking at a plex media for a high traffic home and for a file server. I also plan to use it with some scripts hopefully to be able to back up and download steam libraries for lan parties and the like.

Then id get a i3. Plex doesn't need that much cpu and a i3 should handle 3-4 streams fine.

 

Also with most boards you can get a xeon with out a igpu as most server boards have one built in

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

yep I also wanted to suggest synology (DS1515+)

but it sounds like you want to build yourself for some reason so you are basically asking about a case that is small and takes some drives.

the Node 304 comes to my mind.

 

Also looking at your partpicker list - tell us what you want to do with that "NAS" - because with those specs it's anything but a NAS

 

my opinion:

For a NAS, there is nor reason to build yourself since there are reasonable options out there that do it better than one of us could do it by themselfs. seriously, take a look at synology / qnap / or even shitty WD products

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

3 minutes ago, Relaxed_Kitsune said:

I am looking at a plex media for a high traffic home and for a file server. I also plan to use it with some scripts hopefully to be able to back up and download steam libraries for lan parties and the like.

seriously: have a look at Synology - thats one of the standard used cases there ... :-)

[Beskamir]

1 minute ago, ItsTheDuckAgain said:

yep I also wanted to suggest synology (DS1515+)

but it sounds like you want to build yourself for some reason so you are basically asking about a case that is small and takes some drives.

the Node 304 comes to my mind.

 

Also looking at your partpicker list - tell us what you want to do with that "NAS" - because with those specs it's anything but a NAS

 

my opinion:

For a NAS, there is nor reason to build yourself since there are reasonable options out there that do it better than one of us could do it by themselfs. seriously, take a look at synology / qnap / or even shitty WD products

I disagree with you opinion My server/NAS is much better than anything synology/qnap/WD could offer. Although that said I don't just use it for file storage so I guess it's not a really fair comparison...

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

3 minutes ago, ElfFriend said:

I disagree with you opinion My server/NAS is much better than anything synology/qnap/WD could offer. Although that said I don't just use it for file storage so I guess it's not a really fair comparison...

see you got it ^^ - when using as NAS by the literal means of it there is no reason not buy boxed, building will come out around the same price and you end up with a system you need to take care of, while a NAS makes its own thing and is sort of fire and forget (autoupdate once a week and you are done)

When using for other stuff then you are not primarily looking for a NAS, you are most likely building a rig that runs a ton of custom scripts and also happens to have some storage.

Think OP is puzzled by now anyway :-)

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

7 minutes ago, ElfFriend said:

I somewhat disagree with @Electronics Wizardy . It depends what you want to do with the NAS. Do you just want it to store data securely? Then an Xeon would indeed be overkill but if you want to say run many relatively demanding VMs on it then that Xeon may end up being quite nice. From what the OP says however it seems as though they will be fine with just a Pentium. ECC ram is basically essential if you use FreeNAS but in other cases it may be somewhat irrelevant. I suggest using FreeNAS since ZFS is awesome if you set it up well.

 

RAID 5 is basically dead at this point, RAID 6 is a much better option when dealing with large capacity HDDs.

 

Now onto a case, it's tough to find a small form factor motherboard and case with support for enough HDDs for a reasonably cheap price. Personally I think a regular form factor case/motherboard would work just as well. I use a Zalman Z9 case for my server since at the time that was at a nice price when compared to alternatives.

 

Okay that build doesn't look too bad, but why 2*4GB instead of 1*8GB? 2*4 means you can only get up to 16 later without buying a new set of ram... That said 2*4 is fine, just less upgrade friendly if you want more than 16GB at some point. Decent PSU, gold efficiency will matter but I'm not sure about EVGA PSU (don't really use them myself). Overall decent setup but I'm also confused why you have a wireless card? Why not connected it over LAN? You'll get better performance over lan.

Okay so to answer about the wifi card I was looking at a lot of different things on pcpartpicker. If you look at anything else I have made it's all sort of a mess. I started looking at computers about a year ago and we have had an upgrade in everything in that time span other than Xen, but it was supposed to happen already. That being said I sort of went down the rabbit hole and now I am upgrading every computer in my house and looking for a single storage because I am tired of not having a single place to easily find and store things across my network. I am horrible about that "now where did I put that file". When you figure that I dual boot windows and linux on two machines (Long story that isn't relevant and then everybody in my house uses phones, tablets and computers and you can see where confusion can happen. I do have backups of important things, but every so often that random memo or document gets misplaced when I am busy) Anyways I basically just put wifi cards in everything because... well I did. I know I am not going to use them in likelihood.

 

 

I know this build is overkill, but I was looking at overkill to be honest. I want room to grow into this if I want to. I know a prebuilt will work, but I am not sure how well it will scale on heavy use days. I know that on a day to day basis I will not use this to anywhere near this extent.

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

7 minutes ago, ItsTheDuckAgain said:

see you got it ^^ - when using as NAS by the literal means of it there is no reason not buy boxed, building will come out around the same price and you end up with a system you need to take care of, while a NAS makes its own thing and is sort of fire and forget (autoupdate once a week and you are done)

When using for other stuff then you are not primarily looking for a NAS, you are most likely building a rig that runs a ton of custom scripts and also happens to have some storage.

Think OP is puzzled by now anyway :-)

read the long comment I just posted above, but home storage is the basic idea. I will be using it for long term storage and a central point of access for keeping track of files. I often use whichever system I am closest too for general browsing like youtube, but then an idea will hit or I will take notes for one reason or another and I can forget where I took said notes. That is more of a scatter brained thing on my part more than anything. That and I would like to not have to email, use portable harddrives, etc. just to move music and movies once I have done all the effort to rip them. Yeah this is going to be a nas, but also a machine that will allow me to do other things. Once I realized what all I could do with it I kind of went down the rabbit hole.

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

14 minutes ago, Relaxed_Kitsune said:

read the long comment I just posted above, but home storage is the basic idea. I will be using it for long term storage and a central point of access for keeping track of files. I often use whichever system I am closest too for general browsing like youtube, but then an idea will hit or I will take notes for one reason or another and I can forget where I took said notes. That is more of a scatter brained thing on my part more than anything. That and I would like to not have to email, use portable harddrives, etc. just to move music and movies once I have done all the effort to rip them. Yeah this is going to be a nas, but also a machine that will allow me to do other things. Once I realized what all I could do with it I kind of went down the rabbit hole.

get a normal decent PC and put some drives in - job done :-)

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

4 minutes ago, ItsTheDuckAgain said:

get a normal decent PC and put some drives in - job done :-)

No?

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

4 minutes ago, ItsTheDuckAgain said:

get a normal decent PC and put some drives in - job done :-)

Sorry for the second reply, but honestly I have more than enough storage already across the board. I won't get into my exact setup, but storage is not my problem. I am looking to have a single machine on the network that will act as a hard drive and media center for my whole family and household

 

[AshleyAshes]

Personally, I went the other way, to maximize expandability and airflow for my server.

 

[Relaxed_Kitsune]

48 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Is this just a file server?

 

Get a pentium, it has ecc support and you don't need that much cpu power. 

 

Don't get a wifi card. Plug this in via ethernet, and wifi access points to access it with wireless clients.

 

Id get a node 304 and then go mitx with a board like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132820

 

Id also get a single 16gb dimm.

Yeah a Pentium will probably work for what I need, but I threw in a xeon honestly just because. I am open to suggestion.

[Beskamir]

Yeah sounds like doing something along the lines of what I did will work well for you. Here's a summary of what I set up copy/pasted from a PM I sent to a friend when he asked how my server build went.

Quote

Basically the current specs are 16GB of ECC ram, theoretical 9TB of usable storage and 6TB of redundancy (in reality usuable storage is closer to 7-8TB and I managed to use about 5 of those TB ) a fairly cheap server grade Asrock mobo (later I found out that AMD gaming boards support ECC ram and I'd have probably gone that route had I known it at the time I was building this system) 80+ gold, Enermax ~450? watt psu, zalman z9 case, Pentium G3220 and a 4 (or 8) GB usb for storing the OS which ended up being freenas since it was the best for what I needed this system to do.

Hopefully this is at least somewhat of help to you.

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

4 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

Personally, I went the other way, to maximize expandability and airflow for my server.

 

as an LTT forum member you are not allowed to run a stock cooler :-)

 

labeled drives - finally someone who got it :-)

[AshleyAshes]

4 minutes ago, ItsTheDuckAgain said:

as an LTT forum member you are not allowed to run a stock cooler :-)

 

labeled drives - finally someone who got it :-)

1) I think the undervolted i5 2300 is doing just fine under that cooler.   I can get the whole box to idle at 45w.

 

2) A lesson learned the hard way.  It's easy on a workstation when  you typically have 1-2 drives but proved to be too painful as my NAS expanded over time.  'So... One of the 3TB drives has died... Which one is the dead one?  Well, I guess I can just unplug them till I find the right one!'.  So when the NAS was rebuilt into this case, each drive got labeled with their name as the OS see's it.  Though I kinda wish I used a label maker to do it pretty.   I also labeled them front and back so I can see which drive is witch from either side of the case.