nas Home NAS/Server-Solution

[SiriousArts]

Hey guys,

 

I am currently looking into upgrading my Storage/Update-Solution here at home. The main point I'm currently thinking about is whether I should buy something prebuild or build something myself.

I am leaning towards building something myself, but in that case I am not sure what parts to use.

 

Some Info:

Goals

- A redundant storage solution, all clients can back-up to.

- Should be fairly silent

- Should be fairly energy efficient 

- I don't really have an exact budget, but the solution should be as affordable as possible (max. 500 € = 525 USD)

(- Ideally in a way, that it could be used as main Data drive for Client 1 and 2 --> e.g. All projects (.psd-files..) are stored on the NAS and are being directly opened on it)

(- If possible with some headroom or upgrade-path for future use as more than a NAS)

 

Current NAS - Setup
2 1TB Drives in RAID 1 configuration in an E-SATA enclosure connected to a Cubox-I running OpenMediaVault. -> Used by me for Data-Backup

 

"Available" Hardware

- I already/still have 4x1TB HDDs (2 in the current NAS and 2 more)

- 12x2GB DDR3-RAM from an old project, that could be reused

 

Clients

1) My main-PC used for work and some gaming - atm. about 600GB of data to be backed up

2) (soon) a MacBook using the same work-data as the main PC

3) Media/School work PC - some data that has to be backed up ~50GB

4) A PC with photos, videos and some Documents - nearly 1TB

5+6) 2 Laptops used for some work and media consumption

 

I will add more information, as soon as I think of anything missing.

Main questions:

 

- Prebuild vs. DIY for usecase?
- If prebuild, what can be recommended?
- If DIY what parts can be recommended?
- Any other ideas?

 

Thanks for your help

[mpsparrow]

Get a pre-built. It will be way more energy efficient and probably cheaper. Plus the software will be much nicer and easier to maintain. Synology and QNAP are good. 

[glitchmaster0001]

well i have a few questions for you. first is how much of a footprint do you want the system to be? also does it have to run a specific OS? also how much of a budget are you willing to spend of a NAS server 

[SiriousArts]

Just now, glitchmaster0001 said:

well i have a few questions for you. first is how much of a footprint do you want the system to be? also does it have to run a specific OS? 

I'm thinking about something similar to the "Fractal Design Define Mini". It can be smaller but not much bigger.

 

I don't have a specific OS in mind. Something that is suitable for my needs

[glitchmaster0001]

1 minute ago, SiriousArts said:

I'm thinking about something similar to the "Fractal Design Define Mini". It can be smaller but not much bigger.

 

I don't have a specific OS in mind. Something that is suitable for my needs

how much are you willing to spend on building a NAS then? 

[SiriousArts]

2 minutes ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

how much are you willing to spend on building a NAS then? 

Right now a maximum of about 500€ = 525 USD
//Added the max-Budget in the main post

[glitchmaster0001]

1 hour ago, SiriousArts said:

Right now a maximum of about 500€ = 525 USD
//Added the max-Budget in the main post

Ok then my solution to you is to reuse the HDDs and the RAM for an i3 Skylake based NAS. This concept with the i3s has been used many times in the enterprise market in embedded systems, and small footprint blade servers. In your case you would have 6x 1TB HDDs in which you would use a PCIe RAID controller card to setup a RAID 5 array as that has disk performance gains along with reliability and data redundancy. though with 6x 1TB 7200 RPM drives power consumption would be rather higher than i would like. It would be much better to use 3x 2TB drives in RAID 5 then 6x 1TBs but since you already have the HDDs there not much i can do about that. As of the OS just use FreeNAS 

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/GM9BFd
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/GM9BFd/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£106.95 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: Asus B150M-A D3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£64.76 @ CCL Computers) 
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£78.79 @ Aria PC) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£51.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Total: £302.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
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