mATX NAS/VR device

[Toxis]

Hi,

 

Finally understood that I need a NAS. Plan to:

-Stream media to TV (i.e universal media server)

-Stream movies around the house to laptops and/or my android phone

-Use it as backup for photos, and personal files

-other?

Have 5 ghz wireless in most of my house.. ok, most of first floor. Waiting for good enough eero clones to become reasonably priced.

 

 

Decided that I need at least 4xsata + quick googling session told that I need at least 2 GB RAM. Found cheapest NAS for 388 EUR (I live in a strange land with strange listings) -

QNAP TS-451 4-Bay NAS 2GB DDR3L RAM Intel Celeron N3060 SATA 6Gb/s 2 Giga LAN HDMI out 2xUSB3.0 2xUSB2.0

Looks awful.. Then it struck me, I could build a mini atx PC that I can do that and much more with...

After quick sniffing though the local eshops designed the following mATX pc

 

CASE - MINITOWER MATX W/O PSU/BLACK EN022 IN-WIN

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-DS2, A68H, DualDDR3-2133, SATA3, RAID, DVI, mATX

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 880K, Quad Core, 4.00GHz, 4MB, FM2+, 28nm, 125W,

RAM: DDR4 Crucial 8GB 2133MHz CL15 1.2V, Dual rank  X2

CPU cooler - Corsair Air Series ML120 Magnetic Levitation Fan, 4pin, 120mm

PSU: Cooler Master MasterWatt series, 500W, 120mm FAN, High efficiency >83%, Active PFC PSU,

SSD: SAMSUNG CM871a 256GB SSD, 2.5", SATA 6Gb/s, Read/Write: 540/520 MB/s, I  x2

HDD: WD Blue WD5000AZLX 3.5inch 500GB SATA3 32MB

 

Reasoning - I planned to buy a PC for VR, but said f*it, will skip this generation (oh, and I was a console peasant for last 6/8 years, so a sanity check on components would be much appreciated), will buy scorpio and be happy peasant... But If I would buy this.. just as you know, thing that's cheaper than a NAS so it's actually logical move. And then one day, you know.. if I bought a polaris architecture radeon with no more than ~200 w and 300 EUR.. I would not need to buy Scorpio, I could just buy a next oculus or steam VR device... That's called long term strategy! (or, you know, confirmation bias, self deception and other things that are not true in this case off course:)

 

Is this a reasonable build?

[Electronics Wizardy]

You don't need 2gb of ram in a nas. 512 mb will work fine. That 1tb per 1tb is kinda be and was only for zfs. 

 

I'd get a pre-made nas. It will be cheaper in the long run due to the lower power and it will just work. 

 

But if you want to buy your own, I'd get rid of the ssds. You don't need them. There will be no speed difference. Get a apu, not the althon. You need a gpu to post. A amd a4 will work fine. Use the stock cooler and you don't need extra fans. I'd also get a smaller psu like a seasonic 360w. Also I'd get a bigger storage drive. 

[Toxis]

Hi, thanks for your answer.

 

So you think 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM would be enough for a NAS drive to stream fullHD video? And I do need SSD, as I have 600Mb/s up/down internet connection, and my 7200 RPM seagate HDD bottlenecked at around 10 or 12 MB/s of download speeds. Or would raid solve this issue?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Toxis said:

Hi, thanks for your answer.

 

So you think 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM would be enough for a NAS drive to stream fullHD video? And I do need SSD, as I have 600Mb/s up/down internet connection, and my 7200 RPM seagate HDD bottlenecked at around 10 or 12 MB/s of download speeds. Or would raid solve this issue?

512mb will be more than enough to stream files over the network. Your just making a file server, you need very little cpu and ram

 

600mbit, not megabyte, thats about 75mB/s, which any hdd will handlge just fine.

 

Your hdd was setup wrong, it is much faster htna that.

 

 

[Toxis]

Hm.. could be as switching my hdd for an ssd improved the download speeds.

 

Thanks

[Electronics Wizardy]

20 minutes ago, Toxis said:

Hm.. could be as switching my hdd for an ssd improved the download speeds.

 

Thanks

a ssd won't help your download speeds. 

 

Try a hdd benchmark like crystal disk mark.

 

your probably limited by their server.

[Toxis]

All right, thanks, will need to dig deeper (don't have a PC anymore, gave it to my parents, so can't test the hypothesis:)