Storage configuration

[259844_1454182107]

Hi all,

 

Firstly I know its a bit overkill.

 

So here's the situation. I have 3x3TB new(ish) Seagate HDDs in my main PC. 2 in RAID1 for important info, 1 for games and other stuff. I have recently collected 4x2TB with varying levels of moderate/high use, and yes I know not to trust them...but I'm a student and they were cheap.  

 

I am looking to reuse some old parts to build a dedicated NAS device, so I can use all the dries. I have dabbled in freeNAS, but also like the familiarity of Windows. I have just over 1TB of 'mission-critical' data (strong redundancy and some speed for writes) and 2-3TB of other stuff primarily games I want downloaded but am not playing (some redundancy minimum gigabit reads, writes can be slowish) although both of those are only going to increase. 

 

They would all be running off a Z97 MoBo onboard SATA controller which I have confirmed to work with all the drives. 

 

So I am leaning towards Windows, with a RAID 10 of 2TB drives for non-critical data and RAID 1 3TB drives + 1 standalone. 

 

Can anyone think of a better configuration? I have 16GB of non-ECC RAM, which doesn't lend itself particularly well to freeNAS from what I've heard. It seems like for the price of another 16GB of RAM (~£100) or God forbid 32GB of ECC (~£300) I could get a lot of other hardware. 

 

I would want to be able to create 'folders' with read-only access for sharing photos and games with friends. I ideally would also be able to assign users space with individual read and write access for the back up of their personal data. 

 

Any other OSs worth taking a look at? I distrust RAID5, but how about a couple more drives and a RAID6/Z2 for the 2TB drives? Would SSDs be of any use either as a cache, or standalone storage? Any thoughts questions or comments would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Mission critical data:

700GB Basically archived pictures

100GB of files and documents (mostly archived some frequently accessed) 

300GB of videos and project files (would just be for archives)

 

Many thanks in advance,

Alex

 

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

sounds like a job for a dedicated PCIE raid controller with enough connectors (will cost a bit) if you want it to stay in your main PC.

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/SAS9211-8I-8PORT-Int-Sata-Pcie/dp/B002RL8I7M

 

Note: check the "Frequently bought together" thingy 

[259844_1454182107]

Thanks for the suggestion. In addition to the problem of SATA ports I am also restricted on drive bays and SATA power. Do you think it would be worth investing to get my main PC to pull double duty over having a separate NAS?