DIY NAS

[3Dgeo]

Hi,

I'm new at NAS stuff, but I love tinkering with computers so this will be a lot of fun.

I found cheap ~40 eur refurbished ASUS E35M1-I.
I think that is a grate MOBO-CPU combo to start with, it has 6x SATA3 ports, but will CPU horse power be enough? (AMD APU E-350 Dual-Core 1,6ghz onboard Processors).
For hard drives I already have 2 WD RED 3TB, will buy 2 or 3 more, 8gb (2x4gb) non ECC ram.
For SSD cashing I have spare 2 Intel 520 128gb SSD, If needed I could RAID0 them to get good R/W speed, but I think only one of them will saturate LAN speed, so I guess no benefits?

Goals of this NAS:
1. To archive my finished projects (working with 3D vizualisations) and other files.
2. Regularly backup my current project I'm working on from my workstation
3. If possible to make this NAS to show up as a simple drive in all my render nodes for fast access to project files (I can share project files automatically with render engine, so its not a priority tho its probably slower and often I forget t do that... )
4. make NAS accessible via Internet for file sharing (at least part of it)
5. stream movies and access other data via Lan, if possible via Internet as well

Reason I'm posting with virtually no knowledge about NAS setup is that I'm not lazy to dig myself, it's just I want to grab that Mobo if it's good for my purpose while it still available.
So I need few guidelines to start

[Oxydoreduction]

Hi,

 

Everything depends on how much you want to spend on your NAS.

 

If you wish to stay at lower costs at the moment, this 40€ E35M1-I will be OK, even slow CPU's are able to handle storage appliances.

 

Because it has no support for ECC ram, you'll have to stay away from ZFS so no FreeNAS but you have other options too like Open Media Vault (that I use myself).

 

As caching is concerned, FreeNAS offers the best solution, OMV is not that good for it but it's performance is already perfect (No problem to saturate 1Gb with 3 WD Red in RAID 5)

 

I hope this helps.

[Undergrid]

ZFS requiring ECC RAM is a fallacy, so FreeNAS and ZFS would be possible.

[Oxydoreduction]

23 minutes ago, Undergrid said:

ZFS requiring ECC RAM is a fallacy, so FreeNAS and ZFS would be possible.

And some say not: http://louwrentius.com/please-use-zfs-with-ecc-memory.html

 

ECC vs non ECC for zfs has always been a big discussion topic, if you go for non-ECC you'll be fine but I tend not to advise it.

 

Anyway, I'd just say try and keep the one you prefer based on functionality/ease of use you need.

[3Dgeo]

Thank you all for participating in this discussion.

I googled a bit and found that ECC vs non EEC on ZFS is a big topic in of it self...
If I want ECC I have to spend about 300eur instead of 40eur for MOBO and CPU, that is too big of a budget for now so no EEC for now.

If when using non ECC memory I'm risking losing random files (not whole stored data) I can live with that, usually I iterate my project files so I have many copies anyway.

BTW, my NAS will be on UPS.
 

[Oxydoreduction]

38 minutes ago, 3Dgeo said:

Thank you all for participating in this discussion.

I googled a bit and found that ECC vs non EEC on ZFS is a big topic in of it self...
If I want ECC I have to spend about 300eur instead of 40eur for MOBO and CPU, that is too big of a budget for now so no EEC for now.

If when using non ECC memory I'm risking losing random files (not whole stored data) I can live with that, usually I iterate my project files so I have many copies anyway.

BTW, my NAS will be on UPS.
 

The UPS is an important factor for a NAS.

 

You can of course, live without ECC.

As it's your first NAS and you have tight budget, this board is a good starting point.

If you need beefier afterwards, you'll always be able to upgrade.

[3Dgeo]

11 minutes ago, Oxydoreduction said:

The UPS is an important factor for a NAS.

 

You can of course, live without ECC.

As it's your first NAS and you have tight budget, this board is a good starting point.

If you need beefier afterwards, you'll always be able to upgrade.

Yes, this is my plan.

So, if I have 6 Sata ports I should go for 6 HDD or 5 HDD + SSD for cashing?
And is there any special requirement for NAS PSU apart of good quality and power efficiency?

[Oxydoreduction]

26 minutes ago, 3Dgeo said:

Yes, this is my plan.

So, if I have 6 Sata ports I should go for 6 HDD or 5 HDD + SSD for cashing?
And is there any special requirement for NAS PSU apart of good quality and power efficiency?

For a gigabit connection, going for HDD only is good choice, i.e I have a 10Gb connection to my server and only use HDD's but it is very fast for file transfer so I don't need caching, even when my girlfriend's using it at the same time.

 

For the PSU, you can pick up a good 300-400w seasonic which is globally a secure choice or you can check here:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Review_Cat&recatnum=13

 

There's a $hitload of PSU reviews on this site.