Used PC for NAS

[Noyu]

What's like the minimum specs for building a PC for a DIY NAS?

 

Are there even minimum specs?

 

I'm currently looking into an old USED pc for 20$.

i3-550, 512MB RAM

[You_are_a_cunt]

CPU is fine, but I'd add some more ram. 4Gb is pretty much a minimum.

For $20 I'd say go for it

[limegorilla]

Through remember, your going to want a moderately fast network for fast data access and HDD's are not exactly extremely cheap, depending on what your going to use, but WD RED series and Seagate's Enterprise disks are good options. And you will also need a case to house all this in.

[Noyu]

29 minutes ago, revsilverspine said:

4Gb is pretty much a minimum.

Noted on this.

 

24 minutes ago, limegorilla said:

Through remember, your going to want a moderately fast network for fast data access and HDD's are not exactly extremely cheap, depending on what your going to use, but WD RED series and Seagate's Enterprise disks are good options. And you will also need a case to house all this in.

Yep yep I've considered all of those EXCEPT the actual NAS enclosure. hahaha

 

Wired network will be gigabit and the WiFi will be AC1200.

Actually my main purpose for the NAS is a file server for media (not a media server). I would also like it to download torrents to itself. So it seems used PC and DIY is my best choice.

 

Only con with using a used PC is the power consumption and the footprint.

[unknownmiscreant]

5 minutes ago, Noyu said:

Noted on this.

 

Yep yep I've considered all of those EXCEPT the actual NAS enclosure. hahaha

 

Wired network will be gigabit and the WiFi will be AC1200.

Actually my main purpose for the NAS is a file server for media (not a media server). I would also like it to download torrents to itself. So it seems used PC and DIY is my best choice.

 

Only con with using a used PC is the power consumption and the footprint.

If you have limitless budget for a small NAS, the netgear ready NAS 312 line up are very good, they can do torrents etc, and have small footprint. Only downside to them is the cost.

[Noyu]

1 minute ago, unknownmiscreant said:

If you have limitless budget for a small NAS, the netgear ready NAS 312 line up are very good, they can do torrents etc, and have small footprint. Only downside to them is the cost.

that's the thing, I don't have a limitless budget. I don't even have a budget tbh. I'm just trying to find the cheapest solution possible.

 

I'm still considering the option to just plug my eHD to the router USB port and use the router's OS to make it into a NAS.. Sadly I think this will present problems in the future.

[manikyath]

depends on how "nas" you want it to be. you can chuck a hard drive in almost anything and expect it to work, but things like software raid or ZFS are a bit more taxing on the system.

[unknownmiscreant]

8 minutes ago, Noyu said:

that's the thing, I don't have a limitless budget. I don't even have a budget tbh. I'm just trying to find the cheapest solution possible.

 

I'm still considering the option to just plug my eHD to the router USB port and use the router's OS to make it into a NAS.. Sadly I think this will present problems in the future.

Yeah, I totally understand your budget, it was just a suggestion, as you said you were concerned about form factor, and running costs. Those were the main reasons I went for the netgear unit for my company, and also as I needed an easy, low maintenance solution.

 

Running costs, risk of theft etc, are all things to be considered when running a server, and having a small, low power dedicated unit running in a cupboard somewhere has way lower risk of theft than a desktop out in a room somewhere.

 

At no costs would I recommend just plugging a USB HDD into a router. I've done that before and a dedicated piece of hardware is significantly better.

 

If you wanna go real cheap, you could look for something like an old WD prebuilt nas with a dead hard drive. I recently had a HDD die in the WD my book I have at home and upon purchasing a replacement it took about 12hours to rebuild the raid 1 array, and after that its good to go. If you can find a used unit being sold by a non-techie whose had a disk fail in a raid 0 array, and doesn't know how to replace the drive, you could get one real cheap.

 

Although going for a dedicated machine might be the best way to go, as I have a old core 2 duo machine that would be up to running as a server if I bought it a raid card. (PCI raid cards for older machines are real cheap now.) That i3 system you've found with a dedicated raid card, gigabit network card, more ram, decent case and some new drives (possibly even an evga 400w ish psu) would make a solid server.