NAS

[Samdy Gray]

4 would've been ideal for future proofing, but considering I'm trying to build it all for as little as possible then I made the comprimise. I won't have any optical drives installed, so have the potential to have 2 x 2tb drives in on SATA which is more than enough for me for now!

[Samdy Gray]

*Mini-bump*

I'm finally going to get round to building this thing soon. I've got a mobo, chip and case sorted.

What's a good deal on a 1TB drive at the moment?

Also looking for recommendations for a quiet/silent PSU. I've bought ones in the past that've promised to be quiet, but then the bearings wear after a few weeks use and they're no longer silent.

Deliberating over OS at the moment as well. I could use something dedicated like FreeNAS, but then ideally I'm looking for something I can a) use as a download box to leave on overnight (FreeNAS doesn't offer that functionality) and b) remote into so I don't have to faff around hooking up a monitor & keyboard etc. everytime I want to change something on the server. I'm thinking maybe a slipstreamed XP install that's quick to boot so I can make use of Wake on Lan.

[Peter Venkman]

2TB at Ebuyer for £72 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237908
1TB at EBuyer for £42 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/182435

As for a silent CPU go for an Atom http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191127 totally silent as there are no fans at all.

[Chubbs]

*Mini-bump*

I'm finally going to get round to building this thing soon. I've got a mobo, chip and case sorted.

What's a good deal on a 1TB drive at the moment?

Also looking for recommendations for a quiet/silent PSU. I've bought ones in the past that've promised to be quiet, but then the bearings wear after a few weeks use and they're no longer silent.

Deliberating over OS at the moment as well. I could use something dedicated like FreeNAS, but then ideally I'm looking for something I can a) use as a download box to leave on overnight (FreeNAS doesn't offer that functionality) and b) remote into so I don't have to faff around hooking up a monitor & keyboard etc. everytime I want to change something on the server. I'm thinking maybe a slipstreamed XP install that's quick to boot so I can make use of Wake on Lan.

www.ebuyer.com for all your HDD needs..
internal or external?
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/234825

[jayohaitchenn]

Get a flavour of linux on there, you'll be able to telnet/ssh into it from your Windows box using putty.

[jonny72]

I'm finally going to get round to building this thing soon. I've got a mobo, chip and case sorted.

How much you spent on the box, ie everything excluding the drives?

I need to sort something out and have been looking at the Synology DS410J. It ain't cheap at £250, but it's got 4 drive bays and does everything you could ever want straight out of the box with no fucking around - media server, email and website hosting, surveillance (you just need to plug the cameras in), porn downloading and more plus it has some free iPhone apps for remote access.

Is it really worth going for a cheaper self build that takes ages to put together and maintain but doesn't do half as much?

[stfcinbmth]

Is it really worth going for a cheaper self build that takes ages to put together and maintain but doesn't do half as much?

That's half the fun jonny

And yep that thingy aint cheap especially as it comes drive less

[jonny72]

That's half the fun jonny

One day you'll discover women and then you'll realise that building PC's and comparing Linux builds isn't actually fun.

And yep that thingy aint cheap especially as it comes drive less

The price isn't that bad - if you were to build a budget system with hardware RAID it wouldn't be that much cheaper and would probably cost more if you wanted RAID6 as well (though RAID6 is a bit pointless with only 4 drives).

[Samdy Gray]

2TB at Ebuyer for £72 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237908
1TB at EBuyer for £42 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/182435

As for a silent CPU go for an Atom http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191127 totally silent as there are no fans at all.

That Samsung F4 looks a good price. And I said PSU, not CPU I've already sorted a fanless CPU (VIA EPIA).

Get a flavour of linux on there, you'll be able to telnet/ssh into it from your Windows box using putty.

I considered it, but I'm not so au fait with Linux. What's it like for interacting with Windows machines in a small network?

How much you spent on the box, ie everything excluding the drives?

I've gone for a cheap an cheerful option. Nothing to fancy, but it'll be plenty good enough for what I need.

£30 on a mint condition second hand Antec 300 case. Think I can fit up to 8 drives in it if I want
£17 on the mobo inc. CPU (also second hand).
Had 512mb of DDR2 RAM lying around.
Probably another £30 or so on a PSU

So initially it'll be around £150 all in including drives. I'm just going to add more storage as and when I need it.

[stfcinbmth]

One day you'll discover women

Now that would be just plain silly

[jonny72]

I've gone for a cheap an cheerful option. Nothing to fancy, but it'll be plenty good enough for what I need.

So you just going to run RAID1 or no RAID? Not sure I'd be happy using software RAID5, especially on a system with a low performance CPU as it might struggle with the added overhead especially during a rebuild.

I did a quick check and a fully loaded (4 x 2Tb) Synology DS410J will cost about £500, which isn't that bad for what you get.

[Samdy Gray]

No RAID to start with as everything will be backed up between machines and the server. When the machines get too full and I solely need to use the NAS I'd add another drive and go RAID1.

Although it allows better use of the full HDD capacity, I think RAID5 will be overkill for what I need.

[Peter Venkman]

That Samsung F4 looks a good price. And I said PSU, not CPU I've already sorted a fanless CPU (VIA EPIA).

Oops my bad, I read it too fast, as for very quiet PSU's well there arent many out there a lot that say quiet actually arent quiet at all.

Thats a tough one.

And to Jonny72 I actually really enjoy building my own PC's and can build one and install everything needed in less than 2 hours and I have discovered women already, as I am pretty sure STFCinbmth has to be fair to him

I use 2 Spinpoint F3 1tb's in a RAID0 and the read speeds are very quick indeed and giving the capacity of 1.8tb in total but the chances of data loss are greater obviously but so far, in 2 years, even with random power outages and failed massive overclocking attempts it has never failed me...yet.

[Samdy Gray]

I use 2 Spinpoint F3 1tb's in a RAID0 and the read speeds are very quick indeed and giving the capacity of 1.8tb in total but the chances of data loss are greater obviously but so far, in 2 years, even with random power outages and failed massive overclocking attempts it has never failed me...yet.

Yeah, RAID0 isn't an option for me.

I've got 10GB of photos, 50GB of music and another 100GB or so of films and TV programs that I just couldn't bear to lose.

[jayohaitchenn]

I'm no Linux expert Sam, but if you use a beginner flavour like Ubuntu or CentOS you should have no problems. Windows and Linux machines network together just as well as a pure Windows network.