Custom NAS Build

By froggyliver
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froggyliver

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I am looking for a small office (4 people) NAS used for sharing files and archiving data. We also have several VMDK files we use for testing. It would be great if we can expand the storage later on. 4 or more hard drive slots that are hot spare would be nice. I don't really want to spend that much, but I also don't want a very low end NAS with slow transfer speeds. I think a custom build would help me get more and possibly for a bit less. Whatever NAS I choose I will probably use the Western Digital Red hard drives. I will also install FreeNAS I think.

 

What do you think? Any changes or recommendations?

 

NAS Case: $150

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IAELTAI/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=GNXNOXUZEQ9J&coliid=I1LD0009LFE626

 

Motherboard: $92

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CXIY468/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=GNXNOXUZEQ9J&coliid=I1IEE352RPW4OE

 

CPU: $57

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EF1G9DW/ref=wl_it_dp_v_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=GNXNOXUZEQ9J&coliid=I36GDXJ88523U9

 

Power Supply: $55

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FA4KP8S/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=GNXNOXUZEQ9J&coliid=IDX3NZ8GEBAAI

 

RAM: $38

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006WAGG14/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=GNXNOXUZEQ9J&coliid=I111SCP50TBIYC&psc=1

 

Total: $392 + hard drives.

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TPreston

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If the virtual disks are going to be booted from the server youd be best separating them from the file storage considering SSD's are so cheap now and data deduplication is common.

 

As for the storage youd be better off going with a full atx case with more bays more expansion in the future and a cheaper 30$ atx mobo. you could spend the extra $ on a windows 8.1 licence and one of these http://www.amazon.com/HP-411064-B21-Smart-Array-Controller/dp/B008SD8TKE/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1418840789&sr=1-6&keywords=hp+p400 and youll have RAID6 support which beats the poor mans SAS drives (wd red) for redundancy.

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#Michael

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If you were doing this as a personal project than I would say this is great.  But as soon as I hear it is for a business then a custom build should never happen.  I would go with an HP micro server or even one of Synology's business class NAS units.

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froggyliver

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TPreston, on 17 Dec 2014 - 11:36, said:

If the virtual disks are going to be booted from the server youd be best separating them from the file storage considering SSD's are so cheap now and data deduplication is common.

 

As for the storage youd be better off going with a full atx case with more bays more expansion in the future and a cheaper 30$ atx mobo. you could spend the extra $ on a windows 8.1 licence and one of these http://www.amazon.com/HP-411064-B21-Smart-Array-Controller/dp/B008SD8TKE/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1418840789&sr=1-6&keywords=hp+p400 and youll have RAID6 support which beats the poor mans SAS drives (wd red) for redundancy.

I forgot to mention I will have FreeNAS installed on a USB 3.0 thumb drive. I also need to keep the case itself small in order to store on a shelf. We have limited room in the office.

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froggyliver

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#Michael, on 17 Dec 2014 - 11:47, said:

If you were doing this as a personal project than I would say this is great.  But as soon as I hear it is for a business then a custom build should never happen.  I would go with an HP micro server or even one of Synology's business class NAS units.

Why should it not be for a small office? There will be no critical data on it. If it is down for a few days it would not cause critical downtime to the office. I would put the drives into a RAID 5 array. Maybe I am missing something? Thanks.

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#Michael

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Why should it not be for a small office? There will be no critical data on it. If it is down for a few days it would not cause critical downtime to the office. I would put the drives into a RAID 5 array. Maybe I am missing something? Thanks.

 

Because a custom build has no warranty and no one to turn to is there is a problem.  As you will be the one building it...what happens if you leave the company?  Who will provide support for it?  If it is a pre-built one then there is a warranty on it and support for it in the event it has issues.  It doesn't matter if it is a small office or a large corporation...you want 99.9% uptime once you get to the business level.  If, as the person who will be constructing it and supporting it, cannot guarantee quality and reliability then it has no business being used. 

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Jason S. Global Moderator

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i realize that im the one always pitching Synology, but for that price you could easily buy a 4-5 bay NAS...

 

Newegg has these:

 

DS508 - $257

DS414slim - $300

DS413j - $360

DS414j - $390

 

As others have mentioned, with a homebuilt one you dont get a warranty, and it will most likely use more power creating more noise. Just my opinion, but a homebuilt just isnt for me...

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+BudMan MVC

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As #Michael stated - if this is for a company setup, custom build is not the correct way even if you save a few $, or yours is better for the same $.. You need something that the company can get support for and continue to use if you move on to other things.

If you are the owner of the company, then its your call - but if your just an employee its wrong direction even if better/cheaper now solution.

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#Michael

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i realize that im the one always pitching Synology, but for that price you could easily buy a 4-5 bay NAS...

 

Newegg has these:

 

DS508 - $257

DS414slim - $300

DS413j - $360

DS414j - $390

 

As others have mentioned, with a homebuilt one you dont get a warranty, and it will most likely use more power creating more noise. Just my opinion, but a homebuilt just isnt for me...

 

I always suggest synology also.  However, I would suggest the DS214+ or the DS415+ models as these are the small-medium business units, whereas the ones you suggested are still geared to home office use.

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froggyliver

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Thanks for the feedback guys. I am looking more into the HP ProLiant Ultra Micro servers. Very interesting units with so many possibilities. Not bad on price either.

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+Fahim S. MVC

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A piece of advice if you do go the FreeNAS route and that is you need a pretty strong processor (probably better than a Pentium, I'd go with an i3 or Avoton at least) and plenty of RAM (they recommend 1GB per TB of storage).

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froggyliver

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Because of the high requirements of FreeNAS I think I would rather go the route of Synology. What do you guys think of this one?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Attached-DS414/dp/B00FWUQY5I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418919243&sr=8-1&keywords=DS414

 

Again, its for storing files and are accessed here and there by 4 people.

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RottGutt

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+1000 for Synology!

 

I recently upgraded to a DS214+, a 2-bay version of the one you listed, and it is an awesome little unit.

 

Tim

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