First NAS build! ...help please :)

[girl+IT=ohgodno]

ok so... as title suggests, this is my first NAS build It doesnt have to be fancy, in fact I want to spend as little $$ as possibly haha

I've never dealt with a NAS system before - I don't even know where to start... I just know what case I want it in heh (10" acrylic cube that's being made)

I'd prefer the mobo to be itx or mini atx (mostly on the smaller side of things)

Could I grab a few suggestions as to CPU (intel or AMD?), mobo's to use?, hard drives that you'd recommend (I know I want 2TB or more), RAID card/config to use and all the other good stuff

Also what OS am I to use on it?

At home I've got 2 Macintosh, 2 Windows and possibly a PS3 to network this up to - I want the NAS to store mostly my backups and other files....

Any suggestions would be amazing!!! thanks in advance guys

[renowilliams]

I would suggest visiting the freenas site here FreeNAS

All the info you need is on the site as well as the software needed. Check out the knowledgebase.

[girl+IT=ohgodno]

woohoo thankyou renowillams! i came across freenas but was unsure if it'd work between all platforms, but ill give it a read

had any experience with it? / any suggestions for hardware?

[glc]

Make sure the case you are having made will take a standard ATX power supply, a micro-ATX motherboard, and a standard optical drive. It also has to have room for a bunch of hard drives!

Newegg.com - ASUS P5G41T-M/CSM LGA 775 Intel G41 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - Intel Celeron E3400 Wolfdale 2.6GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80571E3400

Newegg.com - Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7K2/4G

Newegg.com - LG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD±RW SuperMulti Drive - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAJS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (OS)

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EADS 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (RAID) NOTE that you need to run the WD TLER and IDLE utilities to make these reliable in RAID in a NAS.

Newegg.com - Adaptec 2258100-R PCI-Express x8 SATA / SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) 5405 Kit Controller Card (4 drives)

Newegg.com - Adaptec 2244100-R PCI Express SATA / SAS 5805 Controller Card RAID levels 0, 1, 1E, 5, 5EE, 6, 10, 50 and 60, KIT (8 drives)

[renowilliams]

I have two friends who have recently built a nas box. Actually one of them is still putting it together as he is making a more involved setup. Something like this would work nicely;


Newegg.com - Intel BOXD510MO Intel Atom D510 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

You would need a case,memory, power supply and of course 1 or 2 hard drives.

If you wanted wireless lan,you would also need a wireless nic.
One ther thing required would be a small flash drive as freenas will run from it,maximizing hard drive space.


Here is a video that you may find helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZqGHKKIK48

[jaydeee]

wow I'm learning here.
Guess this is a good suggestion for our company as backup system.

Thanks a lot.

[girl+IT=ohgodno]

you guys are awesome! thankyou so much for the ideas (and sorry for the late reply) - i had no idea where to start, no idea if i should have gone amd or intel haha but GLC you have come to my rescue! i have pretty much stuck to everything you've said and will be looking at around 4TB of space - setting this up as RAID... will be interesting :P but always up for a challenge - any tips before i start?

renowilliams - vid was sweet, will definitely run with the bootable flash drive idea - looks pretty neat as well!

ill let you guys know how it all goes and post a few pictures - i know how you guys like pics ....

[glc]

If you aren't going to buy at least 4 data drives, you should not run RAID 5. Four 2TB drives in RAID 5 will hold just under 6TB. You CAN use only 3 drives in RAID 5, but it is NOT recommended from both a speed and data integrity standpoint.

That Adaptec controller should be supported in FreeNAS with FreeBSD drivers.

[girl+IT=ohgodno]

glc have you heard of the adaptec 2410sa controller? i saw a second hand ebay one for around $60 (i live in australia)... the buyer seemed alright (i just dont want to spend $300 on a raid controller card lol)

i know this is a stupid question (but i've never really dealt with RAID before - i only know the bear minimum basics with it - none of the advanced/in depth stuff) could I run RAID 5 with 4 drives connected to that controller?

And if you could, could you suggest hdd's to use? if i extended my budget to $300 on just hdd's alone? also what percentage is lost when you RAID any disc in RAID 5 (is it 25%?) ?

holy moly i feel like a dork