EDIT: Lets not start the never ending discussion about RAID and filesystems. Limit it to discussions about customization.
I understand the difference, but how good /easy is the commercial NAS if you want to install stuff?
MYSQL
NFS
Samba will be supported I bet
HTTP
FTP
Router sw
Sick beard etc
What else could I possibly want to install and how easy is it on e.g readyNAS?
A server would be eaiser to deal with but I guess power will be an issue?
Easy-to-use HW RAID another pro for the NAS.
The con is of course limitation for expansion and customization. But I see on the google it is possble. Limitation and which one is best?
Many (most?) of the cheaper NASes use a cut down Linux, but they vary a lot in the access they give you. My favourite cheap NASes are the QNAPs because I can telnet in and get a nice familiar unix command line. But QNAPs have limited memory and CPU power so you need to be cautious about what you try and run.
For my own home server I bought a Dell Poweredge 440 and a Perc 5/i controller on eBay. That cost me about £250 (about $400). I forget what the disks cost because I keep upgrading them, but for £250 the Poweredge gives me a system vastly faster and more powerful than any of the cheaper NAS boxes. With 4 1TB disks and 4GB memory my server uses 98W and while not silent it's pretty quiet.
JR
Yes, the price is a bit on the high side for an empty NAS box.
E.g.
QNAP TS-410 - 335 euro in SE
Perhaps not easy to build anything cheaper that includes 4 sata and a box, but a custom build can be expanded with more disc controllers and will have more power to run other applications.
Power consumption is another matter QNAP TS-410 is said to consume as little as 20w, not sure if it is true.
How about HP Proliant Microserver? Around 280€, atleast in Finland. Too bad we can't get the cashback that HP offers for customers in UK. Much more powerful than the TS-410, and the power usage isn't that much higher.
Quote:How about HP Proliant Microserver
Looks like a good price! There will be no room to expand beyond 4 disks I suppose but it has eSata so a cabinett could be connected.
room for disks will be an issue in most chassis, what do people do? Find a big enough tower or use a cabinet?
There have been many thread topics discussing good NAS solutions.
Here's a recent one.
I still recommend unRAID in your case. You'll probably want to beef up the CPU slightly to run MySQL and get the OS version that supports a faster cache drive. All the things on your list are supported. Not sure why you'd want to put router software on your server though.
Get a DROBO box and you'll never be sorry.
http://www.drobo.com/
You can put in like 1 1.5TB drive, 2 500GB and whatever else you have laying around and then when you have a couple of bucks to upgrade you pull one of the smaller drives and pop in the new drive. All RAID'ed up and noce and neat.
Ready about them, they are awesome.
Quote:Get a DROBO box and you'll never be sorry.
Well, double price, no USB or eSata, less software. I don't think I will be buying that.
I put in 2x500GB then upgrade with one 3TB disk. Result? 500GB storage.
I personnaly have an atom based mini itx computer with win7 installed.
For me its the best solution. You can run what you want on it, and its cheap.
I haven't plug any kb/mouse screen to the box, I uses RDP when I need to do something on it.
My network is built with cheap gb switches. File copy/moves from/to this box easily goes over 80 MBytes/s.
Quote:I personnaly have an atom based mini itx computer with win7 installed.
Yes, this is probably what I want. Potentially it could also be cheap.
Question is if I buy an mini itx with integrated CPU, how much can it take?
I will have to add a SATA (or SATA RAID) card to increase the number of SATA channels.
The cheapest solution would be to use an itx with external (and included in the price) PSU but how many disk can it run?
vikjon0 Wrote:Yes, this is probably what I want. Potentially it could also be cheap.
Question is if I buy an mini itx with integrated CPU, how much can it take?
I will have to add a SATA (or SATA RAID) card to increase the number of SATA channels.
The cheapest solution would be to use an itx with external (and included in the price) PSU but how many disk can it run?
It's up to you to decide the solution you need versus your budget.
The main choice to do will be the mobo.
Either you get a mobo with at least 4 SATA Ports and an integrated raid controller (like this one : ASUS AT3IONT-I). It costs around 110€.
Or you get the cheapest MOBO with only 2 sata. You can then do software raid, or add an additionnal board for storage. An intel D410PT can be found at 50€ in france. The additionnal storage RAID0/1 controller can be found at 30€.
Next is the box and PSU. if you need sometrhing quiet, you will have to spend money !
If you just need 2 disks, a small box with integrated psu (80-120W) will do the trick. You can get one for about 50€ (this is what i have).
If you need more disks, go for a standard tower. Some are really cheap, like 30€, but you might find them noisy. For the PSU, considering that the mobo/cpu will be ultra low power, you can go with a 400W, it will be enough, even with a lot of disks.
For the drives, 2TB Models seems to offer the best price per GB.
vikjon0 Wrote:... but how many disk can it run?
A quick search on the web reveal that an atom platform with 2GB RAM and a 3.5' HD won't ask more than 40W of Power at full charge.
Modern Hard Drives are rated around 7W Max.
So, consider that the MOBO + CPU + RAM needs 50W.
One disk need 10W.
So Any PSU Rated more than 100W should be enough.
Quote:It's up to you to decide the solution you need versus your budget.
Well, it is not about budget. It is about not building something you can by cheaper and better.
Quote:So Any PSU Rated more than 100W should be enough.
Thats very interesting!
I am looking at some integrated cpu mb, 2xSATA and 1xPCI is a common config. You can build something very cheap with that. The limitation is of course that we cannot add a second RAID array. Will keep looking and see if what I can find.
The next question is of course how much services I will end up running.. If we start looking at transcoding or recording it is a different game. My ION 330 that is doing all the work now is getting a bit tired since I added sb & cp.