[laspo]

Hi guys,

I decided to build my own NAS to store my media files, run SickBeard and stream to several DLNA-devices (sometimes transcoded). As it will run 24/7, it should be quiet power efficient.
I've been reading a lot and I understand that a Synology NAS won't cut it when I want to transcode on the fly. So I started with the following hardware:

-Fractal Node 304
-Intel i3 4130 (relatively cheap and efficient, strong enough for transcoding)
-Motherboard?? (5x SATA ports would be great)
-4 GB memory (ECC??)
-2x 4 TB Seagate NAS disks (will be expanding in the future when needed)
-maybe an ssd to run the OS?

Any ideas for a motherboard and is ECC necessary when I plan to implement RAID1 (and later RAID 5)?

[feday]

I would consider using ZFS for your media filesystem. To save yourself headaches this sort of means you need to separate the OS from your storage though. The reason for that is that (assuming linux) I would not recommend trying to get your root partition on the ZFS pool unless you know what you're doing...

To get around the root on zfs issue I'd suggest getting a small ssd for your OS. The advantage of ZFS is that you eliminate any need for raid controllers, and you get a very solid storage solution.

About the ram, I would not bother with ECC ram, especially if you use ZFS.

[laspo]

I would consider using ZFS for your media filesystem. To save yourself headaches this sort of means you need to separate the OS from your storage though. The reason for that is that (assuming linux) I would not recommend trying to get your root partition on the ZFS pool unless you know what you're doing...

To get around the root on zfs issue I'd suggest getting a small ssd for your OS. The advantage of ZFS is that you eliminate any need for raid controllers, and you get a very solid storage solution.

About the ram, I would not bother with ECC ram, especially if you use ZFS.

Thanks for your post!

What are the advantages of ZFS instead of mdadm? Because I read that with ZFS, you can't expand your hard drives...

And the ECC ram seems a very big discussion point on several sites. It's hard to get a realistic opinion about it.

[nooryani84]

I've used XFS for years now and been pretty content... I personally wouldn't bother with ZFS, nothing has really convinced me that I NEED ZFS for a mediaserver. Depends on how important your content is. I considered going for ECC ram, though in the end I found it to limit my hardware choices so much that the build became quite expensive due to availability.

I ended up using an i3 2120T with ordinary non-ECC ram, I'm not running a server for a business or anything so if it were to fail on me in a few years I wouldn't get too worked up.