Hi guys,
I've posted before about transforming my macbook into a nas and I've decided that would not be a great idea. So I'm making a new thread because I want to build a NAS from scratch and I need advice.
I plan on running everything from windows 7 since I already have a valid license and I also have a valid license of FlexRaid which I plan to use for my data security/pooling.
I want this NAS to be
Power efficient (This is my main goal) Everything right now is running from my gaming rig which is costing me around 230$/year if I run it 24/7 7/7. I would like this NAS to be able to be a Plex Media Server, a MySQL main library for XBMC, Use SMB Share, Couchpotato, Sickbeard and torrent download (Around 25-40 at the same time).
For now, I only have 1x3tb (Parity), 1x3tb and 1x2.5tb for Data. I plan to add more 3tb drive in the near future. (My torrent run on a external 500gb hard drive since I don't want them in my FlexRaid Array)
Here's what i've builded right now :
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant /
Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Celeron G1620 2.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($49.00 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-GL R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($70.00 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Corsair 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($42.87 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Sandisk 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($63.07 @ DirectCanada)
Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.53 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($53.98 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $324.45
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-16 14:01 EST-0500)
Max Budget : Around 325$
I got no idea if I should cut down the price on the Intel motherboard and go with AMD.
Thanks for the advice !
So go for an at least 80+ gold certified power supply!
That's what i've thought .. is there really a difference in power consumption ? It's just hard to find a cheap 80+ psu with all the right connector.. enough sata and molex so I could connect all the HDD.
Edit : There ya go updated my main post with 80+ bronze PSU. 8$ difference.. !
I'd recommend the Lenovo TS140 which can be found on Amazon for $250 right now, mine just arrived last night. Even comes with a Haswell i3!
Note that this system is classified as a server, so it needs ECC ram.
Also, you didn't really specify which NAS OS you were thinking of running. Mine will be using freeNAS should be able to easily handle your requirements though there's definitely a learning curve. Note that if you go the ZFS route, ECC ram is HIGHLY recommended.
You should consider a PicoPSU for a system like that (small, low wattage). They're efficient, completely silent, and small. The AC-DC converted would sit outside the case too, which would save a little heat.
(2014-01-16, 22:50)awp0 Wrote: [ -> ]You should consider a PicoPSU for a system like that (small, low wattage). They're efficient, completely silent, and small. The AC-DC converted would sit outside the case too, which would save a little heat.
Since he is planning to install a lot of hard drives in the NAS, I think he need more than a Pico PSU. If he don't have enough juice, he will have a tough time during cold start his NAS with a lot of hard drives in it. Even for 6x HDD's, I still prefer to have at least 380W PSU. The PSU in his list should be sufficient. It'll give him some head room during cold start and room to add more HDD's.....
(2014-01-16, 22:50)Joelmusicman Wrote: [ -> ]I'd recommend the Lenovo TS140 which can be found on Amazon for $250 right now, mine just arrived last night. Even comes with a Haswell i3!
Great find, great value...
(2014-01-16, 23:24)bluray Wrote: [ -> ]Great find, great value...
Especially since it doesn't come with a (worthless) stock hard drive or OS.
(2014-01-16, 23:24)bluray Wrote: [ -> ] (2014-01-16, 22:50)awp0 Wrote: [ -> ]You should consider a PicoPSU for a system like that (small, low wattage). They're efficient, completely silent, and small. The AC-DC converted would sit outside the case too, which would save a little heat.
Since he is planning to install a lot of hard drives in the NAS, I think he need more than a Pico PSU. If he don't have enough juice, he will have a tough time during cold start his NAS with a lot of hard drives in it. Even for 6x HDD's, I still prefer to have at least 380W PSU. The PSU in his list should be sufficient. It'll give him some head room during cold start and room to add more HDD's.....
I suppose it all depends on how far he really wants to go with his primary goal of power efficiency. "Power efficient" also means a smaller number of larger drives. Might make sense to buy a 4TB drive in for parity, and then plan to upgrade the oldest drives as he needs more space (or if they fail). Anyway, it was just a suggestion to consider. I had a PicoPSU on an older power efficient computer and I thought it was pretty cool (both figuratively and literally).
(2014-01-16, 23:45)awp0 Wrote: [ -> ] (2014-01-16, 23:24)bluray Wrote: [ -> ] (2014-01-16, 22:50)awp0 Wrote: [ -> ]You should consider a PicoPSU for a system like that (small, low wattage). They're efficient, completely silent, and small. The AC-DC converted would sit outside the case too, which would save a little heat.
Since he is planning to install a lot of hard drives in the NAS, I think he need more than a Pico PSU. If he don't have enough juice, he will have a tough time during cold start his NAS with a lot of hard drives in it. Even for 6x HDD's, I still prefer to have at least 380W PSU. The PSU in his list should be sufficient. It'll give him some head room during cold start and room to add more HDD's.....
I suppose it all depends on how far he really wants to go with his primary goal of power efficiency. "Power efficient" also means a smaller number of larger drives. Might make sense to buy a 4TB drive in for parity, and then plan to upgrade the oldest drives as he needs more space (or if they fail). Anyway, it was just a suggestion to consider. I had a PicoPSU on an older power efficient computer and I thought it was pretty cool (both figuratively and literally).
I owned PicoPSU (192w) in HTPC (Intel i5) that I sold on Craigslist last year, and I enjoyed using it. I never consider using it in a NAS though. I currently have a huge power brick in my X51 (Intel i7) gaming PC. It's probably the most powerful power brick on the market, but I never though of using it in the NAS either. The standard PSU should be great for NAS, and it is very cheap and very efficient these days....
(2014-01-16, 22:50)Joelmusicman Wrote: [ -> ]I'd recommend the Lenovo TS140 which can be found on Amazon for $250 right now, mine just arrived last night. Even comes with a Haswell i3!
Note that this system is classified as a server, so it needs ECC ram.
Also, you didn't really specify which NAS OS you were thinking of running. Mine will be using freeNAS should be able to easily handle your requirements though there's definitely a learning curve. Note that if you go the ZFS route, ECC ram is HIGHLY recommended.
Wow.. that would've been perfect.. but they don't ship to Canada.. :/ Cheapest is 360$ on Amazon.ca (We always get screwed like that... 50$ Chromecast on amazon.ca, 35$ on amazon.com)
And I plan on running everything from Windows 7 like I said on my first post.
(2014-01-16, 22:50)awp0 Wrote: [ -> ]You should consider a PicoPSU for a system like that (small, low wattage). They're efficient, completely silent, and small. The AC-DC converted would sit outside the case too, which would save a little heat.
About the PicoPSU, can't seem to find any that have more then 1 SATA port.. ? and would it be powerful enough to power 5 HDD ? (Best case scenario : 1xSDD (OS), 1x4tb (Parity), 3x4tb (Data))
How do you arrive at $230 / year?
At $0.10/kWh that's around 260W. Are you sure this is correct. I've hooked a kill-a-watt up to my i5-3570k w/ GTX660 running an SSD and 1 HDD, and it used just over 60W idle
Also, an ivy bridge celeron vs an ivy bridge i3/5/7 will all consume nearly the same power at idle or low utilization
The only way to lower power consumption is to avoid ATX, ITX, mATX in favor of SoC (less ac-dc conversions onboard). PicoPSU can be useful for better efficiency at lower loads as well, but it has the drawback bluray mentioned (to which he's correct) even with staggered spin up a NAS will need more than an 80-120W PicoPSU.
If you want to go deep into low power consumption territory on desktop architectures, go read this guys blog posts
http://ssj3gohan.tweakblogs.net/blog/821...puter.html
However, I can't say that sabnzbd, high number of torrent dls, and Plex media server will be very at home on a G1610. I'd recommend bumping up to an i3 or maybe i5 depending on how many PMS transcodes you'd like available at once
A G1610 can handle a full-bitrate-mkv transcode with Plex, as well as good download and unraring speed in sabnzbd, but it will struggle doing all of those things at the same time. If you aren't really using Plex to transcode, then that is a non-issue. Also, if you are only using it to transcode 1 stream at rare occasions, then it's probably fine as well. It doesn't hurt to go haswell i3 if you want more performance. It wouldn't use anymore at idle than the celeron ivy, and with the right psu you could "supposedly" make good use of the lower power states when the server idles (though I've not seen many reports that this lowers power consumption for desktop architectures)
(2014-01-17, 00:33)Netix Wrote: [ -> ]About the PicoPSU, can't seem to find any that have more then 1 SATA port.. ? and would it be powerful enough to power 5 HDD ? (Best case scenario : 1xSDD (OS), 1x4tb (Parity), 3x4tb (Data))
Yeah, 5 HDD's may be pushing the limit of a PicoPSU 160 depending on the drives. Some HDD's do require over 20 watts momentarily during spin-up, before dropping to under 10 watts. That could put you over the peak 160 watts for a few seconds if they all spin-up at once. Your processor has a TDP of 55 watts, although it would never actually reach that in practice.
Also FWIW, the PicoPSU can serve multiple drives with cable splitters (which is common for this).
If you want to know the exact cost to run your PC 24/7, you can plug in this "
P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor" and plug the number in this "
Calculate Cost". Since it will stay idle most of the times, I would take the reading when it is running and when it is idle then average it. Plug in the average number, you will have a good idea of the overall cost. If you live in the U.S, most states cost 10 cents/kwh....
If you live close to me, I let you borrow my Kill A Watt meter.....
I already have a kill-a-watt. I've plugged it before to the whole power-bar (Speaker System + 27 inch monitor screen and i5 3470, GTX670, 1 SSD, 4 HDD and I got 350w. With only the computer plugged on it I got 85w on idle and around 150-250w depending if I was browsing internet or playing a game. I live in Montreal, Quebec (Canada), I can use this tools to convert my usage into real money :
http://www.hydroquebec.com/residential/s...ppliances/.
What kind of consumption the NAS would give me ? I'm not even sure it's a good option to consider now.. Didn't knew that my computer was only pulling 80w on idle. To be fair, all of my 6 sata port on my gaming rig are being used right now.
(Wow my english do suck after a bottle of wine)
The HP N54L Micro-server would get my vote...
Just set one up for my parents running unRAID pretty much perfect for what you want. I paid $228 for the server here in Australia with no HDD's
Read through this post for inspiration...
http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.p...ic=11585.0