ITX DIY NAS: advice wanted!

[kwonster]

Hey all,

Looking for a NAS and was considering a QNAP 439 or a SYNOLOGY 410 but I wanted something with more room for possible expansion in the future. Any criticism or advice would be welcome!

Purpose: This system will be used ONLY as a fileserver. I have an i7 desktop I use for all transcoding/media/light gaming purposes, and an i3 htpc connected to my tv. I just wanted to have a dedicated NAS to serve media to both systems as well as our laptops (a macbook pro and a older white macbook). I would ideally like to be able to access movies, photos, music, and documents from any of these systems.


Case: Lian Li PC-Q08B
MB/CPU: SUPERMICRO MBD-X7SPA-HF-O
PSU: Thermaltake TR2 RX W0146RU 450W ATX12V Ver2.2 Modular
RAM: G.SKILL 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
OS: freenas off of a usb
Storage: Currently 2x2tb 7200 hitachi's. Planning on adding 4x2tb drives in the future.
Other: swap fans for noctua/scythe


In the future I would like to get an SSD and run WHS Vail. Will this system be enough? Are there any recommended changes? My other option is to go with an i3 530 and a gigabyte usb3 system. However, that might be overkill for a simple fileserver. I chose the supermicro for the dual intel NICs and the 6xsata slots to fill the PC-Q08 to capacity. I don't need USB3 though future proofing might be nice, but I would like some sort of esata capability for backups. I have 3 esata externals I would use to backup essential files.

 

[lopperbug]

The mobo is great i run ubuntu server on it...
Dont know if it can run WHS vail on it
Here is what I run on the mobo...

Ubuntu server on usb 8gb pen.
samba
apache
mysql
rtorrent/rutorrent
vitualbox headless
iscsi host
FTP server

The PSU 450 watt is overkill...
Like the case hehe

 

[kwonster]

I wouldn't mind a PSU with less power, but it's hard to find anything modular at that range and I would prefer a modular power supply. I must have OCD because untidy wires annoy me.

 

[Generious]

The mobo is great i run ubuntu server on it...
Dont know if it can run WHS vail on it
Here is what I run on the mobo...

Ubuntu server on usb 8gb pen.
samba
apache
mysql
rtorrent/rutorrent
vitualbox headless
iscsi host
FTP server

The PSU 450 watt is overkill...
Like the case hehe

You should be able to run Vail off it, Vail is based on w2k8 X64 as long as the processor support x64 it will be fine, which in this case the Atom d510 does.

To the OP
Also for vail you will need a minium of 160Gb space anything less it won't install, if you opt for ssd for the OS partition keep in mind the cost of ssd disks of that size which would be around the £350/450 mark!