Looking for just a bit of guidance/advice on NAS setup

[digital_alchemy]

I'm trying to plan my first NAS build. I think I have a fairly good plan on what component to use; but would appreciate a dummy check from some more experienced builders.

Components:

Case: IstarUSA D-406-B6SA
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q Pro
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400
Raid Controller: 3ware 9650SE-8LPML
Drives: WD Black WD1001FALS
Memory: OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 2GB

Of course I want the best performance possible within a reasonable budget... not sure yet what to expect from this setup but I think it should be ok.

I initially was just going to build a NAS system, but the more I thought about it I decided I wanted to incorporate a raid for backup purposes also. The way I would like to set this up is: 4 1TB drives for NAS in Raid 5 and then have 3 Drives dedicated as a raid 5 backup to store all system and NAS weekly backups.

My major question would be: is this possible with a single raid controller since it can handle 8 drives or would I need separate controllers for the NAS and the Backup array?

I've still not settled on an OS yet either. I'm probably looking at FreeBSD or Ubuntu. I only have limited experience with using FreeBSD as a desktop OS, but I think I should be able to figure out how to use them as a NAS OS

Thanks for all advice/help.

 

[thiggins]

Do not put your backup on the same system as your NAS. If you have a power supply or mainboard failure or other glitch, everything will be toast.

I have found Ubuntu server to have better performance than FreeNAS.
How To Build a Really Fast NAS - Part 4: Ubuntu Server

 

[sammynl]

Nice config but too heavy for a NAS, if it will be running 24/7 how about power consumption and noise production? Your processor might generate way to much heat and fancooling-noise for a NAS.

You dont need a motherboard with onboard RAID or expensive RAID-controller, most onboard ICH*R chips (ICH7R and ICH8R) do not support more than 4 disks per array anyway, and in Ubuntu a Linux RAID is likely to be nearly equally fast, and very flexible you can easily add lots of (new) physical disks, and with Samba installed you can use SMB/CIFS for Windows clients.

You might however consider Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, with an even better (CIFS) performance than Ubuntu. Lots and lots of disks per array, won't be a problem at all. With a little digging on Usenet you can find it there. It also has superb printserver functionality en Shadow Copy options for recovery in case you delete data by accident, and excellent power management.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/storage/benefits.mspx

I have a testversion running in VM Workstation, I can recommend testing it to all DIY NAS builders!

PS: I'd never put backups on the same physical system. You will loose ALL your data one day.