NAS Upgrade

[Brandon]

So, as my current NAS slowly fills to the brim, I'm looking to upgrade.

My current NAS is a windows XP PC, with a 750 Gb hard drive. This is running on an HP Ultraslim Desktop (Only one spot for a hard drive, sadly) which is a great PC, other than the fact that it's running out of sace.

This is what I'm thinking about building:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240
Motherboard: ASRock A780GMH
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 5900 RPM
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W
Case: COOLER MASTER Elite

I will take the rest out of things I already own (Ram, OS drive, DVD-Burner, and so on).

I'm wondering what people thoughts on this would be, as well as what OS I should go for. I have access to Windows Server 2003/2008 and Windows XP. I'm wondering if I should opt for one of these, or use something like Debian and mdadm or something else. With windows server, it would be a GPT software raid partition. I've thought about a hardware rad card, however I'm going on the cheap here.

This is a meadia server first, file server second. I currently use TVersity on a Windows XP PC. Before that, it was a server 2003 setup (Still TVersity). So if I opt for linux, what would be the best option for streaming video? I currently stream video to a PS3, as well as an Xbox 360.

Backups are iffy, I don't really "Backup" my PC, I just keep everything important on a raid array like this (Pictures, software keys, so on). Part of the problem with my current setup is the lack of the raid giving me this option.

Thanks!

 

[wathman]

It's a good start, you won't be able to increase performance much more until you can include a second drive in your system and possibly build a RAID 0 array to increase throughput. The Baracuda LP is a good choice, though microcenter has a great deal on Samsung EcoGreen F2s, $70 for a 1TB drive: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0306106

If you want to build your NAS with Speed AND redundancy, as in using RAID 5 or higher, I highly recommend getting a dedicated RAID adapter. Onboard RAID just plain sucks for high level RAID when compared with a true RAID controller. Problem is the best ones start at $300. Highpoint has a more affordable RAID solution that isn't quite as good as say an Adaptec, but at $80 I'd say it's a fair compromise: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...rdDriveControllersRAIDCards-_-LP8B-_-16115050

 

[Brandon]

Sorry, I left out that I'm doing 4 drives, then using software raid, more than likely.

I know that using a true Raid Controller would be best, but for network file transfers I don't think it will be that much of a drop using something like the Windows Server raid utility.

For upgrading, I will probably invest in something like this Areca ARC-1220. I love Areca raid controllers, but I'm trying to stay as cheap as possible for the moment. As it stands the build sits at $540, a $300 raid card would bring it up to almost $1,000.

I'm mainly looking for OS ideas, as well as possible media servers. I use TVersity now, however if I go to Linux, I will need to find a replacement.

 

[wathman]

I looked a bit more into what's the latest on Software vs Hardware RAID, and it seems that short of the performance beasts as in that Areca you like, software wins out as long as you have a CPU that is up to the task. I'm wondering if a Athlon II X4 will have a significant gain in performance over the Athlon II X2 240 you selected. Power consumption would be more, but probably not a whole lot more.

As for software, I'm happy with Ubuntu Server, though I mainly use that NAS as a file server via samba. I have experimented with stand alone builds like XBMC and mythtv which were nice as well. I'd definitely recommend mythtv if you were looking into DVR capabilities.

 

[Jay_S]

A few opinions:

1. The MB in your list features the 780G chipset (on-board HD3200 GPU & HDMI, etc). This is a HTPC board, and is overkill for a NAS or server. Unless you plan to use this PC as a desktop as well, you don't need these multimedia features. You can save money using a lower-end chipset (740G or 760G).
2. Re: your case - Coolermaster makes a better (IMO) case for DIY servers: the Centurion 590. It has 9 exposed 5.25" bays for 4-in-3's or hot-swap backplanes. It's a little more expensive, but VERY expandable. It comes with one 4-in3 drive adapter.
3. Software RAID is perfectly fine for a NAS in a home gigabit LAN.
4. RAID is no replacement for a proper backup. Backup your data however you can, to a degree appropriate to your data's importance.
5. RAID 0 HAS NO PLACE IN A FILE SERVER.