Laughing Man
New Around Here
Hi all, I want to obtain a NAS however, I rather re-purpose my old desktop rather than buy one for the moment. Partially for the flexibility (I'm relatively comfortable with Linux) and that I can place more drive bays in my desktop than most affordable NAS solutions. However, my primary concern is the the desktop's power usage. How does a DIY NAS compare to the consumer grade NAS for active usage (transferring or streaming a file)? Is it possible to cut down the power usage of the desktop when it's on? I don't remember the exact details of the build but here is a rough guide of the desktop's specs.
I read that FreeNAS can underclock the CPU for you so would that be sufficient in lowering my power usage? Or would I also have to change out the power supply? There are also three fans in the case but I can unplug them since it won't get as hot when used as a NAS. I figure the CPU should be useful for streaming 720+ to 1080p video files and the motherboard's dual gigabit LAN ports will be used to connect to my gigabit network.
My plans for it:
I want the data stored on one hard drive, with me selectively controlling an rsync of directories when I want to the other drive. Is there anyway to selectively power on certain drives without physically connecting and disconnecting the cable? I plan on having one NTFS drive and the other being EXT3.
Or should I just suck it up and buy a consumer grade NAS if I'm really concerned about power usage? Thank you for your help!
- AMD Opteron 185 - Dual core processor. 1.8 Ghz
- 1 GB RAM (2 X 512 MB sticks)
- Motherboard - DFI LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D
- Power Supply - don't remember. But it was enough to support an overclock.
- Video card - I plan on taking this out
- 2 IDE connected Hard drives (300 GB but they're from 2005 so I might replace them with SATA connected 2 TB drives).
I read that FreeNAS can underclock the CPU for you so would that be sufficient in lowering my power usage? Or would I also have to change out the power supply? There are also three fans in the case but I can unplug them since it won't get as hot when used as a NAS. I figure the CPU should be useful for streaming 720+ to 1080p video files and the motherboard's dual gigabit LAN ports will be used to connect to my gigabit network.
My plans for it:
- Use as a music/video streaming device to a jailbroken Apple TV2, Xbox 360, and our computers
- General NAS storage.
I want the data stored on one hard drive, with me selectively controlling an rsync of directories when I want to the other drive. Is there anyway to selectively power on certain drives without physically connecting and disconnecting the cable? I plan on having one NTFS drive and the other being EXT3.
Or should I just suck it up and buy a consumer grade NAS if I'm really concerned about power usage? Thank you for your help!