Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question
Solved

Want to build a cheap, low powered NAS

Tags:
  • NAS / RAID
  • Storage
  • Synology
Last response: in Storage
Share
April 4, 2014 4:12:27 PM

I've been doing a lot of research on off the shelf NAS (synology, qnap) and DIY using FreeNAS or Open Media Vault or even just a basic linux server. I am basically looking for something that will hold 1 3.5 drive and sip electricity. I would like it to cost under $200 minus hard drive. I have looked at the basic Synology and Qnap 1 bay units but I am afraid of the low low ram and not being able to upgrade the memory and being stuck on their proprietary software.

Is it possible to cobble together some hardware to do what I want at the cheap price point I want to stay at? I was looking at this Biostar mobo with embedded older Celeron:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

with 4 gb of ram and this case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Which would run me about $170 with shipping and tax. The Proc TDP says 17W but I'm not sure how those numbers translate to electricity use where as the off the shelf units say they pull around 13-14 watts. I would probably use WD Red drive in whatever unit I went with. So many options my head is spinning. I would just be using this as a central file storage on my LAN, cloud storage and torrenting.

Additional info: I currently have a Pogplug v4 with Arch linux installed running Samba with a 2.5 Sata drive attached. I am getting about 2 MB/sec transfer speed. That is with my laptop on wifi copying to the samba share which is on the pogoplug attached gig E to my router. What kind of speed should I expect with a NAS solution copying to from wifi devices ?

More about : build cheap low powered nas

Best solution

a c 958 G Storage
April 7, 2014 6:36:14 PM

WD Cloud edition sounds like a good fit for you but if you really want to built something then yes, what you have is fine; too small for my tastes though. If I'm gonna build something I would wand some expansion room. ie - larger case able to support 4 drives minimum.

as for wireless speed, the whole thing moves at the slowest speed of any device in the chain and you dont give enough details to know for sure though I suspect your laptops connection might be the culprit since I know the pogo is capable of 20MB/s in reading.
Share
!