Building a low power NAS

[scrumhalf]

I'm looking to build a NAS for my home running FreeNAS or something similar for a CF Card, and I'm looking for a low power solution that would be cheap to build.

Things I need:
■Gigabit Ethernet
■At least 2 SATA II ports
■At least 1 PCI or PCIe slot to add a RAID controller for future upgrade

I've been looking at the Intel Atom motherboards due to their extremely low power consumption, but they all lack Gigabit Ethernet. Most VIA Nano boards have this but are a bit more expensive. Does anyone know of an Atom motherboard that has Gigabit Ethernet, or has anyone built a similar system that can offer some insight? Thanks!

 

[rozar]

What form factor do you want to stay in? Sounds like mITX.

 

[scrumhalf]

mITX would be nice, but isn't necessary if the power can be kept down. The unit will be kept out of sight, so size isn't a determining factor, more of a byproduct of the available low power systems that I've looked at. The main goal is to have the lease impact on the electric bill as possible for something running 24/7.

 

[rozar]

I hate to keep asking question but would like a 250x ATX power supply be enough? If so then you can use a mATX chassis, standard mATX motherboard, low power CPU, and regular optical drives and 4-5 hard drives. I have one of my computers in a chassis like this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154079

Yes it has about the thickness of a beer can (maybe a little more) but it houses everything and keeps it cool with 120mm fans front and rear. The front 120mm keeps the drives cool too. Yes throw away the power supply it comes with and add one. I have a 3ware controller in mine with 4 hard drives for storage and 1 single drive for boot. I use this board because it has a x4 PCIe for the RAID controller in addition to the x16 for video.

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=542&l4=0&model=1690&modelmenu=1

 

[scrumhalf]

250 would be more than enough, but I'm trying to skip the need for a video card. I plan to use this as a headless system, so integrated video is fine/will save power.

 

[rozar]

That motherboard I listed also has onboard video. And you could get a different case if you wanted to. Like maybe this one.

http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-mini-p180-case-antec-performance-one-mini-p180-chassis-mini/q/loc/101/207336508.html

Its on sale today and looks really good.

 

[snootch]

On my next build i will be using another (I am currently using one in my car pc) VIA Epia SN1800 mini-ITX board. It has 4 SATA II ports, one PCI-e slot, Mini-PCI and CF slot. Here's a review: http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=241&page=1

 

[rozar]

If that board had RAID it would be really cool.

 

[snootch]

Yes, It supports RAID 5 as well. Here are the specs:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/motherboards.jsp?motherboard_id=550#spec

 

[rozar]

I missed this the first time I read that page

"Multiple native RAID configurations through 4 S-ATA channels"

Not that I doubt you but are you sure it has RAID 5?