I'm looking into a ~$500 - 700, 4-drive NAS with 4TB of storage but am bogged down in the "Buy an off-the-shelf NAS" or "Build a NAS box" dilemma so I need some perspective...
The main purpose of my NAS is:
* To consolidate all of my professional and personal data which is currently scattered on multiple drives, into a central place that can be accessed by all my machines at home
* To be able to continue to put more and more data there and know it is safe
My feature requests, in order of importance:
* Ease-of-use (I'm no sysadmin and don't want to have to play one)
* Redundancy / "safety" (I'm looking to back up and store multiple TB's of professional and personal data that I would like to have around forever)
* Expandability / upgradability (This set-up will be my centralized storage "depot" for the foreseeable future)
* Low-power (needs to be easy on the electricity bill)
I'm in no need of a BitTorrent client to be running or having transcoding capabilities on this setup so those and other "gimmick-y" features are not important to me (however, if the capabilities of being to stream video and music files come for "free", then great)...
I thought I had settled on the HP EX490 but the cost after adding the drives went too high (especially when comparing to the DIY cost)...
I then trudged through all the QNap's, Synology's, Thecus's, SmartStor's, Netgear's, Drobo's etc (just as he did: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/254446-32-choice-hell ) but cost wise, building one and doing the FreeNAS thing may be the better bet (heck, even spending the extra $100 for Home Server keeps the price near or under the off-the-shelf boxes)...
In terms of building one, I'm thinking something like this:
--------------------------------
CASE:
--------------------------------
Rosewill FE-M020 Black SECC Steel MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147151&cm_re=Rosewill_FE-M020-_-11-147-151-_-Product
$30
--------------------------------
MOBO:
--------------------------------
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AM3 AMD 780L Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131619&Tpk=ASUS%20M4A78LT-M
$65
--------------------------------
CPU:
--------------------------------
AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX240OCGQBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688&cm_re=amd_athlon_ii_x2_240_regor-_-19-103-688-_-Product
$59.00
--------------------------------
RAM:
--------------------------------
Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT12864BA1339
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148194
$55
--------------------------------
POWER SUPPLY:
--------------------------------
Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182199
$50
--------------------------------
HDD:
--------------------------------
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
$90 (x4 = $360)
OR (if no RAID)
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152175&Tpk=ecogreen%201.5TB
$110 (x4 = $440)
--------------------------------
MISC:
--------------------------------
Rosewill RFX-120 120mm Case Fan - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200021
$8 (x1)
Rosewill RFA-80-K 80mm Case Fan - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200044
$2 (x1)
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
= ~$650.00 (on the low-end version, with shipping, extra SATA cables, etc...)
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
In the end, I am still on the fence and am looking for help / advice / info in order to make a decision and commit...
Thanks...
VENAM1
(PS: Some thoughts / questions I still have:
* I am a PC building n00b so I'm wondering if the "learning curve" of assembling and maintaining a FreeNAS box may actually end up costing me more in terms of time and headache than just ponying up for an off-the-shelf device (I can read and write and use tools though...)
* Is RAID even necessary in terms of backup / storage? It seems it may be overkill in a NAS, no? I'm not looking for speed (per se) and would be very, angry to watch my data go down the drain after a drive failure or URE (which seems very probable in a RAID 5 config), even though RAID 5 is touted as an "ideal combination of good performance, good fault tolerance and high capacity and storage efficiency"
* I wanted to go the "green" HDD route but kept reading about catastrophic data loss when used in conjunction with any type of RAID configuration so that is why I am eye-balling the Spinpoint F3 (but without RAID, I take it the "eco" drives are a better choice in terms of power savings, yeah?))
The main purpose of my NAS is:
* To consolidate all of my professional and personal data which is currently scattered on multiple drives, into a central place that can be accessed by all my machines at home
* To be able to continue to put more and more data there and know it is safe
My feature requests, in order of importance:
* Ease-of-use (I'm no sysadmin and don't want to have to play one)
* Redundancy / "safety" (I'm looking to back up and store multiple TB's of professional and personal data that I would like to have around forever)
* Expandability / upgradability (This set-up will be my centralized storage "depot" for the foreseeable future)
* Low-power (needs to be easy on the electricity bill)
I'm in no need of a BitTorrent client to be running or having transcoding capabilities on this setup so those and other "gimmick-y" features are not important to me (however, if the capabilities of being to stream video and music files come for "free", then great)...
I thought I had settled on the HP EX490 but the cost after adding the drives went too high (especially when comparing to the DIY cost)...
I then trudged through all the QNap's, Synology's, Thecus's, SmartStor's, Netgear's, Drobo's etc (just as he did: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/254446-32-choice-hell ) but cost wise, building one and doing the FreeNAS thing may be the better bet (heck, even spending the extra $100 for Home Server keeps the price near or under the off-the-shelf boxes)...
In terms of building one, I'm thinking something like this:
--------------------------------
CASE:
--------------------------------
Rosewill FE-M020 Black SECC Steel MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147151&cm_re=Rosewill_FE-M020-_-11-147-151-_-Product
$30
--------------------------------
MOBO:
--------------------------------
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AM3 AMD 780L Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131619&Tpk=ASUS%20M4A78LT-M
$65
--------------------------------
CPU:
--------------------------------
AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX240OCGQBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688&cm_re=amd_athlon_ii_x2_240_regor-_-19-103-688-_-Product
$59.00
--------------------------------
RAM:
--------------------------------
Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT12864BA1339
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148194
$55
--------------------------------
POWER SUPPLY:
--------------------------------
Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182199
$50
--------------------------------
HDD:
--------------------------------
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
$90 (x4 = $360)
OR (if no RAID)
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152175&Tpk=ecogreen%201.5TB
$110 (x4 = $440)
--------------------------------
MISC:
--------------------------------
Rosewill RFX-120 120mm Case Fan - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200021
$8 (x1)
Rosewill RFA-80-K 80mm Case Fan - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200044
$2 (x1)
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
= ~$650.00 (on the low-end version, with shipping, extra SATA cables, etc...)
--------------------------------
--------------------------------
In the end, I am still on the fence and am looking for help / advice / info in order to make a decision and commit...
Thanks...
VENAM1
(PS: Some thoughts / questions I still have:
* I am a PC building n00b so I'm wondering if the "learning curve" of assembling and maintaining a FreeNAS box may actually end up costing me more in terms of time and headache than just ponying up for an off-the-shelf device (I can read and write and use tools though...)
* Is RAID even necessary in terms of backup / storage? It seems it may be overkill in a NAS, no? I'm not looking for speed (per se) and would be very, angry to watch my data go down the drain after a drive failure or URE (which seems very probable in a RAID 5 config), even though RAID 5 is touted as an "ideal combination of good performance, good fault tolerance and high capacity and storage efficiency"
* I wanted to go the "green" HDD route but kept reading about catastrophic data loss when used in conjunction with any type of RAID configuration so that is why I am eye-balling the Spinpoint F3 (but without RAID, I take it the "eco" drives are a better choice in terms of power savings, yeah?))