New Guy Here: Is This Setup For Me?

Alright. I've been doing a ton of research the last 2 days about this topic but I think I need some direct opinions before I get started here.. I want a Drobo but I don't want to buy one and from what I'm seeing I can pretty much build one for much much cheaper.. What my impressions were is that I can just use the AMD motherboard I have laying around (has 6 SATA ports) with a single core chip in it.. Throw on 2GB of RAM.. I have 2 1TB hard drives I was going to use.. and install FreeNAS.. and use ZFS and be able to have redundancy across the drives.. so that if one fails.. I can yank it and replace it and my data will be re-written and I won't lose anything..

Is that basically correct? Or am I missing something here..

I'm sure you can use zfs to create a mirror setup but I've not seen it done.

However, you are not replacing a drobo. You are making a NAS. The drobo is a shiny box which you plug in and slam random drives into. There is a network drobo now (fs? version) but most are usb based.

It's like the difference between buying a toyota and building a dune buggy. One is shiny and works every time. The other needs work. I recommend the dune buggy but it's not for everyone.

$300 is pushing it. But you can be close.

Okay, imho you should go with FreeNAS. Keep a good backup and watch for a stable release from sub mesa. You can upgrade later and use your backup to build new zpools with zfs v14 or whatever the stable release supports. I don't think you will be able to upgrade without a rebuild. However, you may be happy with FreeNAS... if it ain't broke. Why fix it?

Now... hardware.

You don't need a raid card. Unless you require more sata ports.

I think your amd sempron processor would be a good candidate for a nas. You can upgrade later if you feel the need. The nice thing about amd is that you can use ECC memory as well (if you wish). Error checking memory is a nice boost to data safety (although it is somewhat redundant with the zfs file system). zfs is more or less like ecc for your drives.

Great! This can be done but why not just pool them for now? Ultimately you would like to have 5 disks in a raid z. Wait until the time is right and buy 3 more 1tb drives. In the mean time use the other two in jbod fashion. This is where the drobo/nas difference comes in. I do not believe you can add to a pool without rebuilding it. Especially in v7 or earlier.

To tell the truth I'm not an expert. Only played a little before disconnecting my server rig. Now I'm homeless (ok renting), everything is in storage, and we are building a house. I hope to play much more soon.

I have an external cd drive which cost maybe $22. This is the thing to use. Or, just 'borrow' one for the application.

Great. That's the thing with storage. Or with anything. One should buy for their needs and not buy for the biggest and best. Streaming HD does not require full gigabit bandwidth. If it works, we're done. When it doesn't, we'll start again.