Thank you!
Here are what I did
Yes, I was indeed thinking about how to built my NAS about two months. My goals are:
- GREEN (low power consumption).
- Fast so I can stream BD.ISO, MKV, DVD to my TVIX Slim S1 in my bed room and DUNE Prime in my living room.
- Connection must be Gb so I can ripped and transfer my BD.ISO in min, instead of hours or days.
- Low cost, otherwise my other significant won't approved
.
After all research I end up with:
1x SuperMicro ITX Mobo X7SPA-O
1x Chasis http://www.norcotek.com/
4x SPM394
http://www.datoptic.com/ec/esata-hardware-raid-controller-spm394.html
1x 1GB USB falsh
1x 1GB DDR2 RAM
20x WD Green 2.0TB WD20EARS
1x 430W PSU
Why X7SPA-O
I select this Mobo because, it has built in Atom CPU, TWO GbE, PCI E 4x slot and SIX (6) SATAII ports.
I do not need dual, quad core CPU since the CPU only run network services at home, and these services would not be CPU intense
so fast CPU sort of waste energy and money. Matter of fact if there is a Celeron CPU in it I would use it
- Two Gb E - I can bond (LACP) it together to get double the bandwidth 2Gbps instead of Gb Ethernet, if needed
- Empty PCI E it allows me to add 8 more SATA ports if I ever need to expand the storage so the final port I will have is twelve (12) ports - 360TB RAW volume
Or add an additional NIC to increase the bandwidth of network
- Current six SATA ports allow me to connect up to 30x SATA Drives or 90TB raw (if i use the 3.0TB HDD)
- Built in CPU - since I will not have host CPU manage the RAID so DUO Core and other CPU is wasted
- Cost in high 100's
So for who wants to build a smaller system use ITX-220 - you can have a system go up to 30TB
RAID controller
SPM394
I select this because it is a stand alone hardware raid. Once the raid configured, OS sees it as ONE BIG hard drive, NO drivers required, it means I dont have to worry about update or compatible issue
It rebuilt rate is over 200GB/hr - so with a volume of 15.0TB (5x3.0TB hdd) need to rebuilt it takes 7.5Hrs or 5hrs if 5x2.0TB is used
LCD display allows me to see what is going with the array instantly
Built in alarm - sound off if there something is going wrong
No problem with 2.TB - WD20EARS - I think WD30EZRSDTL would work just fine, but I did not have this drive in hand so - test it before use
WD20EARS
Low cost
Low power - when Write / read it consume ~ 6W
Seems to work fine with SPM394, the above raid controller - there is no problem found on TLER issue
Chasis
http://www.norcotek.com/item_detail....delno=RPC-4220
Low cost - rack mount decent fans
20bay - rack mount
430W PSU
As I calculate the power consumption my NAS require about 200 max, therefore 430W PSU is more than enough
20x WD = 120W max + Mobo = 45W max + 4x SPM controller @ 15W Max + Misc fan/LED... = 200W max
OS: FreeNAS
Ultimate Low cost - $0.00
USB1.0GB flash cost $5.00
My NAS Front view
Building steps:
1_ Install controller
If there is FOUR 5.25 slots that would be perfect, but there is no such thing, I decide to cut the chassis's PCI slot sopen and drop four of these SPM394 into this corner of the chassis
with couple screws I was able to hold them in place
2_ Install MoBo+Drive+ and PSU
I drop the 1GB DDR2 in 1st then mount the Mobo the chassis, after that I install 20x HDD to the tray and inserted to the chassis, the PSU is going last, the sequence I have
3_ Prepare FreeNAS flash
I re-format the existing flash as FAT
Download freeNAS CD image here and burn it to CD
Boot from just burned CD
Install FreeNAS to USB flash - for more detail you can see it at freenas.org
Plug newly loaded FreeNAS USB flash to Mobo USB port (close to SATA ports)
Just google it or drop me an email
If you need more info I will update this post
4_ Connect raid controllers to Mobo
I only use four out of six Mobo SATA ports. There are TWO empty SATA ports, this allows me to expand another Ten HDD, if i want to - This is an immediate expansion option
After it's done, the system should have four SATA ports connected to four SPM394 and FOUR SPM394 SATA ports fan out to 20x WD HDD. An USB flash with freeNAS is connected to onboard USB port
(Continue...)
Edit: add more images