Building a NAS

[bigred8080]

Im sure this is beating a dead horse, but i have been reading the forum for a while now and finally have the time and hardware to start my build...well my beginner build, i figure if I work with what I got, then i can learn from mistakes or whatever and build a better one after. My needs are simple i believe: I would like to build a NAS that of course i can access on my network, with a verity of devices, and also be able to download/upload from the net. mostly my moive/music collection amoung other things.

I read here that it may be a good idea to turn an old CPU intoa NAS. The word that concerns me here is "old" lol. How old is to old? I found a CPU that my grandparnets bought back in like idk 10 years ago or so, then it was B.A. but now lol ha wouldnt stand a chance, not even compared to my smartphone. I opened the case (HP) and the mother board that is in it is a gigabyte 8i865gme-775-rh. I did a litte reading on it and well i wasnt to impressed, but of course it is pretty old.

anyways, thats what i have to work with (for now anyway) any suggestions/commets would be appreciated.

thanks

 

[underclocker]

Its an LGA 775, so it can't be that bad (worst case, its a low end Celeron D). The only thing you may have to worry about is lack of Ram.

I would recommend putting a Linux/Unix-like distribution on it, something like Debian, FreeNAS or OpenFiler. Linux is beautiful cause it can run on just about anything.

After installing the operating system, make sure you install SAMBA (or equivalent) to communicate with Windows PCs

 

[bigred8080]

Well thats good to hear. i should also say i am wanting some kind of raid, probably raid 5 or 6. Im tired of losing all my stored data that i usally keep on one hard drive. i believe there is only like 256mb of memory, so im sure i will have to up that, i think i read that this MB only supports up to 2 gb. also there is a slot or two open for a raid card. I figured that would be a must seeing the mb is older ya know.

Yes i plan on using freenas, seems like that will meet my needs.

 

[underclocker]

You'll definitely need to upgrade the ram to at least 1gb (more ram is always better). A couple: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146326 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145505 should be fine.

If you want raid, I recommend you get a dedicated raid card. Software Raid 5 is fairly cpu intensive, especially if you have a low end cpu. Because you don't have any PCIe connectors on your motherboard, the selection will be fairly limited and you won't be able to find any raid 6 cards.

Anyways, good luck with your build.

 

[bigred8080]

ahh i see, so for what i want, i should just spend the money on a new mb?