Hi,
This may sound an outdated question, and I know it is probably all about trade offs, but I just cannot figure everything out by myself.
So to start, obviously I want a device to sit in my home, and do at least the following things:
1. Host a wordpress/email/VPN/SVN server(for personal/home/small group).
2. Personal cloud storage with synchronization.
3. Stream media via LAN.
4. Access my files from different devices and platforms.
5. Future proof. i.e. 4 bays for storage expansion, and powerful enough spec for me to use it smoothly for at least 3-5 years.
I know an NAS can do all first 4, Synology and QNAP both have good OS and easy-to-install packages which can serve me well. Plus some beautiful GUI that makes life much easier. But when it comes to future proof, it does not seem to do so well any more. Those 4 bay models basically cost $600+, Synology DS414 has a poor CPU, QNAP TS-469 Pro costs $850 which scares me off a little bit. Some other high-end NAS...yeah they do have much better spec, but the price...
On the other hand, there are some second hand servers on ebay(or wherever), which out spec those NAS and are much cheaper. Some rack servers with dual quad core CPU and much more memory just cost less than $200. I know those are old models, their memory frequency might be low, the CPU frequency does not mean everything...I might be very wrong here but I think they are still much more powerful.
Some other good things about server is because it has a full system I can try whatever on it. I write a C++ web application, I can test on it...I write a java rmi program, I can test on it...etc..But NAS does not support such stuff. Maybe FreeNAS does? Then can I just buy a random brand NAS and install that system on it and...suffer installing the software I want?
Of course there are things that I am not happy with servers. First of all is the power consumption, I would like to power it on 24x7, and if the server consumes several hundreds of Watts then I would just use my PC to do all the stuff...Second, those less than $200 servers seem to be quite old model and in their spec they say: "support up to 1.8TB HDD" that is just unacceptable. Third, if I do buy a rack server, where am I gonna put it? I do not think putting it on a 1cm thick wood surface is a good idea...And a server will force me to pay more effort to get it working since not like NAS OS taking care of many things, I need to do almost everything by myself. I do not really hate doing it though, since it gives me experience...
Do you guys have any model suggestions? For NAS I want a powerful CPU(dual core 2.13GHz), 4 bays, SATA III, preferably cost less than $700 diskless. As for the brand, most likely will be Synology or QNAP since I did not find much information about the OS on other manufactures so I am assuming only those two have got decent OS and packages. But if there is another manufacture with such good OS please let me know. Second hand servers are also in consideration but I really hate the high power consumption...
Another idea is to build a server on my own, using some low-end components that are cheap but still out perform NAS. I built my PC by myself(including assembling), but I have no clue how to build a low-end machine. If anyone could help me, here are some specs I would like to have:
1. I do not really care about the size...but better keep it small. Same thing for the looking, it does not have to look gorgeous. LED screen? Maybe I will DIY one in the future
2. 4 x 3.5" SATA III. A decent RAID controller would be sweet.
3. 2 memory slots preferred.
4. I am not sure about the CPU selection, since I have no idea in low power CPU area. Intel Atom dual core 1.8GHz is probably the bottom line.
5. Low power consumption. Looking at some NAS models, I define it as: full operating < 70W, idle < 30W. (quite loose imo)
6. One gigabit LAN port should be enough.
7. Hardware transcoding preferred but not so much(this is more for future proof).
8. RPi is not off the table but I doubt if I have time to spend on playing it...
9. Keep the price low
10. I do have a spare USB wireless LAN adaptor. So if there is a choice to have motherboard without wi-fi.
If you have made it here...thank you very much for reading! Any helpful idea would be really appreciated!
This may sound an outdated question, and I know it is probably all about trade offs, but I just cannot figure everything out by myself.
So to start, obviously I want a device to sit in my home, and do at least the following things:
1. Host a wordpress/email/VPN/SVN server(for personal/home/small group).
2. Personal cloud storage with synchronization.
3. Stream media via LAN.
4. Access my files from different devices and platforms.
5. Future proof. i.e. 4 bays for storage expansion, and powerful enough spec for me to use it smoothly for at least 3-5 years.
I know an NAS can do all first 4, Synology and QNAP both have good OS and easy-to-install packages which can serve me well. Plus some beautiful GUI that makes life much easier. But when it comes to future proof, it does not seem to do so well any more. Those 4 bay models basically cost $600+, Synology DS414 has a poor CPU, QNAP TS-469 Pro costs $850 which scares me off a little bit. Some other high-end NAS...yeah they do have much better spec, but the price...
On the other hand, there are some second hand servers on ebay(or wherever), which out spec those NAS and are much cheaper. Some rack servers with dual quad core CPU and much more memory just cost less than $200. I know those are old models, their memory frequency might be low, the CPU frequency does not mean everything...I might be very wrong here but I think they are still much more powerful.
Some other good things about server is because it has a full system I can try whatever on it. I write a C++ web application, I can test on it...I write a java rmi program, I can test on it...etc..But NAS does not support such stuff. Maybe FreeNAS does? Then can I just buy a random brand NAS and install that system on it and...suffer installing the software I want?
Of course there are things that I am not happy with servers. First of all is the power consumption, I would like to power it on 24x7, and if the server consumes several hundreds of Watts then I would just use my PC to do all the stuff...Second, those less than $200 servers seem to be quite old model and in their spec they say: "support up to 1.8TB HDD" that is just unacceptable. Third, if I do buy a rack server, where am I gonna put it? I do not think putting it on a 1cm thick wood surface is a good idea...And a server will force me to pay more effort to get it working since not like NAS OS taking care of many things, I need to do almost everything by myself. I do not really hate doing it though, since it gives me experience...
Do you guys have any model suggestions? For NAS I want a powerful CPU(dual core 2.13GHz), 4 bays, SATA III, preferably cost less than $700 diskless. As for the brand, most likely will be Synology or QNAP since I did not find much information about the OS on other manufactures so I am assuming only those two have got decent OS and packages. But if there is another manufacture with such good OS please let me know. Second hand servers are also in consideration but I really hate the high power consumption...
Another idea is to build a server on my own, using some low-end components that are cheap but still out perform NAS. I built my PC by myself(including assembling), but I have no clue how to build a low-end machine. If anyone could help me, here are some specs I would like to have:
1. I do not really care about the size...but better keep it small. Same thing for the looking, it does not have to look gorgeous. LED screen? Maybe I will DIY one in the future
2. 4 x 3.5" SATA III. A decent RAID controller would be sweet.
3. 2 memory slots preferred.
4. I am not sure about the CPU selection, since I have no idea in low power CPU area. Intel Atom dual core 1.8GHz is probably the bottom line.
5. Low power consumption. Looking at some NAS models, I define it as: full operating < 70W, idle < 30W. (quite loose imo)
6. One gigabit LAN port should be enough.
7. Hardware transcoding preferred but not so much(this is more for future proof).
8. RPi is not off the table but I doubt if I have time to spend on playing it...
9. Keep the price low
10. I do have a spare USB wireless LAN adaptor. So if there is a choice to have motherboard without wi-fi.
If you have made it here...thank you very much for reading! Any helpful idea would be really appreciated!
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