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Build your own NAS

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  1. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Proplus:
    I did give this a lot of though about a month ago. I have lots of PC hardware lying around, and all I really need to buy are the hard drives and a cheap LGA1151 CPU like the G4400.
    Well, you'd need to buy hard drives anyway with an off the shelf NAS, if you can throw a PC together for cheap it's not like a major investment to try this route, and if you want to get a QNAP or whatever later, you just reuse the drives. FreeNAS and OpenMediaVault are popular options.

    Edit: I just realised that you started this thread in 2014 and still haven't bought NAS yet
    Last edited by jgl; 12-03-2017 at 08:49 PM.

  2. #12

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    Sorry, I have no experience with streaming media and am a complete Luddite with stuff like that.

    I'd recommend against WD as a manufacturer of NAS-style boxes though, they seem to have a consistently terrible rep with keeping their stuff updated: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/new...s-hard-drives/


  3. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by jgl:
    Well, you'd need to buy hard drives anyway with an off the shelf NAS, if you can throw a PC together for cheap it's not like a major investment to try this route, and if you want to get a QNAP or whatever later, you just reuse the drives. FreeNAS and OpenMediaVault are popular options.
    Oh god....I just read about an hour's worth of info on the FreeNAS forums (and some of the guides posters put up), and it gets rather complicated with hardware.

    They swear by ECC RAM, which then limits the choice of motherboards and CPUs. Eventhough the G4400 I mentioned earlier is suitable for low loads (with the i3-6300 a bit more powerful), none of the 'gaming' or 'consumer' motherboards I have take ECC memory... which ramps up the cost having to either get a Supermicro or ASRock rack one.

    Case-wise, I've got a huge In-Win 509 which I've modded to provide extra cooling airflow.

  4. #14

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    Anyone insisting on ECC RAM for a home file server is either very paranoid or simply engaging in tech forum wanking. Do you think that a thousand dollar Synology designed for 2.5" SATA drives uses ECC RAM?

    It's basically: Build a PC with some disks. Install FreeNAS via CD or USB, and away you go. There is absolutely nothing special about the hardware side of it, and if you want you can just install it in a VM first to see if you like it. If you've done your own case modding, you are vastly overestimating how complex this has to be.


  5. #15

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    @Proplus - you don't need ECC. If there was an upgrade that went beyond using low end consumer hardware, I'd go for a hardware RAID card, but even that would be a luxury for home use.

    Best thing you could do for your home "media" NAS would be to store important data somewhere else.


  6. #16

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    Thanks for the info, the first 20 or so build threads (and guides posted up within them) on the FreeNAS forum insisting on using ECC memory, I guess they're building for the machine to last decades...

    I've never touched FreeNAS, as an OS, do I need to install drivers? If I was to use one of the z170 motherboards I have lying around, it would be great that I can use most of the functions on it such as wifi and USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports.


  7. #17

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    Will be interested to see how your FreeNAS build goes Proplus, I might consolidate the 5 separate networked drives I have into one DIY box.

    Have you got a budget set?


  8. #18

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    (Moved this out of the buy a synology nas discussion for obvious reasons..)

    emx likes this.

  9. #19

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    If it was me, I would just buy a Synology DS416play for $2899 from Centralfield and be done with it. Throw in 2x4TB disks to begin with and leave 2 bays empty, throw in another 2 disks one at a time as your storage needs grow.


  10. #20

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    Original Post Deleted
    - you will be able to stream from the USB port. To test this, put a regular thumb drive on the port with a few MP3s or some videos and test. Keep in mind that a propert hard drive should have slightly better throughput than a thumb drive for sustained streaming... hopefully.