Hello bit-tech. I'm in a quandary, I have a bond that's matured and with interest rates the way they are I'd rather spend the money then to break my back and receive 3% extra back after a year or so and insipred by this thread I thought I'd get a new NAS. The question is do I spend my money on a prebuilt NAS or DIY it, currently I have a hacked MBWE which does the job if a little slowly and has a tenancy to crash if I ask too much of it. If you're up for the challenge I need some help evaluating my choices, here is a pretty table of my current costing: Best case is based on the fact I have a box under my bed full of random computer bits and the NIL bits are from a failed HTPC that never took off as I dont have a nice HDTV to call my own. However I may have sold/cannibalised many of these parts over the course of time so the NIL cost parts may become expensive. Here is a quick list of the core features I think each system has and that I would need: *Problem? The pretty pics so you visualise what I'm talking about: Chenbro (DIY) QNAP You'll notice that I haven't mention storage HDDs anywhere, that's because I was planning on stuffing the cases with 4 x Samsung F2 1.5 TB as they have the best price per GB atm, the low power is a bonus to a NAS and some of the performance issues should be mitigated by the RAID 5. If any of my reasoning if flawed please point it out as that's why I'm posting here Also if any links are required, please say and I'll post them.
the qnap's are nice but i recently did a DIY nas for my self (even though my project was looking for more storage). I would reccomend Freenas. As it has a bunch of services and features (which includes a Itunes Server) Am i to assume you already have the HDD's and if not how large of a capacity would you like.
I was planning on 4 1.5Tb Samsung F2 in RAID 5 for the reasons mentioned above. However, Bindi says Freenas doesn't like RAID 5.
Ya, the software raid isn't the greatest for RAID 5. If youve got your heart set on RAID5/6 then i would get a dedicated raid controller if your going the DIY route. I run a Dell Perc 5i and it works great. 5i - raid 5 6i - raid 6 How ever i use raid 10. If you like i outline my hardware i used but keep in mind my build was much more expensive (it's a 8 drive rackmount nas)
I think I'll give the hardware outline a miss unless you'd like to be hunted down for extreme jealousy. And I'd love to have a rack mounted PC but I have nowhere to mount a rack, plus I'm trying to do this project on tight budget. I would love to splurge and have a hardware RAID 6 with 6+ drives, but reality likes to impose its own financial pressures
Seriously, I have been down this route before about RAID 5 and if you want something without headaches that just works you have to invest in a decent quality prebuild. I strongly recommend the latest Netgear ReadyNAS with RAID Expansion tech (XRAID iirc) or QNAP. Tranquil PCs still is super low noise, but runs Windows Home Server which doesnt use any kind of RAID and runs an OS of one of the disks. It's about as bad as you can get in that regard.
I agree with bindi. If you want something with a minimal amount of head aches go with qnap. In regards to the hardware raid. I picked up my Dell Perc5i (essentially a LSI card) with a BBU for around$125USD used from another forum. While i have a rackmount case i still don't have a rack . Specs. ASUS M2N68-AM SE2 mATX Compucase RA455A00 Rackmount Case (6x5.25) Kingwin KF-4000-BK Hot Swap Mobile Rack x2 Corsair VX550W AMD Athlon X2 7550 Addonics Internal Sata to CF Adapter Kingston 4GB CF Type I Dell Perc 5/i Raid Card w/ BBU (made by LSI) Intel Pro1000/MT Dual Port Nic PCI-X 8x 1TB WD Black Edt. 2x SAS to SATA Breakout Cables 2GB G.Skill DDR2 PC-6400 Start Drooling (it's around 3.5TB on Raid 10. I have a work log on another forum but i am not sure if i am allowed to post a link (I wouldn't want to take readership from this forum)
typo changed meaning Love you Bindi, but arg you've thrown a spanner in the works there. So its now between the Netgear RND4000 @ £369.98 and QNAP TS-419P @ £417.44. How ever I can't find out has fast the Netgear processor is to do a full comparison...
so everyone is saying prebuilt, but thiiiisss iiiiissss . . ..BIT TECH!!!!! Can't we do this ourselves? What's the dilemma?
Proably the Netgear. XRAID is great and it has a very strong online community making modules for it. Google the name and you'll find it.
We can, but I'm not so good at the linux thing. I currently know how to putty into my MBWE, kill transmission, see that its dead and start it again. And that's about it, as once I fought the box to install transmission I wasn't dicking about any further. But lcdguy I would like a link to that project log just to be nosey. Bindi I really wish it was just as simple as Netgear has XRAID therefore it's better. Quick summary of what I've learnt is: NETGEAR VS QNAP XRAID Vs Online RAID Capacity Expansion RAID5 XRAID communtiy Vs QPKG 256MB DDR Ram Vs 512MB DDRII RAM Unknown Processor Vs Marvell 6281 1.2GHz 3x USB Vs 4x USB + 2 eSATA Vs New project for Bit-tech reviewers. NAS round up starting with the QNAP TS-419P and the Netgear RND4000 focusing on the fact if the QNAP is worth ~£50 more then the Netgear.
freenas is pretty basic to install takes about 5 minutes. all of the serious configuration is done through a web interface so it's all drop down boxes and such. Another option (while not a true nas as it lacks a nic) is a drobo as they are pretty much idiot proof when it comes to managing drives. A co-worker of mine loved his until he built is 24 drive nas .
I bought one of Netgears Readynas duo's and stuck a 1tb F3 in to stream videos, music etc. Its more than capable with that and at £150, was a steal. The rest of my 300 went towards a nice N level access point and a 5 port switch running under a lan setup on a basic D-link router. Unless your doing more than backing up data and streaming services, go with a pre-built as there great.
As far as I can see the RND4000 comes with a 5-seat license for Retrospect... That's a nice bundle if you're to use it for backup. I would say that the two you're looking at are running a very close race. If you want something performing better you should probably look into a proper RAID-system with multiple NICs that do load balancing. But then you're looking at a serious investment Edit: Or maybe not so serious after all. Just saw reviews of the ReadyNAS NVX which rocks at a very low price. There's a holy review of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdFKAcfdk6U The ReadyNAS pro sporting 6 bays is sweeeeet.. but "costly" at around 80-100% above your budget in 1st post http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez2TAk45wgw
Well for my NAS i just bought a Bare bone server with NO OS but it does have a hardware raid built in to the MB. THIS is close to what i bought but my came with the E5200 which is only 2.2 GHz but it still works well. I put an extra 2 GB of ram in it so it has 4GB of Ram I use it for a File/Game Server ( dont ask on the game its only leagel here because Iraq has no DRM) Inspite of running a file/game server while playing the game at the same time it uses very little processor but almost maxes out the 4gb of ram. For OS i got lucky I have a copy of Server 2k3 which is a bear to get set up the first time. It was a little pricey but it does the job well. Just my 2 C.
I would agree about the headaches + time consumed on the build when you might have other things you';ve got to do with your spare time. I wanted something that I could trust my data with so I decided against a DIY option and went for prebuild Thecus N3200 which cost in the region ~£305 I think + hard disc drive costs. I run this in RAID5 using 3 x 5400rpm drives and I get a write speed from my i7 PC of about 25MB/s and read speed of about 65MB/s over GB Ethernet. Not sure how that compares with other devices/DIY builds. The unit was setup and ready to go within a day but you do miss out on the DIY build fun I suppose.
That looks like a nice NAS srmans but with the fatal flaw of only having 3 bays. I really want a 4 (preferably more, but then its DIY in an mATX case) so I have bitten the bullet and ordered myself the QNAP TS-419p from QNAP.co.uk and 4 1.5tb Samsung F2 (£69.99 bargain) from ebuyer.
