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Storage Thinking about a NAS

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by silk186, 5 Nov 2018.

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  1. silk186

    silk186 Derp

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    I currently have my mITX parts in a fat old Cooler Master Enforcer that is sitting beside me. I would like to move these parts into something like a Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ITX but it won't support my 3x3TB drives. I'm hoping to pick up a larger drive on black Friday 6-10tb if I can find a good deal. If not I will continue trying to get one or two WD recertified 6-8tb drives.

    This will serve me for the time being, but I will still need more storage before long, so I'm thinking about a NAS. Something that supports 4 drives and can preferably run Transmission. I will serve files to a desktop, MacBook Pro and something that will connect to my TV so I don't need to keep my desktop beside it.

    Will this require a custom build or can I buy something prebuilt for a reasonable price either here or on ebay? I did look around on ebay a bit and noticed that most say they are limited to drives or a certain capacity. I don't understand how/why as NAS would have this type of limitation. Is this normal?

    What would I need to spend to get what I'm looking for? I don't need it to encode or run a game server, just share video, photo and music file and support transmission. I've heard a lot about pfSense so it would be nice to run that as well but I don't really know much about it. Does it need to have a NIC card or do I just put it between the modem and my wireless router?
     
    silk186, 5 Nov 2018
    #1
  2. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    I would, and did, get an HP Microserver. Granted, the days when you could pick one up brand-new for under a ton with a 250GB boot drive are gone, but they're still pretty cheap. There are four drive bays, but you'll obviously need one for a boot drive. You can move the boot drive to the fifth SATA port on the N40L and N54L, giving you four drive bays for storage, but I think that's not an option any more 'cos the 5.25" bay on the modern ones has been swapped out for a low-profile optical drive.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 5 Nov 2018
    #2
  3. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    You'll be lucky to get a stock gen 8 under £250 these days, even gen 7s are silly money on ebay but they are perfect as a NAS/home server
     
    David, 5 Nov 2018
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  4. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    I know that, with forums like this in particular, there will be a heavy leaning towards homebrew.

    But I'd encourage you to look at the Synology line. I have a little ds212 myself, and it serves video to various devices without a second thought. It's easily one of my favourite NAS manufacturers.

    Plus, the physical footprint is tiny. Which is nice.
     
    liratheal, 5 Nov 2018
    #4
  5. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    If you like synology, you can still have it with a homebrew NAS - just run XPEnology.
     
    David, 6 Nov 2018
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  6. silk186

    silk186 Derp

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    The Synology are closer to double the price of the Gen8 HP Microservers.

    Even new they are similar to the price of the Synology being sold on ebay.
    HPE ProLiant Gen10 873830-421 Entry Opteron X3216 1.6GHz 8GB RAM MicroServer £ 352
     
    Last edited: 6 Nov 2018
    silk186, 6 Nov 2018
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  7. Zoon

    Zoon Hunting Wabbits since the 80s

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    Honestly the micro servers are cool but they are also kinda noisy.

    I can’t help but think you should consider one of those little passive Celeron or AMD APU motherboards and a small case.

    I’m probably going to sell mine and go down this route tbh.
     
    Zoon, 6 Nov 2018
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  8. meandmymouth

    meandmymouth Multimodder

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    meandmymouth, 6 Nov 2018
    #8
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  9. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Which generation do you have? My N54L is whisper-quiet, even with that tiny fan in the power supply.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 6 Nov 2018
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  10. Anfield

    Anfield Multimodder

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    Used Xeons like the E3 1220L V3 are basically free on the bay of flea although finding a mobo can be a bit of a challenge... but much more flexibility by going the homebrew route.
     
    Anfield, 6 Nov 2018
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  11. Fingers66

    Fingers66 Kiwi in London

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    A four bay Synology is under £300 new without drives (DS418j) and are what I would recommend if you just want to set and forget, I seem to recall that there is a Transmission plugin as well.
     
    Fingers66, 6 Nov 2018
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  12. Zoon

    Zoon Hunting Wabbits since the 80s

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    Gen8. It has a persistent whine. I wouldn’t say it was audible over a TV. But there are definitely lower power and quieter ways of getting the transcoding power my i3 3220T has simply because it’s quite old now really.
     
    Zoon, 6 Nov 2018
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  13. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Another annoying downgrade from the N54L, then: mine's inaudible despite being in a bedroom. You have to get your ear right next to it to hear the fan.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 6 Nov 2018
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  14. Zoon

    Zoon Hunting Wabbits since the 80s

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    Given my use for it is primarily Plex I’m thinking one of the passive cooled celerons supporting quicksync with a quiet PSU is probably plenty for me. Might trade in my gen8 against a custom build.
     
    Zoon, 6 Nov 2018
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  15. IanW

    IanW Grumpy Old Git

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    IanW, 6 Nov 2018
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  16. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    I've had two and neither have had coil whine. The only downside to the gen8, in my opinion, is the absolute age it takes to reboot, whereas the Gen7s ran like a normal PC
     
    Last edited: 6 Nov 2018
    David, 6 Nov 2018
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  17. MLyons

    MLyons 70% Dev, 30% Doge. DevDoge. Software Dev @ Corsair Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    MLyons, 6 Nov 2018
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  18. IanW

    IanW Grumpy Old Git

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    IanW, 6 Nov 2018
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  19. Zoon

    Zoon Hunting Wabbits since the 80s

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    Not coil whine mate just the fan. It sounds like a whine. Definitely noticeable.
     
    Zoon, 6 Nov 2018
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  20. silk186

    silk186 Derp

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    Given the expense of these options, it will have to wait until after I submit my dissertation and find full-time work. Hopefully, within a few months.
     
    silk186, 6 Nov 2018
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