I need a NAS Budget: Around £500 as a guideline. Main uses of intended build: Serving files, pulling down torrents and other files. Parts required: CFI-A7879 £92.83 4 x 2TB Samsung HD204UI/Z4 £70.48 (£281.91) Zotac IONITX-G-E £101.44 Lycom Internal Motherboard header £3.00 2GB USB 2.0 Memory Stick £4.82 1GB DDR2 PC2-5300 £16.07 Total: £500.07 Storage requirements: I want this to last a few years. Thinking 6Tb. Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): An internal USB header will be required so I can use a USB stick for the FreeNAS install. Extra information about desired system: I want this as quiet as possible. Will an Atom be enough for software RAID5 parity? I considered a hardware solution, but it's a bit outwith my budget range. Obviously I'm working within the constraints of a gigabit ethernet link, so performance isn't too much of an issue as long as the system doesn't completely grind to a halt during IO. What's the general concensus of software RAID, is it generally robust? I'd hate to have the array degrade and not be able to recover it. How robust are OS installs on a USB stick? I've had experience with an OS install on Compactflash before, and the media died after 6 months 24/7 usage. Any other suggestions or observations are much appreciated
