Can i use my old cpu/mobo/ram to build a NAS? Should I build a NAS?

M

mk76

Adept
Noob Alert - First time getting into NAS discussion.

Due to my recent upgrade to skylake, I have my old cpu/mobo/ram free. They are working perfectly. Can I use them to build a NAS ?

: The hardware I have
  • Gigabyte GA-880Gm-USB3 (Micro ATX)
  • PhenomII X4 955 BE
  • 4x4GB Corsair RAM
  • Asus N66U
: Connectivity
  • Wifi Connectivity to all devices at home (including Mobiles, Laptop and the skylake build)
  • Wifi throughput is around 7MBps
  • NAS will be wired connected to N66U
: Intent
  • Share media to all devices at home
  • Future use - to extend sharing on web
  • other services - 24x7 downloader, http server, etc as possible
  • Reuse existing core components
: Questions
  • Can I use these components to build a NAS ?
  • How much will be the power consumption ? Will it be too high compare to dedicated NAS
  • Is 7MBps too less to setup a NAS?
  • If NAS, what other components will I need ? Budget (As economical as possible to get a decent/durable build)
  • If not NAS, can these components be put to some other use?
 
I am using a Mini-ITX board (Gigabyte J1800N D2H) for thus purpose.
http://www.amazon.in/Gigabyte-GA-J1...?ie=UTF8&qid=1471859369&sr=8-2&keywords=j1900

Runs smoothly with two 4 TB WD Red NAS drives.I am using WIndows 10 though and not a dedicated NAS OS as I connect via Windows Remote Connection to this PC.

Keep in mind these BayTrail-D boards have only 2 SATA ports though.

As vyral_143 said 955 BE is a 125W TDP CPU and it would eat up a lot of power as low power states are still pretty power hungry in AMD CPUs.
 
If you wanna test out making a NAS, then this is a good way to start. For long term usage, you will have power and heating issues.

Once you are ok with the idea and feel it has merit and serves your need, pick up a athlon if you wanna reuse the mobo. Else, I would recommend a Atom board (if no transcodeing) else an i3/i5.

If you are from Mumbai, and need help, let me know.
 
Thanks @vivek.krishnan Will surely ask, if I need any help. Btw I'm from Delhi.
@vyral_143 @Marcus Fenix : Got your point on power issues

At the moment, I have a rpi3 (ubuntu) running 24x7. It has a WD 320GB exposed as samba share. Power consumption is one multi-port(2A each) usb adapter driving RPI + Y cable for hdd.
The throughput is limited by RPI's usb port and wifi limit of 7MBps. I feel, that would remain to be the case even with NAS, since my router is at a central location and all devices are connected via wifi.
 
OK, first we need to get some misconceptions out of the way. The RPI3 and the ones before, have the ethernet on the usb bus. Which means that the bandwidth is shared between USB and Ethernet and since the link is half duplex (USB2.0 devices), means even lower speeds.

I had a GoFlex Home, which was slower than the RPI, yet I could get 80 MBps on LAN. On WiFi, I could get max 10 MBps since my WiFi was on a 10/100 line, while the GFH was on GbE line to my computer.

Ask @chetansha for a NAS unit, he sells them. You will be much satisfied. Run ArchLinux..
 
mk76 said:
Thanks @vivek.krishnan Will surely ask, if I need any help. Btw I'm from Delhi.
@vyral_143 @Marcus Fenix : Got your point on power issues

At the moment, I have a rpi3 (ubuntu) running 24x7. It has a WD 320GB exposed as samba share. Power consumption is one multi-port(2A each) usb adapter driving RPI + Y cable for hdd.
The throughput is limited by RPI's usb port and wifi limit of 7MBps. I feel, that would remain to be the case even with NAS, since my router is at a central location and all devices are connected via wifi.
Click to expand...
I am using a Netgear WNDR4300 and my throughput while copying data from my Download rig (connected via Gigabit LAN to the router) to a laptop which is connected over 5 GHz wifi using 3x3 MIMO wifi card(which tops out at 450 Mbps) is around 27 MBps

In you case though if you connect the download rig to the router over wifi you will most probably be using a USB wifi adapter which will kill your transfer rates to the USB protocol(might turn out to be lower than the RPi 3 and large file copies might lead to random wifi disconnections)

Anyways if you are setting up a NAS box please try the LAN route instead of wifi as this will help in feeding data to multiple devices.
 
Is anyone over here using a NAS for capturing security camera feeds.
I was thinking of using a PC for the same but the cameras these days can directly write to a NFS shared drive.
So instead of running a PC, I was thinking of running Open WRT on a Router and use that to create a NFS shared drive on an external drive connected to the Router.
All cameras will be connected to a PoE switch and that will be connected directly to my Router, so Gigabit connections all around.
To record from a camera at 1080p requires around 7-8Mbps bandwidth and that was the reason I have to go for a wired setup if I want to record from 8-10 cameras, and this number might increase in the future.

The reason I am asking this is that I too have the same rig lying unused and also have an older ATOM board lying around somewhere.

The questions arise that will the hard-disk be able to handle getting written on by 8-10 cameras considering it is connected via USB. I am thinking USB 3 should be able to handle the bandwidth but not sure.

What do you guys think should be a better solution? I would like a minimum footprint because all these devices need to be working on an inverter in case of a power cut.

P.S. - I posted in this thread instead of opening a new one because our requirements are eerily similar and I hope it is not an issue.
 
rdst_1 said:
Is anyone over here using a NAS for capturing security camera feeds.
I was thinking of using a PC for the same but the cameras these days can directly write to a NFS shared drive.
So instead of running a PC, I was thinking of running Open WRT on a Router and use that to create a NFS shared drive on an external drive connected to the Router.
All cameras will be connected to a PoE switch and that will be connected directly to my Router, so Gigabit connections all around.
To record from a camera at 1080p requires around 7-8Mbps bandwidth and that was the reason I have to go for a wired setup if I want to record from 8-10 cameras, and this number might increase in the future.

The reason I am asking this is that I too have the same rig lying unused and also have an older ATOM board lying around somewhere.

The questions arise that will the hard-disk be able to handle getting written on by 8-10 cameras considering it is connected via USB. I am thinking USB 3 should be able to handle the bandwidth but not sure.

What do you guys think should be a better solution? I would like a minimum footprint because all these devices need to be working on an inverter in case of a power cut.

P.S. - I posted in this thread instead of opening a new one because our requirements are eerily similar and I hope it is not an issue.
Click to expand...
Routers with USB 2.0 ports will not be very good for this purpose as they will starve at that bitrate from 8-10 cameras as well as putting immense load on the puny router CPU which might hamper the core functionality of the router.

I guess setting up a NAS using the ATOM board(1 Gbps LAN is recommended which might not be in an old ATOM board) will be a better option for you

More important would be the Hard drives you select as they will be writing data almost continuously)
 
Marcus Fenix said:
Routers with USB 2.0 ports will not be very good for this purpose as they will starve at that bitrate from 8-10 cameras as well as putting immense load on the puny router CPU which might hamper the core functionality of the router.

I guess setting up a NAS using the ATOM board(1 Gbps LAN is recommended which might not be in an old ATOM board) will be a better option for you

More important would be the Hard drives you select as they will be writing data almost continuously)
Click to expand...
I will be buying a Netgear R7000 or similar high end router, because I need one irrespective of whether I use a PC as a recording device or not.

These mostly come with at least one USB 3 port. So my question is whether one USB drive will be able to handle such a writing load. Asking because I was thinking of writing on 2 separate hard drives to share the load, but would need a router with 2 USB 3 ports.
Is it possible to find a external housing which connects directly to Ethernet or use a powered USB 3 hub to attach 2 drives to one port.
 
rdst_1 said:
Is anyone over here using a NAS for capturing security camera feeds.
I was thinking of using a PC for the same but the cameras these days can directly write to a NFS shared drive.
So instead of running a PC, I was thinking of running Open WRT on a Router and use that to create a NFS shared drive on an external drive connected to the Router.
All cameras will be connected to a PoE switch and that will be connected directly to my Router, so Gigabit connections all around.
To record from a camera at 1080p requires around 7-8Mbps bandwidth and that was the reason I have to go for a wired setup if I want to record from 8-10 cameras, and this number might increase in the future.

The reason I am asking this is that I too have the same rig lying unused and also have an older ATOM board lying around somewhere.

The questions arise that will the hard-disk be able to handle getting written on by 8-10 cameras considering it is connected via USB. I am thinking USB 3 should be able to handle the bandwidth but not sure.

What do you guys think should be a better solution? I would like a minimum footprint because all these devices need to be working on an inverter in case of a power cut.

P.S. - I posted in this thread instead of opening a new one because our requirements are eerily similar and I hope it is not an issue.
Click to expand...

I would not recommend a standard NAS for this, you should install a NVR package or NVR itself, else how are you going to set alarms and all? And when you need to lookup older camera feeds, or search for something? Synology has something like this.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
I would not recommend a standard NAS for this, you should install a NVR package or NVR itself, else how are you going to set alarms and all? And when you need to lookup older camera feeds, or search for something? Synology has something like this.
Click to expand...
These days there are cameras available that can write directly to NFS shared drives. No need for a middle interface - whether a physical NVR or a NVR software.
You only need to set them up the first time just like you would for a normal security camera and then they write directly to the drives without the need of an always running middle device.

Here's a link to a review of a camera with such capabilities - http://www.networkcameracritic.com/?p=1729
 
rdst_1 said:
These days there are cameras available that can write directly to NFS shared drives. No need for a middle interface - whether a physical NVR or a NVR software.
You only need to set them up the first time just like you would for a normal security camera and then they write directly to the drives without the need of an always running middle device.

Here's a link to a review of a camera with such capabilities - http://www.networkcameracritic.com/?p=1729
Click to expand...

I know that the cameras can write to NFS drives, we have them as well. What if a camera has gone offline? Who will tell you about it? You need to use alerts.

Secondly, AFAIK, if you want to see older footage? Then? You would need to goto each camera IP right?
 
vivek.krishnan said:
I know that the cameras can write to NFS drives, we have them as well. What if a camera has gone offline? Who will tell you about it? You need to use alerts.

Secondly, AFAIK, if you want to see older footage? Then? You would need to goto each camera IP right?
Click to expand...
I guess you are right on both accounts.
So what would be better, a physical NVR or a surveillance software on a PC.
If an older Atom can handle the recording then that seems to be the best choice for me.
 
rdst_1 said:
I guess you are right on both accounts.
So what would be better, a physical NVR or a surveillance software on a PC.
If an older Atom can handle the recording then that seems to be the best choice for me.
Click to expand...

Upto you. I would keep an NVR, since it can also connect to a TV and show live video.
 
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