Budget 0-20k Need Help In Making a system for a NAS (home)

S

srikanthuk

Disciple
Hi everyone,

Well my system was down for sometime due to a motherboard issue.

At that time all my personal data on my main system was not accessible. The data i could live without.

The issue though was all my movies and shows were on the hard drive.

I could have purchased a HDD enclosure but suddenly hit me why not use a NAS to access the data from anywhere (Laptop, Desktop, Android Devices, Future system planned for the TV when i get the TV). I already have a Wifi setup running at home (sadly 150Mbps one)

I have 4 hard drives right now (not including the SSD in my main system) and found out all the 4 bay NAS are really expensive.

So i read that people could use an old system and get it running as a NAS. I went to the shop nearby to see if there are any old system and the guy told me he has an old P4 and a motherboard supporting it and well 2GB RAM. He could give me the whole thing at Rs 4600/-. The problem he didnt know which P4 processor it was. Now a NAS would be running 24/7 and i need something that takes minimum power also.

So long story short, what i need from you guys is an idea what i need to do to make a decent NAS system. It will be storing movie files and photos. Maybe some software installations as well (can steam files be stored on a NAS instead of locally on the desktop). My budget is really tight and it can be maximum 7k (i need proc + mobo + ram + cabinet + psu) - even a working second hand system that takes low power is required (electricity bill issues)

Also do i need to upgrade my Wifi to support 300Mbps (My desktop connects through a LAN connection)

Sorry for the long thread
 
srikanthuk said:
So i read that people could use an old system and get it running as a NAS. I went to the shop nearby to see if there are any old system and the guy told me he has an old P4 and a motherboard supporting it and well 2GB RAM. He could give me the whole thing at Rs 4600/-. The problem he didnt know which P4 processor it was. Now a NAS would be running 24/7 and i need something that takes minimum power also.
Click to expand...
Do NOT do that.
For a NAS, you need something that sips as little power as possible

The only option you have in a 7K budget is a RPi3 running a NAS distribution of your choice (e.g openmediavault) or ubuntu.
The biggest constraint on the RPi is the USB 2 ports (expect disk throughput of 30-35 MB/s) and the 100mbps LAN (transfer speed of 10/12 MB/s)
Alternatively, you can get a bananaPi with a Gbps LAN that should get your transfer speeds up to 30/35 MB/s on a gigabit LAN as well as on wireless AC 1800
Power consumption (excl HDDs) is a minuscule 1.5-2.5W
 
superczar said:
Do NOT do that.
For a NAS, you need something that sips as little power as possible

The only option you have in a 7K budget is a RPi3 running a NAS distribution of your choice (e.g openmediavault) or ubuntu.
The biggest constraint on the RPi is the USB 2 ports (expect disk throughput of 30-35 MB/s) and the 100mbps LAN (transfer speed of 10/12 MB/s)
Alternatively, you can get a bananaPi with a Gbps LAN that should get your transfer speeds up to 30/35 MB/s on a gigabit LAN as well as on wireless AC 1800
Power consumption (excl HDDs) is a minuscule 1.5-2.5W
Click to expand...

Hmm so a Pi with HDD enclosures and a USB Hub is what you suggest?
 
Guys how would an AMD 5350/5150 and matching motherboard be. I read somewhere it will idle at 25W. I know its more than the Pi. But it should be more flexible right?

had seen a combo on amazon for 7.5k-8.1k for mobo+proc+4GB Ram
 
First of all, what all is to be covered in 7K? What I propose will not cover all in 7K, maybe a bit more.

Buy this board from ebay - Mi NAS 25. It has 6 SATA ports, is a dual core atom, has gigabit LAN. Costs 4.35k shipped.

Next, buy 2GB/4GB of DDR3 1066 Mhz SODIMM. Should not cost more than 1K, get it used.

Cabinet - do whatever you want.

PSU - Choose your poison. You will need extenders as well since most PSUs come with 2 SATA cables only.

Install XPenology. Will take a pen drive as well. Or use OMV. Choose your weapon of choice!


Secondly, my home WiFi is also on 150 Mbps. Will upgrade it later this year maybe. Too lazy.
 
My take is that you don't actually require a nas , a media server would do just as well.
You can just do network share of your media drives and access them from whichever devices you have on the wifi or you can attach a large hdd containing all your media directly to your router if it has USB functionality
 
manishbharech said:
My take is that you don't actually require a nas , a media server would do just as well.
You can just do network share of your media drives and access them from whichever devices you have on the wifi or you can attach a large hdd containing all your media directly to your router if it has USB functionality
Click to expand...

Actually the media server function is just one of the functions i plan to implement in the system. Data backup being one of them.

Second thing is i have a desktop which does consume a lot of power. Would not want to keep it ON always. My router does not have a usb port
 
vivek.krishnan said:
First of all, what all is to be covered in 7K? What I propose will not cover all in 7K, maybe a bit more.

Buy this board from ebay - Mi NAS 25. It has 6 SATA ports, is a dual core atom, has gigabit LAN. Costs 4.35k shipped.

Next, buy 2GB/4GB of DDR3 1066 Mhz SODIMM. Should not cost more than 1K, get it used.

Cabinet - do whatever you want.

PSU - Choose your poison. You will need extenders as well since most PSUs come with 2 SATA cables only.

Install XPenology. Will take a pen drive as well. Or use OMV. Choose your weapon of choice!


Secondly, my home WiFi is also on 150 Mbps. Will upgrade it later this year maybe. Too lazy.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the suggestion. Couple of doubts.

The board you told me is perfect with that 6 SATA :)
I'm sure that processor is perfect while using as NAS but will it be suitable if i plan to increase the boxes functionality (i plan to learn how) like media streaming and maybe a ftp server. Just saw it is an ATOM D2500


Never mind did a small research and saw its plenty powerful :)

So off to search for the parts. Hope it comes out well.

One more thing a nice cabinet which can take in 4 Hard Drives and is not too heavy or big
 
Last edited:
srikanthuk said:
Thanks for the suggestion. Couple of doubts.

The board you told me is perfect with that 6 SATA :)
I'm sure that processor is perfect while using as NAS but will it be suitable if i plan to increase the boxes functionality (i plan to learn how) like media streaming and maybe a ftp server. Just saw it is an ATOM D2500


Never mind did a small research and saw its plenty powerful :)

So off to search for the parts. Hope it comes out well.

One more thing a nice cabinet which can take in 4 Hard Drives and is not too heavy or big
Click to expand...

For SOHO use it is more than enough. Just keep it ventilated. Maybe a heatsink on the marvel controller if needed.

Cabinet, put a WTB. Till then, run it without a cabby![DOUBLEPOST=1468550792][/DOUBLEPOST]Total cost - 4.5K + 1K + 2K (cheap cabby and PSU, new) + 300 (8GB pen drive) = ~8K

Now, softwares - OMV or XPenlogy.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
For SOHO use it is more than enough. Just keep it ventilated. Maybe a heatsink on the marvel controller if needed.

Cabinet, put a WTB. Till then, run it without a cabby![DOUBLEPOST=1468550792][/DOUBLEPOST]Total cost - 4.5K + 1K + 2K (cheap cabby and PSU, new) + 300 (8GB pen drive) = ~8K

Now, softwares - OMV or XPenlogy.
Click to expand...


Thanks a tonne man :)
 
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