Thin client as NAS?

M

mannuel

Contributor
Hi dear friends I May sound stupid but i think it is genuine question

okay lets begin in this forum or many other forum so many persons talk about the NAS but i want to ask it diffrently is it possible for us to convert thin client to a NAS that means thin client will replace the CPU of NAS but HDD will be located outside so is it possible

My main needs would be torrent download and media streaming
 
Let me ask you this - Why do you want thin client to be used as NAS ? If you want torrent downloading there are several other options.
 
Thin client needs a server to operate, and cannot do such things on its own. you will end up wasting more current instead of saving it since you will need the server plus client to be on simultaneously for a mundane task which can be done easily by server alone or some other device like nas.

Thin clients do not have any internal hdd or cpu. It only has enough ability to share whats running on the main pc.
 
#mannuel: May be you can use a slim(thin) CPU like this. Not sure whether this can handle streaming or not. Another solution is to buy a second hand laptop with damaged display. you can use the rest of it..
 
Would suggest to go for a SNB Pentium solution, should work for media streaming with transcoding. Else, IMO, even the thin client will do for NAS.
 
Why do you need a thin client when a similar priced low end PC can do much better ? And external storage connected to thin client beats the purpose of fast storage like internal hdd. So better get a low end machine like a sempron with 4 or 6 sata port mobo (m4A78tmle @ <3k with total cost of <6k without hdds). Load any free NAS Oses like openfiler/freenas which supports software raid which is as good as h/w ones and you can use added advantages like iSCSI to use the network storage like the internal ones with the peace of mind of a NAS. they supports external usb storage as well.
 
My main problem will be the sound i really hate the fan noise from my system and for 24 hr device i really don't opt huge power hungry pc and cpu
 
^ get an intel atom based board. almost no fan noise. on idle (like downloading torrents) it will consume about 8-10w only.
 
But atom based mobos has limited SATA ports. Im using an Asus M4A78T ML-E (6 sata) with a sempron LE 145 (45w) and thermalright ultra extreme cooler fanless as my home iSCSI NAS (With two extra Gigbit LAN NICs) and a thumbdrive as bootdrive. The system has only one fan which is for cooling the hdds ( 4x hdds), which is a silent 35cfm 120mm front fan. The system is virtually total silent.

Get any tower coolers and use fanless. Even then, the CPU temps wont go beyond 35~36c on loading any NAS OSes/firmware.
 
6pack said:
^ get an intel atom based board. almost no fan noise. on idle (like downloading torrents) it will consume about 8-10w only.
Click to expand...

You'll probably have to go for a DC-DC Power Supply to achieve that power consumption levels, even then I doubt it will be that low. With a normal ATX PSU, it will be about 25-30w, maybe more.
 
Well, there was a Gigabyte atom board with 4 SATA 3Gbps ports. Also, you could add port multipliers to increase the number of SATA ports as, IMO, no HDD will be able to even saturate the 1,5Gbps links. ICH9 had SATA multiplier support so its quite possible the NM10 too has it.
 
cou
vivek.krishnan said:
Well, there was a Gigabyte atom board with 4 SATA 3Gbps ports. Also, you could add port multipliers to increase the number of SATA ports as, IMO, no HDD will be able to even saturate the 1,5Gbps links. ICH9 had SATA multiplier support so its quite possible the NM10 too has it.
Click to expand...

so could u specify the mobos that fit ur description and if possible their price in indian market

for your information i have searched over indian site but i can't see a good Intel atom based mobo

i have with me intel pentium D and intel D102 mother board which is micro ATX i think so if use this wat will be power consumption and noise
 
Pentium D consumes lotta power and heats up quick. Not at all recommended for silent NAS boxes. get atom/sempron. I vote for semprons, as the options for mobo is simply great and cheaper too. A 4k sempron combo of cpu+mobo is lot better than an atom combo of 3.5k. Even plays 1080p videos. And if needed it oc well too, to around 3.6~3.7ghz with ease.
 
mannuel said:
cou

so could u specify the mobos that fit ur description and if possible their price in indian market

for your information i have searched over indian site but i can't see a good Intel atom based mobo

i have with me intel pentium D and intel D102 mother board which is micro ATX i think so if use this wat will be power consumption and noise
Click to expand...

http://www.gigabyte.in/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3549

http://www.gigabyte.in/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3343

http://www.gigabyte.in/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3550

These have 4 SATA ports, 2 are provided by the NM10 chipset and the remaining two by the Gigabyte chip.

I cannot find information on port multiplier support, though, for the Intel NM10 chipset.

However, the other 2 SATA ports appear to be a JMicron JMB363, which has port multiplier support.

http://www.jmicron.com/JMB363.html

However, it wont be as fast as the NM10, but would good for data storage.

OK, did some more digging around on the WWW, and found that the NM10 is based on the ICH7 chipset from Intel. So no PMP support surely.
 
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