1 Topic by Todd

  • Todd
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  • From: Outer Banks, NC
  • Registered: 2004-07-05
  • Posts: 118

Topic: Need Some Tips in Building a NAS Server for Home

I love the pool of knowledge that is contained in the craniums of the frequenters of this place called PunBB...  so here goes my question... with a few comments.

Does anyone have any good tips they can offer for someone building a NAS for their home?

Here are my thoughts so far... but I want to cover the bases that I haven't thought of.

I had been considering purchasing a NAS for sometime.  I was leaning toward the Buffalo TeraStation.  I changed my mind.

I don't just want storage... I want some redundancy too.  So I am thinking of mimicking the TeraStation default setup of Raid 5.  Since hard drives in the 250 - 300gb range are so inexpensive... I'll probably stay in that range.

I want the machine to be as quiet as possible.

So I have considered going with a antec 180p and putting in some noise dampening foam where I can.

However, I have also thought it would be nice to have some hot-swappable drives so I didn't need to turn the thing off.  This is an area I have almost no experience in.  I'm used to seeing hot-swappable stuff in servers... I have yet to see any in a home based pc.... although I'm sure there out there... I just haven't seen any.

The software I want to go with is FreeNAS found at http://www.freenas.org/

At the same time I build my NAS server I am also going to redo my home network and make it wired only for security and speed reasons and I will shoot for Gigabit speeds.

Anyway... any tips anyone can offer is greatly appreciated.  What am I missing and what advice might you give on this?

Thanks in advance.

If its cheaper to run Windows than it is to run Linux, how come Microsoft has all the money?

Todd's Website

  • CodeXP
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  • Registered: 2004-07-07
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Re: Need Some Tips in Building a NAS Server for Home

While I can't really give you any good advice in building this particular server, what I do know is that SATA drives are actually hot-swappable. Of course, you could also take a look at a SCSI RAID setup, although it will be more expensive and made a whole lot more noise.

CodeXP's Website

3 Reply by Todd

  • Todd
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  • From: Outer Banks, NC
  • Registered: 2004-07-05
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Re: Need Some Tips in Building a NAS Server for Home

I am planning on using sata drives.  I don't think I will use SCSI.  Quiet is a big priority and I don't think SCSI is a necessity on this.

If its cheaper to run Windows than it is to run Linux, how come Microsoft has all the money?

Todd's Website

4 Reply by Bodram (edited by Bodram 2006-12-04 15:15)

  • Registered: 2006-11-20
  • Posts: 14

Re: Need Some Tips in Building a NAS Server for Home

Hmm portable is not realy in there is it ? Last update I did to my home server was making the data more portable ... I was stuck with one Portable 250GB Disk over usb, I have over 1.6 TB of data ... dho ...

So I got my self some SATA Mobile Racks and a External EZ-Bay Portable 4-Sata Drive MultiLane Enclosure

Now I have a 1TB large portable storage over SATA II and +-2TB (raid 5) and 1TB (no raid) of storage in the server, the extra TB also is portable ... I mainly use the drives that are not in raid to swap data around, the drives are hot swapable and fit in to the External storage unit ...

Next step will be updating my storage on the server it self wink

5 Reply by Todd

  • Todd
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  • From: Outer Banks, NC
  • Registered: 2004-07-05
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Re: Need Some Tips in Building a NAS Server for Home

I like that enclosure a bunch. I also like the mobile racks.  It would be great to find a case that small that already has the necessities in it... like a mb, video card, nic, etc... I really want the box to be self-contained, quiet, and reliable.  I will also support the NAS with a high quality Battery Backup.

I'm putting those mobile racks on my short list.  Thanks for the suggestion!

If its cheaper to run Windows than it is to run Linux, how come Microsoft has all the money?

Todd's Website