- Joined
- Dec 10, 2011
- Location
- Cádiz (Spain)
I know that a custom NAS is cheaper but it need lot of knowledge on how to build, its not the stuff everyone can build. Apart from that, the main cost of a 2 slot NAS is the HDD and not the system. HDD was 500$, thats almost twice the system cost. In term i use 4 HDD for 200$ each, its 800 $ and the cost for the system is still not higher than that.
The true purpose of building a custom NAS is that there will be more power for less the price (prehaps 20% lower price). But as i said already, it need knowledge and its usualy much bigger. Of course, i dont need to tell those stuff to a Archlinux user, they know how to fix stuff and build, but most users would get completly lost using such a system and such a custom NAS. Its for experts. That stuff is simply not user friendly and thats the weak spot.
I dont say that im unable to build it, prehaps i can get it to work but i had so much of issues to deal with (old PCs died, building huge systems the first time ever), and building everything new that i simply didnt had the nerves even to create a custom NAS. I was happy i had a quick and easy solution, but in future im almost sure i will try to build some sort of custom NAS with a Archlinux, but that will be challenging for someone using it the first time.
I mean, the basics of a NAS isnt difficult. Every Windows PC attached to a network can basically be used as a NAS (network attached storage) by simply using that machine to backup data from A to B and reverse order. But to have a very good solution running with full server functionality is another story, its another difficulty and i dont even know what to use in order to get all the functionalitys a usual NAS got. They got special firmware attached management software (which is continuously advancing, can be updated), apparently its the main reason that they are that expensive. Without doubt there should be comparable programs with same functionality on Linux, but its just a good pool of knowledge required, i got exactly none what that matter is concerned. At the beginning can be lot of work.
Final rule, the best hardware is useless when software is inferior... so it comes always down to the software and thats the weak spot, i got no knowledge what to use and how to use.
You don't need to be a UNIX guru to build a NAS.
You can use, for example, FreeNAS. And it'll be a ton times better than anything Synology or QNAS. At least, for me. Of course if you were a Solaris guru or a RHEL guru you could build something way better than FreeNAS in little time, but FreeNAS does the job.
Plus, the best way to understand how Linux works and, basically, how anything works is to experiment with it. Download Oracle's VirtualBox, install CentOS there, or Arch Linux, whatever you want, and start messing with it. Arch has an amazing wiki for anything you might need, and also has a very friendly forum, though, sometimes, questions are left unanswered there.