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Things I learned the hard way tonight...

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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.
 
I studied how to prevent such a "cable mistaken mess". But i only had 2 samples to check out and so far i can truly recommend either to use Seasonic or Corsair. Because they both could be separated from each others the easy way, just have to be aware of it.

In order to get additional security i can recommend to use a cable tie. Seasonic may have some of them included, else simply have to make some own ties and attach them to every single cable... issue solved! Didnt know that it could become such a mess but im thankful that i was able to notice that risk through that forum and i will now take action in order to nullify the risk. So i think, its not required to plug in all of them, its good enough just to put a cable tie on every cable (or at least on the unused ones).


Seasonic is using sleeved black cables (everything sleeved) and colored cables near the shrink tubing, so all the small cables are colored (not black).

Corsair is using a few sleeved cables but not the SATA cables (they remain unsleeved). However,every single cable is fully black so there is no colors. That way it can easely be separated.

Besides, those 2 supplys might be expensive but they are one of the best supplys ever build... and are surely worth theyr price.

Generally i can only make a appeal to the manufacturers to:
1. Make sure cables will be unique design not to be mistaken with other manufacturers in the design (colors is good enough).
2. Put a bundle of cable ties inside every package, so the cables can be marked.

Issues would be solved pretty much.


You don't need a modular power supply to force a connector in the wrong way.

Well. What we did learn from it is that system builder duty is not for everyone. Not everyone should drive a car, and same is for system builder.

To me its pretty obvious that the cable always have to be attached in a way so it cant be disattached without pushing the clip. But i guess many people could still make it wrong. Im still not sure if the cable will fit at reverse direction because the pins may not fit (some are rounded up and others are not). Although i never checked out, ist just what my eyes was capable to detect.

Ultra-X V-series power supply (Wintech) manual instructing user to attach motherboard power connector backwards. Worse, the connector was undersized, and I had an old motherboard with a socket just oversized enough to allow that.
I guess it may not work on newer boards, but its pretty funny so see a wrong manufacturer manual.. thats a real mess!
 
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I've made that mistake before too, with someone else HDD! I lost my hdd, but theirs was revived by removing a burnt diode(the only damage). If the data is valuable enough, you could pay a lab to recover the data, but that will cost a lot.
 
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