Just another NAS discussion thread

So I've been chatting with some members about building an HTPC with all my media (Movie, Music, Photos, etc...) and it was suggested to look into a NAS system instead. I am absolutely new to Servers and Raid but I'm not afraid to learn. This thread will be used to discuss possibilities for this build. I wish to build my own NAS from new and already owned parts instead of purchasing a pre-build system for future expansion and upgrades. So, without further adieu.

Here are the list of parts I currently have on hand (and not in use). Of these which would serve best for a stand alone, always on NAS Server?

MB's
ASUS M4A88T-M Socket AM3

CPU's
Sempron 145
Phenom II X4 955

Cooler's
Multiple Stock coolers
Zalman CNPS 9700LED
Thermaltake Max Orb

HDD
Multiple 2.5" laptop drives - For OS only

GPU's
Sapphire HD6750 1GB
Sapphire Vapor-X HD5770 1G - minus fan
PowerColor HD7850 2G

Case
I have several older ATX cases that I will mod as needed.

Fans
I have several 120's lying around but will grab more if needed.

Things I need to buy.

Ram
Size and speed TBD - preferably ECC

HDD's
Currently looking at 3x3TB WD reds (RAID5) - feel free to suggest other options. I may drop to 3x2TB if price becomes a factor and add another at a later date.

PSU
Size TBD - Preferably Gold rated or better

Raid Card
I would prefer a card over software for future upgrades/replacements


I currently don't have a budget in mind however I would like to keep the price at a reasonable level (hence using existing inventory). I think that covers components. As I said I am new to this so my research continues. I'm currently looking into ZFS systems.

Let the discussion begin!

If you go ZFS the recommended amount of memory is 8gb + each tb of hdd space. Which can balloon pretty quickly. I generally no longer recommend raid5 because of the time to rebuild on larger drives takes quite some time and leaves you hoping that the drive rebuilds before another may die during that process (which is stressful). I generally recommend raid6 instead for that reason.

If I go with a raid 6 I'll likely need to start with 4x 2tb just for start-up cost.

I recently built something similar. I decided to use Amahi as my Linux skills are lacking and I was looking for something that was a little more user friendly. Amahi has greyhole baked in which is not quite a raid setup but it has worked well for me. I like it mainly because I have been able to mix drive sizes and I am able to pull a drive and throw it into my regular desktop and read from it.

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As for the hardware, you will probably not need a gpu after initial setup, and I would recommend at least a dual core processor based off of the usage I see on my system.

I went with a commercial QNAP unit...to keep the desk size as small as possible.

The device has a beefy processor, and 4 network ports. I run it in RAID 10. Between this and the 4 network ports, I get over 200 MByte/sec of read & write speed.

Lochekey said:

I recently built something similar. I decided to use Amahi as my Linux skills are lacking and I was looking for something that was a little more user friendly. Amahi has greyhole baked in which is not quite a raid setup but it has worked well for me. I like it mainly because I have been able to mix drive sizes and I am able to pull a drive and throw it into my regular desktop and read from it.

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As for the hardware, you will probably not need a gpu after initial setup, and I would recommend at least a dual core processor based off of the usage I see on my system.

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100% agreed on the decent dual core cpu. I have a sempron 145 in my omv box and trying to transcode with plex kills it. It's part of the reason I'm moving mine to be a virtualize freenas box with a couple xeon cpus I can allocate to it and as much ram as I want to give it.

I believe I do have the option of shutting cores off on the PII 955 with that motherboard.

Oh speaking of that, the board does in fact work fine. The issues I had with it before replacing it was due to debris in the first ram slot. Cleaned it all out and everything is fine. There are 6 Sata plugs. Hopefully that's enough.

I'm wondering why you would like to turn off cores at all? Aren't 4x 2ghz core better than 2x 4ghz? Power consumption and heat are a fair concern but wouldn't you gain more from turning down the clock a bit and retaining all your cores?

I didn't check the specs on your board but if onboard graphics are a possibility then you won't need a discreet card (unless you want one). I run mine from TeamViewer with no monitor just fine. Also several *nix options have Web interfaces if that floats your boat. I can't really give much info there as the only one that I've looked at for more than a few minutes isn't officially supported anymore (webmin). If you are familiar with file/directory structure CLI is pretty straight forward in the Linux world - I have no idea for Windows though. For myself and my particular skill/knowledge level I like the GUI as a crutch.

I would only shut cores down if they wouldn't be used for power savings. Heat won't be an issue. I don't plan any OC and will even under volt if the chip will allow it.

Team viewer is an excellent option. I'll likely use a discreet card until it up and running then use something like team viewer and pull the card.

If you end up going the freenas/linux route they mostly all use a web administration page so that makes it quite easy to maintain (no teamviewer support for linux as far as I know).

I can confirm Teamviewr for Ubuntu works with no hiccups. you have to install from the teamview website though as I do not believe it is listed in the repos. Its been awhile but I muddled through so I think it is an attainable goal if that is the direction you want to go There was just a couple of hoops to jump through about which version would be accepted by your machine, but those are known issues with the workaround listed on the teamviewer site. Works flawlessly afterwords

TeamViewer works great for Ubunto. If you make an account with them, it will remember your PC names so you don't have to type the long number.

I had to stick a dongle in my HDMI port to get the resolution I wanted for a headless setup.

Good to know, I had only used it for Mac and windows!

2 things about Teamviewer:

1) I do have troubles with audio passthrough from Linux to Windows with Teamviewer. Its not a deal breaker for my useage and tech support seemed surprised that anyone would want it: they said something to the affect of " we will consider adding that thanks for the suggestion"

2)Kind of funny since we were just talking about Teamviewer but it appears it may be vulnerable. Grain of salt and all that.

Have you got some software picked out for organization/playback? Plex and Xbmc are teh frontrunners from what I can tell for keeping stuff organized but google will tell you that quickly enough. I can tell you that Kodi (xbmc) for android is pretty full featured and doesnt cost a thing (Plex does) so if Phone/Tablets are a part of the consideration then I would look at those two as well.

You have to turn off the web access for teamviewer. If you have it turned on, you can log onto any item that's in your team viewer list from anywhere.

At first I was like "this is pretty cool". Then I was like "this is REALLY dangerous" and turned off the feature.

Good morning everyone. It's been a very busy weekend here. Sadly I didn't get much time to research this. As far as OS and playback software I've read just a little about Plex. This is another area that I'll need to research. I've tried using Linux before and struggled more than I cared to. I would prefer to use something else to keep things simple. I need to keep the accessing apps all very simple, whether Plex, Kodi or other.

The plan to access the NAS from our dumb TV's was to use something like ChromeCast. Access from our Google devices would be very helpful too. I'm going to try and get in some research time in the next few days so I should be able to carry on a decent conversation soon.

We use a combination of kodi and plex. Plex just to stream to mobile devices and kodi to access the server's media when local as I found it to be a bit more responsive (and I'm used to it). We have a small hp stream mini (like a nuc) as our htpc in the family room running windows to reach it and also browse the internet etc.

Blaylock said:

Good morning everyone. It's been a very busy weekend here. Sadly I didn't get much time to research this. As far as OS and playback software I've read just a little about Plex. This is another area that I'll need to research. I've tried using Linux before and struggled more than I cared to. I would prefer to use something else to keep things simple. I need to keep the accessing apps all very simple, whether Plex, Kodi or other.

The plan to access the NAS from our dumb TV's was to use something like ChromeCast. Access from our Google devices would be very helpful too. I'm going to try and get in some research time in the next few days so I should be able to carry on a decent conversation soon.

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Hey Blaylock...check out my "whole house DVR" thread. I did a lot of research on this already, and I think I came up with a good solution...with compromises. The deal with my wife was that the remote had to be "easy to use" as defined by her (as my 11 year old stepson can work anything - hehe).

I don't currently have "smart TVs"...and really don't desire to have one. The market and features have not solidified enough yet. I buy a TV for it's picture. If it is "smart" that's OK, but I like having my own "smart" boxes.

PM me if you have questions about Plex, Kodi, other various alternatives.

Update!

So here is my current planned build. I still need to add a controller with battery backup. I'm still planning Raid 5/6 depending on how tight the funds get. I'll likely be using a combination of Plex and Kodi but I don't want to limit myself on software just yet. I'm definitely staying away from Linux though. As awesome as it may be, I never could understand that one.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/blaylock/saved/#view=8rK6Mp

I know used drives are kind of a touchy subject for some folks but.... http://www.amazon.com/Red-3TB-Hard-...TF8&qid=1464981891&sr=8-3&keywords=WD+2TB+red has 3TB used and fulfilled by amazon for that price. I would do it, but completely understand if others would advise against it.