turning old computer into NAS/server.

do you guys have any links of help full how to writings? like this but for NAS's. ie do you have any help full links to writings for a nnod at this somthing to start me off on this project/build?

There is nothing physically different, except there are (usually) more hard drives. It all comes down to what operating system you are using.

oh. do you have any links that give pros/ cons of each os then?

There would be way too many to list. You should decide what type of operating system you want first, then narrow down from there. I had some questions on the previous page that should give you an idea on what questions to ask yourself.

Start with the type of operating system. Windows/Linux/Paid-prebuilt are pretty much the only options. Windows is pretty straightforward, but you have have the cons of it costing money and the artificial limitations Microsoft has placed on various copies (limited number of users, etc). Linux has the upsides of being free, but generally requiring more time to setup (except free prebuilt, such as FreeNAS). You could roll your own and configure it how you need, but this will require some knowledge of Linux (or willingness to learn) and time to set it up. There are also paid prebuild ones, such as unRAID, but I wouldn't suggest using them. They also have artificial limitations and cost money.

This decision is something you will have to make -- we can't do it for you. We can certainly help you decide and give personal input, but you need to do research, as well.

Personally, I like having complete control over what the servers are doing, so I "roll my own" by using CentOS 6.3 as the base and configuring everything from there. This might not work for you, though.

How much space are you looking for?

Once upon a time I used to spend a significant amount of money on hardware RAID cards, special WD drives, etc.

Now I use two Hitachi drives in RAID 1 on an older intel chipset (running Windows).

The onboard intel RAID has never given me any problems, whereas all three of my past hardware RAID cards would periodically drop drives, etc.

The onboard intel RAID is as fast or faster then any of my past three hardware RAID cards. It can sustain 100MB/s which is as fast as gigabit ethernet.

An advantage of RAID 1 is that if you have any controller problems you can just use the drives in any other computer, or even a USB enclosure, to get at your data.

So if you only need 4GB or less my recommendation would be to use your onboard RAID controller in RAID 1.

That is pretty backwards. What RAID controllers did you have that work worse than the on board Intel one? That is an impressive feat in and of itself, unless you got bottom of the barrel cards.

Either way, if cost is a concern, software RAID is the way to go. You won't be dependent on the board or a RAID card for RAID functions and it easily moves to another system.

A cheap Highpoint card, a Promise SX4-M, a Promise EX4350, and an Adaptec 2410SA.

Granted these were not top end cards but the SX4-M and 2410SA were not cheap either.

I would rate the ICH5R and later as better RAID solutions for 0,1, and 10.

I'm sure if you're spending $300+ on an LSI card there are some benefits, especially on the higher RAID levels, but IMHO it's not worth it for a simple home file server.