[XCSSA] Tips for DIY NAS?

[X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio]

For $229, you can buy a Buffalo NAS with 2x500GB drives.  It runs linux,
hackable.  Firmware is available for download.

If you prefer to make your own, consider the Kurobox.  It's Buffalo's
offering
to hackers for $160 - no drives included.

Yes, I've made my own NAS with an x86 embedded board I bought from ebay
for $25 with 300Mhz CPU, 128MB memory and a 16MB CF.  The 2 500GB
drives cost $200.  Total: $225, not counting the power supply.  I use a
drive bay
from an old PC to house the hard drives.  It looks ugly but I put it in
a closet
since the whole thing runs on no fans.

It worked fine for me, but since I saw the Buffalo NAS for around $200,
I went
with the Bufallo.

X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio wrote:
> Just to give everyone an update, the direction I'm thinking of going  
> is as such:
>
> * 1Ghz VIA C7 Motherboard/CPU Mini-ITX with on-board Gigabit LAN and 2  
> SATA ports (JetWay J7F4K1G2E)
> * 1GB DDR2 RAM
> * SANS DIGITAL ST-SAN-CS1T Compact Flash CF to 2.5” SATA Enclosure
> * 8GB SanDisk Ultra-II CF Card
>
> All that runs about $216 ($230 with shipping) from NewEgg. I wanted to  
> get a hot-swap enclosure but I don't really need that to get things  
> working. I already have 3 160GB SATA drives (in a RAID5) and, while  
> that's a bit small, I figure I can start there since I already have  
> them and they work.
>
> The VIA C7 is a fairly nice chip. It's not amazingly fast compared to  
> the newer VIA Nano, but I can't find any boards that ship with the  
> ultra-low power version (the standard version draws 17W). No fan  
> required, and the thing runs at like 5W. Actually, I think it's even  
> faster than my current file-server (An Athlon something or other).
>
> The only thing I need to figure out is how to power down the drives.  
> I'm using a CF card for the OS, so no problem there (I looked at full- 
> blown SATA SDD drives, but they are easily 2x the cost). I'll be using  
> my existing LSI MegaRAID controller and I'm not sure how power down  
> states are handled (if at all). Going to figure this out before I  
> order any of this stuff since if I can't spin the drives down, there  
> isn't much point. If I'm stuck I may just sell the LSI and opt for a  
> RAID1 using the on-board SATA ports. That means I'd have to buy 2 new  
> drives though, making the cost go up (and I don't think I'd make a lot  
> back from selling the LSI RAID).
>
> OS of choice is going to be Ubuntu. Actually, switching from Gentoo  
> (*shivers*) to Ubuntu was partly what sparked this - I've just had the  
> idea on the back burner for a while. I thought about using FreeNAS but  
> I'd rather have the configurability of a regular Linux distro.
>
> Thoughts welcome if anyone else has done this before. Unlike my  
> MidiBox stuff, I should be able to throw something together somewhat  
> quickly once I pull the trigger on the parts.
>
> Werd,
>
> Tim S.
>
>
>
> On Mar 5, 2009, at 8:31 PM, X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio  
> wrote:
>
>   
>> I was checking out CPU magazine on the plane ride home today and was
>> reading up on commercial NAS solutions. They all look pretty cool but
>> seem to be very expensive or not configurable enough. I already have a
>> nice LSI SATA-RAID (4-drive) and, in fact, already have a file-server.
>> The problem is that it's loud and consumes too much juice. That's one
>> thing the commercial solutions have up on me - power usage.
>>
>> I've been trying to piece together a VIA C7-based machine, but all the
>> boards I have found seem to be too small. I actually would love a  
>> MIPS-
>> based solution (just because I jones for RISC :) but I have found even
>> less info about that.
>>
>> Granted, all I need is a PCI/PCI-X slot for the controller, but I'd
>> like to have a 1x PCI-E slot for future expansion. I was also thinking
>> of having it boot up off CompactFlash or something else that would
>> otherwise allow me to keep the RAID separate from the OS drive.
>>
>> Any thoughts?
>>
>> Tim S.
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>     
>
>
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