XigmaNAS

Hey all!

I've been thinking about a small, somewhat low-cost and power efficient NAS for home storage and sharing files with family and friends. I will not use ZFS, so I don't need heaps of ECC memory. I will start off cheap and use as many old parts as possible. So I decided to invest ~$150 for this first NAS of mine.

Here's the list of addons I've been thinking about enabling on the NAS box:
- CIFS (Windows share to main computer on same network)
- Transmission (BitTorrent)
- OwnCloud
- SSH & FTP

I already have hard disks, a 300W ATX power supply and some DDR2 memory lying around.

For the case I've been thinking about the Fractal Design Node 304 or Cooler Master Elite 130 (depends on what the rest of the components will add up to).

For the motherboard & CPU I'm quite torn. I've been thinking about these:

Option #1:
- Asrock E350M1 mini ITX CPU&mobo-combo ~$80
- Will buy some DDR3 memory for it (how much do you recommend?)

Pros: Energy efficient / Will work out of the box according to the sources I've looked at
Cons: Slower than option #2

Option #2:
- Intel DQ45EK LGA775 mini ITX board ~$70
- Some cheap Xeon 3xxx CPU from eBay ~$10
- LGA771 -> LGA775 adapter for the Xeon from eBay ~$2
- Some cheap low profile CPU cooler, not sure if the Intel boxed coolers will fit inside the two cases I listed.
- Can use the 2 x 2GB DDR2-800 memory I have already

Pros: Faster than option #1 / Around same price as option #1
Cons: Consumes more power and makes more heat / Installing CPU to LGA775 socket / Not sure if this mobo&CPU combo works with NAS4Free / Does not have the latest bells and whistles as Option #1

- Does the Xeon support regular memory?
- Does anyone know if the LGA775 socket trick to fit a LGA771 CPU will work on this particular motherboard? Could not find any info when googling.

According to CPUBoss the Xeon will use significantly more power but is faster. On the other hand, the E 350 also supports Supplemental SSE3 and SSE4a which the Xeon apparently can't handle.

Ok, I will now stop rambling, lets start the conversation. What do you guys think?

Well I would suggest to start with the parts u have and build your NAS with as less money spending as possible. Perhaps consider to get an used LGA775 Board with a Dual Core CPU.
Then u can gather some experience with what u really need. (But I am unsure about the Performance need of Owncloud and Bittorrent.)
For a Non-ZFS-NAS 2GB might be sufficient, bur If you have 4GB DDR2, thatrs a good starting point.
I would suggest to go for 8 GB DDR3-RAM if you have to buy some RAM as it is not too expensive. I recommend taking modules from the official Motherboard compatibility list.
Perhaps also a good idea to ahve a look in the Foruum Gallery..

Regards apollo

Depending on where you live, HP micro servers are also a good choice
They have easy swap disk trays (even hot swap with hacked BIOS) and support for ecc ram
Their CPU is enough for a nas and the power consumption is very low.
Had bought mine for about 170 Euros with a 250GB hdd and 2GB DDR3 ECC Ram

ChriZathens wrote:Depending on where you live, HP micro servers are also a good choice
They have easy swap disk trays (even hot swap with hacked BIOS) and support for ecc ram
Their CPU is enough for a nas and the power consumption is very low.
Had bought mine for about 170 Euros with a 250GB hdd and 2GB DDR3 ECC Ram

Well if you understand German, here is a good 'How to' for the setup:
viewtopic.php?f=93&t=7041

Regards
apollo

for your second setup
swap the Intel DQ45EK LGA775
for a
Supermicro X7SBE (check ebay)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/X7SBE-Supermicr ... 2c881c4721
and get ecc ram with that

Thanks for the tip on the HP Microservers, didn't even know they existed for so cheap a price. I found this nifty diagram, do you think a N40L would be sufficient or should I go all out for the N54L?

I'm not good with German, but luckily Google Translate does a descent job.

b0ssman wrote:for your second setup
swap the Intel DQ45EK LGA775
for a
Supermicro X7SBE (check ebay)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/X7SBE-Supermicr ... 2c881c4721
and get ecc ram with that

Thanks for the tip. However, I'm looking for a compact solution, not ATX-size. I'll have to see if Supermicro has a smaller Mini ITX LGA775 board.

micro atx is the smallest

http://www.supermicro.nl/products/mothe ... BL-LN2.cfm

b0ssman wrote:micro atx is the smallest

http://www.supermicro.nl/products/mothe ... BL-LN2.cfm

We're getting warmer here. I still prefer it to be as compact as possible with Mini ITX.

I found a new Microserver N54L here with 1 x 4GB ECC memory pre-installed & no HDD. Not a bad price considering it's brand spanking new. I think I prefer this N54L model to the one with 2x1GB memory and 250GB HDD preinstalled.

I still have to decide if I want go down the route with a ready-built server, as I think part of the fun is building it yourself. Though I have yet to see a machine this small with two PCI-e expansion slots.

yeah go for the n54l. best price for value at the moment.

Yeah, it's really good price. Even cheaper than used ones I've found on eBay.

b0ssman, this is a little bit off-topic, but do you know if there is a way to remotely access the files on the NAS4Free with a PS3 and stream video from it? The PS3 is about 90km away, so not inside same network.

if there is a way to remotely access the files on the NAS4Free with a PS3 and stream video from it? The PS3 is about 90km away, so not inside same network.

you'll simply need a pretty long cat 6 cable
honestly, it depends on your network speed if this makes sense, currently the upload you usually get makes it no fun to stream videos.
But if you have a fast connection you can setup a VPN connection between the two networks.

crowi wrote:you'll simply need a pretty long cat 6 cable
honestly, it depends on your network speed if this makes sense, currently the upload you usually get makes it no fun to stream videos.
But if you have a fast connection you can setup a VPN connection between the two networks.

Hehe, yeah it wouldn't be easy to install the cable. The NAS will be sitting on a 100/10Mbit Optic Fibre connection, so the upload speeds will be a bit over 1MB/s max. Is that enough to stream non-HD content?

I'll have to look up how to make VPN connections.

720p should be ok.

i got a 50/10 connection and can stream videos via ssh/http to vlc.

but the ps3 uses dlna and for that you need to be in the same broadcast domain. a vpn will do that.

Thank you all for your prompt and informative replies! After looking around and thinking all weekend about this, I decided it's definately going to be the Microserver N54L for my first NAS server.

I have some questions though about hard drive configurations (not sure if I should've started a new thread about this). My sister said she would sponsor me a 3TB WD Red drive as a first NAS hard drive (lucky me!). Unfortunately, I don't have the funds (as of yet) to buy more of them at the same time.

Is it possible to start out with just one 3TB WD Red, and then:

a) Add one similar drive in the future to make a ZFS mirror (Raid Z1 I think it's called) without losing the data on the first drive?
a1) And later add one more drive for a 3x3TB setup with one redundancy drive and 6TB storage? Of course, the Microserver I'm looking at comes with only 4GB RAM, so I'll have to then buy another 4GB ECC module, as I've read that you need atleast 1GB RAM for every 1TB of storage + some extra RAM.

b) Add two similar drives at the same time and directly make a 3x3TB Raid Z1 with one of the new drives doubling the capacity and one for redundancy (again, without losing the data from the first drive, and more RAM as in a1)?

After looking around I couldn't find info about this matter from the forums or by googling.

Also my home network is only 10/100 (modem/router that came with when I ordered my internet connection). Would it be advised to buy and hook up a D-Link switch like this, behind the router and then connect the main computer and NAS to that switch? Will a switch in between the modem/router and the devices interfere with port forwarding on said devices?

Sorry if these questions seem noobish, I just need to wrap my head around the options before I start the project, so I at least know (sort of) what I'm doing.

solkku wrote: I have some questions though about hard drive configurations (not sure if I should've started a new thread about this). My sister said she would sponsor me a 3TB WD Red drive as a first NAS hard drive (lucky me!). Unfortunately, I don't have the funds (as of yet) to buy more of them at the same time.

lucky you

solkku wrote: Is it possible to start out with just one 3TB WD Red, and then:

a) Add one similar drive in the future to make a ZFS mirror (Raid Z1 I think it's called) without losing the data on the first drive?
a1) And later add one more drive for a 3x3TB setup with one redundancy drive and 6TB storage? Of course, the Microserver I'm looking at comes with only 4GB RAM, so I'll have to then buy another 4GB ECC module, as I've read that you need atleast 1GB RAM for every 1TB of storage + some extra RAM.

b) Add two similar drives at the same time and directly make a 3x3TB Raid Z1 with one of the new drives doubling the capacity and one for redundancy (again, without losing the data from the first drive, and more RAM as in a1)?

If you start with one Disk, you can start with an UFS disk, but there you don't have really more than a simple external disk hosted by the NAS- operating system.

Adding then a disk to a Raid0/Raid1-style setup requires a reformat of the disks, same is true if you add 2 Disks for a RaidZ1 configuration. You have to store your data elsewhere, setup the new configuration of the disks and then restore the data => It is much less effort to start with a setup which is sufficient for some time.
I started with one RaidZ1-Pool (of 4 Disks each), now I have three thereof.

( For the more advanced users, I leave away here the Vdev-Posibilities, as I think they don't make sense in such a system, only adds more risks)

Regards
apollo

Thanks for the info apollo! I think I'll hold on to the 3TB WD Red until I have money to buy two more then and just start out with some leftover HDDs from the closet. Maybe better to start playing around with old hard drives and then when I've acquired two more of the WD Reds and hopefully know more about what I'm doing NAS4Free-wise, then do the switch.

Anyone have input on the whole gigabit switch thing?

Will a switch in between the modem/router and the devices interfere with port forwarding on said devices?

No, it won't interfere.

crowi wrote:No, it won't interfere.

Thanks for the info! I think I'd have to invest in a gigabit switch then. I've read that samba is single-threaded and people have got like 50-60MB/s transfer speeds with the N54L before the CPU starts bottlenecking. But with the 10/100Mbps home network I currently have, I'll probably reach ~10-15MB/s speeds at max, right?

solkku wrote: But with the 10/100Mbps home network I currently have, I'll probably reach ~10-15MB/s speeds at max, right?

Yep

Yesterday I ordered the HP Microserver N54L + one 3TB WD Red drive, yay! Can't wait for them to arrive next week.

Now I just need to find a gigabit switch from a local store.

I got the MicroServer today, but I'm having some issues installing NAS4Free.