Hi,
I'm thinking about building a NAS rig. Not so much worried hardware, and in fact have a complete i7-950 system with12 gig of RAM just sitting in my closet looking for something to do.
What I'm curious about is the software side? I ran across a free software called FreeNAS and wondering if anyone has any experience with it or any other NAS software I should look at.
Suggestions/Thoughts?
Thanks
Free nas has been around for years and is the best lots of youtube How to Build a FreeNAS® by Know How (TWiT.TV) - YouTube videos on i FreeNAS Home Server Tutorial - YouTube
I agree, most NAS software is Linux base and very reliable once you learn to use it.
I think there's also a Windows Media setup but I've never used it and don't know much about it.
Also note, that's waaaaay too much hardware for what's needed on a NAS so you shouldn't have any performance issues unless your LAN is slow.
Agree. That said any thoughts on these...
Problem is no matter what I get I'm looking at, at least $500 bucks - the unit plus the disks. This is why I was thinking of using my old i7 system, but as stated, overkill.
The system is just sitting in the closet so I would use it, I was just saying it's like using a NASCAR as your daily driver...
But it's better that just letting it sit and rust.
I have a Synology Diskless system. Works good. Allows you to populate the system with the drives that you want, and has a huge library of Net Storage Management software. The only downside I've seen is while I use the NAS mostly for backups, when I run 2 or three full volume backups, I peg the processor @ 100% for long periods of time. Could use a little faster CPU.
@storageman,
Thanks. I'm currently contemplating getting either the Synology or WD. Just to be clear, do you have the 2 or 4 bay one?
What kind of memory do those use (in place of hard drive) and can you expand the capacity overtime?
The info you seek is in the links. But yes, the memory can be upgraded. I think one comes with 2gig and the other 4gig.
I may just use that machine in my closet and install FreeNAS on it. I'm currently weighing the costs - not just money, but convenience and ease of use. Dollar wise I'm looking at around $700 bucks between one of those diskless units and a pair of WD Red 4TB drives @ $175 each. Unfortunately most of my WD Black drives have a capacity of than 750 or less gig.
I only have a single bay unit (DS115). Since I'm using most of it for short term storage, I didn't see a need to run a unit with multiple Drive/Raid capability. I do have some long term video clips from the surveillance cameras but the cameras record to cloud storage, I review them based on if something suspicious looks to be there. However I do backup the NAS once every 2 months to an external USB drive (The unit has a couple of USB 3.0 ports).
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