Mini-pc (or similar) for Network Storage

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silens

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#138292 28-Dec-2013 20:59

Hey, I'm new to building a pc/changing it's insides and would like suggestions on what would be a cost effective way of creating a nas. I have an old pc that I could use but as it doesn't appear to have pci-e port to have usb 3.0 I would rather start from scratch.

My requirements for this pc are quite low as I only really want at least 1 usb 3.0 port, and a ethernet port. It main and only use would be to run a dlna server to share media files across the network (maybe personal backups as well).

I'm looking for advice of choices of motherboards, possibly cases, etc that would be usefull in creating a little home server. Or if you have a better idea of a device that would be better suited to share my external harddrive over the network (with a dlna server for medi).

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#958476 28-Dec-2013 23:16

Is it really a requirement to have USB3 on the NAS?

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#958481 28-Dec-2013 23:47

What kind of budget? What else might you want it to do?

silens

22 posts

Geek

#958494 29-Dec-2013 01:18

Budget, probably at most a few hundred ($200). I'll look into the old computer I have at a more reasonable hour though it's a bit big for it's use so I've been looking at some Mini-iTX cases.

I was wanting usb 3.0 as the external is usb 3.0 campatible (though I thought of trying to convert it to an internal drive), and it might be easier to add extra high speed external later on.

Other than file sharing and the dlna server there is no other uses planned for it. The main reason I'm looking is I have a dlna server runnning on my laptop to share media over the network, but I'll like to take my laptop out of the house more.

driller2000

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#958507 29-Dec-2013 06:55

i reckon you should give unraid a try - esp the free license to see if it works for you

i did this using old hardware - trialed for a few days - loved it

brought a pro license - and have been running it as a 9 drive 28TB media server for 16 months now with zero issues

robust, flexible, upgradeable and economic - esp if you have old hw you can reuse

timmmay

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#958522 29-Dec-2013 09:12

Forget USB, put the disk inside the computer.

sbiddle

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#958540 29-Dec-2013 10:30

Why not just buy a NAS? It's a lot simpler as a solution.

And having an external USB HDD seems a rather backwards idea, connecting it directly via SATA is a far better solution.

lostangel

163 posts

Master Geek

#958625 29-Dec-2013 15:47

How cheap you want to go/how fast ?

A real cheap way would be a router running custom firmware or a raspberry pi. both will only give around 50 Mbits of file transfer speed over a network though, so may not be on par with your requirements.

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sonyxperiageek

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#958627 29-Dec-2013 16:10

If you just want a DLNA compatible box and to back up files, then this unit might be quite good for you (from Western Digital) - http://nztech.co/19uWTIt

I think it is a really good deal, but one thing I find weird is that Amazon will not ship this (4TB) version directly to NZ, but they will ship the 3TB version!

Sony

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Ultimate Geek

#958657 29-Dec-2013 16:50

I have done exactly what your looking at doing except you need to change a few things. Don't use external USB drives, you will be much better off using internal SATA drives. You will be able to be alot more flexible and they are easier to use. Don't worry too much about cases as its not going to be doing alot. How many SATA ports does the computer you already have have inside it? and is the network card Megabit or Gigabit?

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silens

22 posts

Geek

#958761 29-Dec-2013 19:31

I've uploaded a few picks of the old pc to dropbox. I was also able to find some documents that share the hardware of the pc which I also added to that folder.

I'm unsure of how many sata ports (I would guess possibly 1), and I don't know about the ethernet port. Looking on these documents every part of this computer is from 2005 or earlier.

I also attempted to turn it on earlier, and I think it could be something I did in the past when attempting to add another harddrive as it only turned everything on (from the sounds) and then made consecutive long beeps. Which I presume is a good sign, as it at least starts up.

System

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Ultimate Geek

#958839 29-Dec-2013 22:35

Looking at those pictures it looks like the hard drives are using IDE and not SATA so it would be difficult to use that hardware as a NAS. To update that to something that could be used as a NAS you would have to upgrade the motherboard and with that you would also have to upgrade the CPU, RAM and Hard Drives with that which would exceed your budget of $200.

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silens

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#958865 30-Dec-2013 00:33

I've actually done some searching online for a possible build.

I found a combined motherboard, cpu, graphics ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135364 ), and a case that comes with a power supply ( http://www.elive.co.nz/aywun-a1-1001-mini-itx-case-ac0607.php ) to make it smaller fitting and hopefully more power efficient. 2gb ddr3 1333 240 pin memory from newegg is <= $25 usd. So rough total I think is roughly $160 nz.

I believe this may work, as I could transform my external (WD My Book Essential 2TB, bought October 2012) to an internal drive and potentially add a second drive (either an old one laying around a small new cheap one) for the operating system.

Is their any issues you guys can see with this potential build?

System

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Ultimate Geek

#958900 30-Dec-2013 09:09

Reprice it from an NZ site as newegg doesn't send here unless you use freight forwarding which will get expensive.

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raytaylor

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#959850 1-Jan-2014 11:53

I reckon you should just buy a qnap or similar nas device - the power consumption will be much less than a full desktop computer and should easily pay the difference in cost.

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sbiddle

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#959869 1-Jan-2014 13:12

silens: I've actually done some searching online for a possible build.

I found a combined motherboard, cpu, graphics ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135364 ), and a case that comes with a power supply ( http://www.elive.co.nz/aywun-a1-1001-mini-itx-case-ac0607.php ) to make it smaller fitting and hopefully more power efficient. 2gb ddr3 1333 240 pin memory from newegg is <= $25 usd. So rough total I think is roughly $160 nz. I believe this may work, as I could transform my external (WD My Book Essential 2TB, bought October 2012) to an internal drive and potentially add a second drive (either an old one laying around a small new cheap one) for the operating system.

Is their any issues you guys can see with this potential build?

I still wouldn't bother. You've got to get the goods here first which is going to cost more than that anyway.

With what your requirements are a NAS is still a far better option, you could have got a base model D-Link for under $200 at Harvey Norman last week complete with 1TB drive.

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