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Hard Drives not included in this article
George doesn't mention the cost of hard drives, currently a 500GB drive is about $120-130. The Elite 340 case George specifies in this article is a MicroATX case with two 5.25 and two 3.5" drive bays. Great if you want a NAS box with only two drives. You may want more than two hard drives though, so a case with four or five 3.5" drive bays is required, like the Coolermaster Elite 330 series, Thermaltake Matrix (with annoying blue power LED), or Antec Solo. These cases all have the capability to mount a front fan, which is necessary to cool multiple hard drives. If you put four 7200 RPM SATA drives together, they are going to get warm. Yes you could get the hot swap SATA drive cage George mentions, it's nice, but it's not necessary, how many home users need to hot swap a drive when it fails? The big problem when a drive fails is figuring out exactly which drive has failed and replacing the right one. I've built several NAS boxes using FreeNAS, which works great, and you can run it on a Compact Flash IDE adapter. The FreeNAS web interface is great, and really simplifies the process of getting the server running, creating CIFS shares, ftp, ssh, etc.
Posted by: cjc5447   Posted on: 10/22/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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Hard Drives not included in this article  cjc5447 | 10/22/07
Did you click the link?  Patrick Jones | 10/22/07
The linked article uses a different case  cjc5447 | 10/22/07
Alternative Hot-Swap Casing  kfcabe | 11/03/07
Thanks! That's a great alternative  georgeou | 11/20/07
That was a typo, I actually link and priced the 330  georgeou | 10/22/07
Windows limits connections  WiredGuy | 10/22/07
You're not wrong  IMHOYAAAH | 10/22/07
Yes and no...  Wolfie2K3 | 10/22/07
Another reason for Linux flavor there...  MWPollard | 10/22/07
Ok, but to clarify...  SpikeyMike | 10/22/07
In a home environment...  Narg | 10/22/07
Most windows users in a network-drive environment need more than 10  royalef | 10/22/07
It's not 5 or 10 files, it's 10 connected client computers  georgeou | 10/22/07
Me, 'cause my girlfriend has too many computers.  robertrduncan@... | 10/22/07
RE: In a home environment...  Lynne's Honey | 10/27/07
It's not just the money, it's the performance  georgeou | 10/28/07
You'd be surprised...  neoanderthal | 10/29/07
Not true  fadzlan@... | 10/23/07
And when has Windows ever limited you from using BitTorrent?  georgeou | 10/23/07
Wait I misread you a little  georgeou | 10/23/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  arpboy_z | 10/22/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  docfaux | 10/22/07
Old hardware?  MWPollard | 10/22/07
The motherboard is less than $150 and you get 6 RAID ports  georgeou | 10/22/07
That's why I did it myself  MWPollard | 10/23/07
Yup, that works great too  georgeou | 10/23/07
I'm doing something REPEATABLE  georgeou | 10/22/07
NAS operating system choices  cjc5447 | 10/22/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  jordjarn@... | 10/22/07
That is one of the tradeoffs  georgeou | 10/22/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  DaveLG526 | 10/22/07
re: Less powerful CPU/MB combo?  MWPollard | 10/22/07
You answered it for me  georgeou | 10/22/07
Have to count the cost ($) of power as well!  jesup | 10/26/07
NAS for CMITS  softwareFlunky | 10/22/07
10/100 LAN?!?  MWPollard | 10/22/07
It's an alternative  softwareFlunky | 10/22/07
Designed Linux Based NAS boxes for a Living.  codeguy007 | 10/22/07
Have you seen the results on the no-board ICH9R?  georgeou | 10/22/07
I am sure the performance is good.  codeguy007 | 10/22/07
Correction  codeguy007 | 10/22/07
If I need more than 6 RAID ports or if I want RAID-6  georgeou | 10/22/07
Does anyone know how fast the Infrant ReadyNas NV is?  guiri | 10/22/07
ReadyNAS is slow.  Narg | 10/22/07
What about:  emenau | 10/22/07
Intel D201GLY2 is much more interesting  georgeou | 10/22/07
Uhm, have you tried Fry's?  robertrduncan@... | 10/22/07
I picked up version 1 at Fry's for $69.99.  georgeou | 10/22/07
Intel D201GLY2 is much more interesting  emenau | 10/24/07
Gigabit throughput is CPU intensive  georgeou | 10/24/07
1TB WD MyBook  big red one | 10/23/07
Not capable/expandable  MWPollard | 10/23/07
Raid5  emenau | 10/24/07
cheaper case and power supply total $300  Narg | 10/22/07
Sure, but it would be noisy and inefficient  georgeou | 10/22/07
Cheap Cases come with Junk Power Supplies.  codeguy007 | 10/22/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  kingstarusa | 10/22/07
That might be a good option for many people  georgeou | 10/22/07
Another bang for the buck!  kingstarusa | 10/22/07
There are local vendors that will build it for $50  georgeou | 10/22/07
I use QNAP Boxes...  BitTwiddler | 10/22/07
Seems OK, but...  MWPollard | 10/23/07
Why the Gigabyte G33?  JakAttak | 10/22/07
That specific motherboard has ICH9R  georgeou | 10/22/07
Thanks  JakAttak | 10/22/07
PlatinumNAS 1tb raid5 $685.35  cheesedog | 10/22/07
Because it's half the price and twice the speed  georgeou | 10/22/07
But it's not  JakAttak | 10/22/07
Everyone keeps missing that fact...  BitTwiddler | 10/22/07
Platinum NAS is almost $900 without drives so it's DOUBLE  georgeou | 10/22/07
RE: without drives  JakAttak | 10/23/07
It's using 250 GB drives  georgeou | 10/23/07
RE: 250G drives  JakAttak | 10/24/07
not if you add 4 750gig drives to the price  cheesedog | 10/22/07
Again, it's half the price when you don't count the drives and it's twice  georgeou | 10/22/07
Since you can't buy the PlatinumNAS  cheesedog | 10/22/07
So it's still $500 more and it's still way slower than my solution.  georgeou | 10/22/07
Parse your Headline  cheesedog | 10/22/07
Where did you go to school for math?  georgeou | 10/22/07
Higher math?  big red one | 10/23/07
It had 4 250 GB drives  georgeou | 10/23/07
Expensive drives...  MWPollard | 10/23/07
FreeNAS is worth a try  dragontiger | 10/22/07
Hardware versus Linux Software raid.  codeguy007 | 10/22/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  Hemlock Stones | 10/22/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  TSGlassey | 10/22/07
George - sorry I think this article is smoke and mirrors...  TSGlassey | 10/22/07
The smallnetbuilder one is outdated  georgeou | 10/22/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  toothache90@... | 10/22/07
NAS is an arbitrary marketing name  georgeou | 10/22/07
not a vps server  bitsmythe | 10/22/07
What do you mean VPS?  georgeou | 10/22/07
"Virtual Private Server"  bitsmythe | 10/23/07
MB Expandable  bitsmythe | 10/23/07
A question  s_souche | 10/23/07
If performance and price doesn't matter to you, more power to you  georgeou | 10/23/07
agreed on performance  s_souche | 10/23/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  Sickthing | 10/23/07
I assume you might want to build one?  georgeou | 10/23/07
I like the HP MediaVault  pwabrahams | 10/23/07
decent media pc case?  jmelnik | 10/23/07
Media PC cases are usually too small  georgeou | 10/23/07
That's when you start looking at Myth  Sabz5150 | 10/24/07
You sound like you work in marketing  georgeou | 11/29/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  bobhog | 10/23/07
Thanks for the note, one note though  georgeou | 10/23/07
Correct, but I like what works, not what's best  bobhog | 10/25/07
Will FreeNAS do print server double duty  shadowwalker1@... | 10/24/07
Will FreeNAS do print server double duty  emenau | 10/24/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  presto@... | 10/24/07
Intel is big on supporting Sun and vice versa  georgeou | 10/24/07
safety in numbers  lesko | 10/24/07
Use Mythbuntu or LinuxMCE ...  MisterMiester | 10/24/07
Startup Current Draw of Drives!  jalbr8 | 10/24/07
$340 doesn't build a NAS  jeff_swindle@... | 10/24/07
It's half price double performance or it's same price w/4x the performance  georgeou | 10/24/07
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  cchamb2 | 10/26/07
My Winter Project decided  GreyTech | 10/29/07
You can use anything for the client  georgeou | 10/30/07
RE: What about ECC memory?  dstrom | 10/29/07
Most NAS applicances out there don't have ECC memory  georgeou | 10/30/07
more of a questions for George  lesko | 10/29/07
In Linux, you would use Linux software RAID  georgeou | 10/30/07
Question on performance in Linux OS  rweller300 | 11/17/07
You can get the same kind of performance in theory  georgeou | 11/20/07
4 questions  Scott K. | 10/29/07
Ah, good questions  georgeou | 10/30/07
Powering Drives?  Binksy2k | 11/02/07
Some good info on power supplies  Scott K. | 11/03/07
You can get splitters and SATA adapters which often comes with the HDDs  georgeou | 11/20/07
What about a raid card?  capitanharlock | 11/06/07
The motherboard includes a great RAID adapter  georgeou | 11/20/07
Question re: media PC flexibility  shoktai@... | 11/21/07
Answers  georgeou | 11/29/07
FCC Legal??  register@... | 01/23/08
FCC  register@... | 01/23/08
RE: Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed  csum77@... | 01/24/08
Used these ideas to build a media server  Scott K. | 04/21/08

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