Robie7642003

Hi All,
Planning on building a home NAS machine--if it makes sense over a ready-made system. This will be my third build overall, and am now fairly addicted to doing it myself! (Also have become addicted to reading everyone's system specs on this forum!)

Would be for use in a network having both Vista 64 and XP machines, potentially adding a Mac. Objective is as low a price as I can with some comfort level of performance based on my experience while bettering any commercial product.

ASUS P5GC-MX micro ATX MOBO

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131243

Celeron D E1400 CPU (I'm open to AMD but have always at Intel)


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116069

Athenatech A3603BB.400 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply (Love my new Antec mid-tower ATX but was going for something small and cheap here)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811190072

LITE-ON Black 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM ATAPI/E-IDE CD Burner (want to include burner in case of burning files directly--this was the cheapest at Newegg)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106084

HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Again, cheapest I saw, plan to start with two but can add later)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145233

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
(not sure I even need 1 GB but can't hurt at the price)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820144152

While I've never used Linux, I was thinking of installing UBUNTU as OS and FREENAS as the NAS, both for price (or lack thereof!)

I struggled most on the case actually, since I wanted a small form factor, yet choices seem to really limit amount of SATA connectors in the PSU's available. While I plan to start with two 1 TB drives (not as interested in RAID as merely a redundant back-up for all my computers on the network) I would like the ability to add more drives in the future.

Would love to know if this idea is good, bad or not even in the ballpark!

Total is about $350 without shipping or cost of OS.

Thanks in advance,
Larry

wrench97

For a server that you leave running 24/7 invest in a quality power supply, buy a case without a supply and pick a power supply with the amount of needed connectors This one has 4 sata and 4 IDE(which can be adapted)> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151060
Other then that it looks good.

Robie7642003

Thanks for that advice. Found it, but would 300 watts suffice? They have same model but with the lower wattage--would save a bit of money. Found this case to go with it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147126

My last nagging question: is there any reason to spend the extra $20 and get a Pentium?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116063

Thanks again.

wrench97

The 300w would depend on how many drives you put in, remember on start up they all spin up I would go no more then 3 including the DVD drive, 5 on the 350w.
I think the E1400 would be fine for a File server all it's doing is running a network connection and passing files.

Robie7642003

Thanks for the very helpful information. The best part of building is the learning, and your replies have taught me alot.

wrench97

Good to hear, let us know how the build goes.