DIY NAS help

[A_M_303]

Hello,

I've been thinking about building a NAS vs off the shelf Synology for a while and am almost convinced to go with a DIY jobby. It would get me a much better spec NAS for less money, plus I enjoy building things from scratch. I am still a novice to networking and don't know my way around linux but looking to learn as I go along.

Here is what I want it to do:

1. Stream high bitrate 1080p bluray rips to my popcorn hour A300 and ipad
2. Central file storage and cloud
3. Run an intuitive GUI
4. Eliminate the need for equal sized HDDs (something like Synology Hybrid Raid)
5. HDDs to spin down when not in use

My current setup:
1. Panasonic plasma (dumb)
2. Popcorn Hour A300
3. PS3
4. Ipad
5. Android phone
6. Desktop PC
All connected to Asus RT-N66u

I'm stuck with the choice of OS. I'm really attracted to Synology DSM software because of the GUI and the SHR features. Xpenology seems very interesting but I'm concerned about how stable it is, especially when it comes to updating. Freenas is also attractive but AFAIK I would need all HDDs to be the same size.
Although my popcorn should be able to play my rips, I want to be able to transcode for the ipad, PS3, PC.

This is the setup I'm looking at:

Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz (Haswell) is this overkill?
Gigabyte Z97N-WIFI Intel Z97
I've already got a 4GB DDR3 module
WD red HDDs
Still stuck on case and PSU options, please recommend

Looking for advice on the OS and thoughts on the hardware. I've been reading so much I think sometimes ignorance is bliss!

 

[Captain_WD]

Hey there,

I would say building your own NAS has its ups and downs but in case you decide to make it on your own, here are some advice I could give you.
The CPU might be a bit overkill for home usage. Processor is not of that big importance if the NAS is not used for enterprise or business purposes so I would downgrade that a bit.
The MOBO looks good and solid. It supports up to 6 SATA 3 drives and RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.
I would add another 4GB of the same type (2x4GB) for the Dual Channel. I would say 8GB of RAM would be much better for this build and for what you are looking for.
WD Red drives are perfect for NAS as they are designed specifically for that and should work great with the rest of the components. Have in mind though that they do not spin down when they are not used. WD Green series do spin down but are not designed and are not recommended for NAS systems.
Depending on what you are looking for, you could go with a fancy transparent case or something compact to hide somewhere in your home. I would recommend getting a case with a good airflow (air going in from the bottom and exiting from the top) and enough space for all components plus option to expand it in the future.
I would get a good-rated PSU with good Voltage Stability and Ripple and a proper fan orientation. A PSU is something that you could use in future builds and, in my opinion, something you could spend good money on.

Hope this comes in handy, feel free to ask if you have any questions,

Captain_WD.

 

[FireWire2]

Look at the i3/i5 runs on Win8+reFS
Or Win7 with FlexRAID

Using PlexMedia or http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
This will encode media on fly for your iOS, Samsung Smart Phone. It will solve lots of Wifi streaming issue.

Or you can use FreeNAS's ZFS, MAC OS with OpenZFS

 

[A_M_303]

Hey there,

I would say building your own NAS has its ups and downs but in case you decide to make it on your own, here are some advice I could give you.
The CPU might be a bit overkill for home usage. Processor is not of that big importance if the NAS is not used for enterprise or business purposes so I would downgrade that a bit.
The MOBO looks good and solid. It supports up to 6 SATA 3 drives and RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.
I would add another 4GB of the same type (2x4GB) for the Dual Channel. I would say 8GB of RAM would be much better for this build and for what you are looking for.
WD Red drives are perfect for NAS as they are designed specifically for that and should work great with the rest of the components. Have in mind though that they do not spin down when they are not used. WD Green series do spin down but are not designed and are not recommended for NAS systems.
Depending on what you are looking for, you could go with a fancy transparent case or something compact to hide somewhere in your home. I would recommend getting a case with a good airflow (air going in from the bottom and exiting from the top) and enough space for all components plus option to expand it in the future.
I would get a good-rated PSU with good Voltage Stability and Ripple and a proper fan orientation. A PSU is something that you could use in future builds and, in my opinion, something you could spend good money on.

Hope this comes in handy, feel free to ask if you have any questions,

Captain_WD.

Thanks very much for your advice. I didn't know that about the WD HDDs.
I'm hoping to stream my movie collection with plex, hence the choice of CPU. After reading lots of information about plex, it seems I would need the best CPU I can afford in order to transcode my movies. They are mostly high bit-rate 1080p in BDMV format with DTS-HD MA. is it possible to stream that on a gigabit network with this hardware? Popcorn hour is capable of playing it so that eliminates the need for transcoding as far as I know, correct? which means I would only need to transcode to the PS3, PC and ipad.

I was looking at the Lian Li PC-Q25B Mini-ITX, which is well reviewed but is restricting in terms of space for PSU. Only leaves me with 140mm length according to the literature, plus it's expensive. The cheaper option is BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX, but again this limits the PSU because of space restriction. I want to be able to use a modular PSU but can't seem to find a case with enough HDD bays to accmodate it!

Lastly I would like to end up with 5-6 HDDs but cannot afford to buy them all now so was hoping to add as I go along. Synology Hybrid Raid allows that, but is there another OS with a similar feature?

Thanks very much for your help. I've been spending too much researching this. Sometimes I wish I would just buy something and spend the time actually making use of it!

 

[T3PShooter]

Here is a link to a list of parts. I will mention that you probably want three HDD's so you can create a ZFS partition. I actually have almost this same exact build and really thought a modular PSU was going to be necessary but they are larger and don't fit as nicely.

FreeNAS Build