Need help building a power efficient NAS

[v1zdr1x]

I am trying to build a NAS but I want to make sure I have the most energy efficient parts but still have enough power to run everything. I already have a case and Orion HP585D power supply. I'm planning on adding two more 3TB harddrives in the future.

I plan on using the NAS to stream movies for multiple computers throughout the house so there might be about 2-4 computers streaming at a time. Most files will be bluray quality movies/shows. I also want to use PLEX to view the files from outside my home. Will this PC be able to handle it? Are the parts good enough or should I upgrade something or even cut back something to make the price cheaper? Also do you think a NAS will be able to handle the workload that I plan on giving it? Would the network be the choke point or the hardware?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1f1SD
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1f1SD/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1f1SD/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD A4-5300 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($49.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A85XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($71.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($114.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $301.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-10 22:05 EDT-0400)


Thank you for your time.

 

[manofchalk]

Quite simply, if you want a power efficient build the PSU is the first place to start. What I'm finding of that PSU, doesn't look to me like its efficient in any way. Maximum of 75% efficiency, and 80+ is considered the minimum.
Also a generic brand 585W PSU for $30, no 80+ Certification (which means more than just efficiency) and no Active PFC, seems like dodgy unit to me.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339012

I would go for a PSU like this. More suitable wattage, an 80+ Gold rating and comes from a good OEM manufacturer.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182066

With a NAS machine, you don't need anything special in terms of hardware unless your going to be using the more complex forms of RAID. I would down the RAM to 4GB, but otherwise what you have seems fine to me.

Whether your home network will be a bottleneck depends on how much bandwidth your router supports (and the Ethernet cabling used). If your using 100Mb/s, chances are you will be fine for most situations, if your on Gigabit, then no doubt your rig will be the bottleneck but you would need a high intensity situation for that to happen.
As you add in more drives and the data being accessed is spread among them, you should find that speeds improve as disk activity will be spread among them unless everyone wants to watch the same movie at once.

 

[smitbret]

100% agree that PSU is garbage. I would never trust my data to something like that. Not only that, but most NAS devices don't need much electricity. My 6 drive NAS with a 6-core CPU draws less than 130W under full load. I recommend this one instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

Also, if you are planning on using Plex to transcode on the fly to different devices you'll want a minimum Quad Core AMD CPU if you'll be doing HD or Blu Ray rips. The dual core will probably work fine for SD resolutions like DVD, though.