BUILD Critique my 1st NAS!

[goodenough88]

Hi All,

Currently building my first home, which once complete, I want to set up a NAS server that will hold movies, tv shows, photos, music & game iso's. My main purpose for the NAS is to stream the movie & TV show files to several rooms and to provide a centralised storage location.

So after researching a bit over the past week, and realising that ECC Ram is worth the extra $$$, I think I've managed to pick some parts which should do the job.

CPU: AMD FX-4300
Mobo: ASUS M5A97 R2.0
RAM: 2x 8Gb Kingston 1600MHz ECC Unbuffered Memory (KVR16E11/8I)
HDD: 4x Western Digital 3Tb Red NAS HDD
PSU: Seasonic 350W 80Plus Gold

My selection of parts are chosen from these three websites which are all local to me; www.msy.com.au; www.cplonline.com.au; www.pccasegear.com.au.

I'll be buying a UPS for the NAS server as well and I've already got an old case at home which I will use again. I will also have a second PC that will have all the files backed up to provide an extra bit of security.

So let me know if there are any improvements that can be made or alternative options available.

I appreciate the time & effort you guys put into looking at this for me! :)

 

[DrKK]

Sir.

On a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is the dumbest possible thing, and 10 is awesome, I give you a 2.5.

This equipment is not even remotely server grade, that motherboard and chipset will not support ECC, that CPU is highly unrecommended for FreeNAS.

I'm not sure you've read the forum at all. This is a good example of what *NOT* to do.

 

[DrKK]

Actually, the hard drives, and PSU, are OK.

The rest of it is crap for FreeNAS.

 

[goodenough88]

Yes you're right in that I'm still trying to get my head around this whole "NAS Server" idea. Hence my thread in this forum to save myself from making any stupid decisions ;)

So I've had a very quick read again and also managed to find a seller in Australia who sells Server/Workstation parts, something that my previous websites don't do.

The motherboard & CPU are already off the list and will be replaced with something more appropriate, which should get me to at least a 4/10 ;)

 

[panz]

I have exactly built my fn box for the same purposes of yours. After bumping my head on the wall to manage my budget and "server grade" needs, I built the box in my signature.

Apart from the case (you can choose another, cheaper one, if you don't need to pull the drives frequently as I do) you can find all the hardware on Amazon. Is a well known hardware and it works very well. Again, if you plan to manage, let's say, less than 6 drives you will not buy the M1015 and the Intel expander card, saving a lot of money. You can add them in the future if you need.

 

[TXAG26]

See signature for what works for me.