Low cost, low power NAS ideas?

[RonRN18]

I am using a FreeNAS system for my house and loving it but I am needing to buy/build a relatively low price NAS where I'm afraid FreeNAS may be a bit over-kill.

The device is for a 4-wheel drive communications truck about the size of a box-style ambulance. Inside the box portion of the truck, we have five small profile computers that have been mounted in a rack system. Not all computers are deployed all the time but we are looking for a central location to store common files. Many of the common files are installation files for several programs we need, our organizations's policy and procedures manuals, owner's manuals for all the equipment we have, and database of radio frequencies. We don't currently store, nor do I foresee future storage of multimedia files.

What I'm thinking is some form of low-power CPU device (like an Atom D525) in a 1U rack enclosure with either two SSDs in RAID1 or three SSDs in RAID5 or RAIDZ. The reason we're thinking of SSD as opposed to traditional hard drives is not due to faster speed per se but no moving parts in a four-wheel drive vehicle... minimizing risk of damage to the heads.

I don't have the need for all the jailed machines I have in my home FreeNAS system (Sickbeard, SABNZBD, Plex and Transmission) but was thinking of a low-powered web-server, indexing many of the files stored on the NAS for easier finding.

Will FreeNAS work on an Atom D525 machine? How much RAM would be needed? I'd doubt I'd need the 16GB I currently have. Is there a better software package for my particular needs than FreeNAS?

 

[cyberjock]

I'll tell you right now a D525 won't cut it for you. Yes, it's cheap and low power, but you're going to need the newest Atoms, and those are like $250+. So your whole "low price" might already be off to a very rocky start.

The SSD idea is the only way to go for a moving vehicle. So yeah, definitely don't try to concede and save money in that area. ;)

FreeNAS needs 8GB at the minimum, which happens to also be the max for the D525. But ECC RAM is a virtual must, and only the newest atoms support it. If going ultra small isn't a requirement you could go with something like a standard supermicro board that is a mini-atx and a CPU like the pentium g2020. Those are very low with idle power, but they can kick it up a notch in power draw and performance if/when its necessary. If you want ultra low power like the atom, you're going to have to pay quite a bit for that luxury, so the real question is whether a 25w unit is required or if a 35w unit is okay. If 35w is okay you can go with the Pentium easily.