Im thinking about running a NAS in the house but need to do it as cheaply as possible.

 

Existing scenario -

1 desktop with 1TB drive space (30% used)

1 laptop with 500GB drive space (30% used)

1 external HDD with 1TB space as backup to comp 1

1 external HDD with 250GB of space as backup to comp 2

Xbox 360

2 Galaxy Tab tablets

2 Galaxy S4 phones

 

With the above, it would make sense to have a media server/NAS/ backup with the audio/video/photos on it and being accessible to all devices rather than the current which means the computers have to be powered up.

 

Option 1 - buy a premade NAS. Easy to set up but  not cheap as I would reckon on needing 2TB at least (more if RAID) - linky

Option 2 - buy an old XP machine, install a free OS and run it as a server - linky

Option 3 -  buy a cheap NAS adapter for the current HDDs - linky

 

Any thoughts?

Buy premium NAS with RAID. On some devices you get manufactures warranty if you loose any data they recover for free if RAID'ed correctly.

Good quality NAS dont come cheap. :(

I bought a WesternDigital 3TB My Book Live and have had no issues whatsoever.

Was £130 from PC World

 

It links straight in to my media PC and XBMC has no problems.

utorrent is set up to download straight to it and again never had a problem.

Xbox 360 also sees it and plays the audio/video without incident.

 

The ipad has the WD app on it which is admittedly not the best as it only uses the apple native video formats but assuming your videos are in a compatible file it's run perfectly (i watched an entire season of Walking Dead on it last summer)

Thats little more than an external hard drive though.

I have the WD My Cloud, its got all my music and photos on it. Great being able to view any of my photos on my phone anywhere, and all my music is available to stream to my Sonos.

It is also set to back up My photostream from my phone and all files from my laptop.

I would buy an HP Microserver. That's what I (plus quite a few others on here) have done and it works brilliantly.

 

Made even better when HP have a cashback deal on, which is most of the time by the looks of it!

 

I've tried various cheaper NAS solutions and as said, unless you spend a reasonable amount, I'm pretty sure you'll be left disappointed.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/07/23/how-to-build-a-nas-box/1

 

If you dont mind getting your hands dirty.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/07/23/how-to-build-a-nas-box/1

 

If you dont mind getting your hands dirty.

That kind of falls under my option 2 - buy a cheap old XP machine and use it. Minimal cost for the machine (£30-40) and a couple of drives (£50-60 each)

. Even cheaper if i can find an xp machine for free.

Don't forget to factor power usage in as well.

I have a readynas duo which I've had for about 4 years. The only job on that time has been to replace one hard drive which died recently.

Consumption is 32w standard, and can be easily configured to power down for example overnight.

In my case it also acts as a print server and monitors the ups.

. Even cheaper if i can find an xp machine for free.

I have an HP dc7700 you can have for free if you're interested. Just the shipping to consider I suppose....

apologies if this is a really stupid question, but am i right in assuming that NAS devices are hard wired to the "main 

" PC and any other devices you have can connect wirelessly?

 

Also can someone explain RAID - I know its its a way to back up data and there are different RAID's but a clearer knowledge would help.

 

Current devices are a desktop PC

Laptop

Nexus 7 tablet

SWIMBO's ipad (which i dislike intensely!)

and a couple of android smartphones

 

Main PC backed up regularly to a USB drive that I then store out of the house.

Edited 13 April, 201412 yr by slider

A NAS connects into your router, then other devices can access it.

This article explains RAID well, and the different modes:

Redundant_Array_of_Independent_Disks : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_Array_of_Independent_Disks

The "N" in NAS stands for "Network", you connect it to the network your computers use, either wirelessly, by ethernet, or powerline. You can connect your network directly to the router, although this often slows it down; a better option is to have the router feeding a "data switch" that transfers the data around your network, removing the burden from the router, which can then concentrate on your internet connection.

 

Also, most routers only have 10/100 speed ports and you need 10/100/1000 speed ports (aka Gigabit), for any kind of decent transfer rate; even Gigabit is getting old - watch for something even faster coming soon.

This article explains RAID well, and the different modes:

Redundant_Array_of_Independent_Disks : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_Array_of_Independent_Disks

 

nose bleed time!!, So basically I need RAID 1 to give protection against a hard disk failure?

The "N" in NAS stands for "Network", you connect it to the network your computers use, either wirelessly, by ethernet, or powerline. You can connect your network directly to the router, although this often slows it down; a better option is to have the router feeding a "data switch" that transfers the data around your network, removing the burden from the router, which can then concentrate on your internet connection.

 

Also, most routers only have 10/100 speed ports and you need 10/100/1000 speed ports (aka Gigabit), for any kind of decent transfer rate; even Gigabit is getting old - watch for something even faster coming soon.

 

After putting much thought into this,

I have decided to go Nas instead of buying a HP N54l Microserver as I think it would best suit my needs.

 

I have a question or two for you.

 

What I purchased was a Zyxel NSA 325,

......................................................................

 

I currently have a PCH 110 with a 1tb drive installed. I think this is formatted to EXT3 or something like that.

I also have an external 1tb drive in a caddy formatted to ntfs.

 

Both these are pretty full with MKV files which I would like to keep.

 

Is it possible to just install both drives and use them as is in the 325?

 

If not, What other option do I have to save all or some of the mkv's ?

 

In a couple of months I plan on buying 2 x 4tb WD red drives for the 325 and transfer all mkv's on to these,

 

Q2)

 

Transfer speeds you mention above.

 

Room A )

 

My laptop when I am not using it.

 

Vdsl Router ( Fibre Broadband )

 

Router connected to Cat5 cable running to room B.

 

In Room B is Living room.

In here the cat 5 connects to a switch ( 100mb for now )

This in turn is hooked to

 

PCH 110

Xbox 360

Xbox 1

Blu Ray Player

HD Player

Sat receiver.

 

Back to Room A.

 

This is where the NSA 325 will reside.

 

What is the best option to connect this to get max speeds?

 

I was thinking

Gigabit switch.

 

 

           : > Router

Switch : > NSA 325

:           :> Cat 5 to Room B

            :> Laptop

 

Replace switch in room B to gigabit switch as well.

 

 

Am I correct ?

 

Thanks

Most good routers already have gigabit ethernet ports so you would not need a switch.

Most good routers already have gigabit ethernet ports so you would not need a switch.

Not sure if my one has

It is a Huawei 655c

Switches are more expensive than routers for a reason, they are dedicated devices for transferring large amounts of data quickly; a router CAN do the same job, but the transmission speed will suffer; how much it will suffer is very dependant on the abilities of the router, expect stuttering on 720p videos if the router is doing anything else as well.

 

Ré keeping your old data intact.

 

I dont know the model you mentioned, but as a general rule, the NAS boxes I have come across (and I am not an expert), usually insist on formatting any drives before first use. I would have a good look at the instruction manual before sticking drives filled with precious data into it. (RTFM as they say)

 

Network speeds are very variable, but you never get close to that magical maximum figure, that 100 switch will slow you to perhaps 30Mbps, a 1000 switch will obviously give more, although a cat6 cable upgrade would be better.

That sounds a lot compared to internet speeds, but it can get quite frustrating when you are trying to back up a few TB of data and it takes you all week.

(remember the difference between "b" and "B")

Looks to have 10/100 ports. Will be fine for most singular tasks but possibly limited if doing several things at once.

Switches are more expensive than routers for a reason, they are dedicated devices for transferring large amounts of data quickly; a router CAN do the same job, but the transmission speed will suffer; how much it will suffer is very dependant on the abilities of the router, expect stuttering on 720p videos if the router is doing anything else as well.

The other night I was playing Elder Scrolls Online on the PC, copying 8Gb of video to the NAS with the Mac and my other half was watching (standard-def) media from the NAS in the bedroom – No lag on the game, no stuttering on the stream and the transfer never paused.

 

That's with Virgin's Suberhub (v1) and that's not the greatest router out there (read P.O.S). Unless you're constantly streaming 1080p or doing A LOT with your network I can't see a switch being necessary for a home setup in most cases.

Yep, I'd agree. Think we're deviating a bit from the original question here as well

No online game actually sends or receives much by way of data, in fact you would be surprised how little data it uses.

 

The advantage of the build-a-nas link I posted is that it is UPGRADEABLE, if you buy a ready made NAS with 10/100/1000 ports today, and 10K ports are announced tomorrow, you are stuck; using an old PC chassis you can plug in what-ever port cards you can afford, and upgrade when you are able to.

 

It will never be as cheap to run as a ready made NAS, but you have to balance the long term energy costs against the cost of a off-the-shelf unit PLUS upgrade costs a few years down the line.

Yeah but then the machine is out of date.

Edited 16 April, 201412 yr by Chronicbint

It doesnt matter if it is out of date as long as it can do the job, 90% of the NAS's job is done by the network card, so the NAS doesnt need much of a CPU set-up; if you look at a NAS spec sheet you will usually find the CPU is running at something like 250MHz, so using an old 1.5GHz Winbox is not going to slow anything down.

Edited 16 April, 201412 yr by GentleGiant