Hardware advise on spec for freenas setup

[jamerican]

Greetings, seeking some advise on what hardware to use to build a home nas. Looking to build a setup that can handle 6 or 8 4TB hard drives in a raidz configuration. Hope someone can shine some light.

[Bl@ze]

can anyone provide a bit of info ?

[King_Jay16]

What is your budget?

[Wallizzle]

Or you can buy a pre-built server: HP Proliant Micro Series are decent and so is the Synology... Check em out on Ebay and refurbed or like new if you on a budget; t'will set you back between US$400-US$600 a couple hundred dollars.

BTW be sure to use low powered WD NAS Red HD for your stacks - especially since you gonna be running multiple drives.

[Wallizzle]

Greetings, seeking some advise on what hardware to use to build a home nas. Looking to build a setup that can handle 6 or 8 4TB hard drives in a raidz configuration. Hope someone can shine some light.

I just realized that you specified 6 - 8 X 4TBs, OK that's a different story? Are you building a server of some sorts i.e. Like a web server, file server, database pretty much anything for more than just home? because this doesn't sound like a home NAS anymore!

You probably gonna want something more than a NAS build to run 6 - 8 HDs; Say 16 - 32 GBs of buffered [server] memory, and say a Xeon processor maybe and you definitely gonna need a larger tower with that many bays.

Greetings, seeking some advise on what hardware to use to build a home nas. Looking to build a setup that can handle 6 or 8 4TB hard drives in a raidz configuration. Hope someone can shine some light.

[jahman182]

@Wallizzle I'm of the same opinion, this does not sound like a Home NAS. With that amount of HDD's you will also need to consider Dual Zeon's lots of memory and plenty cooling if you plan on building one.

[Wallizzle]

He probably meant home server - as in a proper server that will be located at this house. and NAS in the sense it will mostly be used for storage, and is network attached... I'm trying to be pretty loose with the terminology to take make it work

[jamerican]

What is your budget?

Or you can buy a pre-built server: HP Proliant Micro Series are decent and so is the Synology... Check em out on Ebay and refurbed or like new if you on a budget; t'will set you back between US$400-US$600 a couple hundred dollars.

BTW be sure to use low powered WD NAS Red HD for your stacks - especially since you gonna be running multiple drives.

lets say 600 to 1000USD

He probably meant home server - as in a proper server that will be located at this house. and NAS in the sense it will mostly be used for storage, and is network attached... I'm trying to be pretty loose with the terminology to take make it work

Home server that will run freenas...main purpose just for storage data and music / video collection. Not looking to host anything on it, just need it to be robust.

[jahman182]

Have fun with the provided links. I'm sure you will find all your answers here..........
http://assassinhtpcblog.com/new-custom-build-2/
http://www.avsforum.com/f/26/home-theater-computers
http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=103
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1502445

Seems like a fun project if you do plan on building a unit. Now you got me interested in doing something similar and may do so from some parts I have sitting around in my box of spares in the garage

[Wallizzle]

Have fun with the provided links. I'm sure you will find all your answers here..........
http://assassinhtpcblog.com/new-custom-build-2/
http://www.avsforum.com/f/26/home-theater-computers
http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=103
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1502445
Seems like a fun project if you do plan on building a unit. Now you got me interested in doing something similar and may do so from some parts I have sitting around in my box of spares in the garage

I don't think he meant to setup an HTPC, I think he actually want's a 'home server' - as in a server at his home for storing content to be accessed by various devices, an actual NAS! Correct me if I'm wrong Jamerican.

I would assume that you may have a set top box(es) of some sort (applet tv, roku or xbox to be used as a media player), other PCs and/or mobile devices that you would like to access all your data, music, videos etc from a single repository. The reason for several disks for redundancy (which I can understand since I've lost many photos, music etc that were dear to me and felt like I was going to die). My only question is why so much space? But that's a question only you alone could answer... some ehm... porn collection JK

So yeah, if you we are to assume that you truly need 24 - 32GB (or 12 - 16GB in raid) of storage then working backwards to fit the build would look like what we initially recommended:
- Processor(s) - Xeon processor(s) to handle the load of managing all that data; and board to support it (i'd go with a server m/board with 2 cpu slots)
- RAM - 16 Gbs or more ram (you can do further research for the recommended ratio of RAM to TB storage) and remember to purchase unbuffered (server) memory
- Large Server case with that many 2.5" bays
- A decent PSU
- Your six to eight 4TB hard drives!
- Linux or Windows OS - At this point Freenas would need more than Freenas to maintain your files, I mean with this much **** to manage you would need a full OS.
- and finally link with an electrician to turn down yu light

P.S. 4TB hard drives cost ~$180 a pop, multiplied by six we've blown sir's $1,000 max budget on HDDs only!

So realistically speaking, I mean we could be of better help knowing how much storage you really need and what you'll be using the server to do... No hard feelings btw, just trying to help since I've been here before (multiple times).