Answered Hi guys, i need some ideas to build my own NAS

Jack liu

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I want build my NAS because our school only have 5 gb for my assignments, so i want build a NAS for save my assignments. i want use a old pc as NAS.
Motherboard: Asus e35m1-m pro
Cpu: AMD E350
Gpu: AMD Radeon HD 6310
RAM: ddr3 4gb
Powersupply : Corsair CX430(430W)
and its has 120gb ssd and 200gb hdd(i plan buy extra 1tb or 2tb hdd)
what i need to do with it? i know how install software to make it as NAS(free nas)

Does it need extra video card?
i want use online office at my nas when im going school, how i can do that?
 
Hi Jack,

If the PC you are planning to use as the NAS already has an operating system installed such as Windows, then to avail it offering network shared storage, (indeed, it probably does already,) then all you need to do is install the extras discs and create the "shares" (as Windows calls them.)

Windows does have some "limits" as to how big a disc it can handle, so it would be worth checking which version of Windows is in situ and thence what the biggest discs are it can handle. Indeed, the motherboard and chipset of the PC might have limits too, so it would also be worth checking there, especially if it's old.

Serving files is a pretty low "horsepower" activity for a SOHO site (ie with few users,) so you don't need mega CPU's or RAM and you bearly need a video card at all, so practially anything will do (the incumbent will be just fine.) In olden days, file servers didn't do graphics at all - they had the most basic 80x25 black and white character displays...!

Unless you particularly want to "play" with a NAS operating system (OS,) or you want some feature that a NAS OS offers that Windows doesn't, there's no real need to change it.

There's nothing particularly "magic" about a NAS - it's just a very simply computer with bearly enough resource to serve files over a network. That made them cheap and simple. A lot of NAS OS's are stripped down Linux builds.

Over time, there's been a lot of "function creep" in the NAS market place as vendors have "added back in" a lot of the features that were omitted originally in order to make NAS's "simple" (and cheap.) Such as media server, backup servers, and so forth. Theses days there's not much to choose between a "full fat" OS and a NAS OS. But if one remembers NAS's origin, one sees why they are as they are.

So in summary, if you are repurposing old hardware to provide network shared files, especially if that hardware already has an operating system installed, you probably don't need to bother installing a NAS OS. Having checked out any potential size limits, just add disc, make shares, connect to network.

About the only other hardware upgrade you might want to contemplate is to replace a 10/100mbps Network Interface Card (NIC) with a 1000mbps (Gigabit) NIC is your router has any Gigabit ports. If the MOBO NIC is already Gigabit, then your are already there.

It's worth pointing out that a repurposed "desktop" PC might use a bit more electricity over the course of a year that dedicated NAS hardware, but that would require a bit of forensic modelling to be sure.

You mentioned using "online office" - are you talking about remotely accessing apps running on the NAS/PC...? (It's possible, I just want to be clear about what you mean.)

Please don't be discouraged if you have any subsequent questions, post back - we're a pretty friendly bunch here.
 
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Hi Jack,

If the PC you are planning to use as the NAS already has an operating system installed such as Windows, then to avail it offering network shared storage, (indeed, it probably does already,) then all you need to do is install the extras discs and create the "shares" (as Windows calls them.)

Windows does have some "limits" as to how big a disc it can handle, so it would be worth checking which version of Windows is in situ and thence what the biggest discs are it can handle. Indeed, the motherboard and chipset of the PC might have limits too, so it would also be worth checking there, especially if it's old.

Serving files is a pretty low "horsepower" activity for a SOHO site (ie with few users,) so you don't need mega CPU's or RAM and you bearly need a video card at all, so practially anything will do (the incumbent will be just fine.) In olden days, file servers didn't do graphics at all - they had the most basic 80x25 black and white character displays...!

Unless you particularly want to "play" with a NAS operating system (OS,) or you want some feature that a NAS OS offers that Windows doesn't, there's no real need to change it.

There's nothing particularly "magic" about a NAS - it's just a very simply computer with bearly enough resource to serve files over a network. That made them cheap and simple. A lot of NAS OS's are stripped down Linux builds.

Over time, there's been a lot of "function creep" in the NAS market place as vendors have "added back in" a lot of the features that were omitted originally in order to make NAS's "simple" (and cheap.) Such as media server, backup servers, and so forth. Theses days there's not much to choose between a "full fat" OS and a NAS OS. But if one remembers NAS's origin, one sees why they are as they are.

So in summary, if you are repurposing old hardware to provide network shared files, especially if that hardware already has an operating system installed, you probably don't need to bother installing a NAS OS. Having checked out any potential size limits, just add disc, make shares, connect to network.

About the only other hardware upgrade you might want to contemplate is to replace a 10/100mbps Network Interface Card (NIC) with a 1000mbps (Gigabit) NIC is your router has any Gigabit ports. If the MOBO NIC is already Gigabit, then your are already there.

It's worth pointing out that a repurposed "desktop" PC might use a bit more electricity over the course of a year that dedicated NAS hardware, but that would require a bit of forensic modelling to be sure.

You mentioned using "online office" - are you talking about remotely accessing apps running on the NAS/PC...? (It's possible, I just want to be clear about what you mean.)

Please don't be discouraged if you have any subsequent questions, post back - we're a pretty friendly bunch here.
Thank you very much!
i plan to use it as a online drive. as google drive, but i want use it as a NAS and HTPC
so i buy another old pc
i3 4150
500 gb Hard drive
6gb ddr3 ram
Intel HD graphics 4400
windows system not great for visit my files at my phone,
i plan install system of Synology then i can watch video and do something with words and Docs, Sheets, and Slides, synology have something about it as a plug-ins, and i will install a virtual machine as a android system as a tv box, that is what i plan to do.
thanks again.
 
If you are intending to to run virtual machines and remote applications, then that is when you really need the CPU and (especially) RAM horsepower. I don't know about NAS OS's but vmWare really chomps through the RAM once you start to spin up a few vGuests.

HTPC of course benefits from good video cards, though you don't really need to go mad. 3D games playing is where you really cannot spend too much money on a video card. Rendering movies is less demanding and a lot of the more basic cards can handle that. Still, one would want to check that ones chosen video card has "hardware" support for video decoding and which formats it supports. Often one finds the drivers (ie software) is then used to handle anything the hardware cannot, and of course there may be some formats that are not supported at all - possible needing 3rd party (software) CODEC's.

I am not sure what you mean by "Windows is not great for file access from phones." The host operating system is (almost) irrelevant for accessing files across a network. What matters is the protocol that the host machine uses to offer shares over a network. There are basically only two (de facto standard) versions of that, one called CIFS/SMB (often somewhat incorrectly attributed as the "Microsoft/Windows" standard, though in fact it is a more open standard) and one called NFS (often again somewhat incorrectly attributed as the "Linux/Unix" standard.) In olden days Apple use to offer their own one called AFP that was popular with Apple fanboys, but it is rarer these days. There is also a "media" specific protocol called DLNA which only really applies to photos, videos, music, etc. rather than being "general purpose."

If you are keen on the Synology OS, you might be best to hear from others who can speak to the subject as I have never used it. IIRC there is a general purpose installable version of their OS (or something that looks a lot like it created by third parties) but its name escapes me.

If you are intending to access your NAS from outside your home (ie across the public Internet) then there are other things one could consider. You (probably) would want to register an Internet domain name (which will cost some money) and enroll the name with a Dynamic DNS service (DDNS) so you can "find" your home from the public Internet easily. DDNS would also need some cooperation of "something" in your network to keep it up to date, however a lot of SOHO routers have a DDNS agent built in these days (which is the best way to do it, though there are other alternatives.)

Professional network managers working for businesses would never allow people to remotely access their files using either SMB/CIFS or NFS from the public Internet as it is a huge security (and privacy) risk. We do it other ways (or just simply do not permit it.)

And finally, (for this post,) if you want to access from the Internet, you will need to change some settings in your routers firewall to avail access and it would be prudent to ensure your NAS deploys a robust mechanism of permissions and security (that is, you have to "login" to access it) to enforce security and privacy. The last thing your want to do is provide an "open" platform for the world to upload stuff to you for free!

We can get into the details of all of this subsequently if it's what you want.
 
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If you are intending to to run virtual machines and remote applications, then that is when you really need the CPU and (especially) RAM horsepower. I don't know about NAS OS's but vmWare really chomps through the RAM once you start to spin up a few vGuests.

HTPC of course benefits from good video cards, though you don't really need to go mad. 3D games playing is where you really cannot spend too much money on a video card. Rendering movies is less demanding and a lot of the more basic cards can handle that. Still, one would want to check that ones chosen video card has "hardware" support for video decoding and which formats it supports. Often one finds the drivers (ie software) is then used to handle anything the hardware cannot, and of course there may be some formats that are not supported at all - possible needing 3rd party (software) CODEC's.

I am not sure what you mean by "Windows is not great for file access from phones." The host operating system is (almost) irrelevant for accessing files across a network. What matters is the protocol that the host machine uses to offer shares over a network. There are basically only two (de facto standard) versions of that, one called CIFS/SMB (often somewhat incorrectly attributed as the "Microsoft/Windows" standard, though in fact it is a more open standard) and one called NFS (often again somewhat incorrectly attributed as the "Linux/Unix" standard.) In olden days Apple use to offer their own one called AFP that was popular with Apple fanboys, but it is rarer these days. There is also a "media" specific protocol called DLNA which only really applies to photos, videos, music, etc. rather than being "general purpose."

If you are keen on the Synology OS, you might be best to hear from others who can speak to the subject as I have never used it. IIRC there is a general purpose installable version of their OS (or something that looks a lot like it created by third parties) but its name escapes me.

If you are intending to access your NAS from outside your home (ie across the public Internet) then there are other things one could consider. You (probably) would want to register an Internet domain name (which will cost some money) and enroll the name with a Dynamic DNS service (DDNS) so you can "find" your home from the public Internet easily. DDNS would also need some cooperation of "something" in your network to keep it up to date, however a lot of SOHO routers have a DDNS agent built in these days (which is the best way to do it, though there are other alternatives.)

Professional network managers working for businesses would never allow people to remotely access their files using either SMB/CIFS or NFS from the public Internet as it is a huge security (and privacy) risk. We do it other ways (or just simply do not permit it.)

And finally, (for this post,) if you want to access from the Internet, you will need to change some settings in your routers firewall to avail access and it would be prudent to ensure your NAS deploys a robust mechanism of permissions and security (that is, you have to "login" to access it) to enforce security and privacy. The last thing your want to do is provide an "open" platform for the world to upload stuff to you for free!

We can get into the details of all of this subsequently if it's what you want.
Yes, everything you talk about is what i need to know. thank you very much!
im try to spend little money(about 200 dollor) to do something which i will pay 500-600 dollor on it.
as tv box, its just android system. but its need cost 150 dollor
as a NAS. its cost more than 400-500(if u want buy a good one)
as a virtual machine. i think 8 gb ram is enough. however i have 2*8gb ddr3 ram from my old desktop. i think its enough
and video card. i have a old gtx 550ti, but i more like use a hd4000 or Core graphics card with i3 or i5. its quiet than single video card.
and im sure some intel cpu support Hardware decoding. that mean i can watch movies at anywhere has wifi
So right know only problem is i need replacement some hardware or found a old pc which have enough hardware for a Virtual machine.
alike i need 7*24 hours run the machine, i worry about a part of motherboard will have problem with it.
 
8GB should give you scope to run a few vGuest machines. Some virtualisation platforms will allow you to customise how much RAM each guest machine is allocated, so you can ensure the total does not exceed the installed RAM - remember the host computer needs some RAM also to run the file server, media server, etc.

If you over allocate and/or allocate more than you have fitted, then the system will start to "page" out RAM to temporary files, which is fine, computers have implemented "paging" mechanisms for decades, but it does slow things down a bit. The "trick" is to try and size the amount of RAM each vGuest is allocated so it is "just enough" to not "waste" any RAM but give it enough that it does not need to page much (if at all.)

Others here are better qualified than I to discus the relative merits of various items of hardware (graphics, processors, MOBO's etc.) - I have not looked at such in any detail for years, (mostly because I have not bought any.) I believe there even some dedicated forums here at AVF for such topics, you might care to have some discussions there also.
 
...if you want to access from the Internet, you will need to change some settings in your routers firewall to avail access...

I forgot to mention these type of firewall changes in your router are often called "port forwards" or "port forwarding."
 
My pleasure. For the benefit of future readers, it might be interesting if you let us know how you get on when you've built it all. And of course, if you get stuck with anything, you can ask here and plenty of use will do what we can to help.
 

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