Karen Conneeley & Robert Halas - NAS

Karen Conneeley and Robert Halas wanted a NAS with sufficient storgage to hold their data, photos, movies in a central location, independent of their PCs. They say: "We decided to shop around for a NAS and in the end we didn't like the options available to us - too expensive or restrictive. So we began to research a DIY NAS unit using new hardware, with heaps of storage and a free OS. And this is what we built........"

Karen is an IT professional working for a large corporation. She has worked in the IT industry for nearly 20 years.
Robert is a softwate application developer working for the same large corporation. He has tinkered with PCs for the last 20 years.

CORE SYSTEM

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 - $145
We prefer Intel CPUs, having had bad experiences with other types in the past. This CPU (2.93GHz 1066FSB) is a low-cost solution that is plenty for a NAS, but with a bit of grunt if we decide to make this system into a HTPC later on.
 
MOTHERBOARD    ASUS P5QL-CM - $149
We needed a few criteria to be met with the MoBo, primarily size – microATX in order to fit into the AeroCool case, as well as keeping most functions onboard.  The motherboard includes

• FSB 1333/1066/800MHz
• Dual-channel DDR2 1066(O.C.)/800/667  (keeping RAM cost down)
• 8-channel HD Audio  (potential for HTPC use later on – maybe)
• Supports Display Port  (potential for HTPC use later on – maybe)
• 6 x SATA 3 Gb/s ports  (primary focus – room for 4 1TB HDDs)
• 1 x IDE port  (CF and adapter for FreeNAS OS)
• Onboard gigabit LAN  ( a must for a NAS)
  

GRAPHICS: onboard
The NAS runs without a monitor, KB or mouse and only needs a web interface to control (once it’s all set up).

RAM: Corsair XMS2 matched pair - $79
CORSAIR TwinX 1GB x 2 (2 GB) DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 800mhz Matched Pair.
The FreeNAS OS probably can get away with 1 GB of RAM, but the stuff is as cheap as chips these days, so 2 GB seems to be a fair amount. 

HARD DRIVE 1: 4 x Western Digital HDWD10EADS - $396
Each of these drives was $99. A NAS is all about storage, so we decided to max out the hard drive options the case provided and we fitted 4 x 3.5” drives.  Our NAS is not intended as a 24/7 device so we opted for the Green Power drives to keep the overall power foot print as low as possible as well as lowering our costs.

HARD DRIVE 2: Sandisk Ultra II CF 2 GB - $25.49
The OS resides on the 2 GB CF card (courtesy of our Canon DSLR), however we had to replace the camera’s CF with an 8GB memory card (cost to replace was $48.90).  The value of the 2 GB CF card would be about $20.00.  We also needed 1 x 40 pin IDE to CF adapter to plug into the MoBo IDE connector. Utilising the CF card helps with power consumption and cooler to run than a HDD. 1 x 40pin IDE to CF adapter - $5.49
 
OPTICAL DRIVE:  Used DVD ROM, CD burner drive - $0
We reused an old optical drive to install the FreeNAS OS onto the system, once installed, we disconnected the optical drive.

PSU    Antec EarthWatts 500W - $109
We wanted an environmentally friendly Power Supply that’s 80 PLUS® certified, as well as sticking with Antec (our Sonata and Sonata3 both use this power supply).

CASE: AeroCool M40 Balck Cube - $120
We wanted a case small enough to sit under the desk and hold 5 drives (1 x optical and 4 x HDD).  The AeroCool just seemed the right choice. It also has the ability to have 3 x 80 mm fans fitted, came with a 120 mm fan and you can still squeeze in a 60 mm fan near the twin HDD caddy. And it only cost $99.99. We have currently fitted 3 x 80 mm fans and are waiting for our 60 mm fan to arrive.  It just needs to be COOL!  Total cost of additional fans $21.00

Core system cost: AUD $1,023.49

EXTRAS

MONITOR: None - $0
A monitor is only required for initial setup, and the web interface is used to access the OS.

KEYBOARD/MOUSE: None - $0
Keyboard and mouse are only required for initial setup, and the web interface is used to access the OS.

OPERATING SYSTEM: FreeNAS v0.7.4919 - $0
OS cost $0.00 - we chose FreeNAS for the following functionality: FreeNAS - embedded open source NAS distribution based on FreeBSD, and supports the following protocols: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, TFTP, AFP, RSYNC, Unison, iSCSI (initiator and target) and UPnP. You can setup software RAID (0,1,5), ZFS, disk encryption, S.M.A.R.T/email monitoring with a WEB configuration interface (from m0n0wall).  And lastly, FreeNAS can be installed on Compact Flash/USB key, hard drive or booted from LiveCD. We opted for the CF.