Building NAS from scratch?

[Norcross]

I'm toying with the idea of building a NAS for the house, if for no other reason than to do it.

I've read the articles on the home-built NAS systems, but I can see that hardware has come a long way since those were written. Is there a "sweet spot" in regards to processor speed and RAM that I should look for?

I plan on using this to store ripped DVDs, a big MP3 collection, and the family photos.

 

[thiggins]

Check this thread.

 

[Norcross]

Check this thread.

Yep, I read over that and got the impression that there was a wide range of options. Considering that Scotty hadn't posted the tests on his new NAS yet, I guess I'm out of luck.

With people selling "old" computers on places like craigstlist.org for next to nothing, I figure I can get a good core setup for less cash, only purchasing specific parts. Either way, I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[scotty]

Unfortunately, I might not have the NAS running for a couple weeks (moving into a new house, etc), so I might not be able to get some results for a little while. I would definately like to test and get some more official numbers of what a desktop OS can do versus a NAS. My rough impressions from my experience is that a simple XP/Server/Linux will have higher performance than most of the NAS's out there. Hence, I want to test and get something a little more official.

For the purposes of helping out the SNB crowd here, once i'm closer I'd definately ask Tim for some help in making the benchmarks as official and reliable as possible. I'm happy to do what testing is required across the different OS's and see what the results are.

 

[Norcross]

Sounds great! I'm looking forward to it.