Choosing a Low Cost/Low Power/Hackable NAS

[crumpet75]

I am looking for opinions to assist me in choosing an appropriate NAS for home use.

I've studied the NAS charts... Read/Write performance is nice, but not as not as important to me. I have also read about a number of NAS, but undecided about what to get - and would like to get something setup in the next week or two.

(I do want a dual drive system in RAID 1. And I think it makes sense to go for gigabit ethernet over 100mbit because the cost isn't much more if at all.)

My most important criteria:

Cost:
- I am willing to sacrifice performance to save $$$.

Hackability:
- I haven't seen a NAS that has all the features I'd like OOTB.
- For example, I'd like Subversion server, rsync, ssh, sftp, lighttpd, upnp server, itunes server.
- I know I am listing a lot of applications. So I have some concern about the server's processor's capacity to handle all of these. However this is for home use and I will be the only one accessing the machine. And I likely won't be streaming movies with upnp and rsyncing or committing files all at the same time.
- I realize these additional features are beyond a typical NAS. But it feels like a reasonable goal to try to perform all of these services from a single low cost machine.

Power Consumption
- I want to make best efforts to minimize power consumption. I intend to leave the nas on all the time so it is available on demand (from home and while I am on the road/work via ssh). But realistically won't be utilizing it very much.
- So I care about idle load more than the peak load.
- I have found it difficult to tabulate the idle and peak load metrics. (It would be great if smallnetbuilder had a matrix for comparing these metrics. I doubt I am the only one who cares about power consumption.)

Form Factor/Space Claim
- I want to tuck the NAS in a corner and forget about it. (unless of course a drive fails.)

Noise:
- I don't want to hear loud fans.

Considering:

DLink DNS-323
- Hardly a new NAS... but it is well documented and lots of great info about hacking/extending it. For example http://wiki.dns323.info/

Buffalo Linkstation Duo
- buffalo.nas-central.org seems to have some good info on hacking the machine
- It is low cost... but I don't see BYOD versions on places like newegg.com

Build my own atom, dual atom, or via C7 cn700 or cx700M or AMD Geode
- Building a small itx based NAS/server that runs ubuntu, freenas or openfiler etc... seems like an excellent choice based on articles I am reading here and logicsupply.com, mini-itx.com, and minicomputerworld.com etc... By building my own system, I would definitely have the greatest freedom to update/change the software on the NAS.
- however I do feel there are such rapid changes in this market and wondering if it is worth the cost to be an early adopter. ie the atom is known for low power but its chipset is nothing to write home about. And I am not sure about how efficient the power supplies are. Vendors seem to only focus on power efficiency in the > 400W power supply range. Next year Intel and others in the mini-itx market may have addressed these power related concerns.

So I am leaning towards setting up a hacked version of the DNS-323 because it is low cost. Then next year or so perhaps move to a higher end machine based on a low-power high-efficiency mini-itx or pico-itx form factor if intel and others address the power issues in present itx based solutions.

What are other's thoughts? Are there other low cost NASes that I should consider that have the ability to be hacked/modified, and at the same time offer low idle power requirements? And are my expectations to be able to run each of the list of applications as described above realistic?

Thanks

 

[FromageTheDog]

All I can say is "join the club!" I'm having the exact same dilemma. The MSI Wind PC-based Atom NAS seems like a nice solution, but I'm wary of buying into something with a proprietary case/motherboard layout -- no way to recycle parts for possible future use. And while power consumption for the Atom NAS is lower than for a regular PC, it's still significantly higher (~2x) than that of a dedicated NAS box.

All the "cheap" NAS devices (you named 2 good examples) all seem to have their fair share of issues. And the more pricey units seem not much better functionally -- they're just (much) more expensive. Just hang out on the forums to see some of the things folks are complaining about: broken iTunes server on the Synology devices, lack of case-sensitivity (no kidding!) on the QNAP devices, etc. For the prices these guys charge, it's a joke.

For now, I'm planning to just DIY with FreeNAS or Ubuntu using an old PC + CF-to-IDE adapter + CF card + 1TB SATA drive. Then I'll keep an eye on the market and jump in when the product quality has improved to the point that the products are deserving of their asking prices.

The ONE device I've seen that seems to be well engineered and supported is the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo. Pity they gouge the NA customer by only offering it with drives (are you listening, Neatgear?)...

 

[pfennigcat]

The MSI Wind PC-based Atom NAS seems like a nice solution, but I'm wary of buying into something with a proprietary case/motherboard layout -- no way to recycle parts for possible future use. And while power consumption for the Atom NAS is lower than for a regular PC, it's still significantly higher (~2x) than that of a dedicated NAS box.

I vote for the MSI Wind PC - I have it and love it. So much more fully featured than ANY dedicated NAS available - you can even run XBMC on it! The problem is that just about everyone always compares it to a 'normal' PC rather than a NAS system. Note that FromageTheDog complained that it has a proprietary case and motherboard that can't be recycled for future use? Do you think there is any off the shelf NAS that has a case and motherboard that can be re-used in something else!?!?

As a PC it's slow, has few expansion options (no graphics card, oh noes!! ), has no DVI or HDMI outputs, no eSata, no Firewire, etc. It does have gigabit ethernet, plenty of USB connections, VGA out, and plenty of audio out ports (note: my one regret with mine is that I haven't been able to get the rear 8.1 channel outputs to work under Ubuntu - stuck with the front stereo jack).

On power consumption, I'm not sure if it's really 2x that of a dedicated NAS. I haven't hooked up my KillaWatt yet, but I've seen other reports of only 30-40 watts with a single disk. That's comparable to other NAS devices I think. There's only a single 80mm fan for the whole system, and it doesn't get hot.

As a NAS, the only problem is ease of configuration. This is a full Linux box - if you're comfortable installing Ubuntu and installing/configuring whatever you want, you can do it. You'll need a display/keyboard/mouse to set it up, and probably a USB DVD drive to install Ubuntu from disk (or an internal DVD drive temporarily or permanently installed - I've seen some people do it off a USB thumb drive too). This is not a plug-and-play NAS though.

If you're comfortable putting this together yourself, you can even add and boot off an internal CF card, and spin down the disks completely unless data is being accessed off them. I'm not to that point with mine yet, but I've got a 16GB CF card on my XMas wish list

 

[FromageTheDog]

Note that FromageTheDog complained that it has a proprietary case and motherboard that can't be recycled for future use? Do you think there is any off the shelf NAS that has a case and motherboard that can be re-used in something else!?!?

Whoa! That's not at all a fair statement. With Intel, Gigabyte, MSI and others getting in on the mini-ITX + Atom bandwagon, it's only a matter of time -- and probably not much time, given their popularity, even at this early stage -- before there is an affordable STANDARD mini-ITX board not using the unbalanced (from a power consumption standpoint) 945GC chipset, which will fit in a STANDARD mini-ITX case.

That's all I want. With the MSI Wind -- which is a cheap, nicely integrated solution, I admit -- you're essentially stuck. You can't add a hardware RAID card (which would be nice for a more serious NAS solution) or move to a roomier case (for more than 2 drives) or anything.

That's all I was saying. Enjoy your Wind. I'll wait until the selection improves, which I'm confident that it will. Until that time, I've salvaged an old P3 machine and installed FreeNAS. 48 W with the disk writing; 43 W at idle. Not ideal, but I can live with that until the real low power Atom hardware materializes.

 

[pfennigcat]

I think I agree with everything you say in your last post Fromage, and I hope I didn't come off as insulting - I did not intend it as such.

I personally would love a MSI Wind "2" (or other atom clone) with a faster atom and a better chipset - you are definitely right there, it sucks more juice than the CPU which is silly . But those aren't going to be available for a while - this is the only chipset that Intel is allowing at this stage in the game, and I didn't want to wait 3-6 months. Even with the available build-it-yourself atom motherboard from intel, you can't add a HW raid card or more than two (sata) drives unless you're willing to live without gigabit ethernet (I hear commentary/rumors that Intel is deliberately limiting the Atom boards to avoid hurting Celeron markets). You can't add a HW raid card or more than two drives with an 'off the shelf' NAS either (unless you shell out considerably more for a 3+ bay raid 5 NAS of course).

With currently available offerings, the Wind seems to be the best option for someone with the OP's requirements. It trumps any off the shelf dual drive NAS for its software flexibility (and is very competitive on price and absolute performance). And I think it trumps any 'full PC' tasked as a NAS as far as size, cost, power consumption, and noise are concerned.

A spare old system like your P3 obviously wins on price though, and I'm impressed that the power consumption is so low


Of note for a more fully featured DIY system however, I hear that AMD is going to be releasing a Athlon 64 2000+ cpu that combined with its better chipset uses less power than the Atom CPU plus poor chipset. I haven't seen this available to buy yet, but I'd guess it'll be out before Intel gives us an un-crippled motherboard choice. See here
I simply cannot find anyone actually selling this processor at this time . But I suspect there will still be a large difference in price to get the better hardware flexibility of the AMD system once you factor in motherboard, silent power supply, etc.

 

[FromageTheDog]

pfennigcat -- appreciate the response. We're in complete agreement -- based on what's available now, it is by far the most cost-effective and neatly packaged Atom (NAS) solution. I just get frustrated when manufacturers unnecessarily (my opinion) produce proprietary layouts and lock you in.

Re: the P3 system: in the interest of full disclosure, it is underclocked/undervolted, running a single memory module, no video card, with a single WD GreenPower hard drive, hence the numbers I'm getting.

The low-power AMD platform is FASCINATING! I had no idea they had such an efficient platform available. Thanks for the link!