New NAS build, so many questions!

[SedoSan]

Hello all,

I'm almost running out of space on my old 4TB 2bay NAS which I discovered later that it is a very low end one (in performance at least). And all my PC HDDs and external HDDs are also running out of space (so around 6+ TB of space) and I need to expand.

I've been looking into synology products and other companies but I felt that their products are kinda expensive~

First of all, I wanna make a temporary NAS to hold my stuff + extra space, because i'm planning to get a high-end NAS in 2-4 years time. So I'd say I want something with 800-1100$ range.

I found so many options to choose from to build a NAS, from raid cards to different chassis. I got lots of questions I wanna ask before building a NAS.

1. would it be more beneficial (money-wise) to make my own NAS or buy a ready made one? (The Synology 1812+ looked perfect but I thought maybe I can build a better one for the cost? beside when I get my high-end NAS in the future I want to add this temporary one to it as an expansion so i'm not losing anything)
2. I looked into multiple chassis and decided on getting an 8 bay one and I saw a good and cheap 2U rackmount though some reviews showed that some CPU coolers and raid cards won't fit in a 2U rack, so what recommendations of cooler/cards are good and can fit?
3. What is the relation between the CPU and the raid card processor? If I get a very good raid card, am I free to cheap out on the CPU? (planning to do raid5 and I know it needs lots of calculations so~)
4. as for the motherboard, any certain things I need to consider? I already have an intel 4xGB NIC so I want to use it to improve the transfer rate, so would I need to get a better CPU? also for the memory, I hear a lot of ECC memory, do I need to invest on these? I'm using the NAS mainly to store my stuff (no web applications or anything else, maybe a little FTP)
5. There are lots of stuff about raid card that I don't understand, since I choose the 8bay case, I'm assuming i'll get a raid card that has 2x8087 cable, though MANY cards have an external as well, and they mention these external can support up to 100+ drives, how does this actually work? and are the internal ones, the 8087 limited to only 4 HDDs per?
6. This got me confused a lot, why are there some RAID card with external SAS? what possible things can be connected to this port? I'm interested about this. Also how are they connected? I tried looking for links or videos about the external ports and how they are connected but there weren't any helpful results.

I probably have more questions but these are the main ones that are on top of my head now~
Any help or tips i'll get will be much appreciated!

Thanks~

 

[SedoSan]

Bump~

I've done it and bought the LSI-9261-8i with BBU unit and thought I'd just store the HDDs in my HAF X since I have the place for it until I get my new NAS...

I do still have some questions though if anyone in this forum is experienced enough.

First of all, i'm planning to get a 3TB WD RED, is it the right way to go? My friend already gave me a great offer on his used 3TB WD RED so I took it and started filling it up. I'm planning to get 2 more HDDs and make a RAID5 setup.
If I do so, will I still keep the data on the first HDD? or do I have to do a complete wipe?

Also if I only get 2 HDDs and set them on raid0, then get a 3rd and migrate it to raid5, is it possible? also do I need to do a complete wipe?

 

[thiggins]

WD Reds should be fine. They are designed for NAS use.

Re RAID 0 to 5 migration, check your NAS manual. That migration may not be supported.