Old P4 to NAS, Need Some Advice

[powder21]

Hi all. This is going to be my first venture into NAS, and I'm seeking some advice on which Linux OS to use.

First Off, The Hardware:

Old Pentium 4 System
1.5GB RAM
SATA RAID Controller On Mobo
Two Drives, RAID1
Something simple, not spending any money except maybe new case (and HD's at a later point)

Goals:
Ability to sleep automatically, and wake on LAN access (trying to save as much power as I can)
Run the Linux version of PS3 Media Server (this is strictly for files that are supported on the PS3 and will NOT require transcoding)
That's pretty much it

I was originally planning to use FreeNAS, but with the ps3 media server ability being one of my goals, I'm now thinking Ubuntu because I'm somewhat new to Linux and that's a distro I'm more familiar with. However, I am trying to save as much power as I can on this beast of an old PC so if there is another Linux OS that can accomplish my goals with lower power consumption then that would be good too.

Which Linux distro should I go with? Will said distro be able to sleep and only wake when I am accessing the NAS? Is RAID1 with an on-board SATA RAID controller gonna slow me down? All of this and any other advice you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[stevech]

Though I wound up deciding to buy a small NAS, of the open source NASes with DLNA, integrated FTP and HTTPS, I found unRAID to be better (for my home needs) than FreeNAS. I tried Ubuntu server but it is less than bare metal.

I didn't find any other viable multi-purpose NAS in free softwareland.

 

[powder21]

Thanks for your reply!

Would unRAID be able to run PS3 Media Server (meaning could I install an app package on unRAID)? And what about my idea of setting the OS to put the PC to sleep when not being accessed and then automatically waking it on LAN access?

Also, is wake on LAN a product of the OS or is that something that has to be supported in the BIOS or on the card or both?

Again thanks for your reply, but Johnny 5 needs more input

 

[loyukfai]

Couple of points...

- Go into BIOS and see if there're wake-on-LAN stuffs.

- Software RAID is probably better for you in this case.

- If you have the hardware ready, what's stopping you from trying them out RIGHT AWAY...? : )

Cheers.

 

[powder21]

lol, yah don't have time to work on it til tuesday or wednesday. Plus I like to plan ahead. Would you be willing to advise on why software RAID would be better? Is the on-board controller not as good at handling it?

I will be working on it soon, but I like to have opinions from others who have done it before so I know where is best to start

 

[loyukfai]

Check out the last few threads, there's quite a lot to go through but I think it's worthwhile.

IMO, software RAID is better in your case because it's more portable. If your mainboard fails then you'll have to find something similar to recover your RAID array.

Cheers.

 

[powder21]

Ah. "I see." Said the blind man to his deaf wife.

I have actually been doing quite a bit of research since my last post and had decided that unRAID (with Twonkey instead of PMS since I don't need transcoding) seemed the most efficient way to go. However, I was weary of my choice since I had originally preferred hardware RAID over software. But now after reading your reply (and a couple of the threads you mentioned), I think the decision has been made. unRAID with Twonkey it is.

I'd like to say I'll post back in a couple days to let you know how it goes, but as it turns out, the HDs on the machine are only 50GB (oops!). I might still go ahead and get it going just to tinker though.

Thanks again.