LegRoom.net Kick back and relax

Note: This post is just a first draft. It will be updated as I continue my research. I'm hoping to have all parts selected by the end of the week.

For the past couple of months I've been researching various home NAS (network attached storage) solutions. Currently, all file-serving and backups are handled by a desktop system in my living room - which also handles my website and e-mail, multimedia functionality (hence running it in my living room), and a whole lot more. As I'm getting rather tired of the noise and recent instability, I want to migrate all functionality off of this system onto other systems/servers better suited to the tasks. My first step is setting up a NAS system for my house.

As I said above, I've been researching this for quite some time now, mostly because I'm having trouble deciding which direction I want to take. The two main choices are:

• Setup a commercial NAS appliance (such as the Linksys NAS200)
• Build a dedicated NAS system, based on something like FreeNAS

A commercial appliance would be the much simpler route, and is mostly what I'd been researching, but for various reasons I'm actually learning towards building a dedicated system now. The primary reason, to be completely honest, is flexibility. If I build my own hardware and install a "real" OS on it, even though it may be used specifically designed to function as a NAS device I still have the ability to do anything else with it that I may want or need. With an appliance, I'm much more limited in what I can do here (if it's even possible at all). Some appliances do allow remote console access, but every one I've seen is very vague on details as far as what can be done once you've logged in. Without being able to test it out myself, I have to assume that I won't meet my requirements.

So, why is building a dedicated system such a hard decision? This breaks down into two categories:

• power, heat, noise (ie., efficiency)
• NAS functionality

Let me address the efficiency issue first as it's more straightforward. This box will be running 24x7, and I want something that's going to be as quiet and energy efficient as possible. The majority of the appliances I've looked at were designed with this in mind, and while some are much better than others, all are more efficient than a typical desktop system. I want to stick this thing in a corner and not ever see it or hear it; just have it run reliably and not make a significant dent in my power bill.

The functionality issue is a bit more complicated. I stated previously that flexibility was the primary reason I wanted to build my own system, which may seem to contradict with this current statement, but they apply to different scopes. The former is about OS-level functionality; the latter is more about hardware functionality. Eg., two features I'd really like from my NAS are hardware RAID 5 using four disks and hot-swappable drives, both of which a fairly among among higher-end home NAS appliances. Hardware RAID is easy enough to do on a custom built system, but how-swappable drives is a completely separate issue; short of a rack mount server or tower-style case (both of which are ruled out by the noise/efficiency requirements), options are extremely limited.

With all that said, here are the components that I'm currently looking at. Any and all feedback, especially regarding personal experience, is most welcome.

Unlike most custom built systems where the case is a fairly insignificant component, this choice of components in this system is almost entirely dictated by the case as I've only been able to find one that meets both the noise/efficiency and NAS functionality requirements described above. As a result, my requirements (and personal preferences) are:

• Mini-ITX motherboard
  • integrated gigabit ethernet
  • single PCI (not PCI-E) slot
  • at least one, preferably two GB RAM
  • optional: integrated CF (compact flash) support for OS drive
• low-voltage/wattage processor
• low-profile, 4-port SATA II RAID card
  • must be fully supported by both Linux and FreeBSD
• four energy-efficient 500 GB SATA II hard drives
• slim DVD-ROM optical drive

Case
Chenbro ES34069 - ~$185
+ PCI Riser card - where/how to buy?

Motherboard/CPU
Under Investigation:
Intel Mobile (socket P)
AMD Mobile (socket S1)
AMD Brisbane desktop core
VIA

Memory
undecided - will probably go with a single 1GB DIMM, specs depending on motherboard choice

RAID Controller
undecided - best choices so far (but would love a comparable at a better price):
LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-4XLP - ~$330 (PCI-X)
3ware 9550SXU-4LP - $300 (PCI-X)

Hard Drives
RAID (x4): Western Digital Caviar GP WD5000AACS - ~$100 (no NCQ?)
RAID (x4) (alt): Samsung SpinPoint T166 HD501LJ - ~$105
System: undecided - 2GB compact flash drive, 2GB IDE disk on module, or low capacity, efficient 2,5" hard drive

Optical Drive
Samsung SN-M242D - ~$40

Video Card
integrated

Power Supply
integrated

Network Interface Card
integrated

Sound Card
integrated

Input Devices
N/A

Operating System
FreeNAS or OpenFiler

For reference, here are the best appliance options I found:
to complete - QNAP, Storango, Irfrant, Thecus?

Update: 03/26/2007 05:03
I finally selected a data hard drive - the WD drive ended up beating out the Seagate based on some performance and acoustic reviews. I also changed my case selection from the Cooler Master Centurion 532 to the Gigabyte Poseidon GZ-XA1CA-STB. The Gigabyte seems to be a bit sturdier based on reviews, and also includes a rear 120mm fan (unlike the Cooler Master case). And with that, I'm done! Thanks to everyone that provided feedback. I'm going to unsticky this post as soon as I order the parts.

Update: 03/24/2007 15:05
I have nearly all components picked out. The only things left to do are decide on one of the three data hard drive choices and choose a rear cooling fan (which really shouldn't be too difficult). After that, it's time to spend some money! :-) Last call for comments if anyone has other suggestions...

I'm currently researching components for a new computer. Here's what I've decided on so far. Any comments or suggestions?

Motherboard
ASUS P5B Deluxe, based on Intel P965 chipset - Newegg

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 - Newegg

Video Card
e-GeForce 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked - Newegg

Memory
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ, 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 (PC2-6400) (x2) - Newegg

Hard Drive
System drive: Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD - Newegg
Data drive: Western Digital RE2 WD5000YS - Newegg

Optical Drive
Samsung SH-S183L SATA DVD/CD burner - Newegg

Power Supply
Corsair HX620W or HX520W (depends on power requirements) - Newegg

Case
Gigabyte Poseidon GZ-XA1CA-STB - Newegg

Network Switch
3com OfficeConnect Gigabit Switch 16 - Newegg

Monitors
Undecided if I will purchase new monitors
If reused - ViewSonic G220fb (x2)

Network Interface Card
Integrated Dual Gigabit LAN controllers, Marvell PCI-E and PCI

Sound Card
Reused - Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2, plus integrated ADI AD1988B 8ch HD Audio

Input Devices
Reused - Logitech Elite keyboard, Logitech MX1000 mouse

pdabuyersguide.com posted a mouth-watering review of Sharp's new newet C-series Zaurus model, the SL-C860. Unfortunately, as with previous C-series models, the C860 is only available in Japan. Damn! But, you can import it through localization specialists such as Dynamism.

You can read the full review here.

Transmeta launched its new Efficeon processor today, once again turning up the heat in the increasingly import low-power-consumption market. The Efficeon is a pretty big improvement over Transmeta's previous Crusoe line, so here's hoping they can get some top-tier vendor backing.

You can read the full article here. There aren't any major revalations, but it does provide a good introduction to both the Efficeon processor and Transmeta, so it's a pretty good read.

A new review has been posted for the Zaurus SL-C750. This PDA (as are all C-7xx PDAs) is only available in Japan through Sharp, but the folks at Dynamism.com have translated the OS and applications into English, provide lifetime warranty, etc.

This is a detailed and very favorable review of the device (actually, all reviews I've read have been quite favorable, but some others tended to be a bit more reserved), and is well well worth the read if you're currently considering a new PDA.

Here's the full review.