save a lot of movie from torrent?

oops wrong already should be wd green 2TB and two samsung s.f3 1tb

wd is obviously for saving 'movies'

wah, now 4tb of harddisk. can become files server already.

How big the HDD is still not enough. HDD space is always expanding.

anyone here building their own NAS?

Very true. I have already filled up >10TB of space with my DVD and BD rips, and I have only done about half of my video collection. Haven't even started on my CD collection yet (plan to rip/encode to FLAC and MP3).

I have one running 5x2TB WD Green (in SPAN mode) and 2x1TB WD Green (in SPAN mode) off a E7400 + Asus P5N7A-VM, running Vista HP (32-bit) since I have a spare licence. This rig serves as my backup server. I use SPAN mode to create a large block of HD space without redundancy, as this will act as backup storage only (the main storage will be in a RAID-5 array).

I will soon be replacing the CPU/mobo with an unused Q8200 + Gigabyte EP45-UD3P since I plan on using the E7400 plus the mATX P5N7A-VM to build a NAS into my unused SG-01 casing (plan on 5x2TB HDs, 2 in the internal drive bays, 3 in a IcyDock 3-in-2 removable drive cage in the external drive bays). I have started to look around at FreeNAS to run this NAS, and the possibility of using a CF-to-IDE adapter to boot the OS off a CF card via the IDE port. This NAS would be headless and kept in my store-room next to my main home switch.

My main server should be completed by this week, as I just need to pickup a good HSF (thinking of TR's Venomous-X) and a cheap GPU (Radeon 5450 possibly) to power 2 monitors. I will be running 2x2TB WD Black (OS + fast HD for video ripping/encoding), and 8x2TB WD Green in RAID-5 off an Areca RAID controller. I know of the possible TLER issues with the Greens, but the RE4s cost twice as much, and at current prices, the additional cost is RM3.2K. So I am hoping that since I also have a full backup in my other rig and I hope I can change the timeout settings on the Areca controller, things should be ok. CPU is a i7-870 with Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P mobo and 8GB of Kingston VR. I've mounted 2 units of IcyDock's 5-in-3 removable HD cage in my CM Stacker casing, and plan to add a 3-in-2 cage as well for another 3 HDs. So in theory, I should have 14TB of RAID-5 storage now, with another 4TB (less what the OS takes up) of fast storage (off the WD Blacks) to speed up my rips/encodes. Potentially another 6TB of storage once I get myself down to Singapore to get my IcyDock drive cage. The OS will be Win7 HP (64-bit) at present, though I will consider using Windows Home Server v2 when it is finally launched.

I will also use my new server to test the CF-to-IDE adapter (using 2x16GB Kingston 133x CF cards) for possible use on the NAS.

Check this out on the Project called Black Dwarf.
Definitely cheaper than any NAS system available outside but you need the tools and resources to build it.

http://www.willudesign.com/BlackDwarfTop.html

Your NAS look complicating.

I m using synology NAS with 4x2TB raid 5. And a 1x2TB + 1x1TB media player network to NAS. All the storage already 70% full. I keep the rig simple. Important is using less power. My next expanding should be another 4x2TB raid 5 enclosure to joint to the NAS.

Arggg...cant find any spinpoint f3 at penang.
How abt WD dark veloraptor? How fast is it compare to normal 7200 HDD?

Looks nice but after factoring cost of tools and resources (plus skills), probably end up costing more than just buying a cheap roomy casing and plugging in all the HDs.

Not that complicated lah:

I have NAS Rig#1 (E7400 on Asus mATX mobo) with 12TB storage (5x2TB WD Green in SPAN mode, 2x1TB WD Green in SPAN mode) running Vista HP (32bit) at current time. The Asus mATX mobo has 5 SATA ports only, and I am currently using a PCIe x1 SATA controller with 2 SATA ports.

I will build NAS Rig#2 (using NAS Rig#1's CPU and mobo) with 10TB storage (5x2TB WD Green or similar HD) in a small compact SG-01 casing. I want to try using a CF card as the OS drive (via the IDE port). Plan to try using FreeNAS as the OS.

Having taken out NAS Rig#1's CPU and mobo, I will use my spare CPU/mobo (Q8200, Gigabyte EP45-UD3R), as its new CPU/mobo, which will allow me to add the 8th HD as the Gigabyte mobo has 8 SATA ports).

Am currently building my main server with 18TB storage (8x2TB WD Green in RAID-5 = 14TB, 2x2TB WD Black = 4TB) using a i7-870 and Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P mobo. I use an Areca RAID controller to hook up the 8 RAID drives, and the rest I use the onboard SATA ports (2x2TB WD Black, 2x BD optical drives, 3x future HDs, 1x spare). Plan to use Win 7 HP as the OS now, and may change to WHS v2 when that is released. Maybe I should post a pic after I finish assembling the PC this week, so it will be less complicated

I also have a Synology DS408 NAS (4x1TB in RAID-5 = 3TB) and a D-Link DNS 323 (plan to put in two old 160GB SATA drives, as this NAS is VERY slow). After I filled up the 3TB on the DS408 in a very short period of time, I decided to go all out and build my main server.

This post has been edited by Traveler: Jul 20 2010, 03:43 PM

For the SPAN mode, is it NTFS volume based? If one disk fails, will the rest still works?

Been sometime since I shopped for a HDD, I read the thread and seems like Samsung F3 is worth the price?

The last time I bought a HDD was when the WD 640GB being popular.

samsung spinpoint f3 1tb is hot now, price cheaper and performance beat wd black 1tb.

I was checking out Thundermatch's price list.

The Samsung 1TB 32mb is RM215 but the WD 1TB 64mb RM218... but the Black is RM295 @_@. Been sometime since I search for these :S.

yea, the price drop a lot since the era of wd 640gb.
that time wd 640gb also cost around rm2xx.

Yes it is NTFS volume based. Theoretically, if one disk fails, we may be able to recover the rest, but I would, for safety's sake, assume a total loss. Normally, I wouldn't even consider it, but for backup storage on a rig that is only switched on for backups, I find it quite acceptable, especiallly when the main storage is on a RAID-5 array.

performance wise F3 n wd black quite the same..
i want to see bigger platter..

Alright then, I would source for a Samsung spinpoint f3 1TB then . HDD space getting really limited haih.

One word. Wow. Notice, most of your drive is WD, did you get any Samsung? CF to IDE, would it be slow, would be interesting if you can share your journey on NAS. Again, wow.

Most are WD due to price and so far in past 2 years, WD has been very reliable, while I had a new 1TB Seagate HD fail on me (lucky it was in a RAID-5 array, so I managed to rebuild with a new drive; Seagate RMA was easily and painless, and I received my refurbished replacement drive soon after). Haven't bought any Samsungs as I figured for my 8-disc RAID-5 array I would stick to the tried and tested. But I am keen to try them out, so may consider them for the additional HDs I will be buying (subject to the price remaining at good levels).

I expect the CF-IDE drive to be slow, but hopefully not too slow. As I only plan to use it in a NAS, I hope it will be ok. In any case, it's just an experiment I am running now, to see if it works well. As I have 2x 16GB CF cards there, I am tempted to see if I can run it in RAID-0 to speed things up.

I just assembled my main server last night, with almost everything hooked up except for the HDs and a few minor items.