Hello From MN

[Jason B]

I found myself here because I was checking out complete NAS server systems and was kind of flustered by the prices I was seeing. This all started because my main PC of seven years took a turn for the worse about six months ago and lost some relatively important personal data. Being a techie, before even looking into NAS, my first thought was to just setup some sort of network storage on the cheap. By this I mean an external USB hard drive plugged into a Ethernet to USB dongle. I wasn't quite sure this would work since I don't believe a dongle has anywhere to hold IP address/domain information. Thus I thought there must be some kind small device like print servers that connect printers to networks. When I looked I found there are some out there but not many. And the ones I found cost a lot more than a $40 RJ-45 to USB adapter. Then I started focusing on NAS servers. I had heard about them but didn't really look into them. When I started reviewing them I liked what I saw. What I didn't like was the price. Also some of the 4-bay ones that cost less than $800 use plastic drive trays and plastic covers. Which do not help to dissipate heat. I thought I could pickup a new PC with 4 drive bays for less and use it for the same purpose. That is kind of where I'm at now.

 

[BigDave]

I would recommend you take a look at a Lenovo Think Server, they are inexpensive and are made with server grade hardware. Search here in the forum for TS120, TS130 and you can read lots of comments and feedback regarding this starter type purchase.

 

[Jason B]

I spent the day looking into the Lenovo ThinkSever TS140 and the HP Proliant Microserver. I like both but for different reasons. I am now leaning toward the HP micro server.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Also consider a Dell PowerEdge T20.

 

[Jason B]

I really like the HP Microserver layout - front disk access, 2 Gbit Ethernet (s/w bindable), integrated lights out management, ... Only problem is I can only afford the Celeron G1610T processor. Doing CPU comparison at cpu.benchmark.com has me thinking no way on the Celeron. Especially if I'm considering trans-coding video. On the other hand the ThinkSever TS140 has a good 4 core Xeon processor with RAM expandable to 32 GB. I thinks its possible to add a second NIC of the same type in the ThinkServer for s/w binding. I just don't care for the legacy tower case. The truth is I haven't thought about trans-coding video for years. In the past I have recorded video from TV tuner cards then later encoded them to different formats and burned them to DVDs and later watched them on a DVD player on a analog TV. That was 10 years ago; before I got married and had kids. Nowadays I occasionally watch old movies on YouTube (no pay service here) either on my computer or my iPhone but I don't see myself recording video anytime soon.

 

[pirateghost]

Stop thinking about "s/w binding" the NICs. For your average home environment it will provide zero benefit. You would need LOTS of clients to take advantage of it.

 

[Jason B]

Sorry. I am new to NAS and I read somewhere that binding NICs is beneficial. I didn't realize it takes a large amounts of network traffic, or connections, before you would realize the benefits of it.

I also read somewhere that if you have multiple NIC ports and are hosting VMs on your NAS that you can dedicate NIC ports to specific VMs. I administer about 30 Windows VMs at work running automated MS tests. Though I don't think I would have a home need for VMs.

I expect most of my NAS use will center around storage of photos and videos. I like the idea of remote access via internet and that smartphone apps can be used to access the data remotely. I just need to decide on which pieces of hardware to buy.

 

[BigDave]

I expect most of my NAS use will center around storage of photos and videos. I like the idea of remote access via internet and that smartphone apps can be used to access the data remotely. I just need to decide on which pieces of hardware to buy.

While this link below is not the end all, die all answer, it may be a good read for you to get a few ideas. Warning!
YMMV! Secure remote access is not for the faint of heart.
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...r-freenas-server-remotely-and-securely.27376/