Low budget nas build (€500)

[Aran]

Hi,

a friend of my moved to his new home and asked my if i could build him a low budget, low power NAS. The nas wil basically be used as a fileserver and music streamer. No movies so there's no need for plex. We only have $500 to spend with the hdd's included (we're in Belgium) and this is what i had in mind so far:

 

• 
  hdd: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7.2k SATA 6Gb/s  (x2)      € 140,00
  nic: Intel EXPI9301CTBLK                                  € 29,90
  mobo: Asrock J3160DC-ITX *                            € 127,10
  case: Cooler Master Elite 110                            € 44,80
  ram: Team Group So-DIMM DDR3 1600 8GB      € 40,30
  usb-stick: Sandisk 16GB Cruzer Fi                    € 9,80
  total:                                                                €391,90
   
  

*We already have a powersupply for the motherboard.

 

Will this run fine with:

 

- 3 to 4 basic dockers (pyload, a music manager, ...)

- just one headless win10 VM with this setup? (That celeron has 4 cores so i assume it would be ok)

- run openVPN server

 

One other thing i would like to ask: my own server need an lcd attached in order to boot up. I read the FAQ about this but i had no luck. I would very much like to be able to run the server headless.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[tdallen]

I don't have any experience with that setup but I am concerned that you'd be cutting it too close.  That's an 1,840 Passmark CPU.  While it would probably work well as a basic unRAID NAS I question whether it could handle a Win10 VM.  A couple of lightweight Dockers, yes - but I think that's not enough CPU or RAM for a Win10 VM.  I could be wrong, though - I haven't tried it.

[Aran]

Well, i'm running a win10 vm with only 2gb ram and it runs fine. So i'm not worried about the ram but you could be right about the cpu.

Maybe an AM1 mobo with a 5350 is a better choice? I've seen a few people on this forim running unraid on an AM1 platform.

[tdallen]

That would get you to 2,567 Passmarks but you're still in very low end territory.  This is a broad generalization, but I think most people running a Win10 VM are up in the 5,000+ Passmark range (or higher - lots higher).  What is the Win10 VM going to do?

[Aran]

What is the Win10 VM going to do?

Not much. Some basic web browsing from an android-box with rdp-app and an automatic file mover that moves pictures from a dropbox folder to the unraid array. That's about it. Maybe iSpy (camera security) could be installed later with max 2 ip-cams. (i haven't tested the zoneminder docker yet)

[mr-hexen]

The motherboard has an NIC onboard, so you dont need to buy one. That'll save you some $$$.

 

How are you planning to power this all up? The motherboard uses the wall adapter for power, so how are you planning to power up the hard drives??

 

If you already have a power supply (ATX Style) I'd use an approrpiate ATX motherboard.

[Aran]

The motherboard has an NIC onboard, so you dont need to buy one. That'll save you some $$$.

It has a realtek nic onboard. For a nas/server i prefer an intel one. Even when we're on a budget.

 

How are you planning to power this all up? The motherboard uses the wall adapter for power, so how are you planning to power up the hard drives??

There are sata-power cables (4 hdd's) included in the box. You have to plug them in onto the motherboard. (i use the same motherboard for my htpc)

 

If you already have a power supply (ATX Style) I'd use an approrpiate ATX motherboard.

I already have a notebook-style PS but i think they also ship one with the motherboard. (they do, i remember now )

 

I forgot to mention, openVPN will also be installed as a docker img. (edited the first post)

Hm, things are adding up... In the end we have quite a few services running so it may be better to buy an i3. The 2 HT-cores will be usefull for the VM.

 

Shame, i like to see how far one can go with those low power itx-boards

[mr-hexen]

If you already have this board why not test run unRAID and a win10 VM on it before you buy a  second?

[Aran]

If you already have this board why not test run unRAID and a win10 VM on it before you buy a  second?

I was thinking about that but it will take some time and i can't use my mediacenter at the same time. This new server is not for me btw.

[mr-hexen]

If you already have this board why not test run unRAID and a win10 VM on it before you buy a  second?

I was thinking about that but it will take some time and i can't use my mediacenter at the same time. This new server is not for me btw.

 

Even more reason to make sure it works before buying, unless you enjoy endless inquires about "why it doesnt work".

 

 

[Aran]

Very true 

Ok, i'll test it an keep this post up to date.

[Aran]

So far so good:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gtr02wquudv893x/AAD13LAeXODbXp9_ioGYOms4a?dl=0

 

It took me 50min to install windows 10 and the mechanical hard drive is killing me. I only had 4gb of ram from my notebook to test with. The new system will have an ssd and 8gb ram though. Overall i think this might actually work.

 

(where did the pyload docker img go in the CA plugin??)

[HellDiverUK]

Seriously consider an Athlon 5370.  Nearly double the processing power, and very similar power consumption.  You also can use normal 'big' DIMMs which are cheaper than SODIMMs.

 

I've been very happy with the MSI AM1I, and the Asus AM1M-A is a good microATX board.  You will have to add a SATA card, though, as AM1 only has 2 native SATA ports.  I've had good luck with a Startech card with a Marvell 88SE9230 chipset on it, it works great in unRAID.

 

Realtek NICs are just fine in unRAID - I've used them a lot in the past, and they're as solid as Intel.  The 8111F/G/H are not like the old 8196 of the past.