[Robie7642003]

Hi All,
Planning on building a home NAS machine--if it makes sense over a ready-made system. This will be my third build overall, and am now fairly addicted to doing it myself! (Also have become addicted to reading everyone's system specs on this forum!)

Would be for use in a network having both Vista 64 and XP machines, potentially adding a Mac. Objective is as low a price as I can with some comfort level of performance based on my experience while bettering any commercial product.

ASUS P5GC-MX micro ATX MOBO

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813131243

Celeron D E1400 CPU (I'm open to AMD but have always at Intel)


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819116069

Athenatech A3603BB.400 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply (Love my new Antec mid-tower ATX but was going for something small and cheap here)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811190072

LITE-ON Black 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM ATAPI/E-IDE CD Burner (want to include burner in case of burning files directly--this was the cheapest at Newegg)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827106084

HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Again, cheapest I saw, plan to start with two but can add later)

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
(not sure I even need 1 GB but can't hurt at the price)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820144152

While I've never used Linux, I was thinking of installing UBUNTU as OS and FREENAS as the NAS, both for price (or lack thereof!)

I struggled most on the case actually, since I wanted a small form factor, yet choices seem to really limit amount of SATA connectors in the PSU's available. While I plan to start with two 1 TB drives (not as interested in RAID as merely a redundant back-up for all my computers on the network) I would like the ability to add more drives in the future.

Would love to know if this idea is good, bad or not even in the ballpark!

Total is about $350 without shipping or cost of OS.

Thanks in advance,
Larry

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Hi All,
Planning on building a home NAS machine--if it makes sense over a ready-made system. This will be my third build overall, and am now fairly addicted to doing it myself! (Also have become addicted to reading everyone's system specs on this forum!)

Would be for use in a network having both Vista 64 and XP machines, potentially adding a Mac. Objective is as low a price as I can with some comfort level of performance based on my experience while bettering any commercial product.

ASUS P5GC-MX micro ATX MOBO

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813131243

Celeron D E1400 CPU (I'm open to AMD but have always at Intel)


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819116069

Athenatech A3603BB.400 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply (Love my new Antec mid-tower ATX but was going for something small and cheap here)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811190072

LITE-ON Black 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM ATAPI/E-IDE CD Burner (want to include burner in case of burning files directly--this was the cheapest at Newegg)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827106084

HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Again, cheapest I saw, plan to start with two but can add later)

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
(not sure I even need 1 GB but can't hurt at the price)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820144152

While I've never used Linux, I was thinking of installing UBUNTU as OS and FREENAS as the NAS, both for price (or lack thereof!)

I struggled most on the case actually, since I wanted a small form factor, yet choices seem to really limit amount of SATA connectors in the PSU's available. While I plan to start with two 1 TB drives (not as interested in RAID as merely a redundant back-up for all my computers on the network) I would like the ability to add more drives in the future.

Would love to know if this idea is good, bad or not even in the ballpark!

Total is about $350 without shipping or cost of OS.

Thanks in advance,
Larry

To save some bucks and the performance would be lil faster and to get away from the CELERON (YUCK) look into the Atom 330 CPU and they come combo with a mobo for less than $85.00.

These newer Atom 330 cpu's pack a pretty nice punch for the price/performance ratio and would be perfect for a linux distro such as ubuntu..

They are dual core cpu's and are not made off of the core 2 duo's but they were made off of the original (PENTIUM 4/D CPU'S) and they have made some improvements on the design all together, lower power, busses etc.. The cores are able to work with each other better than the core 2 duo platforms so you do get quite a punch for your dollars. Better than the Celeron chips and is much faster than the pentium 4 chips.

They are on the 45nm chip and look at this, the max TDP is ONLY 8 Watts LOL. That is what you call low power consumption and low heat.

Get the above cpu and mobo and you will save money on the power supply also.

Only con is the mobo's have 1 memory slot but just get one stick of 2gb memory if needed and they have only 1 pci expansion slot. IDK if you need a decent or beefy video card if not this system would be a good overall pick.

Just pick out a mini ITX case, HD and power supply and you are set..

[jrm20]

Hi All,
Planning on building a home NAS machine--if it makes sense over a ready-made system. This will be my third build overall, and am now fairly addicted to doing it myself! (Also have become addicted to reading everyone's system specs on this forum!)

Would be for use in a network having both Vista 64 and XP machines, potentially adding a Mac. Objective is as low a price as I can with some comfort level of performance based on my experience while bettering any commercial product.

ASUS P5GC-MX micro ATX MOBO

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813131243

Celeron D E1400 CPU (I'm open to AMD but have always at Intel)


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819116069

Athenatech A3603BB.400 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply (Love my new Antec mid-tower ATX but was going for something small and cheap here)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811190072

LITE-ON Black 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM ATAPI/E-IDE CD Burner (want to include burner in case of burning files directly--this was the cheapest at Newegg)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827106084

HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Again, cheapest I saw, plan to start with two but can add later)

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
(not sure I even need 1 GB but can't hurt at the price)

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820144152

While I've never used Linux, I was thinking of installing UBUNTU as OS and FREENAS as the NAS, both for price (or lack thereof!)

I struggled most on the case actually, since I wanted a small form factor, yet choices seem to really limit amount of SATA connectors in the PSU's available. While I plan to start with two 1 TB drives (not as interested in RAID as merely a redundant back-up for all my computers on the network) I would like the ability to add more drives in the future.

Would love to know if this idea is good, bad or not even in the ballpark!

Total is about $350 without shipping or cost of OS.

Thanks in advance,
Larry

To save some bucks and the performance would be lil faster and to get away from the CELERON (YUCK) look into the Atom 330 CPU and they come combo with a mobo for less than $85.00.

These newer Atom 330 cpu's pack a pretty nice punch for the price/performance ratio and would be perfect for a linux distro such as ubuntu..

They are dual core cpu's and are not made off of the core 2 duo's but they were made off of the original (PENTIUM 4/D CPU'S) and they have made some improvements on the design all together, lower power, busses etc.. The cores are able to work with each other better than the core 2 duo platforms so you do get quite a punch for your dollars. Better than the Celeron chips and is much faster than the pentium 4 chips.

They are on the 45nm chip and look at this, the max TDP is ONLY 8 Watts LOL. That is what you call low power consumption and low heat.

Get the above cpu and mobo and you will save money on the power supply also.

Only con is the mobo's have 1 memory slot but just get one stick of 2gb memory if needed and they have only 1 pci expansion slot. IDK if you need a decent or beefy video card if not this system would be a good overall pick.

Just pick out a mini ITX case, HD and power supply and you are set..

[Robie7642003]

Thanks. I did look at the Atom combos. My one struggle was finding either a case or PSU that had room for multiple SATA drives. But maybe expand my search a bit, does seem like a good idea that could fit my low cost goal.
Thanks again.