Building a NAS Environment

Was wondering upon the specs i need to build my own little NAS environment. Please look on the specs below and see if their enough or if i should upgrade them. Thanks

 

Corsair Value S.DDR3 1333MHz 4GB CL9, (2*2GB), unbuffered, CL9-9-24, 240 pin, 1.5V, for intel and AMD DDR3 (http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=502745)

AMD A-series A6-3500. Socked FM1, triple core, 2.1GHZ, 65W, 3MG, RADEON HD6530 (http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=645972#extra)

ASUS F1A55-M LK R2.0, socket FM1, M-ATX, A55, DDR3, 1XG2-PCIE-X16, VGA, DVI, UEFI (http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=776219)

Western Digital Red 3TB NAS harddrive (http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=776219)

 

Also have the powersupply, a case. Know im forgetting about something... Please tell me if i need to upgrade some of this or if their fine for my own little NAS environment. Thank you in advance.

 

PS: i searched for any server content in the forums, but were not able to find any. If i missed some, i am terribly sorry. 

 

Ok first off, to know if this is going to be good enough for you we need to answer a few questions:

1: How many users are going to be needing to transfer files back and forth from their local disks to the NAS? (simultaneus connections)

2: What are you planning on using for your OS?

3: What's your intended use for this NAS? Are you going to be using it for backing up several PCs, are you using it for streaming media and sharing music over your network, or something else?

4: do you intend to add extra storage space at a later date?

Speaking from my personal experience with my NAS, heres some things you want to know:

Serving files uses a lot of RAM. Memory is much more important than raw processing power. There isn't that much number crunching to do other than just moving data from disks to somewhere else. Having lots of memory makes it easier to

You'll also need something to install your OS on. On mine, I'm using a small USB key so that I have all the SATA channels available for storage. With something like FreeNAS, you lose all available space on the disk you install the OS on, and can't use it to hold the data you want to share. If your using a Windows server OS or a GNU/Linux server OS and just setting up a share point, it'll still be a performance advantage to have the OS and the data on seperate disks, and is likely to increase the life of your data disk.

Note: The link you provided for your Hard Drive is the same as the Motherboard.

1: How many users are going to be needing to transfer files back and forth from their local disks to the NAS? (simultaneus connections).

Mostly just me, but lets say 3 at most. If i wanted to make a NAS environment for 10 people all i needed to upgrade will be the RAM?

2: What are you planning on using for your OS?

Was planning on using Linux, but if there is another taht you suggest that would be appreciated.

3: What's your intended use for this NAS? Are you going to be using it for backing up several PCs, are you using it for streaming media and sharing music over your network, or something else?

Streaming media, and perhaps a backup of my PC but mostly streaming.

4: do you intend to add extra storage space at a later date?

I doubt it will be needed, but only time can tell. If i am planning to add extra storage than i have to buy a RAID Card or something like that?

Theres the hard disk :D

http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=757763

 

Thank you pastryhat, appreciate you taking the time to help with my petty problems :D.

Sorry for the late reply, Had a lot going on this week.

Ok, I'll first clear up a few of your questions, and then i'll tell you what my advice is.

If i wanted to make a NAS environment for 10 people all i needed to upgrade will be the RAM?

If you wanted to Have a lot of simultaneus connections, you would also want to upgrade to a multiport NIC and do some load balancing. For your uses though, I don't think that would be nessasary, That would be more talking about an enterpirse level setup.

If i am planning to add extra storage than i have to buy a RAID Card or something like that?

Not nessasarily. If your motherboard has enough free connections, you should be fine. You just need to make sure you have enough sata channels. I have 3 disks in my NAS and they all go off the integrated controller on the mothboard. The only reason you would need a raid controlled is if you ran out of ports on your motherboard or if you wanted to do some sort of hardware raid.

For OS, I would reccomend using FreeNAS. It's a FreeBSD based distribution that it designed for NAS use right out of the box. Once you have everything installed and configured, you can stick your box in a closet or somewhere out of the way with no keyboard or monitor hooked up. Eveything is also nicely administered from a Web interface, and you can have your disk show up as a variety of different share types. it suppose NFS (Linux/Unix), CIFS/Samba(Windows) and AFP(Apple). You can even fool apple devices into thinking it's a time capsule. You will need to make sure your hardware is compatible though, FreeBSD is worse than linux for compatibility,although everything I've thrown at it works.

If you only are using the one disk and no raid, that set-up should be fine for your use. If you really care about performance, you may want to see if you can get some more Ram.

Thank you this really helped :D. 

No problem. Best of luck to you.