Low Power NAS Hardware Comparison

Hey all,

So I am thinking about building the lowest power possible (or at least lowest power possible that make sense cost wise) home NAS box.

A few requirements I have given myself:

             - Must be able to run FreeNAS

             - System should support ECC

                 * I realized ECC might be overkill for a home NAS, but, eh, I want to do it as right as I can (and that I can afford) and ECC doesn't seem like too much of a cost premium.

             - mini-ITX form factor

At this point, I am interested in deciding on a motherboard and processor combo. Through my research, I have narrowed it down to these two options:

          - A Core i3 i3-4130T: Link, paired with this ASRock mE3C226D2I motherboard: Link

OR 

          -SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SBAA-F-O, which is a motherboard combo with an Intel Atom S1260  Link

From what I can tell, the i3 option will be more powerful, more upgradable, use more power but also cost more.

So I guess my question is, what would you do and why? And will the supermicro setup be more than enough for a small single user (me) NAS with possible iSCSI setup down to road to be a backend to a VMWare lab. If you have other hardware you'd recommend, feel free!

Thanks all,

 

Zaveman

 

 

 

the atom will draw less power but the i3 will perform much better.