Tiny personal NAS

[neit]

Howdy,

I was just realizing that the number of computers and shared materials at my apartment is getting pretty big. I want to build a computer that is semi portable, but is dedicated to just serving files (large files, movies, simulation data, etc).

I want to be able to just shut it down and be able to take it to school and gather data files via ethernet, and then to bring it back to the apartment and start cracking on it.

Having done a minimal amount of research into this, I have come to the following basic design:

A "mini" Micro-atx case
Nforce or otherwise very integrated mobo
2-4 IDE hardrives
256 ram
cheapo processor

I figure since its dedicated to file serving, and not necesarily hit all the time (but hit regularly to pull large files, maybe stream a movie everynow and then), it doesn't need high specs.

Here are my concerns that I wonder if anyone else can give advice on:
Are there smaller cases for the setup I'm looking for?
Should I consider using some more premium parts for any of the components?
How badly should i worry about heat/possible damage?

I would appreciate if anyone would leave some comments on their problems/success with a small, dedicated file storage computer.

 

[heartsurgeon]

gather data files via ethernet

movies per chance?

how about a dell 400sc? these seem to go on sale for $350.00 periodically..actually, right now for $350 (after a 100 rebate)
2.8 ghz 800fsb, 80 gig hd, 128 meg mem 400sc server....

task built.
should be uber reliable...
add some big cheap IDE drives.

your set.

while you may be able to build something cheaper, your time has to be worth something, and you won;t be worrying about reliablity.

imho not a bad deal.

the 400sc dell forum reveals all the undocumented wonders of the 400sc motherboard.l

 

[redbeard1]

This runs from a floppy and is free, though it takes some fooling around to make the floppy

Naslite

 

[Texun]

PC-ASUS

HD-160g

CPU- XP2000

RAM - 512

NEC DVD Burner

I don't know what budget you are working on but the total here is $411 plus shipping from Newegg. This is not the nforce chipset you asked for, but for what you want to do there really isn't a need to go with nForce. VIA gets hammered a lot but I have never had a problem of any kind as long as the foundation was solid, PSU, MB, RAM, etc.

You couls get something like this with an nforce chipset but I personally wold rather have a name brand board like ASUS, Shuttle, or Aopen, but these start out almost $100 more than the the mATX barebones.

Also.. you didn't say wyat OS you planned to use so my guess would be W2000 or XP in which case I would opt for 512 of memory. You could go with 256 for roughly $37 instead of the 75 or so dollars for the 512.

As far as heat is concerned I would add a case fan to vent the hot air away as much as possible. The 2000 CPU will run pretty cool as is with the HS is properly mounted and shouldn't cause any concern. If all you want to do is have a portable server even a Duron would be fine, but the cost difference isn't that much so I added the XP. Also... You could get by with a $19 CD Rom drive if you want to cut the DVD.

Hope this helps.

*EDIT*

You can cut the price to $307 if you go with the ASUS barebones, Sempron 2200 CPU, Sony 52X CD Rom, 256 RAM and the Samsung 160g hard drive with 3 year warranty. Seagate is another option for a couple of dollars difference.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: redbeard1
This runs from a floppy and is free, though it takes some fooling around to make the floppy

Naslite

Great idea, but I don't see the free part. Everything seems to want me to buy the "CDrom Floppy Disk Maker" for sixteen bucks.

- M4H

 

[Z_1]

If all you're doing is file sharing and will not need a PC. Try this thing Linksys, we have it at work for our umm..files that are not work related and have 2 external hard drives in it attached to it. Can't get more portable than that.

 

[LeadMagnet]

Are there smaller cases for the setup I'm looking for?

ITX format

Should I consider using some more premium parts for any of the components?

NO - not for a file server. a P2 400MHz would be more than enough for file/print/router/DHCP/firewall server

How badly should i worry about heat/possible damage? The CPU would be the first to die due to heat - but the hard drives would be the biggest lost.

A Via Epia based system would put out only 20watts of heat.



Any OS (Linux using NFS & Windows using CIFS) can serve up the files easily, and all suport FTP.

 

[jose]

How much data are you wanting to carry around ? If it's less than 300gigs then you could get a external usb/firewire enclosure about $25 and add a 300g hd $215 to it.

Lot less trouble then making a computer.

Regards,
Jose

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: Z_1
If all you're doing is file sharing and will not need a PC. Try this thing Linksys, we have it at work for our umm..files that are not work related and have 2 external hard drives in it attached to it. Can't get more portable than that.

Originally posted by: jose
How much data are you wanting to carry around ? If it's less than 300gigs then you could get a external usb/firewire enclosure about $25 and add a 300g hd $215 to it.

Lot less trouble then making a computer.

Regards,
Jose

Was about to reccomend both of these

 

[redbeard1]

Naslite

Great idea, but I don't see the free part. Everything seems to want me to buy the "CDrom Floppy Disk Maker" for sixteen bucks.

?

Click on one of the floppy symbols, in the catagory you want, and download it.

 

[neit]

cool, thanks for all the info. I am looking for around 200 gigs for now, but wanted to be able to add more as i use it up and newer hardrives are released.

And yes, i guess i'll come clean and say some of it is movies and music for our private lan, but I do want portability for when i grab datasets from school (vary from 4 - 15 gb per transfer). I'll check out some of the Dell offers, and hopefully i can find something thats not too expensive (looking to spend $300 to $400 for the base and leave space for the future).

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: redbeard1
Naslite

Great idea, but I don't see the free part. Everything seems to want me to buy the "CDrom Floppy Disk Maker" for sixteen bucks.

?

Click on one of the floppy symbols, in the catagory you want, and download it.

***OFFICIAL*** I'm a moron ***CONFIRMED***

Cut me some slack, it was only 4:26PM when I posted that. I must have been blind stinking sober.

- M4H

 

[episodic]

Find a Cyrix Chip and a socket 370 board. . . low power - no fan needed - passive cooling more than enough horsepower to run a file serve. . .

 

[dmw16]

maybe get two network cards in the computer. one for large files and one for streaming movies? THat would help spread the bandwidth. ALso 512MB of ram would help. And try to setup the drives so all files of one type are in one place...assuming you'd never be streaming more than one movie at a time, you could keep all movies on one drive and your sim data on another.