The consumer NAS (Network Attached Storage) market is flooded with high margin devices that deliver mediocre performance.  Typical diskless NAS devices with 4 to 6 drive slots cost $300 to $1100, but then you must purchase the drives to complete your NAS system.  There are also NAS solutions on the market complete with drives, but again, they cost about the same and require you to purchase proprietary replacement drives and parts, which increase your cost over time.

While I believe most consumers don’t mind paying a small premium for a pre-assembled and easy to use out of box experience, I also believe there are many who would like to save some money and gain performance, too.  Moreover, many of the less expensive NAS devices aren’t network storage – they’re USB, firewire or eSATA devices.  I’ve been building custom computers for many years, and building a custom NAS is just as simple.  If you’ve never built a custom computer and would like to learn, you can watch this video and follow these easy instructions.

You can build your own 8TB NAS server about $400-$600 cheaper than the proprietary 8TB equivalent and gain lots of performance.  Here is a list of hardware I recommend:

TOTAL = $843.92

Leading complete 8TB NAS = $1200.00

 

Here’s what this system will look like:

Some key features you’re looking for when building a NAS are:

  • SATA RAID capability (not needed with FreeNAS 8.0 with ZFS filesystem).
  • At least 1 (one) gigabit Ethernet port (1000 Mbps; preferably 2 for load balancing).
  • Quiet and efficient power supply and CPU fan.
  • Hot swappable SATA hard drive backplane.

Once you have built your more powerful and cost effective NAS system, you’ll then need an operating system to take advantage of and manage your NAS.  I recommend either Openfiler or FreeNAS.  Both are free NAS operating systems that give you control over Windows (CIFS), Linux (NFS) and Mac (AFP) file systems through very nicely designed web based management interfaces.  If strictly a home media server is more useful to you, then you have a very nice solution with Ubuntu and Boxee, however Openfiler and FreeNAS will allow you to do double duty as a NAS and Media Center PC.

With the more powerful processor and RAM available in your custom NAS, you should see about double the megabytes per second over an average commercial NAS device.  If you’re using a router or switch, then make certain they’re gigabit Ethernet as well or you’ll decrease your power to their lower standards.

If you’ve been searching for a solution of this nature, I hope you find this helpful.  If you’ve never thought about it but recognize the benefits of such a device in your home, then I’m ecstatic to be able to share my extreme geekyness with you!  Please feel free to comment if you have any suggestions that would make this an even better solution.

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