[ale] DIY NAS vs Boxed NAS?

[DJ-Pfulio]

The loudest part of my NAS is the external array and it is quieter than
both other computers on the same rack.  Maybe I'm getting old, but if I
don't see the power light on the front of the device, I don't hear it.
The computer does have a "Bronze" PSU from Seasonic that was a deal at
the time. 5 internal disks and 5 externals.
Be certain to label the HDD WWN where you can read it before swapping
failed disks.  SMART header data will show it.

Using less watts is good for lots of reasons, but saving $5/yr doesn't
make it worth spending $100 more on the solution for me. Run the actual
cost comparison with your real electrical costs is all I'm saying.

iXsystems is a long-time sponsor of SELF. Over the years, they probably
gave a few talks about their systems. They do go out of their way to
keep the FreeNAS project FLOSS. I wouldn't have any concerns over their
corporate support of the project.

On 12/3/18 1:44 AM, Phil Turmel via Ale wrote:
> Ah, yes.  Forgot about your low-noise requirement.  That wasn't one of
> my concerns for that system.  It's mounted in the ceiling of the
> basement, under the wall supporting the big screen in the family room.
> Out of earshot.  Small and low-power were my only major criteria.
> 
> I still think you'd do well with an iTX mobo, even in a larger case.
> Lots of ATX and EATX cases will have the mobo support points for iTX, too.
> 
> On 12/2/18 6:05 PM, Alex Carver via Ale wrote:
>> That case is guaranteed not to be quiet.  The power supply fans are too
>> small.  I'd be looking for a case that could be populated with very
>> large diameter (like 120 mm) low RPM fans to keep the whole thing as
>> silent as possible.  My current daily driver computer has three 120 mm
>> fans running at around 500 RPM or less, one on the oversize CPU heat
>> pipe cooler/radiator, another on the drive cage and the one in the power
>> supply.  All of this is in a mid-tower case.  I almost never hear the
>> machine even with three hard drives installed unless I put my ear up
>> next to it.  That's the kind of thing I want for the NAS as well since
>> they'll be in the same room, big fans, nearly silent (hence using 5400
>> RPM drives).  The case doesn't have to be small, I have plenty of
>> physical space for a big tower.  I just need low power, near silence,
>> and the extra-nice-but-can-skip-if-alternative-exists individual
>> indicators for drive activity/health.
>>
>> On 2018-12-02 10:52, Phil Turmel via Ale wrote:
>>> You can put something like that together yourself from a wide selection
>>> of iTX mobos.  Cheap and power-efficient.  I ran one like that for
>>> several years in a 1U 4-bay hot-swap case.  In that one, I populated the
>>> single PCIe slot with a decent radeon graphics card for MythTV, but such
>>> could have easily been an LSI SAS controller in a bigger box.
>>>
>>> It was this enclosure:
>>>
>>> http://www.idotpc.com/thestore/pc/ITS-1916H-1U-ITX-4-Front-Load-Hot-Swappable-Drives-Rackmount-Case-and-Bare-bone-Unit-p1114.htm
>>>
>>> On 12/1/18 10:30 PM, Alex Carver via Ale wrote:
>>>> A fun revelation: I went to FreeNAS's website to look at the software
>>>> and apparently iXsystems sells a "home" server ready to go.  So they're
>>>> yet another boxed NAS source in addition to being the OS of choice for
>>>> DIY.  A hybrid of the two options.  The case is nice, though, and has
>>>> activity/status indicators for each drive, which seems to be something
>>>> hard to find with ordinary cases.  They're using a fanless motherboard
>>>> so there's at least a little noise reduction.  Looks like possibly an
>>>> Atom as they're quoting only 17 Watts TDP and 80 Watts total when
>>>> populated with eight drives.  The empty four bay is $1k and the eight
>>>> bay is $1,350.