[ale] DIY NAS vs Boxed NAS?

[Alex Carver]

I'm currently paying $0.12/kWh for my usage tier not including taxes and
surcharges.  I'm fortunately still in the middle of the tier otherwise
it would be $0.21/kWh.  Each Watt adds up to about $1.50 per year. so
the difference between a system running 100 W and one running 50 W does
make a difference especially for a 24/7 machine.

On 2018-12-03 03:15, DJ-Pfulio via Ale wrote:
> 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. 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>