I don’t know about the rest of you, but I seem to have an inordinate amount of data that I store on my hard drives. Whether it’s home movies, pictures, music, data seems to be proliferating at a rather fast rate. Add to that any type of version control (for software development) and you can see the need for a home server that keeps everything running smoothly and can be hardened against attacks, failures, etc.
So how cheap can such a server cost? Here’s a few options
1 – If you’re not interested in assembling your own hardware, you can go for an OTS (Off The Shelf) device such as the HP Proliant MicroServer (658553-001). This can be had new for about $300 (or less if you look around eBay can be had for as low as $200+shipping)
Some of the main advantages with going with such a device should be pretty apparent – item is pre-built, tested and ready to go. Provides for Gigabit ethernet, USB ports, etc. However there are some disadvantages such as proprietary boards and lack of hot-plug ability. It does however support Linux and Windows so you can get up and running in pretty short order and with whatever OS you want.
2 – If you want to learn more about the hardware and the software involved in a NAS, you can build your own system for a fairly low price (may not be as cheap as above – but you can define the overall capabilities). Here’s a sampling of parts and associated costs
| Item | Part # | Cost |
| Case | <RANDOM> | $40 |
| Power Supply | <RANDOM> | $60 |
| Motherboard | Foxconn 45CMX | $39 |
| Memory | 2GB DDR3 | $30 |
| CPU | Celeron Dual Core | <$30 |
| SATA RAID Card | Promise SATA300 4Port PCI | $19 (or less) |
| Drive Cage (Optional) | iStarUSA DE340SS | $95 |
The above is just a sampling – look for deals at places like MicroCenter and you may be able to get things even cheaper. If you do get stuff on eBay, look at getting items in multiple quantities. Getting a backup motherboard or raid card will not be a huge investment, but will save you HOURS/DAYS of heartburn and pain if you have a component failure.
In the next installment we’ll go over the options (software wise) particularly as it relates to open source offerings for setting up your NAS.
