I'm a bit undecided as to build a NAS or just go and buy one.

I've seen a few that do what i want but building one is also an option. It must have a print server built in and prefrably 500GB+ storage.

I found this Link (http://www.mashie.org/casemods/udat1.html) which looks easy enough but i cant seem to find anywhere near the same prices over here as this guy gets in the USA.

Anyway..Just wondered what you thought and if you had any other options for me.

Thanks

Just sort of in the process of doing something similar myself. As it's going to sit in the garage I'm not really bothered what it looks like so all I need to do is get some drives and a RAID card to shove in a case I happen to have floating about spare with pretty much any old motherboard in it, which I also have a few of, (one should work :wink: ).

All it'll actually cost me is the drives and RAID card, if I didn't have a case and motherboard then just I'd probably just buy something cheap from eBay. and ditch the bits I don't want.

I have a raid card, cider restricts my ability to give any more information but its a good un and it cameout of a fujitsu siemens server and I can flog it!

I've got a LinkStation HD-250LAN

http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/storage.php

I mainly use it to backup my Linux server.

Advantages:

Small, Its about the size of a large book
Very Quiet
Cheaper than building a PC to do the same job (almost)
Runs Linux
You can hack it, and install all sorts of your own software on it.
Consumes considerably less power than a PC.
Easy to setup.

Disadvantages:
The IDE hard disk may be unsuitable for multi-users. I'd say more than four people at once my make it run slow.
No RAID, its a single hard disk.

It does what I want it to. But that project mimic found looks good, and it looks like the company who supply the raid enclosure will deliver internationally, although the cost of postage is almost the same as the box.

Adaptec do a simmilar raid box, but its £370 and is beige.

K.

I built one from an old P3 677 running win2K I had lying around.

Stuck 2x80 gb drives in and 2x160gb drives in to start with (back when those drives were considered large). I've since added a 5 port USB2 pci card and 2 x 400Gb external drives. Giving me a total of just over 1.2TB with 3 future USB2 ports to add more drives later.

I just have it sat in the corner of an upstairs room running Terminal Services and VNC. No monitor, keyboard or mouse plugged into it. I very rarely log into it tbh, it just "works".

If you have a spare computer lying around (a pentium 2+) and add Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11g wireless usb you can built a terrabye gigabit/wireless storage device for around £500. Even if you don't have one lying around you can often find a second hand Celeron or Pentium for under £100.

Don't be fooled into buying one of the branded USB external drives. Buy something like the Icy box which can fit standard drives (IDE or SATA). They cost around £20 - £30, look really nice and do exactly the same thing for a fraction of the cost.

Running something like this as a "server" will of course also allow you to do other things like run the print server you require.

I'm not overly bothered about looks as i think it will be in the loft and accessed remotely..I'm not sure if the garage would be good because of the damp air in the winter months
I've read that most have a basic linux OS on them but i'm not at that point yet although it would help to learn about it before i build/buy the thing.

I had looked at the Buffalo ones and I must say they are very nice looking..bit limited on the size of the hdd unless you add usb though.

I think I might just sell my main PC and use the cash to get it sorted, since i bought this new laptop I only use the main pc for staorage anyway!!

Thanks for the ideas and please keep thm coming ;)

Originally posted by punk
Don't be fooled into buying one of the branded USB external drives. Buy something like the Icy box which can fit standard drives (IDE or SATA). They cost around £20 - £30, look really nice and do exactly the same thing for a fraction of the cost.

I was comparing drive prices today and a 200Gb external was only £20 dearer than an internal. The benefit is that you're getting a branded box, with good big-name support and warrantty rather than a cheap nasty one with poor support and connectivity problems, which seems to becoming more commonplace.

I was comparing drive prices today and a 200Gb external was only £20 dearer than an internal.

Thats not as bad as I thought. When I was in the market for buying one the 200gb externals cost the same as 400gb internals.

When I want to buy another one I will definatly buy an Icy Box + Internal (Seagate) again. They have been faultless for me and look fantastic.

What conections are on the back of the ICY BOX? I had a look but could oly find a small picture that didnt really show much.

As for building the project in the link...Bit of a no no due to the stupid prices we are expected to pay in this country :mad:

It looks like a small case with a cheap mobo and cpu are the way to go.....Or just buy a ready made job.

Originally posted by mimic
What conections are on the back of the ICY BOX? I had a look but could oly find a small picture that didnt really show much.

Mine has one USB 2 and two Firewire ports. The firewire port is very quick. Using an old and noisy hard disk can create a bit of noise, using the desk as a sound board. They also do a S-ATA version.

Did you know, in XP and W2K you can mount an external drive as a folder instead of a drive letter.

Make a folder, then in Disk Manager, go to your drive, right mouse click on the drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. Click Add then browse (in Mount in this NTFS folder) for the folder you created. Once added you can remove the original drive letter assignment.

K.