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NAS, Server or something else to do with hdd's

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sapsa:
Dear Baka community,

after helping me with Moving Files problem and after reading External Hdd i thinked of making something with my hdds.

Currently i use 3 samsung hdd's as storage for anime (3x1TB) and I'm currently buying another one, but with the knowledge I got from the "moving files problem" topic, I thought about making a miniServer, NAS for those 4 hdds. If it was server then it have to be a power-friendly (low power usage) mobo+cpu with linux, the mobo need to have ahci (mine main mobo dont :( )
If i pick NAS it should be something with 4 or more sata slots for hdds, but i dont think i will find something like that - probably will be a miniserver + linux.
I can leave everything alone, but the less times hdd work the longer they work, and I dont use them all the time, I just fill them up with anime, and then only watch them when i got time - so it would be good way to save some hdd's life.
The other option is to use external case's for hdds. but mine's are 3.5" so there will be needed external power supply, and I dont like the idea to keep them in wardrobe, and put them in and out the case just to copy/watch something.

Currently im looking for cheap-cheap-cheap-lowerpower-mobo that has everything integrated. Would be great if the mobo had PSU too. I looked at ATOM mobo's but they aint cheap.

But i'm looking for idea's from you Baka Community. I know you all use NAS/SERVERS/RACKS and all of you got few(and more) HDD's ;)

Please help me, Sapsa

Pentium100:
Atom may not be cheapest, but it uses very little power, you could make a simple UPS* for it. The motherboard will probably use less power than your 4 hard drives.

Also, look into other mini-ITX ans similar motherboards, IIRC, VIA makes a low power CPU too.

I am using a regular PC with 8 hard drives (one of them system) and two tape drives as my main file server. I am also using a ~10 year old server as a VM server, running uTorrent and keeping the recently downloaded files (so I don't need to seed from a network drive, in case the main file server goes down). It also runa a couple of virtual machines (more if I need them). This one has 4 drives, 3x 10kRPM 18GB and 1x 7.2kRPM 300GB.

All in all, I use ~20 hard drives on 5 computers, smallest being 1.2GB (990MB), largest being 750GB. Total capacity - ~3.3TB

* 12V ATX PSU + 12V sealed lead-acid battery + 14V PSU = simple on-line UPS.

sapsa:
when i looked for mini-ITX, i know it was more expensive than similar non mini-itx. I will give it a try, but the power consume is important here, even the mobo that boot from flash would be great ;]

Thanks for the tip with that on-line ups, you got any www howToBuildMyOwn ?:P

Pentium100:
I don't have any links, but I could draw a circuit diagram for you.

Though I have though about this and in theory it should work, I have not tried it (reason - I don't have a low power motherboard and the 12V ATX power supplies usually are not very powerful (100-200W).)

For low power consumption you need to use either a mobile CPU or a specifically designed low power CPU such as the Atom. Low power CPUs are more expensive to make, so they usually are not used in desktops. For laptops, every watt counts because you want it to run on the battery as long as possible and do not want to lug around a heavy battery. On the other hand, desktops usually work using the mains power so they do not need to be as low power as a laptop, that's why desktop motherboard + desktop CPU will use more power.

sapsa:
But the main question is if i get that "atom" mobo with low power usage, will it handle 4 sata 3,5" disks?

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