Future Computer Parts / General Computer Discussions

[Tatsujin]

I've seen several nice NAS but they're a bit expensive. The best one I saw looked so bad-ass and had 5 stars. It was 6-bay, but the fucking price on that thing is a staggering 600 USD :/ ... that's just retarded.

It’s retarded unless you know what you’re paying for, and you are actually using those things/features you paid for.

Lol, NAS is a computer?! ... Why can't I just build a fucking computer myself and turn it into a NAS? Wow I'm really dull on this shit. Can I custom build something on my own and have it specifically JUST for HDDs? ...

You sure could. If you’re not picky it’s really easy. You *just* need to learn how to set it up as a server.

Look at this.

Well is this good enough? Or is NAS a whole different ... thing? I don't understand this shit. NAS is a computer? Because I saw "dual-core" and "RAM" and I'm like "wow a fucking thousand dollars for a shit specs because it has 8 bays?" Does it run on some sort of software? Do you install it on your computer and access it through there?

An NAS is essentially a PC designed to do server-things. It has customised firmware to make things really easy, web interfaces all set up, and a custom enclosure meant for convenience.

What do you get for the money? Hotswap bays, dual GbE LAN, HDD status LEDs (and maybe a text LCD), simplicity, convenience, small chassis footprint and low power consumption, firmware support, ... if you're not using most of those, the price obviously won't make sense to you. If you want to use it as a transcoding media server, you probably will want to build your own.

Among the better-reputed brands are Synology, QNAP. New entries include ASUSTOR (as the name suggests, an offshoot of ASUS), more budget-minded entries include Buffalo, and your usual router brands.

The specs may look shit, but remember that you're not using this for games or Photoshop. All those system resources will be used for background processes (e.g. RAID) and system tasks. Do you really want to blow your budget on 8 cores and 8GB RAM just for that?

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I'd suggest you start with any cheap PC you have lying in the basement first, set it up, play around with it, get a feel for what it's like managing a networked server, know what are the things you must have in your server and which are the nice-to-haves. Better than blowing your money on a premium NAS and finding it's not what you want. If you like that case size, Chenbro has a pretty decent ITX server case, if you can get past the name, if not any case that can handle your desired number of HDDs will do.

Personally, I started with a 4-bay Synology CS-407, liked the interface and convenience but found the 500MHz ARM processor too slow for torrent hashing. A couple of years later, moved to an i3 home server in a Lian Li V354 case, found it overpowered and not at all convenient. Running your own Linux server is fun and exciting etc and you get to do lots of shit, but there’re also nights you spend figuring out how to configure things exactly the way you want them, troubleshooting any samba updates and breakages, etc. I had a web interface set up, then it broke, then I unbroke it again, then it broke again ... chances are you’d be spending a lot of time in a command line, so you better learn to love it (unless you have a spare monitor and keyboard for the server). And unless your case has hotswap, each time you need to do something to your disks, that means mounting/unmounting then in a remote shell, opening up the case to add/remove disks, ... . And of course you have no way of knowing how your disks are doing unless you have email notifications set up, which means more reading ... If that sounds like your cup of tea, this is probably what you want.

Eventually I moved to a 6-bay Asustor AS-606T instead. Pricey? Yes :'| Convenient? Hell yes. HDD status LEDs especially, if you’re using a bunch of old/cheap drives that don’t necessarily hold up well under 24/7 operation. It took me more than a year to finally decide to go back to an NAS, but I’m glad I did. YMMV.

damn ... didn't even know that. I guess I can notch it down to an i3. I got the DF-85 case unless there is another case you would recommend with lots and lots of bays.

@ kita - can you set up a list for me then? I can also install an add-on with SATA 6GB connections to it? I mean, looking at the FreeNAS8 software and all, would it be able to recognize add-ons? And what case would you recommend? I'd rather keep the DF-85 for my next build.

Edit - Yeah the more I look at it the more I want to stay away from pre-built NAS. That guide I posted is pretty easy to do. Plus I'm purchasing WD Reds which is very reliable for NAS.

[kureshii]

^ wouldn't setting up a dropbox solution in a windows environment save you from those hassles?

Not at all. You still need email notification of failed drives, you still need to set up FTP and network shares for things that don't use or work with dropbox, you still want/need remote access to monitor processes ... and ideally you want to be able to do that through some sort of web interface that isn't bandwidth-heavy (so remote desktop is out of the question; you don't get good wifi everywhere).

And I’d argue the point that putting a Windows environment on a NAS actually makes things more complicated than they need to be ... but if that’s the only OS you know how to use, I guess you’re stuck with that.

I actually had a paid Dropbox setup (100GB) at one point, for keeping some things synced between home server and other devices (desktop, laptop, etc). Let’s just say that beyond a certain number of files you start running into some hiccups and other irritating issues, like taking forever to index, having to restart it manually sometimes (which means sshing on Linux, or if you’re using Windows, remote-desktoping—better hope for a good connection). Not to mention some inherent limitations like only 1 level of selective sync for folders, and slow upload speeds for no reason at all (25KB/s sometimes, 250KB/s sometimes, on a fiber line that can get 2–10MB/s to Google Drive).

Cancelled it after a few months, went back to FTP/rsync for remote syncing/access instead.

I guess I can notch it down to an i3. I got the DF-85 case unless there is another case you would recommend with lots and lots of bays.

@ kita - can you set up a list for me then? I can also install an add-on with SATA 6GB connections to it? I mean, looking at the FreeNAS8 software and all, would it be able to recognize add-ons? And what case would you recommend? I'd rather keep the DF-85 for my next build.

Edit - Yeah the more I look at it the more I want to stay away from pre-built NAS. That guide I posted is pretty easy to do. Plus I'm purchasing WD Reds which is very reliable for NAS.

1) If it's mainly for torrenting, FTP/file access, and not as a transcoding media server, a Pentium will be more than enough (even the Baytrail-based Pentiums). My AS-606T is using a Cedarview Atom (32nm, 2011) and it’s enough for everything except HD video transcoding for streaming.

2) You won't need SATA 6GB connections; over a GbE link the most you will get is 100MB/s anyway. Unless you're planning to do things with it that involve an SSD for some reason, which IMO is just unnecessary expenditure.

Setup should be easy. just install your server OS of choice, connect it via LAN to a router that's on the same network as your devices, configure your router to forward the necessary ports for whatever services you are using on your server, done. If you want a hostname for your server through DDNS, that’s a few more steps depending on your DDNS provider.

[Tatsujin]

^ wouldn't setting up a dropbox solution in a windows environment save you from those hassles?

Not at all. You still need email notification of failed drives, you still need to set up FTP and network shares for things that don't use or work with dropbox, you still want/need remote access to monitor processes ... and ideally you want to be able to do that through some sort of web interface that isn't bandwidth-heavy (so remote desktop is out of the question; you don't get good wifi everywhere).

And I’d argue the point that putting a Windows environment on a NAS actually makes things more complicated than they need to be ... but if that’s the only OS you know how to use, I guess you’re stuck with that.

I actually had a paid Dropbox setup (100GB) at one point, for keeping some things synced between home server and other devices (desktop, laptop, etc). Let’s just say that beyond a certain number of files you start running into some hiccups and other irritating issues, like taking forever to index, having to restart it manually sometimes (which means sshing on Linux, or if you’re using Windows, remote-desktoping—better hope for a good connection). Not to mention some inherent limitations like only 1 level of selective sync for folders, and slow upload speeds for no reason at all (25KB/s sometimes, 250KB/s sometimes, on a fiber line that can get 2–10MB/s to Google Drive).

Cancelled it after a few months, went back to FTP/rsync for remote syncing/access instead.

I guess I can notch it down to an i3. I got the DF-85 case unless there is another case you would recommend with lots and lots of bays.

@ kita - can you set up a list for me then? I can also install an add-on with SATA 6GB connections to it? I mean, looking at the FreeNAS8 software and all, would it be able to recognize add-ons? And what case would you recommend? I'd rather keep the DF-85 for my next build.

Edit - Yeah the more I look at it the more I want to stay away from pre-built NAS. That guide I posted is pretty easy to do. Plus I'm purchasing WD Reds which is very reliable for NAS.

1) If it's mainly for torrenting, FTP/file access, and not as a transcoding media server, a Pentium will be more than enough (even the Baytrail-based Pentiums). My AS-606T is using a Cedarview Atom (32nm, 2011) and it’s enough for everything except HD video transcoding for streaming.

2) You won't need SATA 6GB connections; over a GbE link the most you will get is 100MB/s anyway. Unless you're planning to do things with it that involve an SSD for some reason, which IMO is just unnecessary expenditure.

Setup should be easy. just install your server OS of choice, connect it via LAN to a router that's on the same network as your devices, configure your router to forward the necessary ports for whatever services you are using on your server, done. If you want a hostname for your server through DDNS, that’s a few more steps depending on your DDNS provider.

Sever OS? So I need something like Windows 8 Server or whatever?! I thought it was just like what it said on the guide, put the FreeNAS8 on a stick, unzip/install and then plug it inside the NAS computer and boot the computer up from the stick? ... I mean, it just sounds that easy (besides the extra steps to take to set up the drivers and paths).

Also, if I'm going to plug it from the LAN connection to my router, it has to be plugged inside the "incoming" port (which is the single port for internet connection) and the other ports will be the outgoing ports to whatever computers I want to share? Am I right?

[kureshii]

1) In this case FREENAS8 is your server OS. By “server OS” I meant literally whichever OS you are using for your NAS; I did not mean “server-edition OS”.

2) No. You plug in your NAS like any normal PC, i.e. to the incoming ports. The outgoing port is meant to go to your modem. Your NAS provides access to files and services running on it, it does not provide internet access.

[Tatsujin]

1) In this case FREENAS8 is your server OS. By “server OS” I meant literally whichever OS you are using for your NAS; I did not mean “server-edition OS”.

2) No. You plug in your NAS like any normal PC, i.e. to the incoming ports. The outgoing port is meant to go to your modem. Your NAS provides access to files and services running on it, it does not provide internet access.

I think we're misunderstanding each other. I know NAS won't provide internet (duh) since basically it is specifically designed for hosting storage. Here is the modem that I have. There's that single port to the far left, that one is where I plug the cable from the Internet modem to spread it across the other four ports to the right. So I would replace the right cable with the one from NAS to spread it across to the other four ports? Or do I need another modem?

My computer also has one ethernet connection. I'm not sure how to work around this problem. I don't want to install another addon inside the computer, either. Is there a way around it?

Maybe there's a router that can take two ethernets? I also see ethernet to USB 3.0 cables/plugs so those might work?

Nevermind ... this video explained it to me. So I can just plug the NAS cable into one of the four ports.

Mkay, I just need to reorganize the equipment then. So I don't think my question was answered about the addon card. So say I downgrade my motherboard and then get an addon card with 2-4 ports extra SATA connections. Would the OS recognize it or that depends on the OS?

[kureshii]

1) In this case FREENAS8 is your server OS. By “server OS” I meant literally whichever OS you are using for your NAS; I did not mean “server-edition OS”.

2) No. You plug in your NAS like any normal PC, i.e. to the incoming ports. The outgoing port is meant to go to your modem. Your NAS provides access to files and services running on it, it does not provide internet access.

I think we're misunderstanding each other. I know NAS won't provide internet (duh) since basically it is specifically designed for hosting storage. Here is the modem that I have. There's that single port to the far left, that one is where I plug the cable from the Internet modem to spread it across the other four ports to the right. So I would replace the right cable with the one from NAS to spread it across to the other four ports? Or do I need another modem?

My computer also has one ethernet connection. I'm not sure how to work around this problem. I don't want to install another addon inside the computer, either. Is there a way around it?

The port on the leftmost is plugged in to something that provides internet connection (to all the devices plugged into the other four ports). Whatever is plugged in to the four ports on the right will be connected to each other; they will be able to see each other on the same private LAN (under Network Connections in Windows). So you plug in both your desktop and your NAS on the right, along with whatever network printers and other LAN devices you have.

If you have more than four such devices, you need to plug in a network switch (or a router in bridge mode) to one of the ports on the right, to provide more LAN points.

[Tatsujin]

1) In this case FREENAS8 is your server OS. By “server OS” I meant literally whichever OS you are using for your NAS; I did not mean “server-edition OS”.

2) No. You plug in your NAS like any normal PC, i.e. to the incoming ports. The outgoing port is meant to go to your modem. Your NAS provides access to files and services running on it, it does not provide internet access.

I think we're misunderstanding each other. I know NAS won't provide internet (duh) since basically it is specifically designed for hosting storage. Here is the modem that I have. There's that single port to the far left, that one is where I plug the cable from the Internet modem to spread it across the other four ports to the right. So I would replace the right cable with the one from NAS to spread it across to the other four ports? Or do I need another modem?

My computer also has one ethernet connection. I'm not sure how to work around this problem. I don't want to install another addon inside the computer, either. Is there a way around it?

The port on the leftmost is plugged in to something that provides internet connection (to all the devices plugged into the other four ports). Whatever is plugged in to the four ports on the right will be connected to each other; they will be able to see each other on the same private LAN (under Network Connections in Windows). So you plug in both your desktop and your NAS on the right, along with whatever network printers and other LAN devices you have.

If you have more than four such devices, you need to plug in a network switch (or a router in bridge mode) to one of the ports on the right, to provide more LAN points.

Wow, that's why I see the other ethernets on my network ... makes sense now! Nice, I didn't know that. So now I understand what you mean by "forwarding" the NAS port that's plugged inside of it. Well, that cuts down a lot of trouble.

I've asked a question up there just now about the addon card.

And I'll re-do the equipment really quick and show it off here.

[kitamesume]

@ kita - can you set up a list for me then? I can also install an add-on with SATA 6GB connections to it? I mean, looking at the FreeNAS8 software and all, would it be able to recognize add-ons? And what case would you recommend? I'd rather keep the DF-85 for my next build.

Edit - Yeah the more I look at it the more I want to stay away from pre-built NAS. That guide I posted is pretty easy to do. Plus I'm purchasing WD Reds which is very reliable for NAS.

it would effectively depend on the add-on card and the OS if they support each other, but from what i recall so long as the add-on card supports linux it should work.
which? the 4~6 drive itx build? or a 10drive atx build?

example builds
(itx) http://pcpartpicker.com/user/kitame/saved/4zuJ
(atx) http://pcpartpicker.com/user/kitame/saved/4zvS

notes: i can't seem to find an atx case with decent drive bays, you'll have to choose your own.

[Tatsujin]

Yeah, can't find something with lots of bays. So this FREENAS8 is a linux OS? I thought it was an independent different OS from the others?

Anyone find any good bays, about 8 of them, in a case?

How about this one? Can you get a motherboard and the specific PSU for it?

Here's something quick:

8-bay case
SFX PSU (there's only two SFX PSUs ;/ ... this is the good one based on reviews)
RAM 4GB
AsRock ITX mobo has 4 SATA ports, still need four more probably from a card..
Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell 3.0GHz

So now the question is if I can get an addon card and if the OS can support it. Can Windows 8.0 do NAS-server like or no?

[kureshii]

Your NAS should only need one LAN port, so I don't think you need other addons. Unless it doesn't have enough SATA ports, then you may need some SATA controller cards.

[Edit] Just in case you were talking about SATA controllers, you should probably check to see taht the controller is supported under BSD (don't assume!). In general, Sil3124-based controllers have pretty good out-of-the-box support in both Linux and BSD, but you need to do your own research on specific products (because if anything breaks, you are the first line of defense and you had better know what went inside it...).

FreeNAS is BSD-based, so it shares some "heritage" with Linux. Other BSD-based OSes include OSX. You’re unlikely to find “independent different OSes” in consumer devices these days, almost all the new ones run some flavour of Linux.

Regarding that Silverstone case, keep in mind that it supports only ITX boards (i.e. nothing microATX or larger), and most ITX boards I know have up to 4 SATA ports. Some older ones (earlier-chipset boards) may have up to 6. So you’ll definitely need a SATA controller addon for 8 disks... and then where are you going to connect your system disk (if it isn't one of the ? And ITX boards only have one PCIe slot, so you can't use 2 controllers.

You're going to need a larger motherboard/case unless you're okay with those limitations (or with blowing your budget with a hardware RAID card that has more than 4 ports).

[Tatsujin]

Your NAS should only need one LAN port, so I don't think you need other addons. Unless it doesn't have enough SATA ports, then you may need some SATA controller cards.

[Edit] Just in case you were talking about SATA controllers, you should probably check to see taht the controller is supported under BSD (don't assume!). In general, Sil3124-based controllers have pretty good out-of-the-box support in both Linux and BSD, but you need to do your own research on specific products (because if anything breaks, you are the first line of defense and you had better know what went inside it...).

FreeNAS is BSD-based, so it shares some "heritage" with Linux. Other BSD-based OSes include OSX. You’re unlikely to find “independent different OSes” in consumer devices these days, almost all the new ones run some flavour of Linux.

Regarding that Silverstone case, keep in mind that it supports only ITX boards (i.e. nothing microATX or larger), and most ITX boards I know have up to 4 SATA ports. Some older ones (earlier-chipset boards) may have up to 6. So you’ll definitely need a SATA controller addon for 8 disks... and then where are you going to connect your system disk (if it isn't one of the ? And ITX boards only have one PCIe slot, so you can't use 2 controllers.

You're going to need a larger motherboard/case unless you're okay with those limitations (or with blowing your budget with a hardware RAID card that has more than 4 ports).

I see. How about if I just used Windows 7 or 8 and used their Sharing feature? Isn't that considered similar to NAS?

[kureshii]

That *is* how you do network shares in Windows, yes. FreeNAS essentially does the same thing; the utility (used by both BSD and Linux) is called "samba" and basically sets up network folder shares that can be seen by Windows devices.

[kitamesume]

in general, freeNAS is a very light OS that'd work better as a dedicated NAS OS, you can indeed run windows based file server instead.

hey, if you don't mind a rackmount case, i think i found a really good one with 15bays
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007731%20600335417&IsNodeId=1&name=15

edit: you can also mount them like this on a wall.


if a wall mount is not an option, i think i saw a vertical mount with wheels but i'm not sure whats that called.

[Tatsujin]

^ Hmmm I'm gonna stay away from that. I don't understand how you would configure that because it doesn't take a motherboard.

So how's my set up so far? Because I would take it that it's good. I'll also go with Windows 7 64-bit cu'z that's more reliable (at least I think). I'm going to install and boot it from a USB stick.

So now comes down to the big question ... the router. So I think my router does about 100mbits which is essentially about 12.5 mbytes. That's like, freaking slow and I won't be able to watch anime through it. In other words, I do have to purchase a router with gigabyte ethernets to support what I need. Am I on track so far? 1Gbits would equal to about 125 mbytes. If yes, then I'll be getting this Linksys router.

[kitamesume]

^ Hmmm I'm gonna stay away from that. I don't understand how you would configure that because it doesn't take a motherboard.

what? i don't understand your logic.

So now comes down to the big question ... the router. So I think my router does about 100mbits which is essentially about 12.5 mbytes. That's like, freaking slow and I won't be able to watch anime through it. In other words, I do have to purchase a router with gigabyte ethernets to support what I need.

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/fast-internet-connection-for-streaming-hd-movies1.htm

[kureshii]

^ Hmmm I'm gonna stay away from that. I don't understand how you would configure that because it doesn't take a motherboard.

It does. It's just a computer case meant to be mounted in a rack. You do the same thing as you would with any computer case: install PSU, install motherboard, install HDDs, ...

So how's my set up so far? Because I would take it that it's good. I'll also go with Windows 7 64-bit cu'z that's more reliable (at least I think). I'm going to install and boot it from a USB stick.

It’s not, just so you're informed. You’re going to run your NAS 24/7 I take it? Win7 may be more familiar for configuration, but I just want to dispel any notions of greater reliability that you may have.

And for the love of—don't run it from a USB stick. Especially not if you’re going to have pagefile.sys and other things on it. You’ve spent, what, hundreds on your storage disks, probably another few hundred on the CPU and mobo and case, and now you’re going to skimp out and run your NAS system from a USB stick?

Better to run with 7 storage disks and 1 system disk, than with 8 storage disks and a system stick.

So now comes down to the big question ... the router. So I think my router does about 100mbits which is essentially about 12.5 mbytes. That's like, freaking slow and I won't be able to watch anime through it. In other words, I do have to purchase a router with gigabyte ethernets to support what I need. Am I on track so far? 1Gbits would equal to about 125 mbytes. If yes, then I'll be getting this Linksys router.

Raw bluray bitrate is capped at 54 Mbit/s, Typical fansub encodes don’t usually exceed half of that. Peak bitrate isn't a concern for storage bandwidth since those are transient (that’s what caches are for). That works out to ... slightly above 3 MB/s. Your current router is definitely enough for watching movies stored on your NAS.

But if you're going to be doing huge file transfers often, I would still suggest getting the gigabit router if you have budget to spare. Just don't expect it to perform like a local disk (peak 100MB/s or so for a short while for some transfers, 10–60MB/s on average usually), especially if it’s using a Realtek/Marvell LAN chip. And definitely don’t try to carry out more than 1 file transfer at a time to/from it, lol.

[Tatsujin]

^ Hmmm I'm gonna stay away from that. I don't understand how you would configure that because it doesn't take a motherboard.

It does. It's just a computer case meant to be mounted in a rack. You do the same thing as you would with any computer case: install PSU, install motherboard, install HDDs, ...

So how's my set up so far? Because I would take it that it's good. I'll also go with Windows 7 64-bit cu'z that's more reliable (at least I think). I'm going to install and boot it from a USB stick.

It’s not, just so you're informed. You’re going to run your NAS 24/7 I take it? Win7 may be more familiar for configuration, but I just want to dispel any notions of greater reliability that you may have.

And for the love of—don't run it from a USB stick. Especially not if you’re going to have pagefile.sys and other things on it. You’ve spent, what, hundreds on your storage disks, probably another few hundred on the CPU and mobo and case, and now you’re going to skimp out and run your NAS system from a USB stick?

Better to run with 7 storage disks and 1 system disk, than with 8 storage disks and a system stick.

So now comes down to the big question ... the router. So I think my router does about 100mbits which is essentially about 12.5 mbytes. That's like, freaking slow and I won't be able to watch anime through it. In other words, I do have to purchase a router with gigabyte ethernets to support what I need. Am I on track so far? 1Gbits would equal to about 125 mbytes. If yes, then I'll be getting this Linksys router.

Raw bluray bitrate is capped at 54 Mbit/s, Typical fansub encodes don’t usually exceed half of that. Peak bitrate isn't a concern for storage bandwidth since those are transient (that’s what caches are for). That works out to ... slightly above 3 MB/s. Your current router is definitely enough for watching movies stored on your NAS.

But if you're going to be doing huge file transfers often, I would still suggest getting the gigabit router if you have budget to spare. Just don't expect it to perform like a local disk (peak 100MB/s or so for a short while for some transfers, 10–60MB/s on average usually), especially if it’s using a Realtek/Marvell LAN chip. And definitely don’t try to carry out more than 1 file transfer at a time to/from it, lol.

D: .. two? I usually do two at any given time for transfers out/in for each driver.

And I see what you mean. Well ... hmm...

I would save myself about 70, 60, 75, 150 USD so about ... 355 USD on average if I just rebuilt my old case, the one with the DF-85. I still have that old motherboard P5D-N Asus and the Q9550 processor and the Corsair Gold PSU 750W. I mean, I know for sure the Q9550 is much faster then the processors we were talking about plus I really am not planning to use it at all.

I also have a factory sealed 10K RPM WD Raptor ... uh, 300GB driver. Or was it 150GB? I can use that for the OS.

The CPU needs a fan since the one inside is literally DYING, lol. I think I'm still going to get that Linksys from Amazon, it's 40 USD cheaper and like you said, I'm going to be transferring a lot of data so might as well do the big jump.

I'll still get the add-on card, or I think I'm gonna go for 5 or 6 connections cu'z the DF-85 has 9 bays, so that's one extra bay.

[kitamesume]

i totally forgot to upload this pic.

[halfelite]

what is your budget and I can tell you what to get. And i3 is even more then enough. I run my 24drive NAS off of a 4 year old core 2.

If you tell us your budget we can pick the specs you need. As I see freenas mentioned here a few times but no one has mentioned if you run freenas which is a great solution you should double your ram amount.  Freenas is a ZFS solution so the more ram the better performance. you need a minimum of 8 gigs. cpu speed does not really matter until you have to resliver a drive but even then if you are reslivering you will not be using the system.

Just say how much space you want or are going to want remember you don't have to buy all the drives at the same time. You could even pop open your externals and use the drives out of them. and just expand as you go.

Also where do you live if you live in the US and want to pay shipping I have one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219030 just sitting around collecting dust it might even still have a board and psu not sure on them though that I would send to you for shipping cost.

[kitamesume]

i think he did mention reusing his Q9550 for the NAS box.
although a haswell's pentiums can beat a core2quad with ease.