Build Your Own 1TB Small Form Factor NAS Server

By | December 21st, 2004 comments icon (7) Comments


mashie project udatItching to build my own one terabyte network attached storage (NAS) server, I did some Google surfing and found an amazing how-to at Mashie.org, called Project Udat, that demonstrates how one can put together a mean 5-bay hot-swappable, small form factor, RAID 5 file server together for their home network. Warning: Project Udat does require some modification to the Mini-ITX board and case, but the extra effort pays off in gorgeous setup that all your friends will be envious of.

Required Hardware:
Morex Venus 668 Black
VIA EPIA M 10000 Mini-ITX Mainboard
5 Serial ATA RAID Enclosure
Broadcom RAIDcore 4852 8-port S-ATA RAID controller





Filed in: Digital Media Servers

  • http://www.schalliol.com Jonathan Schalliol

    GREAT STORY!! Any idea what the total cost is of such a solution?

  • http://www.alexandergrundner.com Alexander Grundner

    For the 4 linked items in the story — cost would be around $775 (not including OS and hard drives)

    Surprisingly the RAID controller is the most expensive piece in the project ($306.00 – $365.00)
    * More info about the Broadcom RAID controller at Tom’s Hardware

  • http://www.schalliol.com Jonathan Schalliol

    Alexander Grundner said: For the 4 linked items in the story — cost would be around $775 (not including OS and hard drives)

    Surprisingly the RAID controller is the most expensive piece in the project ($306.00 – $365.00)
    * More info about the Broadcom RAID controller at Tom’s Hardware

    Thanks very much. At this price, you might want to look at the Fastora T4 though, it’s a RAID 5 array with 4 ports all configured. Certainly this seems like a better bargain.

    What I’d want to do wouldn’t constrain the use to the small case, and instead do a rack or tower case. I’m looking into that.

  • Vagari

    That really seems like a fun project, it’s really too bad it’s so expensive for the parts. I dunno about just buying that other one. It’s still more expensive and it’s not a do-it-yourself. Which I feel is half the value in this to begin with.

  • lokksta

    This looks very good, but what about cooling this thing? I see no room there for fans. There are 5 hard drives pumping out a fair bit of heat almost touching each other.

    I am seriously considering this or something very simliar, but I don’t want it to melt.

    Any suggestions?

  • greigmg

    I’ve done a cheaper, non-raid, IDE, wireless version of Mashie’s design. Instead of his drive rack, I used this 4-drive rack. A plus of this one is the 120mm fan that sits on front, although on Mashie’s forums he indicated heat was not a problem for his. That case has two 40mm fans, plus the PSU fan hanging off the back.

    Instead of the raid card taking up the PCI slot I have one of those low profile wireless g cards. The transfer rate across the wireless is enough to stream wav files with little to no delay. I don’t think it’d work very well for video files, though.

    The non-raid solution works well for me because I’m only storing live shows I already have on cd – a disk failure will only mean lost time, but no lost data. In the future (admittedly a few years off), I’m hoping 1 terabyte online data backup will become a low-cost reality. Also, the non-raid solution allowed me to upgrade hdd’s as I needed them, which helped spread the cost out a little. I’m using 4 WD 320gig drives (about $105 each at newegg).

    Mine’s also not as pretty as his – instead of crafting a new front bezel, I just took it off.

  • mekauf

    I’m wondering about the cost too, but i’m new to all this