A network attached storage (NAS) system provides your networked computers access to centralized file storage that you can manage locally. What they boil down to however, are purpose-built computers with hardware and software that allow them to manage data storage drives. NAS enclosures are merely low-power embedded systems with drive bays for HDDs and SSDs. Building your own NAS can be more cost effective and it will provide better performance.
For a custom-built NAS server, you do not need top-of-the-line components such as Xeon and Opteron components. To demonstrate this, we customized a DIY NAS system with budget components while aiming for a sub $700 price tag including storage drives.
What We Used
Case
| Cooler Master Elite 350 | Price: $45 |
Features
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This Cooler Master mid tower case comes in under $50 and includes a 500 watt power supply. A great value that can be upgraded later with a more robust PSU. |
Processor
| AMD A6-5400K Trinity APU | Price: $45 |
Features
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The built-in video capability won’t be pushing very many polygons, but for a NAS, that’s alright. Compared to SoC chips, this dual-core processor is leaps and bounds ahead of the curve. |
Motherboard
| ASRock FM2A58M-VG3+ R2.0 | Price: $43 |
Features
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The built-in video capability won’t be pushing very many polygons, but for a NAS, that’s alright. Compared to SoC chips, this dual-core processor is leaps and bounds ahead of the curve. |
Memory
| Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) | Price: $50 |
Features
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So far, this has been the most expensive component in this DIY NAS build. The Mushkin Blackline memory features heat spreaders and decent enough timings for its purpose. |
RAID Controller Card
| SYBA SD-PEX40054 PCIe 2.0 4-port RAID Controller | Price: $35 |
Features
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A basic RAID controller card that has fairly limited RAID capabilities. It supports RAID 0/1/10 arrays, but unfortunately not 5/10/50. If RAID 5 or 10 is a must, consider this SYBA PCI SATA II card as an alternative for only $5 more. |
Network Interface Card
| Intel EXPI9402PTBLK 2 Gb PCIe Network Card | Price: $141 |
Features
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The most expensive part of this DIY NAS, but also essential for speed—especially for networks with many clients. Don’t even think about a Wi-Fi card for a NAS system. |
Storage Drives
| Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200 RPM Hard Drive | Price: $77 × 4 ($308) |
Features
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Not everyone will need so much storage space, but we wanted to future-proof. If you set them up as a JBOD array you have 8 TB of storage space. RAID 10 is also an option as it offers both performance and backup. |
Total: $667 with hard drives, $359 without
Related content: Which RAID Configuration Works Best for Your Business?
Conclusion
This DIY NAS build offers more than enough performance and can be customized to fit your needs. However, keep in mind that you want a capable RAID card and Ethernet network adapter for performance. The processor, case, motherboard and memory on the other hand, can be made more budget-friendly. Let us know in the comments what you think about our DIY NAS solution.
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