Small DIY NAS

The Idea behind this instrucatbale was to create a quiet cheap low powered NAS box using some 2.5 inch hard drives.


What you need to build you own NAS BOX

4 2.5 inch sata to hardrive connector
1 26pix box 
1 powered usb hub
1 eeepc (I'm using a 1st gen eeepc running at 800 mhz)
DVD/CD/USB pen drive for installing freenas
PC Fan
USB Lead
USB Power Lead

Drill
Screws
Computer & Printer
Camera 
Dremel or other tool for cutting thin aluminium case
Wire
A network cable or a wireless network

Some hard drives to put in to the NAS

Here is Video of the NAS Box Being put togthere.

 

Step 1: Place & cut

The first job is to take apart the eepc. It is easy here is a link to a take apart guide

You need to Remove the feet from the eeepc case do this by pulling them off using some pliers see picture

Turn the board upside down and attach the the feet to the board with some screw 

Draw around the network point so you can see where to cut a hole

Do the same for the power supply 

Cut the holes out of the case

Hot glue the feet and attach it to the case

Comments

[irishjim68]

Did you have to format/reformat any of the storage drives to use them with FreeNAS?

[dcastor]

Not strange at all, I've lived in England and in the US. I noticed that quite often the prices were the same in pounds as what I would pay in dollars back home. Probably due to the high cost of living in England.

[philip42]

It's a nice idea, but I would take an old junk computer (about 5-10 years old) and install a decent size hard drive. The hard drive could use a SATA-IDE converter if the motherboard doesn't have a SATA port, or could even be connected via USB (albeit slower). The advantage of a junk computer is they're dirt cheap. You can use one you've retired (or even one you passed on to somebody else when you give them the computer you've just retired.

[Computothought]

Ditto.

[dasimpson1981]

you could of used the battery to gain ups ability and safer data

[hackitbuildit]

I Think I will in version 2 along with some activity light for the hard disk

[MrCantThinkOfAName]

Could you give me an estimate of how much all of this costs?

[hackitbuildit]

EEEpc of ebay £50
Harddrive Caddies £20
USB HUB £1.10
Case £14.99
USB Socket 1000mA £9.99
PC Fan £3.00
USB Lead £1.00

Total £95.08

This is strangely the same sort of price in dollars. The eecpc of ebay could be any netbook or a laptop (as long as it fits in the case) so that could be place to save some money.