Optimal DIY NAS with Rockstor Linux
To help cope with fast-growing volumes of data, more and more users are installing network-attached storage (NAS) systems on their own networks. Several hardware vendors would love to sell you a dedicated NAS device, but if you don't have the budget for expensive, proprietary NAS hardware, you can still get in the game. A compact PC with state-of-the-art hardware is ideally suited for network data storage, assuming it meets a handful of conditions. I will show you how to configure a home-built NAS system with a compact computer running Linux.
Requirements
For your custom NAS, you don't need a fast processor, and you can even use an older system that is no longer suitable as a desktop system. However, other considerations, like the mass storage subsystem and the performance of the power supply play an important role in NAS.
Thus, you should make an investment in your DIY project: Old computer systems that still rely on IDE interfaces using the parallel ATA standard only support two hard disk drives or SSDs per connection. Years ago, the parallel ATA interface was replaced because of poor performance with the more modern serial ATA (SATA) standard.
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