Convert old pc into NAS

[ahkaiz]

i have an old pc in my house and i thought whether it could convert into a NAS.

the spec of the old pc:
G31TM-P35
Intel G31/33/35
Core 2 Duo E4500, 2.20GHz
2048MB Ram
HD5450 512MB

base on this current spec will it be possible to convert into NAS?
if so what software and hardware i need for this project?

 

[tony_ong]

shld not be a problem. i tried converting my bro's old desktop running on amd to nas.

you can use FreeNAS as the OS for it.

 

[ahkaiz]

shld not be a problem. i tried converting my bro's old desktop running on amd to nas.

you can use FreeNAS as the OS for it.

what additional hardware do i need to convert it to a NAS?
A raid controller?

 

[dante-z]

you can just do software raid , play with it , get familar then invest further.

 

[Pokémon]

what additional hardware do i need to convert it to a NAS?
A raid controller?

It depends on what you wish to achieve. RAID 0, 1, 5, 10?

The motherboard you have does not come with any onboard RAID, so if you wish to achieve RAID, then definitely you will need a RAID controller card.

 

[midreef]

you can just do software raid , play with it , get familar then invest further.

I had thought that FreeNAS comes with the software RAID module built in, but I maybe wrong.

In any case, since FreeNAS runs Linux, you can use either RAIDtools or MDadm if you intend to have some data redundancy (RAID). I find MDadm easier to use compared to RAIDtool, but it could be a preference. Allows you to configure for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5.

I run Redhat Fedora with Samba File server and MDadm. There is some limitation on the hardware support for FreeNAS, you may want to check the hardware supported to see if it is compatible with your HW.

 

[Silver_Stone]

I'm using an old P4 desktop as NAS, running nas4free.

nas4free offers software raid, just like freenas. The only limitation is how many onboard SATA/IDE ports you have, if you do not intent to buy raid card.

Happy playing.

 

[xkiller213]

one bad thing about using an old PC to become an NAS is that it is extremely power inefficient... for starters, i'll recommend you to remove your HD5450, and any other cards (wifi, sound, etc) which are not going to be used... also, remove any unnecessary drives like CD, floppy, etc...