NAS advice anyone?

[rikardo1979]

(28th Jul, 2013 06:49 PM)Skywatch Wrote:  So would I be better off if I got an old laptop and some usb drives?

Cost would be a little higher (probably) but would it be a 'better' option or just a 'different' option.

I need to do this soon as my PC drives are now too full and I need the space.

Cheers

Skywatch

using a laptop not make any sense, especially some cheap old stuff as you would have one one option to connect the HDD and that is USB and more likely USB 2.
You need a solution where you can add more drives over SATA connection so we talking about standard PC desktop case or rack cases.
So if you decide to go DIY way than you need to decide what you want, how many drives you would like to add now and if if you going to to make one time build or something what can be upgradable in future by adding more HDD's etc.
As all those NAS systems out there do not really need and extra CPU power and none GPU(the one on MB is enough) than you need to look for these parts

• case (type and size depends on how many HDD's you want to add)
• MB with CPU minimum P4 (some new low powered MBs would be my choice)
• minimum 2GB RAM
• SATA (as many as possible)
• PCI slot for extra PCI to SATA boards (more slots, more drives)
• PSU (depends on how many HDD's you want to add)
• drive for OS ( HDD is not needed as the OS's are usually small, so you can use small SSD or I using IDE to Compact Flash card adaptor with 4GB card)
  

No other accessories are needed as you will access the NAS over network only