Hey everyone...here's my latest project!

=== skip this section if you don't care about the background on how i got this hardware ===

Recently my old boss called me to ask for help with his server. I had built him a file server awhile back. He wanted the option of using it as a workstation as well (mainly internet/email stuff) so I put it together and loaded XP. Long story short, I put the thing together really well and it even had a fully automated backup system. The storage part of the system consisted of (4) 500gb SATA hard drives. The drives were configured into (2) hardware RAID-0 arrays with software mirroring between arrays (one terabyte of storage + one terabyte of backup).

Shortly after I left that job, one of the 500gb hard drives went bad. No big deal - the system was built to lose a drive. I went by one day and pulled the drive, gave it to my boss along with an RMA number and instructions to mail it out to Western Digital for a replacement. Long story short - he never sent it out. A few months later, I get a call from him saying that the storage drive is no longer showing on the server. I go over to check out the server, and someone has tampered with the RAID configuration, effectively killing it. Since my boss never sent out the bad drive, and it was never replaced, they were running without a backup.

My boss offered to give me the whole machine (with the drives) if I could recover all his data. I told him to order a 1tb RAID1 (1tb + 1tb) NAS drive, which he did, and then I used RAID recovery software to extract all of the data off of the old server.

=== end backstory ===

So my boss got all his data back, and I got a free computer!

Here are the specs on the machine:
- ABIT KN9 AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
- AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
- 512mb DDR2 RAM
- (3) WD 500gb SATA HDDs (there were 4, but one locked up)
- (1) WD 80gb IDE HDD
- DVD+/-RW IDE Drive
- EVGA 8600GT PCI-e Video Card
- Enermax Liberty 500w Modular PSU
- Generic Black Mid-Tower Steel Case (pretty nice actually...120mm fans, etc.)

Besides the free hardware, I also had the following sitting around:
- (1) Hitachi 750gb SATA HDD
- (1) WD 500gb SATA HDD

Then I ordered:
- (1) Hitachi 750gb SATA HDD
- (1) WD 500gb SATA HDD
- SYBA SD-SATA2-4IR PCI SATA II Controller Card RAID 0/1/5/10 JBOD
- LIAN LI PC-A17B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
- (2) Lian Li EX-34NB Expansion Hard Drive Kit - Black

Stock photos (until I can take my own):

New case...coming Thursday:


HDD racks, ordered two, also coming on Thursday:




Anyway, I wanted to give FreeNAS a try. After downloading and installing the latest build (currently using RC2 build), I began to mount up my drives and create RAID arrays.

In total I have:
(1) 80gb IDE HDD
(2) 750gb SATA HDDs
(5) 500gb SATA HDDs

Currently I have them configured like so:

(1) 80gb IDE HDD - Primary, FreeNAS OS + Internal Storage
(2) 750gb SATA HDDs - RAID1, 750gb usable space
(2) 500gb SATA HDDs - RAID1, 500gb usable space
(3) 500gb SATA HDDs - RAID5, 1tb usable space

2.25tb of usable space! Woowoo!!!

I have currently I have the box configured as network storage, FTP server, HTTP server, BitTorrent client, and iTunes server. I am using Dynamic DNS so I can access the server from any computer (including my Windows Mobile phone) connected to the internet.



Through my Linksys WRT54G 10/100 Wireless Router (running DD-WRT), I only get about 8mb/s transfer speed, however when connected directly to my desktop via 10/100/1000, I am seeing up to 50mb/s transfer speed.

Reasons why I like my new FreeNAS box:
1) Most of the hardware was FREE!
2) 2.25tb of storage! All of it in either RAID1 or RAID5, so I don't have to worry about losing data in the event of drive failure.
3) Drives go to sleep after 10min of being idle. Hopefully this saves on my power bill
4) BitTorrent client, FTP server, HTTP server, SSH, etc. etc. etc.
5) Now I only have one hard drive in my desktop - leaving plenty of room for the soon-to-come watercooling setup.

The new Lian-Li case & HDD racks come on Thursday - I'll post pics when I get it all set up again!

Cheers!