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R&D^
Examining TEc Hnology and puTTing iT To usEHow to
Crush the performance of consumer network-attached storage devices by
building your own! And you can use a number of legacy parts to do this on
the cheap! —MIchAEl BROwn
Build a NAS Box
freenAS
Free, http://www.freenas.com
ISO REcORDER
Free, http://tinyurl.com/5p2m
USB ThUMB DRIvE
MOThERBOARD
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MEMORY
vIDEOcARD
OpTIcAl DRIvE
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pO wER SUpplY
OnE OR MORE hARD DRIvESA
network-attached storage (NAS) device is the Robin to a LAN’s Batman.
The two should be inseparable, and for good reason. A NAS box gives you
a guaranteed way to store all of your files and stream your media. Running
a NAS box also means that you don’t have to boot your power-leeching desktop rig
every time you want to access your files from another device.
But you don’t have to go out and purchase a NAS device. You can build a supe-
rior alternative using spare parts left over after upgrading your PC.
We recently gathered a bunch of components that had been gathering dust in
the Lab and built a FrankenNAS that absolutely pulverized its admittedly budget
retail competitor, the $135 Linksys NAS200. Using an Asus A8N32 SLI Deluxe
motherboard and a dual-core 2.6GHz AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 CPU, we were able
to shorten our transfer speeds to one-sixth of the NAS200’s on small transfers and
around one-seventh on larger file moves. Note that you don’t even need top-of-
the-line hardware for your device. Our open-source operating system, FreeNAS,
will run on almost anything.
But just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s simple. So we’re going to walk you
through the finer points of setting up a FreeNAS-based network storage device of
your very own. You’ll be streaming your favorite movies in no time!what you need
tIMe = 3 hours