I have a $1200+ nas that I built to be small and large.  4x 2TB hard drives, OpenIndiana, and ZFS give me the best quick and redundant space I need.  When I purchased this system and built it I knew I needed a backup for it.

When I built the first one I had specific requirements.  I wanted the device to be small but have a huge amount of space on it.  I wanted it to support OpenIndiana etc.  This second NAS server that I am building is quick and fast.  The only reason I wanted it was to backup my primary unit.  Down the road I may do something with it but for now this is my only purpose.

I bought the hardware in a hurry.  I had some things picked out from some research before.  This is what I picked out:

• RAIDMAX Seiran ATX-902WW White Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
• LOGISYS Computer PS480D2 480W ATX12V Power Supply
• AMD Sempron 130 Sargas 2.6GHz Socket AM3 45W Single-Core Desktop Processor SDX130HBK12GM – OEM
• Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1339

I got all of this for $200 which is way below what I paid for the hardware in the other unit.  I did not purchase any hard drives because I have what I need laying around to backup the amount of data I need to backup.  I can always expand later.

I did a bit of checking with the hardware to see if it was compatible with Linux, BSD, and OpenIndiana.  I think I found reports of the AMD 760G chipset working with all 3. (SATA, NIC)  I will report in the end what I use.  I really want something that I can scoop up if I need to.  That is I can pull the drives from the unit and run.  This is in case of fire or whatnot.  I also want to be able to plug those drives into any system and get data off them.  ZFS seems to now work on Linux and BSD now so I may consider that.