Samkear.com has a nice post complete with parts lists and photos about building a small FreeNAS storage device. The writer specifically compares his build to a commercial build available at http://www.ixsystems.com/storage/ix/home-office-storage/freenas-mini.html, the "FreeNAS™ Mini".
Some interesting hardware choices in the do it yourself build:
Form Factor 4 Bay Mini ITX Chassis with 4 Hot Swap Bays Processor Low Power Intel Dual Core Memory 8GB DDR3 (2 x 4GB) Network Onboard Gigabit Raid Support RAID-Z/RAID-Z2 Storage Capacity Available in 4/8/12TB Power Supply 200 Watt Dimensions 8.5″W x 12.5 “D x 8.0 “H Parts List
Below is a list of all the components you will need to build the mini NAS. Depending on what the storage requirements are for your NAS you can add additional drives, or even install smaller hard drives instead. In order to reach a capacity of 12TB you can use four 3TB Western Digital Green hard drives instead.
Component Item Price Chassis CFI A7879 4-Bay Mini-ITX Case $169.00 Motherboard Intel BOXDH67CFB3 Mini-ITX Media Series Board $110.99 Processor Intel Core i3-2120T $114.99 Memory Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-1066 Kit $41.99 Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TB Desktop Hard Drive WD20EARX $119.99 http://samkear.com/gadgets/build-freenas-mini-storage-appliance
The author was able to build the NAS for around $400 cheaper than the prebuilt box.
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