New NAS or Server Suggestions Please

Lmikeykay on 06/11/2023 - 10:58

Hi Ozzies,

I want to maybe update my NAS or create something from an old PC for file/photo/movie backup.

I am currently using a 4 bay Seagate D4 NAS at a rough guess its around 15 years old and i have used up all 4 bays. Im not sure of the max HDD capacities that this NAS allows for but Im maxxed with 4 4tb drives. (Anyone know if i can put larger drives in it?)

Anyway, I have a PC lying around AMD ryzen 7 3700 and was wondering if i could use this as a dedicated storage/media server or something of the like. Whats involved in setting something like this up? can i setup to access the drives remotely from smartphones or other devices? PROS and CONS of this idea please.

OR

Is it better if i invest in a new NAS which can allow for larger capacity storage. NAS seem quite simple to connect to TV's at home and view/listen to files from it.

I also dont really want to spend all that many dollary doos, so any advice on what i can do would be great.

Thanks in advance all :)

Computing Home Server NAS

Comments

  • nedski on 06/11/2023 - 11:59
    +4

    Have a look at TrueNas.

    Im running a home server on TrueNas which is using a i7-4770 and it doesnt miss a beat. We send our videos and pics of the kids to the server from our phones.

    Going to build a backup TrueNas server from an ex-Gov PC that I bought for $16 whose job will be to do daily off-site backups of our main server.

    TrueNas isnt all that complex to run.

    • qwijibo on 06/11/2023 - 12:10
      +1

      Second for TrueNAS Scale. It's a pretty good "appliance" experience if you don't want the hassle of server admin. You can also expand it with a good plugin ecosystem (https://truecharts.org/).

      @mikeykay As for the rest - if all you're doing is file serving, a 3700 is overkill - but using what you've got is cheaper than buying new. If you do need more drives, the go-to cases for a NAS build seem to be the fractal design r5, 7 or meshify 2 (at least the ones you can easily get in australia).

      .

      • mikeykay on 06/11/2023 - 12:33

        @qwijibo in typical Ozb style i want to use what i have hahha and yeah i know a 12 core cpu is overkill but it was set up as a gaming PC a while ago, never sold it because i love keeping crap haha.

        Also thanks for the case options too. Ill see what i want, might not even need to do any case upgrades either. :)

        Legend

        • qwijibo on 07/11/2023 - 08:48
          +1

          Totally, start with what you have lying around. The good thing about using off-the-shelf parts is you can always re-home them into a bigger case. The Define 7/Meshify 2 can take up to 14 3.5 hdd (the XL variants can take 18). So start with whatever case you already have and when you run out of space, buy a bigger case.

          For the same reason, I'd probably go with a bunch of separate mirror pools rather than raid-z1/raid-z2 - that way you can upgrade piecemeal - buy two drives at a time as you need the extra storage instead of having to buy say 8x 3.5 hdd all in one hit.

    • mikeykay on 06/11/2023 - 12:29

      @nedski ohhh thats great i assume that there are some good youtube tutes on how to get setup on truenas?
      I am thinking this will be a good option for me and once setup should be self sufficient aside from a restart every now and again.

      Thanks for the heads up and ill do some research :)

    • EightImmortals on 06/11/2023 - 15:58

      How does the power consumption compare to a dedicated NAS?

      • skittlebrau on 06/11/2023 - 19:43
        +1

        Highly depends on the hardware chosen.

        Consumer products from the likes of Synology and QNAP generally use quite power-efficient hardware. Synology provide a rough figure of power consumption at idle and load.

        For reference, my self-built system below consumes about 130W at idle - I don't spin down my drives.

        The Synology DS1621+ I used to have would hover around 65W idle, but that had a much weaker CPU and wasn't as capable. Another thing to consider is that Synology hardware is expensive and you have limited options when it comes to repairing the NAS itself when something breaks, depending on the part. If a part in my custom server PC breaks, it's quite inexpensive and simple to swap it out.

        Xeon E-2146G CPU (6-core/12-thread)
        AsRock Intel Arc A380 GPU
        64GB (4x16GB) RAM
        mATX C246 motherboard
        7x 3.5" 7200RPM HDDs in hotswap drive cages
        1x 2.5" SATA SSD
        2x M.2 NVME SSDs
        10GbE network card
        600W power supply (Platinum-rated efficiency)
        and a couple of USB accessories

  • FoxJump on 06/11/2023 - 12:12

    I paid the "cute little cube" premium with my QNAP TS464
    works well, after a few goes setting it up correctly

  • kiitos on 06/11/2023 - 15:26

    Can you host Apple Time Machine backups alongside Windows files on a NAS?

    • qwijibo on 06/11/2023 - 15:47
      +1

      Should be able to. TrueNAS has the building support to make a share MacOS compatible - but I haven't tested this myself..

  • Lord Fart Bucket on 06/11/2023 - 15:51
    +1

    Synology.

  • jv on 06/11/2023 - 16:22

    Another vote for QNAP

  • John Kimble on 06/11/2023 - 21:02

    Im maxxed with 4 4tb drives

    Genuine question (excuse my ignorance); what are people putting on these things that warrants 16TB (or more) of space in a home environment? Are people just sailing the high seas and data hoarding???

    I know it's not the cheapest, but I have the 2tb Google One sub and currently only using 350gb, pretty sure it's mostly just photos and videos of the offspring…much of which I could/should cull anyway 🤦

    Should I be converting to one of these things instead, even though I have no idea how they work? Is it even possible to backup my files and photos to a NAS instead of Google One, therefore eliminating the need for yet another subscription?

    TIA

    • skittlebrau on 07/11/2023 - 14:00
      +1

      It's somewhat popular in tech enthusiast circles to rip your entire Blu-ray collection and store it on a NAS for playback on Plex, Jellyfin, Emby or Kodi.

      I'm a part-time pro photographer who also works with some video, so my storage needs are quite high due to storage of RAW-based photos (roughly 50MB per photo) and 4K video since a single project can consume 1TB easily. My NAS has a storage capacity of roughly 42TB.

      Cloud storage past a certain point becomes very expensive when you're dealing with multiple terabytes. If you're only dealing in the 350GB range, then cloud storage combined with local backups is perfectly viable for most people.

      • John Kimble on 07/11/2023 - 14:42

        Google pricing is pretty crappy, it's $124.99 for 2tb py, but the only plan below is 200gb for $43.99 py! :(

        So for me a few years of $125, starts to add up…

        • qwijibo on 07/11/2023 - 17:23

          If all you need is 2TB, its cheaper than building a NAS. You've got the hardware costs plus the power costs.

          For most of us, its most likely media collections and backups - e.g. I have all my desktops/laptops backing up to my NAS.

        • skittlebrau on 07/11/2023 - 19:56
          +2

          2TB per year for $125 I think is good value.

          As qwijibo said, it would take you a fair while to recoup the initial hardware cost, power consumption and upkeep of replacing HDDs when they eventually die.

          In your case, I'd only do a DIY NAS if you already have old hardware to repurpose or if you have a desire to learn how to self-host services like a photo/video library, blog, video surveillance system, home automation, etc.

          If you wanted to give it a go, an ex-corp/government PC like a HP ProDesk or Dell Optiplex SFF system (the ones that can take a 3.5" HDD) can be a good option since they regularly get posted on OzBargain for $100-$150, whack in a single 4TB 3.5" HDD for $135, install an easy NAS-oriented distro/OS like OpenMediaVault or UnRAID, and voila, you have a home server you can send backups to, host stuff on, etc. If you want something smaller, there are smaller Mini/Micro variants of these PCs available as well, but you'd need to get 2.5" HDDs or SSDs for them instead as they're a lot smaller.

          • John Kimble on 07/11/2023 - 20:09

            @skittlebrau: Cheers for the info!

            I have an old PC tower from 2008 with Win 7 on it…recently paid $170 to a local PC store to diagnose and fix…it was (as suspected) just a dead video card. It also has a couple of 1tb drives in it (I think)…

            Probably not a good idea to use something that old I assume, as the drives will probably die soon…and I suppose it's good to have it stored in the cloud/at Googlr vs at home in case of a disaster…

            https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/714415

  • ihfree on 06/11/2023 - 23:23

    Yeah it would be fine if you're happy with the noise and have the space for it. TrueNAS would likely be easiest.

    I've run Ubuntu on my homeservers. My current iteration is a m700 with ubuntu and docker. That was going to be it, but I ended up with a 4 Bay QNAP for additional storage.

  • mikeykay on 09/11/2023 - 21:17

    Guys this thread has gone nuts!! Thanks everyone for your feedback. As I progress I'll try to keep you guys up to date.

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