n00b question, sorry. If I had a desktop that could hold 4 HD and 2 SSD, could I turn it into a NAS? Could someone point me in the right direction if this makes sense?
Some ppl pointed out you can. NAS it’s just a tiny computer with a dedicated enclosure running 24/7 with a lot of services running to do multiple things because…is running 24/7! Is you just want to upload some files for a backup is better an external HDD through USB. Connect, upload, disconnect.
If you want your computer do more things you have to check how the computer handle these services by software or hardware(hardware better) A list of questions:
It support aspm (yes/not)
It support virtualization.
BIOS come with a dedicated raid chip
How many video codecs the processor/iGPU can decode
Ethernet port is, at least, gigabit
RAM is >4GB
You’re willing to spend time configuring and taking care of the thing
If a few of questions, or all, are NO I think it’s better to invest in an external USB HDD case.
I’m not sure I can recommend anything without knowing your goals. For me my needs quickly outgrew my little mini PC and now I have a cluster with a few single board computers. Here’s a basic list of what I run:
Dell workstation (proxmox):
Linux Mint
GPU and USB passed though via Virtio with a sata to USB adapter for connecting the bluray drive
Used as a desktop and is an alternative to my laptop.
It also hosts Jellyfin in a podman container
Docker 0
Nextcloud
TrueNAS
This is a TrueNAS VM with a dedicated sata controller passed though to it. Its used for storage for nextcloud and jellyfin.
Mini PC (proxmox)
landmass
this is a simple LXC container to act as a wireguard client with a caddy proxy. It allows me to access my HDhomerun as it is in another building (long story)
caddy
this used to be for accessing my homerun but is now just for remote access via ssh.
outside access
this is a VM that connects to the VM in linode to route traffic. It runs Ngnix proxy manager and is a wireguard client.
docker1
this hosts Matrix and Drupal. Matrix is basiclly unusable for me because as soon as I start joining rooms the resource usage shoots though the roof and it sometimes crashes
Linode
I have a VM in Linode that routes traffic into outside access via wireguard. It also runs Ngnix proxy manager.
Friendlywrt
I have a Nanopi that acts as a firewall and dhcp server to isolate everything.
This is a incomplete list and doesn’t include my firewall rules or other security measures. I also run Debian on all VMs as it is easy to setup and maintain. If you are looking for somewhere to start I would start by installing nextcloud in a docker container. Proxmox will scale the best but if you are just looking to learn I would install Debian and docker compose. TrueNAS is great for a NAS but its designed to be an appliance so it can be limiting.
Sure. My NAS I use for backups is also made from ancient desktop PC running ownCloud. The system is slow-ish by today’s standards, but since I had it already, I could invest in bigger SSD for data storage.
My NAS is an mATX mobo with an i5, 64G RAM, 8 disk drives, 3 nvme drives, and an ARC GPU for video transcoding.
Disk drives are all mirrored. One nvme runs NixOS which is easy enough to redeploy if the drive dies. One nvme is cache on top of the disk drives. Last nvme I use for temp fast storage like Jellyfin transcoding.
Its more of a combo NAS/server as I run most self hosted apps on it (tor node, monero node, jellyfin, *arr stack, etc).
Absolutely anything can be turned into a NAS, as long as you’re aware of your own needs and the hardware’s capabilities. A NAS is just a computer with some specific requirements.
When I first built my NAS, it only used parts that I got for free. A cheap micro ATX board with only two RAM slots, an i3-4160 CPU, 2x2G RAM, a worn-out SSD, and a 1T HDD. It couldn’t run something like TrueNAS, but it was enough for Proxmox and some Alpine containers running services like Samba, Transmission, Wireguard, and a small Debian VM for me to fuck around with. The single storage disk means there is no redundancy, so I only store replaceable data on it, like TV shows and installers.
There are many hardware-focused channels on video platforms that offer guides for budget home servers. Wolfgang’s Channel is good, and Hardware Haven and Raid Owl just finished a competition of building a sub-$200 home lab.
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