My 4c/4t 2500k is a few years beyond when I should have retired it and I’m wondering whether it’s worth rebuilding it into a nas after replacing it with a new zen 4 build.
First off is it worth my time converting its use?
Apart from a couple of hundred for storage drives, do I need to factor in another purchase for expansion cards and the like?
If I’m wanting to build in an auto backup for our phone photos (both android) should I be using a docker capable setup for the nas to get this functionality , or is there an os that has this baked in?
You should be able to use your whole 2500k system except maybe the case. If you aren’t going to add more drives than your case can hold, then you can use the entire system as a NAS. What you need to decide is which NAS operating software you are going to use. There are several; I will let someone else explain those.
oh man, my first build was a 2500k and I had that MoFo @5GHz on AIR COOLING. That was back when the IHS was soldered. I mustive hit the jackpot in the chip lottery then.
As for a nas (from what you want to do) it would be overkill and power hungry. If you still have teh MoBo, I’d look at low power compatible Xeon’s for a NAS.
But if you don’t mind that you could try to undervolt it
IDK if there is a used market for 2500K’s though if you went to sell it.
I have a i5 2500S system. 2500S consumes less than 6W (cpu package) at idle. I would think your 2500K would also be pretty power efficient if you run it at stock or underclock a bit. Yet still ‘very powerful’ for lots of tasks.
If you could convert it to other uses, NAS or a general home server, by all means try. Or else give to other people who can use it as a daily driver for email, Excel, Word, Internet surfing (must have a Pi-Hole or alike on LAN though) and etc.