I have an “old” AM4 PC i’m not currently using and would like to turn it into a home server. My plan is to have it function as a media server as a start and then move onto to other self hosting projects slowly.
The question I have is if I should be using SAS or SATA drives and if using SAS is there a external enclosure someone can recommend?
If you have enough drive bays in the case of the PC, you can use an internal SATA/SAS HBA and keep it internal… but it really depends on the scale of the operation you’re trying to build.
Kinda doesn’t matter whether you go SAS or SATA, if your HBA supports both, and your drives have the same R/W BW specs… unless you know you want one for its particular features, you can pick based on the availability of drives…
Do you have any drives that you will be using already? I know there are differences, but I have used SATA drives for years in my NAS without issues. Just make sure they are no SMR drives as they don’t play well. Also, if you are just getting started if you already have hardware you can use I would start there and get things as you know you need them. I started my NAS/Media Server journey using an old Core2Duo system, a 16gb flash drive, and a single 1TB WD Green HDD. I used it for a couple of years before I put together something else.
Greetings, you’re in the right place 
.. also factor in noise and cooling. Using onboard sata is a good way to start. If you go for a HBA card, they need high airflow or direct cooling, adding to power and noise.
External docks isn’t really my thing, but there’s a lot of love for icydock. I think the big guy has reviewed some, and I’ve seen a few on the NasCompares YouTube channel ..
The resources for these things here are endless.
Like, actually endless. Have fun.
Sas drives may be cheaper on the used market, but besides that there is no real benefit to a home lab.
Also note that you will need a sas hba card to use any sas drive and that will occupy precious pcie slots better used for anything else (gpu, nvme ssds). While any am4 motherboard has 4 sata ports for free
Sas enclosures are not common and expensive, most sas drives either go in servers or disk shelves (large rack mounted emclosure that looks and sounds like a server).
Start with SATA, if four disks won’t be enough you can get SAS HBA and still connect SATA disks to it. Some rarely used ones can be left spun down most of the time, using less electricity.
I don’t have any drives yet. The system itself is ready the only thing missing are the actual drives which I also need to shop for. Any sites or recommendations would be appreciated as well. I’m starting with 4-6 TB sizes.
2c.
SAS for home is a waste of time - they’re just a slightly less crap version of rust - with the “bonus” for home use of way more noise and heat. Back in the day before SSD they were the best we could get for enterprise, but now they’re just not worth it.
They’re just not required for home streaming media with a tiny number of users and the trade off for capacity isn’t worth it.
Also depending on access pattern, a larger SATA drive at say 5400 or 7200 RPM can be faster than a 10k SAS drive depending on the size difference and how much of the workload is small random IO.
Basically, in 2026 (particularly for home), if SATA is not fast enough look to augment with flash cache, more RAM, better NAS software like ZFS that does read-ahead, etc.