NAS Build, storage, games, backups

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I have long been debating what to do for a NAS. In the past I was debating a Synology vs Asustor box, but always find a reason not to go forward with it (price, security, expansion, apps). I now have begun to think about building my own again, but am overwhelmed with the idea of the software side of it. My current system is beginning to show signs of age and I would like something a little more purpose-built with room for expansion.

The current system I am using as a pseudo-NAS, specs listed below, is in a small form factor Dell Optiplex with NO ROOM FOR EXPANSION. I currently have ZERO redundancy and would like to change that.

The primary purpose of this system over the past couple of years has been to host my Plex server, which may end up being Jellyfin, but that is another discussion. It also has hosted games servers such as Ark, Minecraft, Valheim, etc.

While I do not have a specific budget in mind, I am open to cost-effective solutions, and understand that drives are an additional cost that are sometimes considered separately from the rest of the build. Ideally I would like something in the range of a Node 804 to ATX form factor, so that I can have multiple drives down the road. Otherwise, I am open to suggestions.

In regards to software, this is where I often become overwhelmed. I want something that is simple enough that I can learn it without needing too much assistance. I fully understand though that I as time goes on I will become more adept at using it. I know that TrueNAS and FreeNAS have a lot of documentation and support out there, which would be potential solutions, but I would be open to other suggestions as well.
EDIT: I totally forgot about UnRaid, but that also seems to be a good entry-ish level option. Plus it seems to have decent plugins for media centers.

This will be largely be an “in-house” server only. However, I would not be opposed to being able to access it from outside of my network, but if the security and privacy of the server takes a big hit when I do this, then I can live without it. Any use outside of the network 99% of the time would be streaming media from Plex or simply accessing office suite files.

I have been thinking that, to start, 12-16TB would be a good amount of storage, but I would like it to be expandable moving forward without too much of a hassle.

Current “NAS” specs
-Intel i5 2400
-12GB DDR3 non-ECC
-Dell Optiplex
-240GB SSD boot drive
-6TB WD Red storage drive

Any guidance or wisdom would be appreciated it! I am still researching some options so I may return with some updates of where I am at.

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I think I speak for many of us here when I say that Trunas* is a really good NAS but as soon as you start to do a AIO box running on it you start to run into issues. I would suggest Unraid or Proxmox if you plan on doing anything other than serving and storing files.

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Unraid would likely be the better option then. It seems like it has Plex and Jellyfin support. I am still looking into it, but it seems like Unraid would be able to host Minecraft and other game servers as well.

I also think the ability to easily expand my array when adding drives would be a beneficial.

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Your hardware is too old and slow to do transcoding reliably so you might want ot look into that first…

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I have been referencing this website nVidia Hardware Transcoding Calculator for Plex Estimates but it seems like everything is overkill for just an individual. If I upgrade my current GPU in my main pc that would leave me with a GTX 1080Ti with nothing to do, but that power draw would be absurd for the occasional transcode.

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For the occasional transcode as well as general improvements to NAS snappiness, I’d look into grabbing a 7th-gen or newer i5 (or even an i3 if it’s new enough). Quicksync on those will handle transcoding with ease without breaking the bank or your power budget.

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For a home user, is ECC necessary or even a consideration?

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How seriously do you take data integrity? ECC is certainly not necessary, any more than using ZFS with some level of redundancy is necessary to protect your files. But it’s another layer of protection that’s nice to have if you can swing it. Wanting to use Intel quicksync can complicate getting ECC (thanks, Intel!), so if quicksync is a priority you might need to forgo ECC.

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If quicksync means I do not need a GPU for encoding then I would definitely be interested in using it. I think that ECC is something I would not be opposed to lowering on the priority list.

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I use a mini PC with a newer intel chip (1220p), It has plenty of transcode power for multiple streams. I have multiple VMs and plex running on it with no problem.

That flashstor from asus would be the way id go with truenas core for storage but its a little lacking on power for game servers.

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home minipc
home minipc1920Ă—2560 384 KB

Intel nuc 1220p 2P 8E cores
This is how I do mine, 4tb wd blue, 4tb crucial nvme, 512gb m.2 ssd (os drive) , 32gb ram

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do you have a link to the model of the 512GB SSD you are using there?

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Good point. Also, if their internet upload is decent they wouldn’t need to transcode.

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This may be more of a personal choice, but how many PCI express slots would you have in a NAS? I am torn between 1 which would give me many itx options. This slot could be used by a GPU down the road.

BUT if I had a second slot, I could use an HBA card to run more drives and therefore be “future-proofing” more. This likely would require a bigger board,and thus larger case.

EDIT1: Currently researching this possible build

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My experienceis very limited but the route I went was

  • mITX motherboard in Node 304 case; 2x. M.2 slots, 1x PCIe slot, 4x SATA ports

  • using Unraid, so the boot disk was a USB Drive

  • used a CPU with integrated graphics

  • one M.2 for fast SSD cache disk (optional)

  • one M.2 for SATA expansion card (these exist, check Amazon)

  • PCIe slot is left over for ??something?? in the future

I loaded the system up with 5x SATA drives, so the M.2 → SATA was required. By have open M.2 slots, you have a couple more options for limited expansion that can let you preserve your free PCIe longer.

If I had not been using Unraid, then I would have just used a spare SATA SSD for boot disk instead, in order to further preserve M.2 and PCIe slots only for data storage volumes and expansions.

Also regarding “future proofing”, I am not sure how many “more” drives you would actually need. My preferences, going into the future, would be to replace old smaller drives with larger capacity drives as needed / as available, instead of just adding more and more drives endlessly. Over the years, I have gone from 8TB drives to 14TB drives to now 20TB drives in my storage configurations, with the total number of drives in use remaining pretty much the same the whole time.

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Your Plex server can be a shoe box as long as your playback devices support Direct Play.

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I mentioned transcoding… :wink:

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