Hello everyone! Currently having a growing interest in building a home server. I am still in the process of reading different guides and videos and honestly overwhelmed and my knowledge of PCs is mostly in gaming so hardcore coding, networking and environment other than Windows is still unclear to me.
My Thoughts:
Primary use is file storage and have the ability to be accessed from outside of home network similar to that of a cloud storage. It will run 24/7, needs low power consumption and has to be secured. I am considering to add a Home Assistant to it in the future for smart devices at home. Since this is my first time, I am going for all used parts or used PC to start with.
Questions
I do not prefer mechanical HDs for now and willing to go SSDs since I have spare SATA SSDs that I can use. My idea is just to have backup of my storage and have it scheduled.
I prefer to start with Windows environment first even though I know Linux or maybe other OS will yield better flexibility. If I run Home Assistant and TrueNas for example, is my understanding correct that it will be via Hyper-V when in Windows?
If I want to access my server PC, can I use TeamViewer as remote control software to touch stuff or are there alternatives?
Do I need an AV for the server PC? I have Bitdefender Total Security and wondering if it will suffice.
Does that server PC needs to be connected with cable to my router or Wifi is enough? Also, do I need a switch or router only will be fine for my use? Currently, I have a desktop PC and Beelink mini PC both connected by LAN cable to my router.
Hardware Qs
I am thinking between a Lenovo Thinkcenter M75Q with Ryzen 3400GE APU due to low TDP and price of US$190 (converted from JPY), or AsRock Deskmini with Ryzen APU build for US$250. For third option, traditional assembly of parts with 3200G/3400G as base (mATX since mITX boards are expensive).
Do not underpower your system. The CPU needs to be sufficient to perform the tasks it’s asked to do. If energy costs are a concern, switch the unit off while not in use.
Wifi is not enough for a decent NAS experience. For starters it’s very slow compared to a wired connection and potentially a security risk: if someone has access to your Wifi network, your data is up for grabs. In a wired network, that access isn’t possible w/o physical access to the network first. In which case you have more serious things to worry about
Don’t allow external access (from the web) unless you really understand the risks and you’re capable to rectify any issues that arise to keep your data and connection itself safe.
The Cloud is just someone else’s computer. And as it’s not yours, other people have access to the very computer that stores your (personal) data. This is a security risk, quite major really. Encryption may reduce the risk, but not the fact someone can copy it outright. And then social-engineer an attack to obtain the encryption key. Far fetched? You might be the next victim then
Win-OS is not suited for anything else then plain desktop tasks. Yes I know about the “server” versions, but that’s just a layer over the underlaying basic desktop system. With all its faults, security holes and bloatware. No OS is perfect, let’s be frank and clear, but the likes of unRAID, ProxMox and TrueNAS are better suited for the tasks you want your NAS to perform.
Anyway, choices are yours to make and advise can be ignored if you choose to do so
Sounds fine, always go SSD for OS and just use disks for bulk data
Honestly HyperV is garbage. I would just go in heads first with Linux, maybe go Proxmox
I would not use Teamviewer. You can use SSH, VNC or RDP (Assuming Windows). If you need to access from the outside, setup a VPN like Wireguard
You could, but personally I don’t. If Windows, Windows Defender is enough, and I’ve never personally installed an AV on my Linux servers since they are not really used for browsing the internet etc
I would HIGHLY suggest using Ethernet and not wireless. Connecting directly to your router will probably be fine, if you need more ports get a switch, and if you want to play with VLAN’s, get a smart/managed switch
Probably would be fine, I can’t really suggest hardware too much as used hardware here in the US is very different to Japan I assume.
Whatever you do, make sure you can get at least 32GB of RAM in the computer you get, adding a bunch of VM’s etc uses RAM up pretty quick. If you do end up going Windows (Please don’t) you’ll need a fair amount of RAM too. Even if you don’t need much RAM to start, you will in the future
SSD storage only doesn’t scale great vs cost but if it’s only a small amount of data it’s doable.
You can use Windows, it’s probably not ideal if you want to use Open Source softwware in general but it’s doable. Unless you supervise it 24/7 you probably don’t want any service facing Internet in general. TrueNAS works best on bare metal by far, you can virtualize it but if you run into issue you’re pretty much on your own. While Hyper-V is competent it in this case just adds another layer of “what can go wrong” and don’t really fit your use-case. If you want to run Windows you’re much better off looking at native solutions instead. Home Assistant will however work fine in a VM at least for network communication, Hyper-V does support USB passthrough but I don’t know how well it works. I’d advice you to get a network connected controller in general though for whatever protocol(s) you want.
Remote Desktop is Microsoft’s native solution and it works very well, like any other “remote access” solution you want to place this behind a firewall with at least limited IP access and/or VPN. If you for whatever reason don’t want to use Remote Desktop, Rustdesk is probably your best bet.
Technically no but it may be a good idea depending on users and content
While wireless can be pretty stable it’s commonly adviced to not go that route due to stability concerns, security (to some extent) and overall performance to mention a few. If you want to go this route anyway I would highly recommend you to get a wireless bridge which will make it transparent but cable is highly recommended. You don’t need a seaprate switch or such per definition.
I’m not sure how you’re going to handle any type of redudance regarding storage going for a Thinkcenter M75Q which is common practice for a storage server.
Sounds awesome, do be aware 8TB SATA SSDs can be had for $350 today, while a 16TB spinning rust can be had for $270. SSDs are getting there for bulk and is now affordable but not a deal yet. I expect 16 TB m.2 drives to be below $200 at the end of 2025. at this rate.
You can, but… Just go Linux directly. Less hassle overall and there are a ton of guides describing how to do it. I recommend Debian as a server distro personally, slightly more setup, a lot less hassle to admin.
I would use SSH with key access from outside and then pull stuff over SCP/SFTP.
Not if you run Linux.
Yes, hook it up wired. Wireless is good for desktops but not servers. You can do it wireless and even access it wirelessly, but you need a lot more knowledge on how to secure a network for it.
Personally, for an all SSD NAS I would look into these two, however you do you, just wanted to point out what is available today.
Broken record here but yea, don’t use hyper-v in a internet accessible/low power environment. If you are wanting to run a low power device then windows is not the OS for you. At my work we are running almost exclusively Windows Server VM’s under VMware ESXI and 4 core 16GB ram VM’s are almost always resource constrained and running at redline.
Thank you very much for your response everyone! It is still overwhelming but gave me some clarity on my purpose. I assume I mixed or overdo much between file server and VMs. However, this gave me direction as well on which to study first, which I think I should focus on storage and redundancy first. VMs and adding other programs will be a later part once maybe I get the hang of it.
I didn’t realize having my network able to be accessed from outside would require tighter security and further complicate things than I have imagined. I think it is best to be local access in this case.
Watched some YT videos again (Wolfgang and Network Chuck) and some further noob questions:
You have mentioned about not opening my server to internet to avoid complicating issues and risks. So it means, my home server will not have internet access and only thru LAN right? All the stuff I wanted to do will be via LAN which my server and other devices are connected by wire to my router.
Access to your LAN from the internet happens at your router. As long as you keep that gate closed, your server cannot be reached from the web. As stated before, opening that gate is a huge responsibility and major risk to your network and security.
