I want a NAS solution to back up my PC and host media files, but prebuilt NAS solutions are incredibly expensive and underwhelming and so I’m planning to build one. Does anyone have recommendations for a NAS interface?
I’m brand new to server management and would prefer something user friendly. I have used linux mint, but currently use windows as my daily driver (planning to switch to mint soon). I’d be fine with a dedicated NAS OS or with something I could run on mint since I’m already familiar with that distro.
OpenMediaVault (OMV) is a Debian server with a very user-friendly web interface. It also has solid documentation and a robust community. I’ve been running it for 6 years, and I am very happy with it.
TrueNAS is fine but the dead-simplest I’ve ever seen is CasaOS which has one-click network file sharing.
Unraid is as simple as they come and it has some features that don’t exist in normal RAID setups.
It’s paid and partly proprietary though. Not an issue for me, but might be an issue for some other people.
Meh, features and support aren’t free. I get your, though.
Synology and Qnap cheaper solutions would work just fine for what you need, and are only ~$200-300. Cheaper then building an entire box, but if not…
Fract Node 804 Case (space for 8 3.5" HDDs, AMD lower wattage CPU, whatever mobo with an SFP module.
Run TrueNAS or Unraid on it, and you’ll be ready to go.
You might be right. The Synology products look really good. I didn’t see that they actually have a sub-$400 4-bay NAS… DS423. Not sure if it’ll meet my performance needs. But the $600 4 bay doesn’t look too bad either really.
Do you really need a 4 bay unit though? HDD are cheap right now. You can get a Synology DS-2XX for ~$200, and 2x14TB Refurb WDC for $200. That’s 14TB of Raid 1 protected storage right there for $400.
I didn’t realize how cheap the big hdds had gotten. Definitely looking into 2 bays.
Yeah, definitely explore it. You can get more service-level things out of a build or higher disk array, but if you don’t need the compute, just go cheap and be satisfied your stuff is safe. Synology has a great ecosystem in my experience.
I like TrueNAS Scale. If you don’t mind paying for a server OS and parts of it being proprietary, check out Unraid.
