Help building a NAS

Soldato
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,920
Location
_
Hi there!

I've was thoroughly in to building machines back in 2002, but have well and truly taken my finger off the pulse of hardware.

I want to build myself a 4 bay NAS that'll accommodate 4x4tb drives in mirror, and I've had a look at the synology boxes, but the price seems pretty high for what I'd like to achieve. Those have proprietary software and plug and play capability / warranty and I get that, but I'd like to explore a self build using something like FreeNAS.

I'd like something synology small (I guess that means microatx sized?), but I don't see myself constantly swapping drives over, so I suppose having them instantly accessible isn't *that* big a deal.

I need to be able to transcode plex when required, and it'll serve primarily as a plex box and nas share for backing up data, but it would be really useful if it could host a VM or two, so wouldn't rule out something with 8gb RAM and a reasonable CPU.

What's a good matchup of components to accomplish this? I'm open to any advice and would really appreciate the thoughts of the OCUK collective mind.

Cheers,

K
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jan 2007
Posts
4,735
Location
King's Lynn
Going to be completely honest, I've looked into doing similar (although I was looking at 5 drives) and I basically came to conclusion it was just easier/cheaper to buy a ready made nas unless I had the bits laying around. Synology/Qnap are usually mitx size which makes it a bit more expensive. Case wise you could pick something like a fractal node 304 and I know synology have a few options too.

Freenas does have a list of system requirements, they also do their own (excessively pricey) hardware too last time I checked, so I think a lot of it will be more about 'does it hit the requirements' than anything else.

I know there is/was a thing with hp microservers and xpenology (synology os basically) but that was partly due to the cost of the microserver being so cheap with rebates. I'm not 100% sure how good they are these days though.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,920
Location
_
Going to be completely honest, I've looked into doing similar (although I was looking at 5 drives) and I basically came to conclusion it was just easier/cheaper to buy a ready made nas unless I had the bits laying around. Synology/Qnap are usually mitx size which makes it a bit more expensive. Case wise you could pick something like a fractal node 304 and I know synology have a few options too.

Freenas does have a list of system requirements, they also do their own (excessively pricey) hardware too last time I checked, so I think a lot of it will be more about 'does it hit the requirements' than anything else.

I know there is/was a thing with hp microservers and xpenology (synology os basically) but that was partly due to the cost of the microserver being so cheap with rebates. I'm not 100% sure how good they are these days though.
Thanks for this!

I have seen quite a few HP Microservers pinging about on eBay for around the £80 mark with no drives, but I've remained skeptical if they can perform the various odds and sods as well as a newer build could, or whether it'd be a compromise beyond either just buying the synology or getting the bits.

I wouldn't rule out this sort of price range: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/syno...4-bay-network-attached-storage-hd-0bc-sy.html or https://www.overclockers.co.uk/syno...4-bay-network-attached-storage-hd-0ac-sy.html

and if it's as easy as plugging drives in and cracking on...
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
29 Oct 2002
Posts
698
I'd also planned similar in the past, as Isg1r said it worked out much cheaper just buying an off the shelf pre-made NAS, I got a 2Tb Buffalo unit for around £200, quite simple to setup and use :)
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Apr 2007
Posts
13,451
I ended up with an Asustor Nas after looking at all the options.
It's powerful, will transcode 4k no problem. It's energy efficient, it's tiny and compared to the parts is have used cheap.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jan 2007
Posts
4,735
Location
King's Lynn
Thanks for this!

I have seen quite a few HP Microservers pinging about on eBay for around the £80 mark with no drives, but I've remained skeptical if they can perform the various odds and sods as well as a newer build could, or whether it'd be a compromise beyond either just buying the synology or getting the bits.

I would rule out this sort of price range: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/syno...4-bay-network-attached-storage-hd-0bc-sy.html or https://www.overclockers.co.uk/syno...4-bay-network-attached-storage-hd-0ac-sy.html

and if it's as easy as plugging drives in and cracking on...
IIRC there's a thread on the forum somewhere (couldn't seem to find it from a quick search) purely about the microservers.

Just a confirmation, are you ruling those 2 synology out or are they ok price wise? I'd also personally go for 5 drive (better fit for raid imo) but if you only have 4 drives you can expand with the last drive later on if using synologies version of raid (SRH, all explained on synology site but at a very simple level raid 5 but can be expanded).

My own experience with synology nas was literally plug it in, find it on the network (directly or via the synology desktop software), set it how I like and then essentially leave it alone....
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,920
Location
_
Just a confirmation, are you ruling those 2 synology out or are they ok price wise? I'd also personally go for 5 drive (better fit for raid imo) but if you only have 4 drives you can expand with the last drive later on if using synologies version of raid (SRH, all explained on synology site but at a very simple level raid 5 but can be expanded).

Sorry, a typo on my part. I've corrected my original post. I WOULD NOT rule out those prices, if they were relatively future-proof in terms of offering transcoding capability.

I had a quick look at this post:
https://nascompares.com/2020/06/22/synology-ds920-nas-plex-4k-1080p-and-720p-tests-h-264-hevc/

And he seems to be saying (there is zero editorial, only test results) that the DS920+ would do the job as long as you're only transcoding at 1080p - I don't always know what file formats I've got, so it'd be great to just grab content and chuck it on the telly at the highest available quality without worrying about compatible formats.

Essentially, I'm being a bit picky :p

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ASUS...medium=referral&utm_campaign=affiliategateway - this does look impressive for the price.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
25 Jan 2007
Posts
4,735
Location
King's Lynn
Essentially, I'm being a bit picky :p
Can't blame you in all honesty, buying a nas isn't something you just 'replace' if it's wrong lol.

As to plex, can't really comment, my tv can play my formats so no need for transcoding but I'm pretty sure it's basically going to be accessing intels 'quicksync' with support for h265 iirc.
Take a look at these threads
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/a8iswb/what_to_expect_from_a_celeron_j4105/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeServer...on_j4105_for_nas_and_a_couple_of_lightweight/
 
Back
Top Bottom