2-in-1: NAS & Mom's PC???

[artkingjw]

Hi all,

 

Crazy concept I know, I'm just entertaining this amusing possibility at the moment, looking for people to talk me off the ledge for this one. 

 

1. Budget & Location

Australia. Hopefully well under AU$ 1500 excluding NAS drives.

 

2. Concept/Aim

One PC Case (as small as practicality can allow) with a decently powerful multi-core CPU and 6 or more 3.5" bays. Primary purpose is as a NAS, whilst secondary function is as my mom/dad's PC. 

 

Mom/Dad's PC: 80% Web surfing/YouTube/Music (including a large CD collection, so 5.35" bay needed...?) | 10% light photo editing | 10% MS Word/Excel etc. 

NAS: Plex server for media, Resilio Sync for work. Expansion from 4 drives to 6 in gradual stages. 24/7 operation. 

 

I'm thinking this could be an unRAID build, with a Windows VM as my parent's PC. My parents are also not tech savvy, which is the biggest downside to this build. The idea is that I'll set this thing up some how, and teach them how to turn their PC half of it on, and turn it off, while their user experience should be the same as it currently is (Windows 10, Dell pre-built). On the NAS side, I'm open to learning *some* Linux stuff if needed, but ideally it should, more or less, be intuitive, and just work. 

 

Also, no jet engines please. Definitely no RGB. Clean minimalist/professional looks and compact size are important to pass mom's test. No tempered glass windows. 

 

3. Why? 

The main reason for this is space saving. Currently both NAS and Desktop sit in the study of our house. Both items have to remain there, but space needs to be consolidated. Second reason is cost minimization - hopefully I get more 'bang for buck' by merging 2 systems into 1??? Third reason is NAS drive thermals: I'm currently on a 2nd hand WD EX4 (4-bay) NAS that runs worryingly hot (> 60 deg C regularly) in the hot Oz summer.

4. Peripherals etc. 

No peripherals needed as we still have a great single 1080p monitor with mouse/keyboard etc. from the current machine. Windows Home license probably. unRAID for 6 drives? 

 

 

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.