Building a NAS / Home server

[ladal1]

Hey there, we are currently considering buying Synology DS218j, because we need better backup - (running everything on external drives is getting annoying). I was planning to buy one 6/8TB drive and pull one 3TB external drive out of enclosure and adding it inside. Then backing the most important stuff to B2 from backblaze. Maybe running Plex and some other stuff.

 

But now I though how about building my own server / NAS since I have a few old PCs lying around so I could at the very least use a case + fan or two and get at least something from it (The hardware otherwise is really old or too inefficient to use in something running 24/7). 

 

I don't really know my way around this sort of hardware so I was thinking either Intel Pentium J4205 or if that was not enough AMD Athlon 200GE VEGA or Celeron G3930 - but I honestly have no idea, so whatever you think is best. Cheaper is better, but there is a bit of flexibility in the amount i can invest in it.

 

So if building something to run, small web server, few docker containers, and backup (few HDD with a little SSD cache from multiple devices + sync part online), what to put in + what to power it with software-wise?

 

 

[unsungheroist]

Synology DS218j is a good contender for most of that however when it comes to plex with multi streams it will suffer. myself went to local shops like goodwill or ebay and picked thru the z77 era of intel. that being the i-7 3700k best in that socket.and quite pleased with it. i am using windows 10 on it and i know its not the best OS for this but simply im wanted to toss it together and it just work *cough lazy*.

 

if your looking for a good case: DS380 its not wallet friendly but its the best in class of medium media storage. i ended up going with the CS380. it has cooling issue's and require modding to fix but if your DIY then that's also up your ally.