Turning old Gaming PC to NAS, building something from scratch or buy out of BOX NAS

CptPeterPL · January 1, 2020

Hello Everybody,

recently I made a little present for myself and switched my gaming rig from i7-4790k, MSI Z97 GUARD PRO, Patriot 16GB 3200Mhz RAM, ASUS GTX 970 in big ATX Fractal Case.

I didn't have time to sell it yet but I wanted to make/buy some NAS for my home appliance.

And I need your advice right now:

Is there any point of switching such setup to NAS or would it be better to buy some server hardware and build it with mind for this specific task? Last option would be to buy some out of BOX NAS.

I checked FreeNAS and UnRaid options and at the moment UnRaid sounds more fitting my needs as I would be able to fit in my not matching 2x2TB HDD and add some new ones if needed.

At the moment it probably would be simple file storage, DLNA (Plex) Server, and home mini lab to test some ideas. Maybe some mini game server.

Any thoughts about this would be greatly appreciated.

Windows7ge · January 1, 2020

It would work. As a NAS/File Server you won't need the GPU in there. It seems to have On-board video according to MSI. Plus a lot of NAS OS's use WebUI's. Personally I'd prefer actual server gear just to have all the server features. Rated for 24/7 operation. But if you don't need them the hardware should be fine for a casual network storage solution. Should be able to host a couple of VMs too.

Salacious B Crum · January 1, 2020

3 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

It would work. As a NAS/File Server you won't need the GPU in there. It seems to have On-board video according to MSI. Plus a lot of NAS OS's use WebUI's. Personally I'd prefer actual server gear just to have all the server features. Rated for 24/7 operation. But if you don't need them the hardware should be fine for a casual network storage solution. Should be able to host a couple of VMs too.

I would stuff it with drives and go for it I did this with my pre-built I7 6700 and running unRAID and its rock solid it runs plex, home assistant and around 12 dockers i.e. sonarr, radarr, lidarr, jacket you get the drift its been great I get around 8 active streams depending on trans-code requirements head over to pass-mark and see what the score is for your cpu then divide by 1500-2000 per stream I have a Dell R710 and a R410 but power hungry and a bit loud

CptPeterPL · January 2, 2020

Just had pretty sweet offer for my old RIG so new plan:

buy out of BOX synology 4 drive vs build something myself ?

Salacious B Crum · January 2, 2020

1 hour ago, CptPeterPL said:

Just had pretty sweet offer for my old RIG so new plan:

buy out of BOX synology 4 drive vs build something myself ?

They can get pricey and not all run plex well also you will need to factor in the drive costs as most don't come populated with drives but its doable

CptPeterPL · January 3, 2020

So what build would you suggest ? I hope to fit all of it in Cube case (Fractal Design Nano 302 or 802/ or something similar).

I wanted to find some AMD based solution as all security issues with Intel CPU's looks not fun.

Salacious B Crum · January 3, 2020

5 hours ago, CptPeterPL said:

So what build would you suggest ? I hope to fit all of it in Cube case (Fractal Design Nano 302 or 802/ or something similar).

I wanted to find some AMD based solution as all security issues with Intel CPU's looks not fun.

Well my unRAID server is intel and all my workstations are AMD (3) I would go over to limetechs forum and quiz them on Ryzen systems there have been some issues think C-states is one

CptPeterPL · January 4, 2020

On 1/3/2020 at 3:22 PM, mrbilky said:

Well my unRAID server is intel

So what would you recommend in Intel side of things.

* I was going to fit it in Cube case.

Salacious B Crum · January 4, 2020

Well I hate saying it but you had a great start with what you had that being said I would stay with a 6th gen or newer cpu no real need for an overclocking unit and a mid level board will serve you well but think ahead if you think you will likely run some vm's you should consider that in your build now I would also check passmark scores when making your decision as plex will come into play here

her's the load currently on my system ay idle