low budget NAS question? SOC or full x86 system

[ThyRum]

I want to use the time of social distancing for a NAS Project, that i'm thinking about the last 2 years.

But i'm not sure if i should go the "normal" x86 way with AM4-board + APU + RAM or try my hand on an SOC.

 

I dont mind tinkering around. But I dont want to hit a brick wall just every turn.

 

I was thinking into the direction where the Helios 4 went but based around the Rock Pi 4 B 4GB with a SATA HAT for 4 HDD's.

 

Or do you think i should simply wait for the Helios 64 (even though it is fucking expensive because 300 $ would give me a decent MB+CPU+RAM Combo)

 

Would be happy about your advise

[WereCatf]

8 minutes ago, ThyRum said:

Would be happy about your advise

Personally, I prefer the full-blown x86-build for such because it can then do a lot more than just run a NAS, like e.g. one can run a Plex Media Server on it, various virtual-machines, one's own, private cloud-storage and so on and so forth. That said, if you just want a NAS without all those extras, then a full-blown x86-build would be kind of a waste.

[Pa1yn]

14 minutes ago, ThyRum said:

I want to use the time of social distancing for a NAS Project, that i'm thinking about the last 2 years.

But i'm not sure if i should go the "normal" x86 way with AM4-board + APU + RAM or try my hand on an SOC.

 

I dont mind tinkering around. But I dont want to hit a brick wall just every turn.

 

I was thinking into the direction where the Helios 4 went but based around the Rock Pi 4 B 4GB with a SATA HAT for 4 HDD's.

 

Or do you think i should simply wait for the Helios 64 (even though it is fucking expensive because 300 $ would give me a decent MB+CPU+RAM Combo)

 

Would be happy about your advise

Buy a dell poweredge r710

[ThyRum]

2 hours ago, GougedKirby522 said:

Buy a dell poweredge r710

i dont have the space for that kind of hardware. I was thinking a small mATX Case with 4-5 2,5" bays or somethink like the size of the helios 64. But thanks for the input.

[ThyRum]

2 hours ago, WereCatf said:

Personally, I prefer the full-blown x86-build for such because it can then do a lot more than just run a NAS, like e.g. one can run a Plex Media Server on it, various virtual-machines, one's own, private cloud-storage and so on and so forth. That said, if you just want a NAS without all those extras, then a full-blown x86-build would be kind of a waste.

I was thinking to use OMV with maybe nextcloud. Plex is not a must and i sure dont need a 4k stream (i dont even own a TV and I wont have one for the next 10 years at least) but would be a nice to  have. I primarly want the basic functions of a NAS and the most nice to haves for the least amount of money. Excluding the drives 300 is for me the absolute most i'd pay for that project. At the moment i do have a spare 550W Bronze PSU and a spare small sized mATX case with 4 bays (could be hacked easily to host more). But that isnt much. I'm not a fan of buying used (had some bad experience with that). So atm the parts i'd go for right now if x86 are a 50€ AM4 Board with 6 Sata and 1 NVMe M.2, the 50€ Athlon GE and 20€ 4GB RAM. What i like about the ARM-aproch is the size. I really love downsizing my stuff (already planing on an watercooled ITX-Gaming build in a 12l Case as soon as the pandemic is over).

[x10ded]

I would recommend going x86 as i have a RasPi4 running plex and samba but now i want to expand and build a new PC too. Its proved seemingly impossible to find a simple way to power 4x 3.5" drives and connect to the RasPi without having 4 power leads for each powered usb to sata adapter and a hub to connect all the USBs together. The Rock Pi seems to be more available but then you still need a full PSU just to power the drives. You can get seperate enclosures or docking stations for drives but they're unnecessarily expensive. 

 

If you're just looking for a simple NAS with couple extra dockers in OMV, then sbc will do plenty and the small size is a bonus, but i think x86 gives you soo many more options

[lal12]

I don't think powering the HDDs will by your main problem with ARM ^^. However usually for a NAS you want multiple SATA ports, which are rarely available on ARM SBCs. I looked into it for a friend a while back there are some possibilities, however it wouldn't really be much cheaper and there would be a lot of tinkering involved so I wouldn't recommend going ARM here.  If you really interested I can give you some details though (don't remember them on top of my head rn ^^).

 

On 4/3/2020 at 12:16 AM, ThyRum said:

So atm the parts i'd go for right now if x86 are a 50€ AM4 Board with 6 Sata and 1 NVMe M.2, the 50€ Athlon GE and 20€ 4GB RAM.

Yeah would be my choice too: Athlon 3000G + an AM4 motherboard though the AM4 boards seem to be not that cheap (in terms of a budget NAS). There are some ATX NAS cases from SilverStone or Sharkoon for ~40€, of course you could just use a normal PC case too.

 

I personally didn't had the best experience with OMV and always ended up using FreeNAS, though for docker using a linux based system is of course the better choice, since FreeNAS uses a Linux VM for docker...