NAS Newbie Questions (FreeNAS vs. Unraid)

[TheRagingTomatoes]

Okay here goes. I'm using some old PC hardware to setup a home NAS and have some questions. This is an area of computers that I have never dabbled in. Here's the hardware that I have, I know it's probably overkill but it's what I have leftover after building new machines for me and my dad.

 

i5 6600k

16GB ram

msi z170a motherboard

rx 580 (probably don't even need it)

corsair 750w gold psu

256gb nvme boot

12tb HDD containing media

Fractal Define R5

 

I do not have any other HDDs at the moment, but that's what amazon is for. I'd like to have a centralized location for important data and another for a plex server, so essentially 2 separate pools.

 

Here are my questions:

 

1. Should I go unraid or freenas?

2. Can i import my existing drive to either OS without wiping it?

3. Am I able to have a 3-2TB RAID array for data as well as another 2-12TB media pool at the same time?

 

Thanks for putting up with my newbie questions. I'm open to any recommendations, thoughts, critiques you may have.

[Biomecanoid]

9 minutes ago, TheRagingTomatoes said:

Okay here goes. I'm using some old PC hardware to setup a home NAS and have some questions. This is an area of computers that I have never dabbled in. Here's the hardware that I have, I know it's probably overkill but it's what I have leftover after building new machines for me and my dad.

 

i5 6600k

16GB ram

msi z170a motherboard

rx 580 (probably don't even need it)

corsair 750w gold psu

256gb nvme boot

12tb HDD containing media

Fractal Define R5

 

I do not have any other HDDs at the moment, but that's what amazon is for. I'd like to have a centralized location for important data and another for a plex server, so essentially 2 separate pools.

 

Here are my questions:

 

1. Should I go unraid or freenas?    I guess its up to you try them both and see what you like, I personally like FreeNAS

2. Can i import my existing drive to either OS without wiping it? You could on it own but as a member in an array it will be wiped

3. Am I able to have a 3-2TB RAID array for data as well as another 2-12TB media pool at the same time? Yes you can have multiple arrays or partitions.

 

Thanks for putting up with my newbie questions. I'm open to any recommendations, thoughts, critiques you may have.

If you want to keep the NAS running 24/7 maybe you would want a low power computer. If you don't care for the electric bill your parts are overkill.

[ProjectBox153]

Are you looking to run VMs or the like on the NAS? If you aren't then you might want to look into some more efficient parts. You definitely don't need the RX 580, and you don't even need to use the NVMe SSD as your boot drive. It'll definitely work fine though. I personally use FreeNAS, but my machine is solely a file server. 

[TheRagingTomatoes]

42 minutes ago, ProjectBox153 said:

Are you looking to run VMs or the like on the NAS? If you aren't then you might want to look into some more efficient parts. You definitely don't need the RX 580, and you don't even need to use the NVMe SSD as your boot drive. It'll definitely work fine though. I personally use FreeNAS, but my machine is solely a file server. 

Any specific parts you'd recommend? I'm looking to avoid spending too much on new hardware as well as drives.

[TheRagingTomatoes]

43 minutes ago, ProjectBox153 said:

Are you looking to run VMs or the like on the NAS? If you aren't then you might want to look into some more efficient parts. You definitely don't need the RX 580, and you don't even need to use the NVMe SSD as your boot drive. It'll definitely work fine though. I personally use FreeNAS, but my machine is solely a file server. 

Any specific parts you'd recommend? I'm looking to avoid spending too much on new hardware as well as drives.

[ProjectBox153]

54 minutes ago, TheRagingTomatoes said:

Any specific parts you'd recommend? I'm looking to avoid spending too much on new hardware as well as drives.

Realistically it shouldn't be too much of a problem to use what you have now (besides the GPU - pull that out and use the iGPU). It'll be fine. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, TheRagingTomatoes said:

Any specific parts you'd recommend? I'm looking to avoid spending too much on new hardware as well as drives.

Id drop the gpu, and probably go unraid for ease of expansion.

 

Then id use one big pool, no reason to store media and data on separate sets of drives. 

 

And just make sure it stays backed up.