Learning to set up and use a NAS

[EdanC]

Hi, I've always wanted a NAS to back up my projects and so broke me decided to find some old parts to build one as an experiment and a cool way to use my free time. Dumpster diving at uni and at my father's workplace has net me:

- A 1tb and 512gb hard drive

- An intel i5 4460s with a motherboard that has 2 sata ports

- An r5450 (since the motherboard only has Dp and I need hdmi)

- and the other stuff like an 8gb and 2gb stick of ddr3, a good enough psu, a 24 to 10 pin connector for power, and a cut thumb over the io shield

(Only parts I can confirm are still functional.)

 

I'm currently not very knowledgeable with NAS and PCs in general so apologies if my questions sound dumb or obvious, but here they are:
1. Should I (or can I) use windows 7 (or 10) as the operating system for the test NAS or should I use a NAS dedicated OS?
2. Can I combine the 1tb and 512gb drives together as a single 1.5tb? (I doubt I'll need 1.5tb but more the merrier?)

3. Do I even need 10gb of RAM or will sticking to a single 8gb stick be more than enough?

4. I intend to leave this device on for a while despite it just being an experiment so would I be fine if I underclock and/or undervolt the CPU? (possibly even disable cores to save power and passively cool it?)

 

Browsing the internet has left a little confused and kind of interested in building my own NAS so it would be nice to get some advice from more experienced people.

Oh, and also I've never used a forum before so if this post belongs in a different location do tell.

Cheers!

Ed.

 

[bezza...]

with a nas as much ram as you can use is good as it is used for cashing. i resently set up my first nas with some old spare parts and found that true nas scale is the best. if you want reduntency then you can do what i did (cus i only had 2 sata ports) and boot of a cheap ssd using a usb 2 sata adapter. look at hardwhare havens youtube channle it is a good resorce