First NAS Build

[SkyLeRecruit]

1. Budget & Location: My budget is flexible but I’d like to spend around $600 for the case and maybe $200-$250 for a single 12TB HDD or two smaller HDD’s with the idea being that I’ll purchase more drives later on. I live up in Anchorage, Alaska, USA.

2. Aim: I want this build to be mainly for backups and storing anything and everything I might need. For reference, I’m a digital artist who would like to stream and make videos as well. I’m also dabbling in Game Design/Development (mainly 2D games right now) and 3D modeling. I’d like to be able to backup all these things down the road but for right now, I only really need to worry about backing up small art files and a few miscellaneous files here and there.

3. Monitors & Peripherals: Already have what I need.

4. Why are you upgrading? I don’t have a NAS and would like one. That’s about it for the reasoning, haha!

 

With that all out of the way, here is the build I hope to do and the reasoning behind some of my choices.

 

PcPartPicker List:https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fJN6Kp

 

• I couldn’t add this part to the list but I am also adding an IO Crest M.2 to SATA III expansion card for two more sata ports
• I'm planning on using TrueNAS for my OS.

 

I originally copied LTT’s Jonsbo N1 NAS build. After realizing that shipping costs for the case were the same amount as the case itself, I dug into the forum for the video to see what people were saying for alternatives and settled on the Fractal Design Node 304.

 

I went with the i3-12100 since it has integrated graphics and I don’t want to deal with what LTT had to in the video.

 

I’m iffy on the power supply and wonder if I should just bite the bullet and buy a higher end 80+ Titanium rated PSU since this is going to be running 24/7.

 

Now, for the storage, I put all those drives in the list because I have a few questions about them. Is WD Red better for NAS storage than Seagate IronWolf or Exos? If Exos is better, what does the X14, X16, and X18 mean? I saw some forums saying that WD and Seagate were comparable but I couldn’t find a concrete answer as to what the X14 stuff meant. Regardless, I am only going to go with one 12TB or two smaller drives to start with. Also, input on how to setup TrueNAS would be great as I basically have no idea what I'm doing with regards to the software and raids.

 

Many Thanks,
Noa “Sky” Meisenheimer

 

[brob]

The link is broken, text is correct but actual link is not.

 

A boxed i3-12100 comes with a cooler. Use it. 

 

I'd be inclined to go with a decent quality 450W 80+ Bronze PSU. Unless electrical costs are incredibly high, saving from an 80+ Titanium PSU will not pay for the unit.

 

The Exos X14, X16, etc. designations are performance classes. These drives are designed for enterprise storage facilities. Not really appropriate for a small NAS. You probably want to consider IronWolf, IronWolf Pro, WD Red and WD Red Pro. 

 

There are m.2 SATA port expansion cards that provide more than 2 ports. You could also consider a PCIe SATA port expander card.

 

[SkyLeRecruit]

1 hour ago, brob said:

The link is broken, text is correct but actual link is not.

Fixed the link, thanks for the heads up!

 

1 hour ago, brob said:

The Exos X14, X16, etc. designations are performance classes. These drives are designed for enterprise storage facilities. Not really appropriate for a small NAS. You probably want to consider IronWolf, IronWolf Pro, WD Red and WD Red Pro.

What's the difference between the IronWolf and the IronWolf pro and their WD alternatives?

 

1 hour ago, brob said:

There are m.2 SATA port expansion cards that provide more than 2 ports. You could also consider a PCIe SATA port expander card.

The Fractal Node 304 only has 5 bays so I only need the extra two ports

[brob]

The Pro versions have higher rotational speeds, read higher performance. Not an issue for this use case.

 

If you use an NVMe boot drive instead of the SATA SSD you can then have up to six data drives.