DIY NAS Server with VM support

[WhiteAirLock]

Hi, my friend is giving me a PC with some 2gen AMD Ryzen 5 CPU, Dell AMD Radeon HD 7770 (2gb vram),8gb RAM and a big tower case and I was thinking about putting it in my work room and use it to replace my crappy WD NAS box.

 

With all of this, I was thinking about using it as a NAS and maybe for running a Windows 10 (modded Lite iso) or Arch Linux VM on that system.

I also have a Dell OEM AMD Radeon Pro WX5100 8gb laying around that I could use it for the VM and I have 4x 4tb NAS HDD's (unused) that I could use here.

As far as I seen, I could throw out the DVD drive and get 5 free SATA slots for the NAS HDD's and my SanDisk 120gb SSD.

 

What are my options here in terms of the OS, where I don't need to pay for licenses?

Would it be worth it replacing the 2x4gb HP RAM modules for something from more reputable brands like Corsair, Crucial or G.Skill?

 

Before anyone asks, my work room is connected to solar panels on top of my shed and this is why I don't care about power consumption

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Truenas scale, proxmox, windows 10/server would all meet your needs

 

The HP ram is fine, and likely made with very simmilar dram chips to the name brand ones. I don't think its any lower quality

 

[WhiteAirLock]

18 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Truenas scale, proxmox, windows 10/server would all meet your needs

 

The HP ram is fine, and likely made with very simmilar dram chips to the name brand ones. I don't think its any lower quality

 

Alright, I was concerned about this ram config since it's quite generic tbh. 

I'll most likely go with the TrueNAS. It seems quite easy to use and as far as I seen, it has all the features that I need.

 

When it comes to the Windows VM, I only need it for five software tools, which I can't run on any of my GNU/Linux powered devices.

The only thing that runs Windows as the host OS, is actually my old MSI laptop with Win7, maxed out 2gb RAM, which is enough for burning CD's and ripping cassette tapes but not enough to run Windows 10 and tools that require at least 4gb of RAM 

 

 

[Mihle]

Unraid is easier to set up (depends on what you are going to do) but do cost money, than freenas.

[LIGISTX]

6 hours ago, WhiteAirLock said:

Alright, I was concerned about this ram config since it's quite generic tbh. 

I'll most likely go with the TrueNAS. It seems quite easy to use and as far as I seen, it has all the features that I need.

 

When it comes to the Windows VM, I only need it for five software tools, which I can't run on any of my GNU/Linux powered devices.

The only thing that runs Windows as the host OS, is actually my old MSI laptop with Win7, maxed out 2gb RAM, which is enough for burning CD's and ripping cassette tapes but not enough to run Windows 10 and tools that require at least 4gb of RAM 

 

 

If the RAM works, it works. You can test it with memtest if you have concerns or question it’s stability. 
 

Remember with ZFS (what truenas used as it’s file system), it’s difficult to add more space later. You may want to consider unraid if you would want to add more drives in the future. 
 

I ran a Windows 10 LTSC VM on 2 GB of ram for years. All it was doing was backups of my other VM’s using Veeam, but it ran just fine.