Turning Old PC To NAS

LeoBornLion · May 26, 2023

Hello People,

My brother was retiring an old PC which I am about to convert to my NAS server. I searched the YT videos and the one that was relevant was walking through windows options. I work in tech, am familiar with linux and would love to understand the best option and lean on your experience. The specs of the system: i7-4770k, 16GB DDR3, RTX 1070 with a 512GB boot ssd.

My requirements:

1. Host Jellyfin server for my media

2. 4k transcoding can be used with hardware acceleration

3. Place for photo backup for my phone

4. Mountable from my windows gaming machine

5. Ability to get notified about and sustain one drive failure

6. Ability to add drives as time goes on. I would love to start with 4 TB and expand up with time.

7. Optional: Ability to create a replica daily in a physically distant location

Questions:

1. What OS should I go with?

2. The case is not going to be able to fit in a lot of drives. Are there mechanical hard drive bays I can buy to place it on top of the server?

3. What hard drives should I purchase realistically to get the best value?

Please feel free to feed me links/vids that might already answer this question. Appreciate your help.

Valentin17 · May 27, 2023

Unraid looks the best option for you because you want ability to add drives down the road.

I would use something like used Fractal R4, R5 or R6, newer Fractal Define 7 etc.

For a NAS use a NAS disk like Seagate IronWolf or WD Red Pro.

LIGISTX · May 27, 2023

The above is all correct. Unraid is what you want, and fractal cases are great for NAS duty.

You don’t strictly need NAS drives, especially since unraid isn’t actually RAID… with true raid you need drives that won’t randomly fall out of the array due to firmware spin down and head parking logic, but for unraid that isn’t an issue. You can just get any trustworthy drive (seagate and WD drives are all more or less fine).

LeoBornLion · May 30, 2023

Thank for the reply. Understood about the drives and will give unraid a shot.

Are there cheaper hard drive enclosures I can use with pcie-sata converters or should I go with the new case as recommended? The reason I ask is that, I already have a case which doesn't have enough space for the drives.