Unsure which OS would be best for HTPC/NAS.

[Dilz]

I currently have an AMD based mini itx system in a fractal node 304 running Windows 10 on an SSD and 3x3TB HDs in RAID 5 (I think, it's been awhile since I set it up, I have ~6TB usable space across 1 pool of 3 drives) using the mobo's built in RAID controller for storage.

 

I recently acquired 3x8TB HDs to add as a second 16TB pool in the same RAID config.

 

However, before I add this in, I want to get off of Windows. I mostly use the system to play media (via Kodi) and web browse. I would like to be able to add automated backup of phone media and remote file sharing/personal cloud of some sort so I can get off of Google drive/Dropbox.

 

I also think I'd like to get off of using the mobo's RAID controller but I'm not sure. Would software RAID be better?

 

I've looked at unraid, open media vault, truenas, and freenas briefly, mostly through VS videos on YouTube. I, so far, haven't managed to get a much clearer idea of which direction I should go.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ZeusXI]

7 minutes ago, Dilz said:

I currently have an AMD based mini itx system in a fractal node 304 running Windows 10 on an SSD and 3x3TB HDs in RAID 5 (I think, it's been awhile since I set it up, I have ~6TB usable space across 1 pool of 3 drives) using the mobo's built in RAID controller for storage.

 

I recently acquired 3x8TB HDs to add as a second 16TB pool in the same RAID config.

 

However, before I add this in, I want to get off of Windows. I mostly use the system to play media (via Kodi) and web browse. I would like to be able to add automated backup of phone media and remote file sharing/personal cloud of some sort so I can get off of Google drive/Dropbox.

 

I also think I'd like to get off of using the mobo's RAID controller but I'm not sure. Would software RAID be better?

 

I've looked at unraid, open media vault, truenas, and freenas briefly, mostly through VS videos on YouTube. I, so far, haven't managed to get a much clearer idea of which direction I should go.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Check out TrueNAS and unRaid. Personally I enjoy using unRaid. There is so much you can do with either.

[Yua]

Unraid is very easy to get into, but also has a lot of neat stuff to master. would also let you use all your drives since you have some that are 3 tb and other that are 8 tb.

Unraid is a one time purchase software unlike TrueNAs which is free,  but I think its worth every penny.

 

40 minutes ago, Dilz said:

file sharing/personal cloud of some sort so I can get off of Google drive/Dropbox.

You could use Nextcloud to achive this.

[LIGISTX]

Unraid because mixed drives. Truenas and ZFS would cause you to lose space since all drives would operate as the smallest size in the array. You could set up multiple vdevs, but then you lose space to having parity drives for each vdev.