i7 920 Repurpose to NAS?

[mnm0710]

All,

 

So I have this thing sitting in the back of my closet. Was trying to figure out what I should do with.  Is it worth converting to a NAS?  I do have some movies/videos/music but mostly documents and photos.  Maybe nice to have a backup outside of OneDrive and Google One. 

 

Any thoughts/recommendations on how I should go about doing this?  I'm willing to spend maybe up to $500 for HDs/SSDs to build a redundant set up. 

 

For networking I have the Netgear Orbi Tri-band WiFi 6 (RBR850) with 1 satellite.  My house is also wired for CAT6 in every room. 

 

Processor: Intel i7 920

MB: ASUS X58 Prime

CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D14

Memory -  6 x 2GB OCZ Gold PC3 12800 1600MHZ 1.65V Triple Channel

Graphics Card - EVGA GTX 670

PSU - Thermalake Toughpower 750W

Storage - 2 x 1TB WD Black in RAID 0 and 1 x 2TB WD Black

Case - Cooler Master CM690 II

Extras - A bunch of fans and a disgusting amount of dust

[da na]

Now that's a lovely old system there.

For NAS use you'd want to remove the graphics card, I believe the CPU has onboard graphics but if not, buy a Radeon HD 3450 or something for like $7 to get video out. NO use in having a power hungry GPU in a NAS. 

Your board probably has gigabit Ethernet, so that's the minimum for NAS use. 

I'd say migrate the boot drive to a 128GB SSD or similar. Board sure does have a good amount of SATA ports for storage drives.

Keep in mind this system is still quite overpowered and power-hungry for NAS use, but if you don't mind, it could absolutely be repurposed.

[ToboRobot]

You have it, you can set it up as is and see how well it works for you before you bother investing in drives etc.

 

Pick a distro, set it and and start playing around.  Spend money after you have learned a bit and have some more experience. 

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

No.

Intel 4th gen is the minimum in my opinion. Why? Energy consumption/efficacy.

 

Get one of the 4th-8th gen system for $50-100 and sell this i7 920 build/parts left over from the upgrade.

[RONOTHAN##]

8 minutes ago, da na said:

I believe the CPU has onboard graphics

It does not, though odds are you'd still be able to run it in headless mode by setting up all the software with the GPU in there, then removing it once everything is set up and just letting it boot without the GPU installed (assuming the BIOS works supports headless mode). 

 

12 minutes ago, mnm0710 said:

ASUS X58 Prime

This board does not exist. Are you sure it's not something like a Sabertooth or P6T Deluxe? 

 

 

Realistically though, the power draw of the i7 920 is high enough that I wouldn't consider it a viable option to run as a NAS, especially considering how cheap Haswell era hardware is. Take $50 of the money you were going to put towards hard drives and buy something like a 4670k (either as a CPU/Mobo combo or even a used Optiplex) and run that instead if you want a NAS. X58 as far as I'm concerned is not worth running for anything but nostalgia. 

[mnm0710]

30 minutes ago, da na said:

Now that's a lovely old system there.

For NAS use you'd want to remove the graphics card, I believe the CPU has onboard graphics but if not, buy a Radeon HD 3450 or something for like $7 to get video out. NO use in having a power hungry GPU in a NAS. 

Your board probably has gigabit Ethernet, so that's the minimum for NAS use. 

I'd say migrate the boot drive to a 128GB SSD or similar. Board sure does have a good amount of SATA ports for storage drives.

Keep in mind this system is still quite overpowered and power-hungry for NAS use, but if you don't mind, it could absolutely be repurposed.

Yea that's my issue - I know it is way overpowered and power hungry.  But I don't know what else to do with this system.  Not sure if it's worth trying to sell part by part. 
 

25 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

You have it, you can set it up as is and see how well it works for you before you bother investing in drives etc.

 

Pick a distro, set it and and start playing around.  Spend money after you have learned a bit and have some more experience. 

Yea that's a fair point!

 

25 minutes ago, FlyingPotato_is_taken said:

No.

Intel 4th gen is the minimum in my opinion. Why? Energy consumption/efficacy.

 

Get one of the 4th-8th gen system for $50-100 and sell this i7 920 build/parts left over from the upgrade.

Yea so you think selling piece part the different components will be worth it? 
 

22 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It does not, though odds are you'd still be able to run it in headless mode by setting up all the software with the GPU in there, then removing it once everything is set up and just letting it boot without the GPU installed (assuming the BIOS works supports headless mode). 

 

This board does not exist. Are you sure it's not something like a Sabertooth or P6T Deluxe? 

 

 

Realistically though, the power draw of the i7 920 is high enough that I wouldn't consider it a viable option to run as a NAS, especially considering how cheap Haswell era hardware is. Take $50 of the money you were going to put towards hard drives and buy something like a 4670k (either as a CPU/Mobo combo or even a used Optiplex) and run that instead if you want a NAS. X58 as far as I'm concerned is not worth running for anything but nostalgia. 

Sorry you're right P6X58D Premium

 

Yea seems to be a common message with everyone - too power hungry.  Maybe I'm just better off selling the parts.

 

Does anyone have recommendations on prices/value?

[aisle9]

That would be a very expensive NAS in terms of power draw. The CPU eats a lot of juice, and I don't think there's an iGPU involved, so you'd have to run a dedicated GPU with it. IMO, there is no X58 CPU that makes sense for a NAS, but there might be a low power quad Xeon out there that runs at low power.

 

X58 boards in good shape that come with their I/O shield are still worth inexplicably more than they should be on sites like eBay. For the board, RAM and CPU, $125-130 easily, maybe more. On FB Marketplace, not as much. I'd consider selling those parts and using the proceeds to fund the purchase of something like an N95-based mini PC.

[RONOTHAN##]

9 minutes ago, mnm0710 said:

Does anyone have recommendations on prices/value?

The motherboard/CPU/RAM combo goes for about $60-100 on eBay, so something along those lines for those. I'd probably list it for $80 including the cooler and hope for the best. Realistically, X58 boards like that are at the point where the only people really interested in them are collectors, and so you will likely be trying to sell these for a while. The GPU is probably worth about $20-30 as well, the PSU probably isn't worth selling, same with the storage and the case could be all over the place (I've seen cases like that sell for $50-100 still, and I've seen people just give them away because they want them out of their house). 

 

 

[aisle9]

8 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The motherboard/CPU/RAM combo goes for about $60-100 on eBay, so something along those lines for those. I'd probably list it for $80 including the cooler and hope for the best. Realistically, X58 boards like that are at the point where the only people really interested in them are collectors, and so you will likely be trying to sell these for a while.

The bigger problem is that there are all kinds of Chinese knockoffs out there using shittier chipsets that don't support triple-channel or SATA III, but because those knockoffs are labeled as X58 and take X58-compatible CPUs, a lot of people would rather buy those than spend $90-150 on a really solid aftermarket X58 board.

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

43 minutes ago, mnm0710 said:

Yea so you think selling piece part the different components will be worth it? 

Even if the current system is a complete write of. Buying a newer system is still worth it. i7-4770 with mainboard can be bought for less than $50.

Recently got a killer deal on a i7-4770, mainboard and 8gb RAM for $30.

 

i7-920: Few bucks.

RAM: is DDR3 so could be reused with a Haswell system. Otherwise few bucks.

X58 mainboard: Depends on the exact model ($30 is likely). If it is a board collectors like $100.

[mnm0710]

Thanks everyone! I’ll take the general advice and just sell the parts and get a more efficient system for a NAS