what exactly do I need?

[BaidDSB]

I just want a home built device using my old pc parts (a 5600x with a 1050ti or a 3070, 32 gb ram. )

 

What i and my parents need is a google photos alternative... A app that sync and transfers photos and videos from our phones to the backup device.

 

And of course transfer and storage of files from my pc

 

And also, i need to run jellyfin on our devices from the device, mostly 1080p content.

 

But it won't be on 24/7. Only when my pc stays or. Or maybe 12-16 hours a day. So I'm not sure do i need nas drives or can I just get regular hard drivers.

 

I'm calling it a device because i dunno if it qualifies as a NAS or not.

 

 

Lastly, is windows be okay as the OS or do I need linux stuff? I'd love to have this as a backup pc too.... Especially if i want it to stream some emulated games from it using moonlight....

[Dutch_Master]

A decent B550 mainboard, the 5600X you mentioned and that 3070 make a good NAS box, 64GB RAM is recommended although 32GB will also work nicely.

 

NAS dives are recommended, but you can get those with discounts when you buy them used/refurbished. Buy from reputed sellers, like LTT sponsor Serverpart Deals: link

 

Win-OS is not recommended, although there's a whole contingent now hurriedly typing away they've used Win-OS for their setup Hex-OS was actually build for folks like you who don't really know what they're doing but still want to jump on the NAS bandwagon. https://hexos.com/ Disclaimer: Linus has personally invested in this startup and for me, I won't use it as I understand the underlaying OS (TrueNAS Scale) so I don't need the fancy GUI stuff Hex-OS provides. Other options include ProxMox, unRAID and of course TrueNAS Scale itself.

 

HTH

[Sanedish]

Yeah that sure is a NAS [Network-Attached-Storage] in my opinion.

You will likely be fine with regular drives, depending on speed, power on hours and your trust in them, you can also easily get away with used hdd's like from old prebuilts, just note that these have likely been used A LOT and might not last very long, so definitely do a 40/60 raid or higher if you got important data on them [like your photos].

 

For the OS, I'd go with TrueNAS Scale since it has been doing... well.. reasonable for me so far, but offers a wide range of plug-ins, such as Jellyfin. Just mind that expending your pool is pretty hard from my experience. 

For Cloudsyncing, I personally heard little bad about Nextcloud so far, which also works in TrueNAS. It's a bit of a pita to set up, but there are plenty other options available.

 

2 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

Lastly, is windows be okay as the OS or do I need linux stuff? I'd love to have this as a backup pc too.... Especially if i want it to stream some emulated games from it using moonlight....

Dual boot it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

 

Edit: I forgot you had the GPU's, with that you could lowkey just build a hardcore Immich or AI server [Immich, Ollama, OpenWebUI etc are also available as TrueNAS plug-ins].

Edited May 3, 2025 by Sanedish

[Needfuldoer]

2 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

I just want a home built device using my old pc parts (a 5600x with a 1050ti or a 3070, 32 gb ram. )

That's more than plenty of hardware. You really don't need all that much hardware to set up a basic home server. It's just the kind of project that's extremely easy to overthink and let feature creep set in.

 

 

Just pick up a couple high capacity hard drives and run them in a mirror as your storage pool. (And remember, a NAS is not a backup, an RAID is not a backup!)

 

2 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

What i and my parents need is a google photos alternative... A app that sync and transfers photos and videos from our phones to the backup device.

 

And of course transfer and storage of files from my pc

 

And also, i need to run jellyfin on our devices from the device, mostly 1080p content.

Immich is a common recommendation for a self-hosted photo album, and it has mobile apps to sync with your NAS.

 

I'd also recommend running a VPN like Tailscale on the NAS and your phones, so it can sync anywhere.

 

2 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

I'm calling it a device because i dunno if it qualifies as a NAS or not.

NAS = Network Attached Storage. It's just a role a server plays, and servers are just computers.

  

 

2 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

Lastly, is windows be okay as the OS or do I need linux stuff?

 

11 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

Win-OS is not recommended, although there's a whole contingent now hurriedly typing away they've used Win-OS for their setup

Windows is perfectly fine for easily hosting some basic services and file shares off a couple mirrored hard drives. 

 

I wouldn't necessarily recommend HexOS for someone who's on the fence about having any kind of NAS at all. $200 is a bit much for an experiment. OpenMediaVault is easier to set up for a beginner than TrueNAS, but both those options cost $0.

[BaidDSB]

3 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

That's more than plenty of hardware. You really don't need all that much hardware to set up a basic home server. It's just the kind of project that's extremely easy to overthink and let feature creep set in.

 

 

Just pick up a couple high capacity hard drives and run them in a mirror as your storage pool. (And remember, a NAS is not a backup, an RAID is not a backup!)

 

Immich is a common recommendation for a self-hosted photo album, and it has mobile apps to sync with your NAS.

 

I'd also recommend running a VPN like Tailscale on the NAS and your phones, so it can sync anywhere.

 

NAS = Network Attached Storage. It's just a role a server plays, and servers are just computers.

  

 

 

Windows is perfectly fine for easily hosting some basic services and file shares off a couple mirrored hard drives. 

 

I wouldn't necessarily recommend HexOS for someone who's on the fence about having any kind of NAS at all. $200 is a bit much for an experiment. OpenMediaVault is easier to set up for a beginner than TrueNAS, but both those options cost $0.

 

3 hours ago, Sanedish said:

Yeah that sure is a NAS [Network-Attached-Storage] in my opinion.

You will likely be fine with regular drives, depending on speed, power on hours and your trust in them, you can also easily get away with used hdd's like from old prebuilts, just note that these have likely been used A LOT and might not last very long, so definitely do a 40/60 raid or higher if you got important data on them [like your photos].

 

For the OS, I'd go with TrueNAS Scale since it has been doing... well.. reasonable for me so far, but offers a wide range of plug-ins, such as Jellyfin. Just mind that expending your pool is pretty hard from my experience. 

For Cloudsyncing, I personally heard little bad about Nextcloud so far, which also works in TrueNAS. It's a bit of a pita to set up, but there are plenty other options available.

 

Dual boot it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

 

Edit: I forgot you had the GPU's, with that you could lowkey just build a hardcore Immich or AI server [Immich, Ollama, OpenWebUI etc are also available as TrueNAS plug-ins].

 

3 hours ago, Dutch_Master said:

A decent B550 mainboard, the 5600X you mentioned and that 3070 make a good NAS box, 64GB RAM is recommended although 32GB will also work nicely.

 

NAS dives are recommended, but you can get those with discounts when you buy them used/refurbished. Buy from reputed sellers, like LTT sponsor Serverpart Deals: link

 

Win-OS is not recommended, although there's a whole contingent now hurriedly typing away they've used Win-OS for their setup Hex-OS was actually build for folks like you who don't really know what they're doing but still want to jump on the NAS bandwagon. https://hexos.com/ Disclaimer: Linus has personally invested in this startup and for me, I won't use it as I understand the underlaying OS (TrueNAS Scale) so I don't need the fancy GUI stuff Hex-OS provides. Other options include ProxMox, unRAID and of course TrueNAS Scale itself.

 

HTH

Well like i said, i want the NAS to be a NAS AND a game streaming PC. And it obviously wont run more than 16 hours a day.
So the hard drives are a main concern. Is it ok if i get a desktop drive?

As for Raid... i was thinking 4 drives each 2 tb... 6 TB total with a for parity or whatever its called?

and why would i need the VPN exactly ???? not really sure about it.

And is windows really a bad choice over unraid or Open Media Vault?

Cant afford Hex OS with indian rupee. too expensive for us

[Sanedish]

5 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

 

 

Well like i said, i want the NAS to be a NAS AND a game streaming PC. And it obviously wont run more than 16 hours a day.
So the hard drives are a main concern. Is it ok if i get a desktop drive?

As for Raid... i was thinking 4 drives each 2 tb... 6 TB total with a for parity or whatever its called?

and why would i need the VPN exactly ???? not really sure about it.

And is windows really a bad choice over unraid or Open Media Vault?

Cant afford Hex OS with indian rupee. too expensive for us

Like I said, desktop drives are fine, and for gaming just dual boot it, it is not black magic to chuck in a 2nd drive or partition one.