First NAS Ideas??

[Noah104]

Budget (including currency): 500-850 USD (without hard drives)

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

1. Family pictures,
2. Backups of pictures from work
3. Plex or Jellyfin
4. Game server

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

I planned on building a NAS some time in the new few months, i wanted to see if you all had any input on my builds or had better ideas for part for them. ill list what the NAS would be used for and any specific things that might factor into the build.

1. Smallish form facter mainly mATX,
2. Could hold a few drives 2-8,
3. I dont plan on buying a gpu for it (maybe later in the future),
4. Family pictures,
5. Backups of pictures from work,
6. Plex or Jellyfin,
7. Game server for a few people (mainly going to be heavily modded minecraft) (Like "All the Mods 9" 300+ mods),
8. I've been looking at the node 804 or jonsbo n4 but I'm open to any smaller case that hold a few drives 

Below are a few build Ive thought about

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/K88pYd

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/J4NhNz

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/KmNmh7

 

 

[Dr. Will0hlep]

Okay, some quick hints:

 

When it comes to the boot SSDs go cheap. You don’t need dram cache. You don’t need more than 256GB (and could get away with less). You don’t need PCIe gen 4.

 

Plex and Jellyfin give a better experience if you have a cheap used GPU in the NAS.

 

How much storage do you think you need? It is better to have less bigger drives than more smaller drives.

 

Also, just cause this almost always comes up: Networking is always the bottleneck in a NAS, you don’t need SSDs for storage or cache.

 

If you buy a 5600G or 12400 (both of which should be find for your application) you don’t need a noctua cooler. Just use the stock one.

 

Also, I would suggest you get at most 32GB of ram (and maybe as little as 8/16GB) to start and upgrade later if you find you need it.

[Dedayog]

4 hours ago, Dr. Will0hlep said:

Okay, some quick hints:

 

When it comes to the boot SSDs go cheap. You don’t need dram cache. You don’t need more than 256GB (and could get away with less). You don’t need PCIe gen 4.

 

Plex and Jellyfin give a better experience if you have a cheap used GPU in the NAS.

 

How much storage do you think you need? It is better to have less bigger drives than more smaller drives.

 

Also, just cause this almost always comes up: Networking is always the bottleneck in a NAS, you don’t need SSDs for storage or cache.

 

If you buy a 5600G or 12400 (both of which should be find for your application) you don’t need a noctua cooler. Just use the stock one.

 

Also, I would suggest you get 32GB of ram to start and upgrade later if you find you need it.

I agree with the above tho I don't see a need for 32gb ram so far.

 

My Plex box uses 7gb while having 2 Enshrouded servers running with 4 players in them.  Take that for what you will, other games may use more?

 

 

[Dr. Will0hlep]

4 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

I agree with the above tho I don't see a need for 32gb ram so far.

Yeah, tbh my suggestion of 32GB was just about talking him down from 64GB  but I agree I think he'd be fine with as little as 8GB or 16GB (depend on the number of players on the minecraft server).

I've updated my orginal message.

[Noah104]

 

7 hours ago, Dr. Will0hlep said:

Okay, some quick hints:

 

When it comes to the boot SSDs go cheap. You don’t need dram cache. You don’t need more than 256GB (and could get away with less). You don’t need PCIe gen 4.

 

Plex and Jellyfin give a better experience if you have a cheap used GPU in the NAS.

 

How much storage do you think you need? It is better to have less bigger drives than more smaller drives.

 

Also, just cause this almost always comes up: Networking is always the bottleneck in a NAS, you don’t need SSDs for storage or cache.

 

If you buy a 5600G or 12400 (both of which should be find for your application) you don’t need a noctua cooler. Just use the stock one.

 

Also, I would suggest you get at most 32GB of ram (and maybe as little as 8/16GB) to start and upgrade later if you find you need it.

Hi thanks for the input, I have updated an example parts list and it will be listed below. If you have any more information or advice for me, it would be greatly app

reciated. I plan to have at the beginning 2-3 4 TB HDDs and maybe 1 SSD. I will most likely look for a 2060 GPU to add to it. I was only putting 32-64gb of ram because for example, the plex or jellyfin would maybe 7gb and the modpack my friends and I will be play requires at least 8gb of ram and CPU with at least 3.5Ghz. https://allthemods.github.io/alltheguides/help/server/

 

Updated Parts list 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7NXKVF

[Dr. Will0hlep]

40 minutes ago, Noah104 said:

Updated Parts list 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7NXKVF

1) Go stock cooler. You really don't need anything better for a 5600G normally, and this one gets to be in a NAS where 9 to 11 threads will be on holiday most of the time.

 

2) You can go much cheaper than a 970 Evo Plus without any issues. The great thing about NASs is they are designed to let you rebuild them from tiny config files if the boot drive ever fails. Also, the boot drive dosn't do very much work in a NAS.

 

3) If you are going to have a GPU in the NAS, I'd suggest getting 5600, it is cheaper and gets better single core performance which will be good for game servers.

 

4) I would avoid that EVGA PSU, it is not quality.

 

Excluding drives and GPU, this would be what I'd build.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($127.76 @ MemoryC) 
Motherboard: ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: OLOy ND4U1632161DJ0DA 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($49.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($38.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($124.99 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2025) 750 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $521.70

 

As for GPU, yeah a used 2060 would be amazing, but a 1060 would be basically as good and cheaper. Other options include arc cards like the A380 which can be very good for transcoding.

 

40 minutes ago, Noah104 said:

I plan to have at the beginning 2-3 4 TB HDDs and maybe 1 SSD. I will most likely look for a 2060 GPU to add to it. I was only putting 32-64gb of ram because for example, the plex or jellyfin would maybe 7gb and the modpack my friends and I will be play requires at least 8gb of ram and CPU with at least 3.5Ghz.

5) What drives you get should depend on how much you need to store. So just how much capacity do you want? 8TB? If yes, you are probably better off getting 2 8TB drives instead of 3 4TB drives. Also, how much storage your likely to need in the future should effect your choice of motherboard, becuase you may want extra PCI slots to use for HBA cards or faster networking. This does seem unlikely given you stated you wanted to start with 2-3 4TB drives, but it needs discussing.

 

Also, when picking drives I tend to start by minimising the price of the drives per years of warrenty, cause that tells you roughly how much you'll be paying to replace drives every year.

[Noah104]

On 7/6/2025 at 11:52 AM, Dr. Will0hlep said:

1) Go stock cooler. You really don't need anything better for a 5600G normally, and this one gets to be in a NAS where 9 to 11 threads will be on holiday most of the time.

 

2) You can go much cheaper than a 970 Evo Plus without any issues. The great thing about NASs is they are designed to let you rebuild them from tiny config files if the boot drive ever fails. Also, the boot drive dosn't do very much work in a NAS.

 

3) If you are going to have a GPU in the NAS, I'd suggest getting 5600, it is cheaper and gets better single core performance which will be good for game servers.

 

4) I would avoid that EVGA PSU, it is not quality.

 

Excluding drives and GPU, this would be what I'd build.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($127.76 @ MemoryC) 
Motherboard: ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: OLOy ND4U1632161DJ0DA 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($49.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($38.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($124.99 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2025) 750 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $521.70

 

As for GPU, yeah a used 2060 would be amazing, but a 1060 would be basically as good and cheaper. Other options include arc cards like the A380 which can be very good for transcoding.

 

5) What drives you get should depend on how much you need to store. So just how much capacity do you want? 8TB? If yes, you are probably better off getting 2 8TB drives instead of 3 4TB drives. Also, how much storage your likely to need in the future should effect your choice of motherboard, becuase you may want extra PCI slots to use for HBA cards or faster networking. This does seem unlikely given you stated you wanted to start with 2-3 4TB drives, but it needs discussing.

 

Also, when picking drives I tend to start by minimising the price of the drives per years of warrenty, cause that tells you roughly how much you'll be paying to replace drives every year.

I have a friend that is willing to sell Ryzen 3600 and a GTX 970. Do you think I should go buy them? And if so how much should I offer?

[Dedayog]

57 minutes ago, Noah104 said:

I have a friend that is willing to sell Ryzen 3600 and a GTX 970. Do you think I should go buy them? And if so how much should I offer?

$100 for the both, max 

 

The 3600 is a fine nas/Plex CPU but can't transcode.  You need the 970 to do that. But the 970 is useless for everything else.

 

the 3600 should be strong enough for a game server, my 5600 was.

[congalonga2333]

On 7/6/2025 at 10:19 AM, Dr. Will0hlep said:

 

 

How much storage do you think you need? It is better to have less bigger drives than more smaller drives.

 

 

just curious, is it a bad idea to reuse multiple small storage drives thats just collecting dust to use it for media storages such as movies (non important media like family pictures), just to squeeze the last lifespan out of those drives or is that a generally bad idea ?

[Dedayog]

1 hour ago, congalonga2333 said:

just curious, is it a bad idea to reuse multiple small storage drives thats just collecting dust to use it for media storages such as movies (non important media like family pictures), just to squeeze the last lifespan out of those drives or is that a generally bad idea ?

No it's fine to use them for nonsensitive data.

 

They don't take any power, so as long as you have connections.... All good.