Turn old computer into a NAS

[Bugses]

Hey everybody,

My girlfriend is getting my old computer, and won't be needing her old hardware. She had a i5-750 with a ATI HD5850. Its DDR 3 and only 4 GB, but thats easy to just chug some more in there.

Would that be suitable as a NAS, or am I better off just throwing it in the bin?

 

Thanks.

[refinedskillz]

Yeah should work great.

[Godlygamer23]

Yeah, that'll be alright for a NAS, although depending on the task, you may want to add more RAM.

[desertcomputer]

Would work, what NAS OS are you planing to use? I would throw some more memory down the track. 

[Bugses]

Thanks guys.

I know nothing about OS etc. Right now I got a Synology NAS and HTPC in the living room. So I wouldnt need it to encode or anything like that, its only for storage.

If you can recommend me a OS thats easy to use, thats great. As I said, I only need it for storage for movies, pictures and general backup. Also, do you know of a small ATX case? Or maybe I'm better off just buying a mini-itx motherboard? Its a regular ATX motherboard right now.

[AshleyAshes]

NAS4Free will work well with those hardware specs and you can run it all off a 2GB USB Key.

However you may want to consider pulling the HD 5850 to conserve power.  That's not exactly low wattage and in a machine that'll just sit there, that GPU would needlessly burn through electricity.  If the motherboard lacks any IGP, the Radeon HD 5450 might be a suitable replacement, it's low power and most versions are passively cooled, so you can avoid any fan noise from the GPU as well.  It's been my go to choice in servers where I want a 'modern' GPU but very low power and IGP isn't an option.

[itzcode]

I would recommend FreeNAS or for a little money, Unraid. Both can be run off a USB drive and are fairly lightweight. Also, as mentioned before, consider removing the graphics card and using the integrated graphics if possible to help with power consumption.

[oMidge]

Im trying for a similar DIY home server build.

 

Found a Lenovo thinkstation s20 (not sure if its duo or quad core version) for $80. Havent got it yet but Im trying to figure out if its worth the $$.

 

This link should include the specs for the different models

https://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/documents/pd005642

 

can anyone recommend if this build is,

a) worth the money 

b) able to run FreeNAS or Unraid without issue.

 

Thanks!

 

[BabyPandaaa]

Personally would go down the FreeNAS route, running from a USB. Takes about 10 minutes to install and there are a plethora of things you can do with it when it's been setup. Depending how much storage you put in there you will likely need more RAM.

 

The rule of thumb is normally 6-8GB base, then an additional 1GB RAM per 1TB of storage for decent performance.

[gamerking]

On 7/30/2016 at 10:31 AM, Bugses said:

Thanks guys.

I know nothing about OS etc. Right now I got a Synology NAS and HTPC in the living room. So I wouldnt need it to encode or anything like that, its only for storage.

If you can recommend me a OS thats easy to use, thats great. As I said, I only need it for storage for movies, pictures and general backup. Also, do you know of a small ATX case? Or maybe I'm better off just buying a mini-itx motherboard? Its a regular ATX motherboard right now.

go freenas you got intel so its 99% supported my fav for a server now is centos7 / any linux distro really