Gaming rig with integrated NAS

chrispydee · January 28, 2017

Hello guys!

(I am new to this whole building thing, and was a bit lost, so I didn't know what to search for on the forums (forgive me if a thread already exists))

I work as a VFX artist, but am also a passionate gamer. I own two work PCs, one for the FX simulations and one compositing machine. Both are powerful enough (each 32GB DDR4 , GTX 1080s and fairly recent I7 Quadcores. Both were built by a local company for a good price, but I wanted to learn how to do it myself for fun.

The thing I'm always low on is space. I own several external HDDs to swap data between both PCs. I got a USB3 switch, but I would love to have my data centralized and acessible by both PCs.

Since good NAS stations are expensive and since just buying stuff is not fun at all, I decided to build one myself. I tracked down parts and builds online, making a 200-300 build possible, but I figured I wanted more: I want to combine it with a gaming rig.

LTT made a video on YouTube explaining the process, but I am not sure it was what I was looking for. I'll explain:

I don't need the NAS to be running 24/7. I basically only need access when i'm working, so I can turn the PC off whenever I'm not in need of the storage. But obviously, I want access to the designated HDDs for all the other PCs on my network whenever it's on and running.

Wishful thinking would be that the drives on the NAS could be controlled independantly of the PC itself and only feed of it's powersupply. Maybe have it's own LAN port so it wouldn't interfere with the LAN of the PC itself.

(Please let me know if I'm just being confusing haha)

I mean, I could build both of these independatly, but I avoid buying two processors and motherboards etc, that would be golden...

So yeah, if you read up to this point, thanks for sticking around. If you got any ideas and cool suggestions, please let me know. I'm eager to learn from you guys!

PS: I kinda wanted to make it looks like an old 'Pixar Image computer' design Wise...thought this would be anice touch haha

Be well,

Chris

FallenDark7 · February 1, 2017

Normaly you start by builing some dual core small factor based system, get something like linux or meybe freenas depens what you like more, and share the drive, it works, you can also take a look into RAID if you like it something like RAID 1.