NAS Building Advice

[ShadowWolf810]

So heres the situation: I've got an old AMD AM3+ motherboard with an FX 8350 and RAM laying around not doing anything, so I've been thinking about building a NAS. I currently have 2, 4TB WD RE drives, and basically all of my budget would go into getting 3 more drives for a RAID 5 config, and would be quite awhile before I could get a Synology or something to go with it. 

 

So was looking at this link: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811165605 for a case, would just need a new motherboard and PSU, new copy of Windows and possibly a NIC. 

 

The problem is I haven't been able to find an ITX AM3+ board, don't think they exist. Don't really want a second full sized tower, so was contemplating doing the Gaming NAS setup Linus did, on my main system. 

Seems tempting, and running virtualized OS's would mean it should be easy to run Linux, Mac OS and Windows all on one box, which would be cool. But I can definitely see it making it harder than it already is. There's another thread here where someone was talking about it and people called it a fun gimmick, which I can understand because it definitely is.

 

So I have a few questions: 

1. Would it be worth getting high speed (7200 rpm) super reliable storage, like I was planning with 3 more of the WD RE drives and use the NAS as my editing drive? Or stick with my current external RAID 0 config, then have to buy 5 slow NAS drives and only be able to use it for long term storage of projects/media. 

 

2. Is it worth putting the old hardware to use to save money over just buying a Synology? I'd have fun with tinkering if building my own wasn't just a constant headache. Reliable? Wouldn't get the benefit of easily getting the other virtualized OS's, on a newly built one or my main system where I could take advantage of my way more powerful hardware than a 8350 system.

 

3. Whats the benefit of running actual an actual NAS OS like freeNAS or unRAID vs just getting a 5 bay harddrive enclosure that goes in a 5.25 slot in a tower. Can just map it as a network drive on another computer and accomplish the same thing as a proper NAS?   

 

4. For doing the Gaming NAS system, how hard is it/is it even possible to do if your motherboard doesn't have its own graphics output? 

 

[BethFoster5841]

ok im kinda new to with this whole nas thing but here is the low down

1 yes and no if you want fast acsess then yes but if you dont need it dont get it 2 just do what you want with it really 3 that setting up network drives in windows 10 8 7 is a B!TCH trust me i know from experience so unless you wanna go spend some money on windows server what btw is also a B!TCH unraid is so much easier and last 4 on the mobo if thair is not a graphics port i think it trys to find a card on the pci-e slots good luck btw you should film it and put it on YT or livestream it to twitch