nas NAS - use old PC or Buy new

[hudsonvsm]

**** Should I move this to new builds and planning? ****

 

Hello everyone,

 

I'm planning to buy new or use an old PC as a NAS.

For the old PC the Proccesor cores will be limited from 6 to 2.

The video card can be leave as it is, replaced with more efficient one or removed (after setup).

Will use RAID 0, RAID 1 or RAID 5. Not decided yet.

 

Primary Use:

• File server.
• Plex/Media server.

Reason for new purchase

• Sensitive data to be kept separatley.
• Ease of access.

 

Old PC:

• CPU                 AMD - Phenom II X6 1090T
• Motherboard   Asus - M4A89TD PRO USB3 (Chipset: 890FX)
• Memory           2 x 2GB + 1 x 4GB and 1 x 8GB (Total: 16GB) DDR3
• Video Card      ASUS - Radeon 7850
• Case                 Cooler Master
• Power Supply  Fortron 550 W 80+
• OS                     FreeNas

 

NAS:

• DS718+      https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS718+
• DS218+      https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS218+
• DS418play https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS418play
• DS418        https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS418

HDD:

• RAID0 or 1: 2 x HGST Ultrastar He10 10G: https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/ultrastar-he10
• RAID0 or 5: 3 x HGST Ultrastar He10 10G: https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/ultrastar-he10

Edited August 5, 2018 by hudsonvsm

[Electronics Wizardy]

On 8/5/2018 at 1:24 AM, hudsonvsm said:

For the old PC the Proccesor cores will be limited from 6 to 2.

why? with c states this won't save any power and just lower performance when you need it. C states already turn cores off when not in use.

 

On 8/5/2018 at 1:24 AM, hudsonvsm said:

The video card can be leave as it is, replaced with more efficient one or removed (after setup).

Many boards won't post without a gpu. Also that 7850 is pretty lower power consumption when idle

 

 

 

Those synology units will use much less power, idk how much you pay for power and what.

 

How much plex transcoding do you need?

 

How much do you want to mess with hardware? The synology is much more plug and play if you want that.

 

Why that he10 drive? id get the cheaper ironwolf or wd red unless you have a great deal. The performance won't matter for your use

[hudsonvsm]

15 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Why that he10 drive? id get the cheaper ironwolf or wd red unless you have a great deal. The performance won't matter for your use

I forgot to add prices. Sorry.

In my area the price for

1. IronWolf 10T (379$) 3 year
2. WD RED 10T (399$) 3 year
3. He10 10T (391$) 5 year

I settle with He10 because of some great reviews of them, waranty and price is fairly acceptable (12$ more expensive than the IronWolf). 

 

15 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How much do you want to mess with hardware? The synology is much more plug and play if you want that.

I love to build the systems on my own but I got pretty good reviwes on synology as well. I'm not sure which path to take. The old PC to NAS has extensibility I can add 6 or more HDDs in the future. The pre build NAS has quicker setup and you are good to go.

 

15 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How much plex transcoding do you need?

Wont be much in the years to come. Might increase later on, after years proubably.\

 

16 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Those synology units will use much less power, idk how much you pay for power and what.

Roughly the Old PC will cost up to 7$ per month. I don't have the exact measurments. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 hours ago, hudsonvsm said:

I love to build the systems on my own but I got pretty good reviwes on synology as well. I'm not sure which path to take. The old PC to NAS has extensibility I can add 6 or more HDDs in the future. The pre build NAS has quicker setup and you are good to go.

 

Since you like to build systems id make you old pc a nas. The power costs are pretty low for you, and it can be a fun project. Put yoru favorite nas os on there(look at unraid and freenas) and set it up. The he10 drives look good for that price. Prices in my area were way different.

[Boomwebsearch]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Since you like to build systems id make you old pc a nas. The power costs are pretty low for you, and it can be a fun project. Put yoru favorite nas os on there(look at unraid and freenas) and set it up. The he10 drives look good for that price. Prices in my area were way different.

An old computer has the potential to be good as a NAS although keep in note that it is going to take more power and be less efficient than a comparable NAS device (in general). If you plan to use an old machine as a NAS machine I would try to optimize the efficiency of the machine as much as possible (maybe getting a more efficient processor would be appropriate for your computer). Old machines usually take more power to do the same task due to their generally lower optimizations both in software and in hardware when being compared to newer systems. Although if your data storage needs are generally lower scale (especially the processing aspect of it) then using an old system as a NAS could be a good option.

[jde3]

For a Plex/Emby encoding system.. you can get the last gen AMD FX-8350 dirt cheep. (they might pay you to take it really) .. it's not a good chip but it has lots of cores for encoding threads and will do the job just fine.