Help With Building a NAS

[thecowisbrown]

Back Story:

I have recently came across a few drive while cleaning out a basement (4-6tb WD Red Pros and 2-2tb WD Reds) and I have always wanted to build a NAS. I have a few things that I would like to accomplish with this build.

1. I would like to setup a plex server so I can stream multiple devices
2. I would like to use this NAS to store photos and other documents on here so that any device can access them on the network and I do not have to worry about hard drives going bad and losing data.
   • Bonus objective: I was also curious if it would be difficult to setup a user drive so different people could store document on this machine that others could not access? This would be an Ideal situation and if it is too difficult that this can be ignored
3. I would like to use this setup to backup the computers in the house (we have had experiences in the past with hard drives going bad on computers) so that they can be easily restored.
4. Since I have 4-6tb drive I would like to explore a RAID setup. Because I don't think I will ever fill up 12 tb of storage a RAID 10 would be an ideal situation of performance boost and redundancy.
5. Because I have 2-2tb drives that I currently have no use for, if any one has an idea of what I can do with these drives I am open to suggestions.

I have been doing research and I know I would like it have at least quad core (or better) for this build since the idea is that multiple tasks will be perform by this machine, at least 16gb of ram, and a motherboard that has good LAN on board (RAID capabilities? I have never really messed with this before). But beyond that I really an not sure what I should use.

 

Other Questions I have include

• What do I need for an OS, I have read up on freeNAS but is there any other alternative I should consider? Or is freeNAS not a good option?
• When it comes to installing an OS would it be better to have it on a separate SSD and then just have the storage drives be used completely for storage purposes.
• Would I notice the benefits from ECC or should I stick to cheaper ram.
• When it comes to plex what technologies are useful to have would a processor with Quick Sync help playback across the network (for reference Most of my library are KMZ's)
• Other than a Case, Motherboards, CPU, PSU, RAM, and storage drives. is there anything else that I would need hardware wise?

Any Help you guys could give me would be great!

[Salacious B Crum]

Go over to limetech's website download and create an unRAID bootable drive and try it for up to 60 days free full version it will be the cheapest part of your build if you decide to buy it I have been running almost the exact use case as you describe and it is working perfect plus you'll get most of your drive space as storage over traditional RAID setups

[Pixel5]

the big questions are what is your budget and what is your knowledge when it comes to setting up the things you want?

 

you can DIY something if you know how to set it up and maintain it but if you want something that just works and dont want to invest too much time rather get something prebuild.

[thecowisbrown]

Thank you both for replying, am confident on how to install the hardware and setup the physical machine, because I have never worked in the this kind of software before that is where I am getting hung up. I enjoy DIY projects like this so I do not mind putting time and effort. My budget I would place at a max of of $1000 not including the price of the drives since I already have those, but if I can save a buck I wouldn't mind.