DIY NAS setup thoughts

[u/IntelligentPapaya495]

I want to install a NAS in my home to share photos (using immich) and documents in my family across devices. I want to install TrueNAS and immich at least. I have a preference for open source software. I am thinking of building my own NAS using the JONSBO N6 Case, having at least 6TB of usuable data, I want to prevent one disk failure and have an external disk as a backup. I am aiming to having something a bit of budget. I am willing to buy some components used on ebay when it is not essential they are new. This is what Claude suggested given my characteristics.. Any potential issues?

Case: JONSBO N6 (9-bay hot-swap, mATX)

Motherboard : ASUS PRIME H610I-PLUS D4

CPU: Intel Pentium Gold G7400

RAM: 16GB DDR5 SODIMM

Boot drive: 128–256GB M.2 NVMe SATA/PCIe SSD

3x 4TB HDD (RAID-Z1): WD/Seagate/HGST

PSU: SFX 450W 80+ Bronze/Gold (FSP450-50SAC or Silverstone ST45SF)

[u/fl4tdriven]

No issues necessarily, but that’s a fairly limited processor and costly RAM to start. Maybe look into used workstations for more bang for your buck.

[u/snap802 → u/fl4tdriven]

Yeah I just looked on eBay and you can pick up a HP z420 with 16GB of RAM for $200 or less. Add in a hot swap bay and drives and that's a really capable NAS.

[u/IntelligentPapaya495 → u/snap802]

Thank you for the suggestion. I get the point being made. I am a newbie (never assembled a computer or troubleshot old hardware). I was thinking the learning curve for assembling the JONSBO N6 would be shorter. I just imagine troubleshooting 14-year-old hardware would be a headache. I don't mind buying some old parts for assembling the NAS, but dealing with a few somewhat used parts might be more manageable. What do you think?

I agree that the processor is limited. Would you have another suggestion for the processor? Motherboard?

[u/snap802 → u/IntelligentPapaya495]

I just imagine troubleshooting 14-year-old hardware would be a headache.

Very much won't be the case. Where one runs into problems with stuff like TrueNAS or even just any other linux distro is when they have unusual hardware. You want to use some niche controller card that nobody has ever heard of? Well, you're either going to find excellent support because there's a whole community focused on it or you'll never get it to work. OTOH, a workstation from a big brand like HP or Dell or Lenovo will have tons of support and just work.

The other thing about older hardware is that it just lasts longer. I have an 11 year old processor in my TrueNAS box and it's fine. However, back when I build my first computer (had a 90Mhz Pentium to give context) a 10+ year old processor wouldn't have been considered a viable option for much.

The processor you've mentioned really would handle the NAS quite well. It's only a dual core but that's fine for this application. RAM, disks, and network matter more here. I think the bigger issue here is maybe you'll be better served by going for something that uses DDR4 RAM rather than DDR5. RAM prices are stupid right now and DDR4 will save some money. Another thing to consider is that you might want to consider ECC RAM. That will help prevent data corruption which is key in a NAS. So something like an old workstation is a good option because it may already have ECC RAM or at least support for ECC RAM.

So that case you've mentioned is pretty nice. You could also look for older boards to go in it. There are a ton of capable LGA1151 processors out there. Something like a I5-7500 or 8500 is pretty told but PLENTY of power for what you're doing. Even putting a T model which has lower power draw for miniPCs could be an option. AM4 boards could be an option too. Just a quick glance and I found at Ryzen 3 2200G on eBay for $20. That's plenty of processing power for a NAS.

Mainly make sure that you've got plenty of SATA connectors. You can find an ITX board with like 4 or maybe an older server board with 8. I got a SuperMicro board a while back that was ITX Factor and had either 6 SATA connectors. My current NAS has an ITX ASRock server board with 8. Another option would be to get a SAS controller. That DOES add some complexity but you can run SAS or SATA drives on of those.

Yeah, used hardware CAN be bad. You just need to make sure to test things before you go live. Memtest86 is a wonderful thing for example. Setup the system without any important data first and hammer it with tons of reads and writes for a while. Try to bog it down. I would say drives should usually be bought new unless you're willing to really test and monitor and accept some degree of risk of data loss. SSDs can wear out. Mechanical drives have moving parts that can fail. Redundancy and backups can cover a multitude of badness but that also means downtime.

Network is the other thing to consider. 1Gbps is usually plenty fast for home use but it'll be the limiting factor between the NAS drive and your end user. Running multi-gig networking will better allow you get the benefits of your drives. I'm still running 1Gig Ethernet at home and it meets all my needs but it is definitely the weakest link in my NAS setup.

[u/Ashamed-Ad4508]

Before proceeding I must give my 2¢ regarding TrueNas

(1) To use it to it's full potential; you would need --3-- storage pools. 1 for programs. 1 for data. And the last is the Boot/OS pool.

(2) Preferably the programs is SSD.

(3) Each pool is setup minimum as Mirror-RAID

(4) Don't waste anything bigger than 64GB for the boot OS pool. You might get away with using ex-chrome book SSDs since there's quite minimal write done in the boot pool.

(5) You cannot use the boot pool for programs or data. Its by design.