Hey all
I’ve spent a few weeks trying to find a prebuilt solution for my setup but from what I can see around they’re either too expensive or not the right build of what I’m thinking.
Ultimately I want a storage pool for media off my home server. Ideally I’d like this to be a 1 or 2 RU height with up to 4 SSD slots that I can run with Truenas.
So I thought… why not build it from scratch myself?
Does anyone on here have any experience with this? What motherboard to select, RAM etc, what things to look out for, do’s and don’t’s.
Also if anyone can recommend a cheap 2ru chassis for me that would be amazing!!
I don’t know if that situation exists. As soon as you mention “Rack” the dollars start multiplying.
Jaycar have a 2RU enclosure but @ $169 it is probably not cheap. All depends on your definition of “cheap” I suppose. Anyway their Cat no is HB5125.
Cheers Bob
Building yourself can be a good way to do it. In terms of hardware, the best place to start is TrueNAS Hardware guide.
A lot of the hardware requirements are dictated by the software requirements. If you just want a bunch of storage accessible over the network you don’t need lots of compute power at all.
Even a low powered ARM CPU can run a very capable NAS. I personally have a CM3588 with 6TB useable in my personal setup.
If you want to have a lot of software applications on the NAS then you will need more compute to be able to support that. Things like Hosting Plex or Virtual Machines will have different requirements.
I have an Unraid setup as well that has a Pentium G5400 CPU and it has more than enough compute for my NAS plus a couple of docker containers running applications such as Plex.
If you are looking for cheap, used enterprise gear, it can be a good way to get some good hardware for pretty reasonable prices.
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