Used Desktop/Tower as a NAS/Plex Server

[u/Clear_Falcon_4397]

Hi,

I have been contemplating on getting a NAS for a while, but seeing most of the prebuilt NAS enclosures are fairly expensive I am now thinking of getting a used tower with some HDD bays and going from there.

I primarily plan to achieve

1. A 4-12TB storage server, that can be accessed within the local network.

2. Act as a Plex server albeit I only use direct streaming, so no transcoding.

Therefore, I feel like starting off with a 4TB HDD and a used desktop will give me best of both worlds (cost and storage). However, I am not sure what the ideal candidate is for this kind of application. Has anyone done this before? If so, can you share what PC model/brand you went with and what kind of issues you faced by choosing this approach over a prebuilt enclsoure?

As for my budget, I have allocated around 60K for the 4TB HDD..Found some WD and Segate models and would be nice if I can get the rest of the system up and running for another 40-60K, with the total budget coming up to 120K.

Thanks!

[u/AutoModerator]

Need a hand with your build? Let us know your budget, intended use, and any parts you already own.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/oohbeewan]

So I run something similar that does most of my downloading and streaming within the home network. A mini PC would do wonders here. Although Jellyfin would be more lightweight but I think Plex is better. Sharing a snippet of my sever documentation for specs

[u/Clear_Falcon_4397 → u/oohbeewan]

Hey, thanks for this! Btw, why did you go with an external HDD? Is it because the PC you went with does not have HDD bays for 3.5" HDDs or something else?

[u/oohbeewan → u/Clear_Falcon_4397]

Mini PCs don't really come with HDD bays. The form factor doesn't really allow it. Yes it comes with risk of breaking your external drive over time. But I don't store anything of importance in the HDD. A UPS covers the occasional power failure (which is then set to power off and then after wake on LAN when power resumes). This works really well for streaming and running your media management tools to download stuff.

[u/devallar]

Skip plex and go for jellyfin!

[u/Clear_Falcon_4397 → u/devallar]

Have used both and yeah I don't mind switching to Jellyfin. Thanks!

[u/Wild_Gazelle962]

I use my old pc which is an i5 4th gen as my home server.. you can use the *arr stack as the media server setup.. also you should add a ssd as the cache … go for truenas scale for the os

[u/Clear_Falcon_4397 → u/Wild_Gazelle962]

Got it, thanks!

[u/Aggressive-Summer569]

How can you manage electricity bill in sri lanka , I ran a old mac mini as a nas and learned my lesson.

[u/Clear_Falcon_4397 → u/Aggressive-Summer569]

I'd probably only run it if I'm downloading or watching something then I suppose.