Working from home can be an intimidating prospect, but whenever you” work,” you can use the spare time to throw together network-attached storage (NAS) server to play some music or movies and save files. Rather than labeling 20 external hard drives and keeping them in a safe location, it becomes a good idea to manufacture a NAS. Also, buying a pre-built version, you can build one for yourself. However, it comes quite handy while you’re stuck at home for a while.
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Building Your Own Network Attached Storage:
Network Attached Storage (NAS) is just a storage device that is plugged to your home or office network, either through cables or wireless. It enables all attached devices with correct permissions set to access files on internal drives. However, it is possible to buy a prebuilt Network Attached Storage. But the prices can get out of hand, relying on requirements and features.
As we take a complete look at some of the best alternatives available on the market for building a Plex media server. Still, if you want to configure your own system then it’s good to create your own NAS.
Here are some of the benefits when it comes to building your own NAS setup:
- Better value.
- Room to upgrade in the future.
- Configurable to accurate requirements.
- Strong and feature-rich than prebuilt systems.
Case
Using a NAS system, you have to keep the footprint small but have enough room to throw in different storage drives and capable components. Thermaltake’s CORE V1 case is amazing for this. It sports the option to fit up to two drives.
For cooling, Thermaltake preinstalled an excellent 200mm fan in the front. Also, it is possible to add other cooling solutions inside. It includes an all-in-one water cooler for CPU.
CPU
Intel has a massive range of processors that will do the job. However, it depends on what tasks you want the NAS to perform. However, a Pentium or an atom processor will be quite enough for file and media storage. But a Core i3 chip will good for streaming, Plex use, and multi-user optimization. Also, we’re going with AMD, however, to take full benefit of integrated Vega graphics.
Our selection will be an AMD Ryzen 3 3200G. It sports 4 cores that boost up to 4.0GHz. This is quite enough for file storage and can handle some video transcoding without breaking the budget. Also, it comes with a smart cooler!
Power Supply
EVGA’s 500W power supply is an amazing unit for any computer with an 80 PLUS Bronze certification and backed by a plethora of positive reviews. For our NAS build, we’ll be depending on not only the reliability that comes with branding or certification but also the modular cabling that helps to ignore clutter inside the small case. You also don’t need anything more than 500W. So the PSU should be better for future upgrades and builds with a dedicated GPU.
Motherboard
It is combined with our AMD Ryzen processor. The GB B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI is best for a NAS setup. This is an amazing Mini-ITX board with enough room for expansion. Well, special thanks to the PCI-Express slot, 4 SATA ports, gigabit LAN, a single M.2 port, and built-in wireless. We can not only use an M.2 drive to install our operating system and save space within the case for extra drives. But it also takes benefit of wireless connectivity if you can’t hook up the unit to a LAN using cables.
RAM
When we talk about RAM in a NAS, you only want to pay proper attention to capacity or speed. We choose an 8GB kit that is quite enough for some NAS-related tasks. It includes some streaming. Just remember that you’re using RAM compatible by the motherboard, and you’re good to go. Our motherboard has two slots, enabling us to upgrade the capacity to 16GB at a later date.
Storage
Storage depends on how much space you want to use. We suggested initiating with 1TB or 2TB mechanical drives, with a 250GB M.2 SSD if your budget can expand for many efficient system drive. Brands such as Western Digital and Seagate offer dedicated NAS solutions.
For our best price build, we choose Seagate IronWolf. You have to pair up hard drives in a RAID configuration, just in case something went wrong. However, it causes your drive to fail — you don’t need to lose everything saved on the NAS.
Conclusion:
Here’s all about “Network Attached Storage ”. Is this helpful? If you want to share anything regarding the article then let us know below. For further queries and questions let us know in the comment section below!
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