Don't throw away your old PC—it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy
Submitted 2 weeks ago by excel24@feddit.org to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.howtogeek.com/turned-old-windows-pc-into-inexpensive-nas/
Comments
rook@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
When I looked into this I found that, for TrueNAS, using ZFS with RAW disks is generally preferable.
I wound up writing custom firmware to my hardware RAID card so that it would be effectively “transparent” and yield direct hardware access to the drives.
billwashere@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
TrueNAS is better when it sees raw disks and not HW raid. There are still useful parts in TrueNAS if you have a HW raid volume like file sharing, synchronization, apps (docker), etc. But the true power lies in zfs which needs raw disks.
rook@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
So, it’s better if I get a normal pcie to sata card and connect them individually. Then just raid them through software.
Also, what are your thoughts on second hand drives, and just monitoring them and replacing them as needed. (im currently saving up for good new 4tb x 6 drives lol)
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
My GPU failed on my old (vista) PC and can no longer boot. Should I throw it away?
hakunawazo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
A few years ago I had that case with a Laptop with a burnt dedicated graphics card.
The moment the Windows installer detected it, a blue screen ended the installation.
But a Linux installation worked and afterwards it was even possible to disable the damaged hardware permanently.
The laptop still runs without further problems.winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Integrated graphics?
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is a 2005 desktop. I can’t even get it past the bootloader. Ideally I would run Linux on it headless, but i can’t even get to that stage.
Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
I’ve made a decent NAS out of a Raspberry Pi 4. It used USB to SATA converters and old hard drives.
My setup has one 3Tb drive and two 1.5Tb drives. The 1.5Tb drives form a 3Tb drive using RAID and then combines with the 3Tb drive to make redundant storage.
Yes it’s inefficient AF but it’s good enough for full HD streaming so good enough for me.
I’m too stingy to buy better drives.
CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have an old machine been using as a Unraid server for years. It’s an i7-3770 paired with 32GB of ram and like 4x2TB drives.
Finally upgrading it because it’s just not going to keep meeting needs and frankly it’s wicked old (might keep it as a gitlab runner server or something). Finally “upgrading” by taking some old hardware (and bought some new), to have a full compute + storage setup. Proxmox (Ryzen 9 5900XT + 128GB ram) with all the compute and TruNas (Ryzen 7 3700X + 64GB ram + 8x16TB drives [LSI LOGIC SAS9211-8I] [raidz2/82.62 TiB usable]) for storage with a private 10G direct link between the two (Intel X550T2BLK).
randombullet@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I used to have a 5700G system that I had to switch out to a 14600k system due to quciksync pass through.
I got my 14600K down to 55w from 75w with everything else being equal. Insane how efficient some setups can be.
My 16tb Pi sips at 13w max or 8w idle. But no encoding or enough storage for normal work. So it’s warm storage
BrilliantantTurd4361@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
This is likely also true when you start serving stuff and need transcoding etc.
victorz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Why do I need transcoding, if I may ask? My TV always plays the served file directly. 🤷♂️ Is there anything to gain by transcoding, especially on the local home network?
cley_faye@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Storage space, ensuring quality settings, supporting more device than “your tv”, smaller bandwidth requirements.