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Guys, I'm looking to set up a NAS for family photos and home vids. Don't have big bucks to spend on Synology or QNAP stuff, so I’m looking at DIY options. Maybe with FreeNAS? Anyone here using it who can chime in on what hardware I should get?
Submitted 9 months, 4 weeks ago by SilentBob
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Running FreeNAS for years here. The beauty of FreeNAS is ZFS file system's protection from data corruption - critical for family photos and vids imo. Get yourself a nice case with lots of drive bays, start small and grow. ECC RAM is a plus but not mandatory on a tight budget. Don't forget backup strategy too; remember, RAID is not a backup! And definitely wire up your house with ethernet if you're gonna stream HD videos. Cheers.
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I've heard you need a UPS to protect a NAS from power outages. Is that true? Also, can someone tell me if it's better to wire up the whole house with ethernet, or will wifi do the trick? Don't wanna lose those precious family memories to a power surge or bad connection.
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Look, everyone's gonna tell you to get this or that, but it's all about what you're comfortable with and your budget. FreeNAS is solid and has lots of support. If you've got an old PC lying around, max out the RAM, throw in some hard drives and start there. If you gotta buy, keep an eye on used marketplaces for some deals on older enterprise hardware. Pro tip: don't cheap out on storage - get NAS rated drives if you can. Gluck dude.
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Hey, just finished my first NAS build and went with FreeNAS. Not sure if I have the best setup but it works 🤷. Got an HP MicroServer gen10, seen some guys on here recommending it as a great starting point. Not too expensive and works pretty well out of the box. Just added some extra RAM and stuck in 2x4TB drives. Check out some build guides on YouTube for sure.
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FreeNAS is good, but have you considered other options like OpenMediaVault or Unraid (not free but worth a look)? They might offer a bit more flexibility depending on what else you want to do with your NAS in the future. As for hardware, don't underestimate the power of a Raspberry Pi setup. Not the fastest, but definitely on the cheaper side of things. Good luck!
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Here's what I did: Found an old Dell Optiplex on eBay, slapped some extra RAM in there and a couple of 4TB drives. Running FreeNAS like a dream, and it's a pretty budget-friendly way to go. You don't need the latest and greatest, just something decent that'll support ZFS and has room for your drives. Check out /r/homelab for some awesome examples and inspiration!
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Alright, so for a budget NAS, you're gonna want to keep it simple. For FreeNAS, ECC RAM is recommended but not a must. Grab a used server-grade motherboard, pair it with a decent quad-core CPU, and you should be solid. Look for something with a good number of SATA ports for your HDDs. For storage, WD Reds or Seagate IronWolfs are solid but if they're pricy, just get whichever reliable hard drives you can afford. Make sure you get a good PSU and you should be good to go!