Inspired by @FallenHero234's post:
Background:
Had this as an idea for a while now - was lurking around for years, until I saw that LTT video. Got in at $99 sale.
Though to myself "might as well get on with it" (SO works with videos, myself toy with DAW) and got myself a refurb P520 and a couple of those EXOS refurbs.
Specs:
CPU: Intel Xeon W-2223
GPU: Nvidia Quadro K4000 3GB
RAM: 16GB DDR4
Storage:
Boot Drive: 256GB M.2 SSD
Data Drive: 2x refurb 18TB Seagate EXOS X20 HDD
Experience so far:
Got the part last Friday, waited till Sunday to add the HDDs to the P520, opened that video and the illustrated install guide and installed - everything was smooth and straightforward.
Started with Immich - what an awesome experience; transferred a number of lesser albums, right now am learning
Plex was next - took a minute to figure out how to point to correct library folders, but 30 mins of lurking got it sorted. Again, a smooth performance;
After that installed Actual via the Truenas UI - basically, it went fine as well and seems so far to be smooth.
I guess right now I'm sort of cautiously exploring - looking at CPU load, and slowly transferring data in small chunks to relevant folders. However, am thinking of:
Moving my HomeAssistant (running on a VM in VirtualBox on an old Mac Mini I had laying around);
Adding more drives (the current pool is not expandable, so will redo the setup to make an expandable pool once I get the third 18 TB HDD) as well as creating additional pools, got a bunch of 2.5 HDDs & SSDs laying around:
Specifically went for P520 because can fit more 3.5 HDDs and still have room for smaller drives.
Other than that - pretty happy I did this and no regrets (knock on wood, haha).