Sonic

@Mobius created a nice setup. An alternative could be a machine like the WTR pro N100. @Dylan, what is your experience with running Plex on a N100? Another alternative could be running HexOs on NAS devices from QNAP, Terramaster or Ugreen. See nascompares.com for guides. For a full selfbuild NAS the Jonsbo case is great. And the hardware on the list of Mobius is more then sufficient.

Network: 2,5gbe is more furture proof and works also with a 1 gbe switch. (You can upgrade your switch later) hdds: you can start with 3 hdds of 4 TB in raidz1. Then you will have 8tb of storage and you can expansie with extra HDDs videocard: given your budget and also with power efficiency in mind, it’s best to use a iGPU. (Integrated gpu in the CPU). Intel cpu’s are the better options for hardware based transcoding. (Needed for Plex or Jellyfin.

@Insanittyx, you can build a NAS from many different types of hardware, and you can use that NAS for many different purposes. There is no generic answer. To give you a good response, you’ll need to be more specific about what you want (as @Mobius also asked). Choosing hardware is always a trade-off between component cost, performance, power consumption, and form factor. Here are some questions to consider: What do you want to use the NAS for? (Which apps, storage needs, etc.) What are your GPU requirements? (Do you plan to use Jellyfin or Plex?) How much storage do you need? How big/small should the case be? What network speed do you require? How important is power efficiency?

Here is also an alternative for the Jonsbo N5. Then you have something to choose 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr5MjhgPz_c

@ubergeek, can you share your experience? You moved HexOs already to a new device.

@Mobius said it all. The Jonsbo is a great case. And it’s 6 sata vs powerdraw.

I also like to beta test. My test setup is ready for it!

You are absolutely right!

I use 5400 RPM HDDs and I setup HDD spindown in the TrueNas interface without any problems. It saves a lot of energy

Haswell based cpu’s are indeed not bad a all. In the past I didn’t pay attention to energy usage. But in Europe this energy prices increased dramaticly. So for me it has become relevant.

What I mentioned is that later generations processors use much less power when idle. For comparisson, I have a system with 4 bays and a AMD mobile processor. Without HDDs I tweaked it down to 5.2 Watt in idle. A system with a Intel I7-4790K could easy draw 100 watt in idle. For testing purposes is not really a problem, but 24/7 for several years is more expensive. To be clear, I don’t say you have a problem. You really created a nice system. I like your creative approach. A quick win good be to use only the iGPU. And perhaps changing Some bios settings (underclocking).

It really a worthy investment. ServeTheHome tested a lot of switches for homelab / home use. See: https://www.servethehome.com/category/networking/ Personally, I like working with Mikrotik switches—they offer great value for money. However, the management interface is geared towards professionals, making it quite complex, but also very flexible. That said, there are many other brands offering affordable switches, such as Ubiquiti, QNAP, TP-Link, Netgear, and ASUS. The cheapest option would be Chinese no-name switches, but I’m not a big fan of those—especially if they lack proper certifications.

It's a nice build! Is there a possibility to upgrade the NIC's to 2,5 gbe of 10 gbe? 2,5 gbe networking is nowadays not expensive anymore.

I like your approach! Very creative!. If you at some point want to run Plex/Jellyfin you'll with the iGPU, you want a newer CPU with h265 support on the iGPU. But if not then it's fine. But you are using the Quadro P2000, so that's OK. The only thing I can think of is that this is not the most energy efficient server. But it's a pretty cheap solution, so I guess you have some money left to pay your energy bill. 🙂

HexOS is not yet as feature-rich as QTS, but you’ll be part of an exciting journey! 🙂 It's good to keep that in mind when setting your expectations.

I don't have experience with this specific device, but maybe my answers can point you in the right direction. In any case, here’s a useful guide: TrueNAS Scale on a QNAP NAS - Installation Guide questions: Are there any known compatibility issues with this hardware? TrueNAS / HexOS should be able to run on this QNAP. You can always give it a try. I would remove the HDDs and install HexOS on the SSD first. Then, check if everything works. If it does, you can install the HDDs as well (make sure to back up your data!). If it doesn’t work, you can easily revert to QTS. Would it be best to install HexOS directly on the NVMe, or should I use one of the SATA drives instead? Directly on the NVMe. I’d recommend installing a second NVMe of the same size and setting them up in a mirror configuration. Any special steps needed for migrating away from QTS and setting up HexOS properly? Check out this guide: TrueNAS Scale on a QNAP NAS - Installation Guide Any potential gotchas with the networking setup, considering the integrated managed switch? No idea. 🤷‍♂️

HexOs is still beta software. At least create a good backup. I also hope that there is a clean update path, but with beta software a reinstall is also possible.

@gingerling, it’s really run to read! And I have never Seven a Pink and Green case, 😂 Very original. And @Dylan is right. Ask your questions, a lot of people are willing to help.

I like this option

I just ran a test. I copied 210GB of data over SMB using 2.5GbE Ethernet adapters. The average speed was 277MB/s, and the total time was 11 minutes and 51 seconds. That’s at full speed. In general, SMB is better for large files, while NFS is better for small files. However, as you can see, performance can depend heavily on your configuration and the client you’re using. It seems like something isn’t right in your setup—perhaps a driver issue?

You can have good luck with a reconditioned drive, but also a lot of bad luck. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is. This rule applies even when buying new drives. There have been rumors about Exos drives for a while now. See: 🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzegNKKWmck I’m not against buying reconditioned drives, as long as you know what you’re doing. It also depends on how important your data is. You could, for example, use RaidZ2 instead of RaidZ1, but that would require additional drives, which also cost money. How many TB do you think you’ll need? You could start with three 4TB or 6TB drives and add another one when you need more space. I don’t know the UK market very well, but many European suppliers also deliver to the UK. If I search for "refurbished hard disk UK," I see multiple results. If you check the reviews of those companies, you should be able to find a reliable seller. Oh, and make sure to buy a CMR drive, not an SMR one.

Looking at the cabinet space, depth seems to be the biggest challenge. An Intel NUC is already 115 x 115 mm, and then you still have the ports at the back. I’m not sure how much storage you need, but there isn’t much room for hard drives. Furthermore, I agree with @Theo that running your router in a VM is not ideal. As a solution, you could consider using two devices: one for NAS (storage, apps, VMs) and one as a router. Router Suggestions: You could consider a mini PC from Ikoolcore, which can run pfSense. There are many other vendors offering similar devices: 🔗 Ikoolcore R2 Mikrotik and Ubiquiti also offer great routers for a homelab. NAS Suggestions: Perhaps the Terramaster (F8 SSD Plus or F8 SSD) could be a good option: 🔗 Terramaster F8 SSD Plus Or the LincStation N1 (the N2 with 10GbE is launching soon): 🔗 LincStation N2 NAS Review I personally use an Aoostar WTR Pro. It supports four hard drives and has its ports on the side, which might be useful given your limited space: 🔗 Aoostar WTR Pro These are just a few ideas—I hope they help! You can find great reviews of many NAS devices on YouTube. Also, ServeTheHome is a useful website. Just my 2 cents.

TrueNAS supports Active Directory. See this link for an explanation: https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/scaletutorials/credentials/directoryservices/configadscale/ Whether HexOS will support this, I doubt it. Maybe at a later stage. Active Directory isn’t really something for HexOS's target audience. That would quickly fall into the advanced category. @jonp, are there any ideas on this that can be shared? And "no" is also an answer 🙂 . I know you guys are busy.

@Dylan, thx! I learn a lot on the HexOS forum. 🙂 Even improving my English skills.

@ubergeek and @Dylan, please help me out. Biffed? Sounds nice, but I really don’t have a clue 😀.English is not my first language.