Help me choose between two systems to run HEXOS

[Jasper Slade]

I have been wanting to setup a home NAS for some time now, thanks to HEXOS, I'm finally pulling the trigger.  I have two systems available at the moment.  I want to use one to run HEXOS, the other will likely be donated to a family member or something.

I plan to purchase a new case to house the system, along with 3 HDDs to start my initial backup pool.  I also have a spare RTX 3060 TI, but I don't see how that could be of any benefit to a NAS, so it will likely go with the donated PC.

Here are the two systems:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RkMLwY

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bg9bC8

Let me know what you think.  Also, if you see that a significant improvement could be made, let me know.  I'm 100% new to NAS building.  Thank you so much!

[Mobius]

They are both great systems.

the big difference between the 2 systems are that the second one has 6 sata ports meaning you can plug in 6 hdds and the first had 4.

The amount of drives in total that you want might be your deciding factor. However with a HBA card you can always add more drives.

You have a pretty large cooler that won't fit many nas cases. Atx sized power supplies also have the same problem.

An expensive but totally worth it case would probably be the jonsbo n5 which can fit either system. In general for more budget conscious builds i would recommend the jonsbo n4 but between a new psu and cooler, most of the savings would disappear.

The 12600k likely will use less power than your 12700k which is pretty important for a nas.

One more thing of note, you only need a very small boot drive for hexos, all extra space in the boot drive is unusable. It might be considering getting a small one just for that purpose.

[Sonic]

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

 

[Sonic]

Here is also an alternative for the Jonsbo N5. Then you have something to choose 🙂 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr5MjhgPz_c

 

[ubergeek]

I also wanna point out that the first system you have posted has a lack luster motherboard, aka you wont have much room to upgrade down the line, only add a gup if needed or add a hba card to add more drives. Both will have more than enough power to accomplish more than the basic tasks in hexso . Also when it comes to the boot drive I see you are using a 1tb , this will work but will have alot of unused space just fyi a 128 or 256 will be more than plenty for this build.

[Insanittyx]

I'm also wanting to build my own nas server, but still don't know what to buy.
Some say buy new components and some say buy used.

I would like to use the nas to host immich, is it recommended to have atleast 2 ssd for this and would i need m2 or just sata?

[Mobius]

7 hours ago, Insanittyx said:

I'm also wanting to build my own nas server, but still don't know what to buy.
Some say buy new components and some say buy used.

I would like to use the nas to host immich, is it recommended to have atleast 2 ssd for this and would i need m2 or just sata?

you can get away with used if you are on a budget or just want to spend your money wisely.
you can also buy newer hardware if you have more intensive workloads or want to "futureproof"

is immich the only thing you plan on using?
Personally i would recommend at least 1 small nvme drive for the OS (like 128gb) but some users have 2 ssds as their boot drive for additional safety.

As for storage you just need 2+ of the same kind of drive. If you know all you need is a few tb, getting multiple ssds can make sense
however for the same price you can likely get 5x more hdd storage if storage density is your priority.

If you lmk your budget excluding storage i can recommend you what i think is your best fit.

[Sonic]

@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?

[Insanittyx]

I'm planning to use the nas server mostly for storage and to host atleast two apps.
Immich like a mentioned before and homeassistent when it comes available.
I'm currently running homeassistent on a raspberry pi with a ssd.

My budget is around the 500 euros, but is not the maximum. If newer components are worth it 750 is also possible.

My home network speed is 1 GB/s. 
I currently have 1 TB of storage files, i think 8 TB of storage will be enough.
I'd like to be able to use jellyfin or plex in the future, but not right away.
The case should not be too large, I prefer a case that is laying flat (don't know the case type 🙈).
Power efficiency is important.

[Mobius]

seems like what you want isn't very intense.
there is this prebuilt that has been kinda popular 

 

This build is something that could work for you too
https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/Jd292x
I would however consider checking ebay to see if you can find a 8500(t) or 9500(t) and a compatible motherboard for cheap

I'm not sure what the price for the jonsbo n4 is in europe so i just put in a conservative estimate for price.
The Sagittarius 8 bay chassis that @Sonic mentioned is also an option.

[Sonic]

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.

 

 

[Sonic]

5 minutes ago, Mobius said:

seems like what you want isn't very intense.
there is this prebuilt that has been kinda popular 

 

This build is something that could work for you too
https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/Jd292x
I would however consider checking ebay to see if you can find a 8500(t) or 9500(t) and a compatible motherboard for cheap

I'm not sure what the price for the jonsbo n4 is in europe so i just put in a conservative estimate for price.
The Sagittarius 8 bay chassis that @Sonic mentioned is also an option.

@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.

[Insanittyx]

I really appreciate the help.

I'll look into the parts list and try to estimate the cost in Europe.

Just one more question—thinking about power efficiency, should I go for an AMD CPU with integrated graphics? And if I want to start using Plex later, should I add a separate GPU?

[Mobius]

6 minutes ago, Insanittyx said:

I really appreciate the help.

I'll look into the parts list and try to estimate the cost in Europe.

Just one more question—thinking about power efficiency, should I go for an AMD CPU with integrated graphics? And if I want to start using Plex later, should I add a separate GPU?

it makes more sense to go with an intel cpu with integrated graphics 
intel has quick sync which great for transcoding videos. 
a dedicated gpu is unnecessary for plex in most cases

[Dylan]

59 minutes ago, Sonic said:

. @Dylan, what is your experience with running Plex on a N100?

So far no complaints, I am very happy with the WTR Pro. If they come out with a 6 bay option I will very likely buy that too as the performacne meets my needs well.

Good luck @Insanittyx!!

[Sonic]

@Dylan, the WTR pro specs looks promissing (still rumors) 🙂. 6 HDD bays, 6 nvme, 10 gbe and 2,5 gbe network and an AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU. I have seen on the AOOSTAR facebook page that they expect the release in Q1 2025. I am afraid that I also will spend some extra money on hardware this year.

[Dylan]

6 hours ago, Sonic said:

@Dylan, the WTR pro specs looks promissing (still rumors) 🙂. 6 HDD bays, 6 nvme, 10 gbe and 2,5 gbe network and an AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU. I have seen on the AOOSTAR facebook page that they expect the release in Q1 2025. I am afraid that I also will spend some extra money on hardware this year.

If you were to guess, what do you think would be a reasonable price for the device with the those specs?

[Sonic]

Competition:

Zima Cube pro price barebone price is $1099 including memory and ssd

Terramaster F6-424 Max $900

Ugreen DXP6800 Pro 6-Bay $1199

Synology DS1621+ for $900 which is 4 years old now

Minisforum N5 pro (not on the market, guestimate of $600-$900 on Reddit)

 

The AOOSTAR WTR PRO AMD Ryzen 7 5825u 4 Bay Nas Mini PC is $399

My guess is that it'll be between the Minisforum N5 pro and WTR 4 Pro 4 bay AMD. I think that should be reasonable. The competition uses more expensive Intel CPU (Except Minisforum)

Remark: I am more familiar with the prices in Europe. I used Amazon.com for the dollar prices. But perhaps you can get a better bargain somewhere else.

@Dylan, what do you think?

[Mobius]

Since the turnkey nas you mentioned charge a premium because of their fairly polished proprietary OS.

I would also assume it would cost somewhere in between the 2

[Jasper Slade]

Thank you all for your responses, it has been very helpful to see your various perspectives.

With this being my first attempt at a home NAS, it's more about just getting something up and running using equipment I already have on-hand.  I'm hoping to train both myself and the rest of the family to utilize the NAS to backup our files.  If our needs exceed my initial deployment, I'll certainly look into investing into a more expandable build.

Before this thread, I had not even considered a NAS specific case, I was just stuck thinking about a standard ITX or mATX case, so I'll certainly look into that, as well as swapping out my CPU cooler for something more low-profile.  While I'm at it, I'll likely pick up a smaller SSD as well.

Thank you all for your input, I appreciate it!

[Mobius]

Glad we could help.
Im sure once you create a shortcut for smb and setup immich for the family they should easily be able to pick up how to use it.

I like nas specific cases because they take up soooooo much less space than traditional cases. I'm currently using an old pc case i had lying around till i scrounge up some more disposable income for a nas case and it literally takes up more than 3x the volume of the jonsbo n4 and cost more when i bought it years ago.

[Sonic]

Hi @Jasper Slade

This is the beginning of a great journey. I’d do the same, start with the hardware you already have. Once you've been at it for a while, you'll naturally figure out what you really need and what matters most to you.

The journey is often more rewarding than the destination. Because once you reach your goal, you’ll probably already be looking for the next challenge! (or new hardware 🙂)

Edited February 10 by Sonic