Are there any good resources for NEW build hardware ideas?

[PX-HexOS]

I'm seeing tons of posts about using existing/used/old hardware which is great!   But what about for those of us interested in a brand new setup?

Some friends and I have been searching around for inspiration on what hardware to consider for a complete HexOS setup.  Some key considerations (that are hopefully obvious?)

1. Somewhat quiet, most of us will be running these 24/7 and not locked in a closet
2. Power efficiency (as much as possible).  Again, running 24/7, power should be kept under control.  I see people making NAS / streaming servers with 4090's and such which is just ridiculous.
3. Lots of storage capacity.  Ability to leverage at least 8 drive bays, 12 ideal
4. No custom 3d printing (only one of us has a 3d printer and what it can produce wouldn't be good enough for this use case)

Most of the YouTube videos posted (or found) seem to be from creators making highly custom builds with 3d printed parts, custom wood finishes, and other "fancy" click-worthy features.  Great for them!   Not so much for people who just want something that works well!

 

[ubergeek]

What is your budget ? I can make a recommendation if I knew where to keep it money wise and what your plans were, " just a NAS, Running VM's / Docker, ect" I have an idea in my head where I would  go but LMK what holes I need to help fill. 

[Mobius]

I just want to say 8 to 12 bays of 3.5" HDDs will never be all that quiet, they are also going to be using a decent amount of electricity even at idle.
Both of those can be solved by using SSDs but thats a very expensive solution.

I generally recommend Jonsbo cases, the n3 would hit your minimum requirements and the n5 would meet your ideal.

but like ubergeek said we can provide better help if we knew your budget and what you plan to use the nas for (ex. multiple plex streams) 

[Mawson]

An excellent resource I have used for years is Pc Part Picker. Makes it really easy to filter for things like number of drives a case supports
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/case/

I'll also shout out Sliger. They make SFF cases, and rack mount cases, and have a few rack cases with capacity for 10 HDDs in the front.
https://sliger.com/products/rackmount/storage/

Also keep in mind that products like this exist! It converts 3x 5.25 front panel bays to 5x 3.5" HDD hot swap bays!
https://a.co/d/a8WEwz5
(there are cheaper options too that aren't hot swap)

 

[Jotaan]

Hey for a start I always suggest people that have no parts yet to build out of a Microcenter bundle they have some good stuff usually with either their AMD or Intel bundles ~$500 for a really good CPU, MOBO, RAM. If you do not care about doing any heavy lifting I would suggest get an intel bundle with some on board graphics, otherwise I would suggest an AMD bundle and a graphics card (personally prefer AMD in most cases).

[KaTaz]

I am getting ready to build a NAS box for standing up my HexOS environment. I am looking for recommendations for two key components.

1. NAS specific case that has the following attributes
   1. A case that will support at least 8 x 3.5" drives.
   2. Hot swappable drive support built in.
   3. doesn't break the bank cost wise (budget is <$400.00), the lower the better taking into consideration decent build quality. I love Fractal Design cases, just wish they had more options for NAS cases. especially that supported ATX  (not just Micro ATX and Mini ITX motherboards), and hot swap drive capabilities built in.
   4. isn't rack mounted, will be sitting on a wire shelfing rack in the corner of my spare bedroom office.
2. Suitable motherboard to support the capabilities of the case.  i.e. number of drives and hot swap capabilities as well as enough memory to support HexOS and containers that I might want to run 

I will start with 4 drives but want the ability to expand to at least 8 in the future.  I am currently thinking that I will go with the Jonsbo N5 because of it's support for up to 12 x 3:5" drives and support for hot swappable drives for ease of future repair/replace/growth. Anybody have any real world experience with that case and accompanying feedback?

I am currently running a TrueNAS core set up in a case (Fractal Design Define R5 Case) that has support for 6 x 3.5" drives but no support for hot swappability. The current setup is just storage and one of the things that I am most excited about in the HexOS environment, is being able to easily deploy containers for Plex and other functionality (thinking about Pi-hole, Home assistant, Tailscale, OPNSense, etc.)

Other than the experience over the last couple of years running a very basic instance of TrueNAS core. I feel like I don't know what I don't know.

The TrueNAS core experience has been pretty much "set it and forget it", but it doesn't include the functionality of the container specific stuff mentioned above. I know that TrueNAS Core has container functionality, but when I looked at it previously (not extensively) I felt like it was complex and a lot of work to get Plex running natively in the TrueNAS Core environment. I have separate (old recycled pc's) systems running Pi-Hole, OPNSense, and Plex currently and want to add the home assistant and Tailscale functionality but don't want to add more old pc's to my setup. I would rather take advantage of HexOS's easily deployed container functionality to consolidate into two systems that are redundant backup's both of storage and container functionality. I am somewhat technical but don't have really deep networking or programming skills.

Thoughts? Comments? Recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

[Dylan]

@KaTaz Def check out our SHOW & TELL forum and @ubergeek is a hardware ninja who may be able to help.

[ubergeek]

Ill be posting to this later today / tonight 

[ubergeek]

 

what  I would build