Beginner NAS hardware compatibility

[ianbeeldens]

Hi everyone,

I am a total newbie when it comes to a nas and hexos so i would be looking for a nas brand or model that is cheap and is supported for hexos.

I am from the Netherlands

I already have some hard drives to use would ideally want 2-4 drives to start off and see how it all works and what i can use it for.

Would have a budget of a max €100

[Sonic]

Hi @ianbeeldens, do you already have a case? €100 is not much. I think refurbished hardware is the way to go. Can you tell a little bit more about what you want to do with HexOs?

[ianbeeldens]

Hey,

Thanks for your reply.

No I sadly only have the drives.

I would be looking for it to hopefully run my home assistant as that is currently running on a pi 4 and file back up/remote access to files. 

I know it isn't a lot of money but it is just to try it out if it works for what I want.

[Mobius]

Your best bet is to check ebay or your local versions of craigslist/facebook marketplace for used gear.

[ianbeeldens]

2 minutes ago, Mobius said:

Your best bet is to check ebay or your local versions of craigslist/facebook marketplace for used gear.

okay so that would be a used nas or a pc? and then my original question would still be which brands work with hexos

[PsychoWards]

Used NAS are probably more expensive then used PCs. Also with an used NAS you might not have any upgrade possibilities. Additionally a Synology NAS will not work, because you are limited to there own OS. Also you nees to make sure to get a NAS with enough memory (RAM) and x86 CPU.

So your best bet, in my opinion is to go for a PC, because there you have less restrictions and less things to worry about, only that it meets the minimum recommendation (especially the 8GB memory bit) and that it's not using a Realtek NIC (network chip, because most of them are not supported by truenas).

Last but not least, don't forget that you need a dedicated boot drive, the boot drive cannot be used as a data drive, it only contains the OS and you cannot store anything on it. Ideally you would use a small SSD. A HDD would also work but not an USB stick.

[ianbeeldens]

1 minute ago, PsychoWards said:

Used NAS are probably more expensive then used PCs. Also with an used NAS you might not have any upgrade possibilities. Additionally a Synology NAS will not work, because you are limited to there own OS. Also you nees to make sure to get a NAS with enough memory (RAM) and x86 CPU.

So your best bet, in my opinion is to go for a PC, because there you have less restrictions and less things to worry about, only that it meets the minimum recommendation (especially the 8GB memory bit) and that it's not using a Realtek NIC (network chip, because most of them are not supported by truenas).

Last but not least, don't forget that you need a dedicated boot drive, the boot drive cannot be used as a data drive, it only contains the OS and you cannot store anything on it. Ideally you would use a small SSD. A HDD would also work but not an USB stick.

okay thank you for the information that really helps, totally get that a pc would be less restrictive for the requirements and thanks for the bit about the boot drive i didn't know about that.

[ubergeek]

 I could say you could find a used dell / hp /lenovo surplus pc and add a pair of drives for a good start. I would stay with 4th gen intel or newer would put you in the right range. Hdds might be a hard one to manage at this price point but a pair of 2tb or 3tb might be able to be found to stay in budget 

[ianbeeldens]

1 minute ago, ubergeek said:

 I could say you could find a used dell / hp /lenovo surplus pc and add a pair of drives for a good start. I would stay with 4th gen intel or newer would put you in the right range. Hdds might be a hard one to manage at this price point but a pair of 2tb or 3tb might be able to be found to stay in budget 

yes i am currently looking at like workstation desktops and i already have some 2tb hard drives ready to go.

[Mobius]

I'm in agreement with @PsychoWards and @ubergeek