I want a NAS solution to back up my PC and host media files, but prebuilt NAS solutions are incredibly expensive and underwhelming and so I’m planning to build one. Does anyone have recommendations for a NAS interface?

I’m brand new to server management and would prefer something user friendly. I have used linux mint, but currently use windows as my daily driver (planning to switch to mint soon). I’d be fine with a dedicated NAS OS or with something I could run on mint since I’m already familiar with that distro.

  • ALoafOfBreadOP
    2•1 month ago

    You might be right. The Synology products look really good. I didn’t see that they actually have a sub-$400 4-bay NAS… DS423. Not sure if it’ll meet my performance needs. But the $600 4 bay doesn’t look too bad either really.

    • @just_another_person
      1•1 month ago

      Do you really need a 4 bay unit though? HDD are cheap right now. You can get a Synology DS-2XX for ~$200, and 2x14TB Refurb WDC for $200. That’s 14TB of Raid 1 protected storage right there for $400.

      • ALoafOfBreadOP
        2•1 month ago

        I didn’t realize how cheap the big hdds had gotten. Definitely looking into 2 bays.

        • @just_another_person
          2•1 month ago

          Yeah, definitely explore it. You can get more service-level things out of a build or higher disk array, but if you don’t need the compute, just go cheap and be satisfied your stuff is safe. Synology has a great ecosystem in my experience.