I’m looking for some recommendations to improve my homelab. But first a bit of history to explain where I’m at and where I’m going. I currently have a super old Odroid C2 and a Raspberry Pi 4B. Everything is working great, but I’m missing two things in this setup: -The ability to transcode -A NAS Now a little bit about me, I’ve been using Linux for more than a decade, so I know how to do stuff, but when it comes to hardware, I have close to zero knowledge… So I was a bit surprised when I plugged 2 external HDDs on my rpi and it shutdown them after a few minutes. I found out that it was a power supply issue, so I did the first thing that came to my mind at this time: I bought another HDD with external power supply, to then find out that having a self powered and an external powered HDD would still fail (although it took longer).

So now I know my mistakes, I should have gone with a NAS instead. I checked the Synology NAS and found out NAS are actually quite expensive. I’m looking for at least 4 bays. I’ve been looking at some DIY NAS, but I’m a bit lost. I found some builds using a Jonsbo N2 that seems cool but at the same time I’m reading the fans are always running at full speed and I’m afraid that the power consumption will skyrocket.

So to sum up, I would like to have a NAS, ideally that can transcode and is low power. In the beginning, I wanted to have a NAS and a mini-PC that can transcode to replace my Odroid C2. But it seems the NAS are far more expensive than the mini PC. What are the recommendations here?

-Synology (Can it transcode?)

-A DIY (Jonsbo with an ITX board that can transcode)

-A DIY (Jonsbo with an ITX board just powerful enough for a NAS) + a mini PC

-Something else?

My budget was 500€, but it seems I won’t be able to do much below 700€

  • @KwaOPEnglish
    1•5 months ago

    Indeed, this sounds nice! I think 30W to power the server + 6HDD is really fine. I didn’t understand what parts you used from your old laptops?

    • @[email protected]English
      3•5 months ago

      Indeed, this sounds nice! I think 30W to power the server + 6HDD is really fine.

      I wasnt clear about that. I have only 2 SSDs and one HDD (thats ~30W), but motherboard supports up to 6 SATA disks. Im afraid power would increase with 6 HDDs. For example, I had it at 22W with 3 SSDs (before I bought that HDD)

      what parts you used from your old laptops?

      I used parts from desktop PCs, not from laptops. So I have:

      1. MSI Z270-A PRO
      2. G3930 with stock cooler
      3. 2x 8GB RAM (bought these)
      4. Forgot what PSU exactly, but 550W (would be better if its rated power is lower)
      5. Made a custom case with 2 fans
    • @[email protected]English
      1•5 months ago

      While it’s not re-using parts, there are PCIE M2 adapters that provide up to 4 M2 slots, so there are ways of increasing storage substantially within limited physical space.

      M2 pricing isn’t terrible today, since pretty much all laptops use it now.

      There are also cages for mounting 4 SSDs in a single 3.5 mount.