I’ve been convinced to build my own NAS again instead of going with a Synology and I’m thinking there are probably parts that don’t matter if you buy used vs new but I’m curious what your thoughts are?

2 points

Power supply and case I’ve always bought new. Everything else has been 100% used enterprise parts off eBay, or used hand-me-downs from my gaming rig. No issues in 15 years doing this.

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1 point

Got any good key words to make sure I’m finding desirable used enterprise stuff?

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2 points

I always shop with specific model numbers I’m looking for based on research.

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2 points

Motherboard, CPU and RAM - no problem at all (more accurately, problems are easy to spot with diagnostics and they shouldn’t wear out).

Chassis - a bit of a wild card. The backplane in one of my systems is faulty.

PSUs - ideally new.

HDDs - almost all of mine are secondhand. Enterprise- or NAS-grade drives should have many years of life left. Ideally buy new to benefit from warranty but my experience has been great.

SSDs - nope. Buy new. I bought some secondhand Samsung SSDs and they developed problems, both threw IO errors after a few weeks. SSDs are cheap enough not to bother with secondhand.

Everything else I bought used, including the rack. In fact, the only things I bought new in my entire homelab are my router and WiFi AP.

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Aside from drives, the rest of the components are fine. But honestly, I use what I had for a computer before upgrading to my current one. Old components you have around can be a good idea.

I don’t really like buying drives second-hand, but I suppose it shouldn’t be an issue if the drive is relatively new and has had little use.

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2 points

My NAS is almost filled with used parts, mostly lightly used. Only the power supply is brand new as the form factor is hard to find.(flex ATX, I bought an FSP FlexGURU)

IMO excluding HDD, most hardwares can be used without much consequence: CPU, RAM(I only trust original/major grade sticks), case and perhaps power supply(from reputable brand and known good model)

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The only thing I buy new are the HDD’s for the bulk storage.

I’ll buy used enterprise SSD’s for flash storage.

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1 point

Oh wow, that’s awesome. No concerns buying used CPU, RAM, or MOBO? I’m assuming you buy a new power supply though right?

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1 point

No concerns here.

I buy used server chassis and power supplies for my NASes.

The only new items in my primary, backup, and offsite NASes are the 500TB of HDD’s and a couple of fan splitters.

The only new items in my 3 Proxmox nodes are…nothing actually. All SSD’s, HDD’s and everything else is used enterprise hardware.

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1 point

Not OP but, CPU and RAM have incredible low failure rates. Mobos are pretty rare too. A PSU Id but new, and make sure it’s the highest efficiency.

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