I’m pretty new to self-hosting, and the NAS I’m using right now has been a pain since the moment I bought it. The Synology DS220+ just doesn’t have enough CPU power for my needs, and I’ve recently used up all the disk space I installed, so I’m looking for a new server.
Unfortunately, all the options I’ve found online prioritize storage space over CPU, and I haven’t had much luck finding anything that fits my needs.
Requirements: CPU: Intel Core i3 or higher, but preferably Core i5 GPU: Not needed RAM: max 64 GB, min 16 GB Storage: max 32 TB, min 10 TB Network: 10 GB SPF+ Price: max 6K CAD, preferred 3K CAD
I’m hoping to run TrueNAS Scale with Plex and Nextcloud installed, and my media library isn’t likely to get larger than 5 TB, so CPU is really the main limiter of my current NAS.
As an example of something almost perfect: The TrueNAS mini X+ and R varieties would work excellently, but don’t meet the CPU requirement. I wanted to look at the other systems on offer from TrueNAS, but they don’t list out CPU specs for anything more advanced than the Mini line.
Of the Lenovo stuff, since it was one of the few websites with a filterable picker, the ThinkSystem SR630 V2 was the closest of fitting my requirements. It comes short on the CPU, though, and is verging on the price limit too. I also don’t need 12 TB of RAM, or 1.2 PB of storage.
What do you use? Can you recommend any websites I can go to find something that fits my needs better?
If this isn’t the right community to post this, please let me know, and I’ll take it down. I don’t want to cause any trouble, I’m just looking for help. I’m really new to this kinda stuff.
I think this is a fine community, but as a question, is there a reason you aren’t considering building a server? You could fit those requirements into a normal desktop chassis and likely still have some pci slots free for future upgrades.
Yep, spec a case to meet the drive needs, then find the motherboard that meets the performance needs.
Mostly, I just don’t know much about hardware in general. I’m sure I could follow a tutorial online on how to put it together, but I don’t know much about what I’d need to buy in the first place.
I’ll look online and see what I can find though, this does seem like what I’m going to have to do to get the specs I want.
You can look at things like
https://www.newegg.com/tools/custom-pc-builder
To see some ideas of what would work, and I hope you feel free to ask around as you look at things! We all had to learn somehow and once you know what you’re looking for it’s just a small puzzle.
Quick suggestion is to decide on the cpu (I’m partial to amd so I’d pick something ryzen based if you want processing power) first then compatible motherboard, as after those two you should be able to just look at spec sheets and see things like the kind of ram you need case type etc.
You should try out https://pcpartpicker.com/
Great tool to spec out a computer and give you an idea of how much it’ll cost you.
I personally would recommend this n100 to get a real psu which can add many drives, 6 Sata ports and a standard form factor.
Edit: Also a PCIE Slot to add 10 Gbit Networking Card if dual 2.5gbit is too slow. And if you need more power there is also and i3 n305 variant of these mainboards.
If you think about what the “S” in “NAS” is you’ll realize why they prioritize storage…
You want a general purpose server.
No one has brought up Unraid OS specifically yet. Others have said just build your own machine, and yes absolutely this is the way. And then just slap Unraid on that and you have yourself exactly what you’re looking for. It’s user friendly, as powerful as your wallet can handle, and plenty of room for expandability.
I would consider using your Synology for what it’s good at - storage.
My homelab has a Synology DS1618 and servers are Lenovo M90q systems. They have enough compute to get the job done, and use the Synology NFS mount for storage.
Exactly. It’s plenty useful for Network-Attached-Storage. That’s what it’s built for.
Your network needs are a bit over the top, but maybe consider the Minisforum MS-01. Small form factor, i5 or i9, up to 96G. RAM, and 2x SFP, and some low profile PCIE space if needed in the future. This is WAY more than you need for your service needs, and you can just expand your Synology disks for extra storage super easily. Saves money, and solves your problems without needing a full rack-sized server.
Thank you so much! After searching it up online, the Minisforum MS-01 seems to check off every box I’d had when I went looking.
I’ll look around to see if there is anything more suited, but for now, it seems like what I’ll end up going with.
I was here to say the same as pezhore, separating storage and compute is almost as important as separating church and state. Muck around, break things, have fun, all the while your data is safe (don’t forget offline backups though). The MS-01 is a fine looking box, but any old NUC / SFF will do for your purposes (modern AMD cpu or a graphics card if you need / want plex transcode).
Edit to add, old laptops are great compute nodes (maybe moreso from my ex corporate thinkpad laptop bias, but still)…
This is a new model they’ve released, and I’ve been looking for something similar for a certain purpose for almost a year. There isn’t much lol.
For my specific project, I ended up using a Fractal Design Ridge case, and the components that fit within because I needed a GPU. The MS-01 was JUST shy in the PCIE to make it my preferred device. Maybe have a look at the Fractal Design Ridge case and a Mini-ITX AMD build if you really want to stretch your dollar and get more performance-per-watt like I did. The cost will be about the same.
