[SOLVED] Can I make a NAS with this old PC?

[PeppermintFangs]

I want to buy this PC I found on eBay to build a custom NAS. From my point of view, it has the bare minimum of what you need - 8gb RAM for FreeNas, 6 SATA connections on the MB (though two are only 3gb/s), 10/100/1000Mbps LAN speed, i3 processor (my understanding is that this is sufficient) though I could upgrade to an i5 or and i7 later, if needed. The case is eh but I plan to move it into a sleeker alternative.

Could I turn this into a decent NAS? Let me know your thoughts and/or concerns.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best Regards,
Erin Joan

 

[USAFRet]

As this level of use, a "NAS" is nothing special.
Running system and OS, sufficient drive space, and shared folders.

Just about any running PC would work.

 

[grimfox]

I suspect you want a little more than a NAS. You can use a RaspberryPI to drive a NAS. But if you want to run Plex (or similar) with real-time transcoding you are going to need a decent processor. The I3 is probably good enough. You may want to consider transcoding the files to a standard file format and standard resolution. Basically everything on the drive would be stored as 1080p h.264 or whatever file type is standard. This saves the system a lot of work when playing a movie back as it no longer needs to transcode your random files to something your display can read. You'll have to look into as I'm not sure what the ideal codec is for storing and transmitting media. (some people even store multiple copies in different formats/resolutions to better suit different use cases)

If it's just for file storage and backup you don't need much beyond something with a couple of sata ports or the ability to support a RAID card and physical space for the drives. You might have to get some sleds or rails to add drives to the 5.25 slot or external 3.5 slots of that particular PC.