Building a PC to replace a NAS

kisserik93 · 9 Sep 2025 at 08:55

Hi everyone!

Currently, I use a NAS for the following tasks:

Running a torrent client
Running a Plex or Emby media server
Storing photos and videos
Running Home Assistant

Since Synology is getting expensive, especially with their own HDD/SSD requirements, I'm considering building a small PC that can fulfill all my needs 24/7 with reasonable power consumption.

Since it will run nonstop, please keep power usage in mind when recommending hardware.

There might also be some 4K movie transcoding involved, so please consider that in your suggestions.

Windows will most likely be the operating system.
It would be great if I could upgrade the PC later if the hardware ever turns out to be insufficient.

What do you think—is this a good idea, or should I just stick with a NAS instead?
Thank you very much!

SpellowHouse · 9 Sep 2025 at 09:38

I've done that.
I bought a used low power CPU. A 12400T.
It works as a NAS and a Media Server and without a graphics card it can happily drive a 4K Tv too.
I think it's very difficult to justify a shop bought NAS these days.

hornetstinger · 9 Sep 2025 at 10:01

If you Synology Nas does everything you need then why change it?

Unless the new firmware locks you into their own overpriced drives?

Have Synology ds418 does everything I need two spare bays, quad core 2gb...but my use is storage, some torrent and that's about it. No media services

*Chris · 9 Sep 2025 at 10:18

I was contemplating getting one of those old Optiplex SFFs / Elitedesks to do something similar.

Pulseammo · 11 Sep 2025 at 13:39

I picked up an HP 290 G2 about a year ago, it was an ex-office pc and quite cheap, it came with a 256gb nvme drive which was adequate for the base OS and VMs, all I've added hardware wise was hard drives for NAS storage and ram to 32gb. The cpu is an 8500. The system isn't particularly upgradable but it'll happily do 3 sata drives. I use it for most of the things you want, proxmox and then under that TrueNAS, Jellyfin, Immich (photos & videos), vaultwarden etc.

If I had more budget I'd be trying to put together some intel 12th gen rig so that I could increase the RAM. Extra cores might be nice too.

Tetras · 11 Sep 2025 at 14:09

kisserik93 said:
Since Synology is getting expensive, especially with their own HDD/SSD requirements, I'm considering building a small PC that can fulfill all my needs 24/7 with reasonable power consumption.

How many SSDs/HDDs do you plan to run? It makes picking the parts tricky.

I've gone with a full-size board and case just because it gives you plenty of M.2 slots, SATA ports and drive bays that can support 3.5 or 2.5.

Important: if you buy this build, the CPU must be the 14400, NOT the 14400F (no graphics).

I'd suggest having a look at Fractal's Node and Pop cases if you need lots of bays.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Intel Core i5-14400F (Raptor Lake-S) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-02972) = £128.99
1 x Intel Gamers Days - Battlefield 6 Bundle (SKU: DIG-INT-06117) = £0.00
1 x Gigabyte B760 GAMING X AX (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BU-GI) = £129.99
1 x Kingston FURY Beast 16GB (2x8GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29M-KS) = £47.00
1 x Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03128) = £49.99
1 x Jonsbo C5 - Black/window Midi Tower Case (SKU: CA-00A-JB) = £59.95
1 x Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02517) = £84.95
1 x Thermalright Assassin X 120 R Digital Black CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-04203) = £14.99

Total: £527.84 (includes delivery: £11.98)

WantoN · 21 Sep 2025 at 19:51

I'm thinking about either repurposing an old XPS15 or HP elite x360 laptop mainboard. They're designed to be low power, and I can get data onboard via an m.2.

Either that or pick up a microserver on eBay etc.

Similar to you my NAS lacks the grunt and openness for the projects I want to do now, and I'm not a fan of the more modern implementations.

True as, proxmox etc create a world of options, and all open source.

I totally get the itch, and I think there's a lot of cheap second hand options that could give you a very interesting project, especially if you think outside the box.

sastusbulbas · Wednesday at 08:03

Regarding cases, the Fractal Pop range is limited and rather costly £100 for four 3.25 bays.

The Node 804 can take up to 10 HDD.

If building a DIY Nas some future expansion is worth considering.
That said, modern motherboards are limited to four or two Sata ports, unlike the old days where you could find motherboards with 8 SATA ports for the price of a takeaway. Make sure you get the right motherboard and if needed a card to run multiple HDD within a system that won't be affected by bifurcation.

Part of me wonders if any of it is worth the effort.

I don't know what the best value two or four bay Nas options are, but it's going to be pretty much plug and play, small and unobtrusive in comparison to the majority of DIY options.
If that's not too expensive then you just run that and upgrade it in future, no more or less redundant than buying a load of current or last gen hardware that will also be end of life in the same time as the off the shelf Nas.

WantoN · Wednesday at 09:13

sastusbulbas said:
Regarding cases, the Fractal Pop range is limited and rather costly £100 for four 3.25 bays.

The Node 804 can take up to 10 HDD.

If building a DIY Nas some future expansion is worth considering.
That said, modern motherboards are limited to four or two Sata ports, unlike the old days where you could find motherboards with 8 SATA ports for the price of a takeaway. Make sure you get the right motherboard and if needed a card to run multiple HDD within a system that won't be affected by bifurcation.

Part of me wonders if any of it is worth the effort.

I don't know what the best value two or four bay Nas options are, but it's going to be pretty much plug and play, small and unobtrusive in comparison to the majority of DIY options.
If that's not too expensive then you just run that and upgrade it in future, no more or less redundant than buying a load of current or last gen hardware that will also be end of life in the same time as the off the shelf Nas.

I think if you want mass storage simply, what you're proposing makes absolute and complete sense.

However, the more functionality you're looking for, the more overpriced and weak a NAS appears. Old gen is still plenty more powerful, you can add NICs for greater throughput, run DNS, VPN tunnels, automated advanced backups from all your devices, sync your vaults to cloud storage, serve media, run a firewall, run a proper router, web server interface.

All from one box, with much more expansible storage and connectivity, and absolute and complete control.

If you're savvy you can leave yourself an upgrade path too, rather than buy another another expensive box that still doesn't have the equivalent compute, or flexibility.

The downside is effort overhead, and you're responsible for security and software maintenance.

Pulseammo · Wednesday at 09:48

I agree. After setting up my little server I wish I had done this years ago, and even if I *just* used with TrueNAS on bare metal it'd have been far better value for money than dedicated NAS like a synology or something.

If you get the right micro tower with a couple of drive bays (or buy a hard drive bracket which is what I did), it's essentially as plug and play as any other nas with one extra step which is that you install the OS.

All of the other self hosted applications are a nice hobby too if you're into that stuff. I don't count it as extra "hassle" but again, even just as a NAS, it's worth it.

WantoN · Wednesday at 10:21

Pulseammo said:
I agree. After setting up my little server I wish I had done this years ago, and even if I *just* used with TrueNAS on bare metal it'd have been far better value for money than dedicated NAS like a synology or something.

If you get the right micro tower with a couple of drive bays (or buy a hard drive bracket which is what I did), it's essentially as plug and play as any other nas with one extra step which is that you install the OS.

All of the other self hosted applications are a nice hobby too if you're into that stuff. I don't count it as extra "hassle" but again, even just as a NAS, it's worth it.

I want to build a proper one again, it's been so long and the game has changed immeasurably. I've been researching alongside my current fedora / custom loop upgrade & transplant project, and it would slot so well into my workflow; it's just an undertaking in itself and my plate is already full.

May I ask what hardware and setup you went for? I'm thinking an HP micro Gen8 or newer, and I quite fancy ProxMox, I'm quite comfortable in CLI at this point. But there's so many good options.

Darkpilgrim · Wednesday at 10:44

I think I am going the same way as the OP, I have a two bay Synology and now want to add more disks. Instead of getting a new bigger nas I fancy building one to have more freedom.
the cost seem the same or even cheaper for better hardware and an upgrade path it seems like a no brainier.

Pulseammo · Wednesday at 12:37

WantoN said:
I want to build a proper one again, it's been so long and the game has changed immeasurably. I've been researching alongside my current fedora / custom loop upgrade & transplant project, and it would slot so well into my workflow; it's just an undertaking in itself and my plate is already full.

May I ask what hardware and setup you went for? I'm thinking an HP micro Gen8 or newer, and I quite fancy ProxMox, I'm quite comfortable in CLI at this point. But there's so many good options.

It's nothing fancy, I bought an HP290 G2 Microtower (MT). It's an intel I5 8500 so 6 core, 6 thread and it had 16GB ram and a 256GB nvme. I increased the ram to 32GB (it only has 2 slots, I would like more ram but the sticks get pricey to buy 32gb modules). The 256GB nvme drive is where I installed proxmox.

Then the case has space for 2x 3.5" drives as standard, and 3 sata ports (one is for the integrated CD drive). I've just bought a bracket to allow 3x 3.5" drives inside the case but I'll need to post back on how that goes exactly since I want to run a RAID5 config.

Ethernet wise, my LAN is only gigabit so the port on the machine works fine, but it has a PCIE16x and PCIE1x slot, so I have a 4 port NIC in the 16x slot.

It's been a good entry into making a little server and didn't break the bank. I think I was £70 or so for the server, £30 for the ram, under a tenner for the NIC (but that's optional really). Can't really see any £100 NAS options which would have left me as pleased.

PrincessFrosty · Saturday at 06:49

There isn't really much of a downside doing small 4 disk raid arrays inside a PC, technically it depends on your use case, but if you're just running home media/torrenting and just personal use it's often more convenient to have 1 large RAID array internal to the PC. It's fast, simple and convenient.

The only advice I would give having dealt with SATA RAID a bit, and lots of HDDs over SATA mixed with consumer grade hardware is, always read the motherboard manual before buying your motherboard, download the pdf and read the section on what RAID is supported, which ports it's available on, if some SATA ports are disabled or throttled if certain NVMe ports are in use on the board. The devil really is in the details, make sure you know what you're getting. The marketing material is often deceptive or lacks specifics. You dont want to buy then find out when building an SATA port is disabled when running a NVMe drive in the system as primary, or that total bandwidth is shared between them both so speeds are bottlenecked when copying files about.

WantoN · Saturday at 08:39

PrincessFrosty said:
There isn't really much of a downside doing small 4 disk raid arrays inside a PC, technically it depends on your use case, but if you're just running home media/torrenting and just personal use it's often more convenient to have 1 large RAID array internal to the PC. It's fast, simple and convenient.

The only advice I would give having dealt with SATA RAID a bit, and lots of HDDs over SATA mixed with consumer grade hardware is, always read the motherboard manual before buying your motherboard, download the pdf and read the section on what RAID is supported, which ports it's available on, if some SATA ports are disabled or throttled if certain NVMe ports are in use on the board. The devil really is in the details, make sure you know what you're getting. The marketing material is often deceptive or lacks specifics. You dont want to buy then find out when building an SATA port is disabled when running a NVMe drive in the system as primary, or that total bandwidth is shared between them both so speeds are bottlenecked when copying files about.

Aye my Maximus X Formula does this; the right combo of two m.2 drives drops me from 6 sata ports to 3; RAID card is always an option though.