n00b question, sorry. If I had a desktop that could hold 4 HD and 2 SSD, could I turn it into a NAS? Could someone point me in the right direction if this makes sense?
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Yep. Just install Linux, plug it into your router, set a static ip, and install the nas software ya want.
There are plenty of approaches. ChatGPT is great at debugging issues and helping ya through the setup. I did this with a raspberry pi and external usb drive the other week.
Nice, didn’t realize a NAS could be on smaller hardware. Thanks for the info!
It really depends on what you need. A simple share for pushing some files around could run even on an RPi 1.
If you already have a desktop machine flying around, you could absolutely use that as a starting point. Just keep in mind, that power might be an issue here. Desktops sometimes draw 40W and more just idling, while smaller boards can get down to 5W and below.
Some ppl pointed out you can. NAS it’s just a tiny computer with a dedicated enclosure running 24/7 with a lot of services running to do multiple things because…is running 24/7! Is you just want to upload some files for a backup is better an external HDD through USB. Connect, upload, disconnect.
If you want your computer do more things you have to check how the computer handle these services by software or hardware(hardware better) A list of questions:
- It support aspm (yes/not)
- It support virtualization.
- BIOS come with a dedicated raid chip
- How many video codecs the processor/iGPU can decode
- Ethernet port is, at least, gigabit
- RAM is >4GB
- You’re willing to spend time configuring and taking care of the thing
If a few of questions, or all, are NO I think it’s better to invest in an external USB HDD case.
I’d say you’re overcomplicating things. A NAS is Network Attached Storage, simply as that. Any host that provides storage over network is a NAS, regardless of actual hardware and uptime.
Sure, my nas is an old desktop a friend sold me with some extra hdds running Debian 12.
