While the market is full of purpose-built NAS enclosures, perhaps they don't suit your particular storage needs. Building your own NAS is a rewarding project that gives ongoing chances to learn more about networking, virtualization, and containers, and it can repurpose old hardware that you have lying around. You don't need that much to get started, either, but there are some things you should nail down about whether your existing hardware is up to the task or what you need to supplement it.
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10 Do you have enough SATA ports
Every hard drive needs a SATA port but you can add PCIe cards for more
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Building a NAS is all about storing data at its core, which means plenty of storage drives are needed. The most important thing here is to ensure you have enough SATA ports for the number of hard drives and SSDs you plan on using. You can free up some ports by using NVMe storage for caching purposes. As you're using old PC hardware, the chances of you having a good number of SATA ports on your motherboard are higher than on recently released models, but it's still worth checking if your motherboard has any odd configuration issues with every port filled.
For example, many older motherboards disable one of the SATA ports (or more) if you use NVMe storage in a particular M.2 slot. This isn't too much of an issue if you're using an ATX-sized motherboard,, as you'll have PCIe slots that you can put HBA cards in, which will expand your SATA capabilities immensely.
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9 Does your motherboard support PCIe bifurcation?
You don't strictly need this, but it helps when working out which devices you can attach
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Most old consumer motherboards have restrictions on the ways that the PCIe slots can divide their data lanes. The top two full-length slots are x16 lanes if used on their own, but most motherboards divide them into x8/x8 when devices are plugged into both. Sometimes, you can divide the lanes even further, which is handy if you want to use a PCIe NVMe card that supports multiple NVMe drives. But even if your motherboard doesn't support bifurcation in this way, you can get NVMe M.2 cards that have on-card PCIe chips that will handle the split for you, at an additional cost over a more basic adapter.
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8 If your case can fit enough HDDs
Modern PC cases have few HDD mounting points, so it's a good thing we're using an old one
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Modern PC cases tend towards the flashy, glass type, which doesn't have much in the way of space for large, noisy hard drives. But that's okay because we are reusing old PC hardware here, and many older cases had plenty of space to screw 3.5" hard drives in. Some of these are still available to buy today, so if your hardware stash doesn't have a good chassis, don't worry too much.
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Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2
Stuff up to 12 3.5" hard drives for your self-built NAS in the spacious Enthoo Pro 2. It's even big enough for a dual system, so you can stick two servers inside if you prefer.
$150 at Newegg
I've found that Fractal Design and Phanteks cases have plenty of HDD mounting points, and I've used both to house servers and NAS hardware before moving to dedicated devices. But really, any ATX-sized PC chassis should have enough space for HDDs to get you started, and you can always find a larger case as your data storage needs increase.
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7 Which operating system to use
Each option has good and bad points but one will fit your needs
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You won't be short of options for an operating system to run on your NAS, but picking the one that fits your needs is important. Most of the OSes are free to use, which means you can try a few out while you don't have any data stored and find the right fit. We like TrueNAS Scale or Unraid here at XDA, but you can also roll your own NAS with a Linux-based distro, or something like Proxmox, if you want to get heavily into virtual machines. You only need to watch out for any of your hardware that isn't officially supported by the OS you want to use. The most common unsupported thing is Ethernet controllers, but that can be fixed by adding a PCIe adapter.
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6 If you need a new network card
While gigabit Ethernet is fine, some NICs are better than others
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While it's hard to find a PC motherboard released in the last decade that doesn't have at least gigabit Ethernet, not every Ethernet NIC is created equal. Some manufacturers have issues with the most common NAS operating systems, and even if you have driver support, the performance won't be there. It's generally recommended to go with Intel-based NICs for NAS use, which many motherboards might already have built-in. Ethernet controllers from Realtek in particular have notoriously bad performance when used for a NAS or server, so you'll want to either use a board that doesn't have one, or find a PCIe add-in card based on Intel technology.
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5 Energy efficiency
Old PC hardware uses more power which might be an issue
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A NAS doesn't require particularly powerful hardware to run, so most purpose-built enclosures use very low-power CPUs. When building a NAS out of old PC hardware, though, efficiency might not be at the top of the list. That's because, generally speaking, older hardware is less power-efficient, whether it's CPUs, motherboards, or even PSUs.
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That might not be an issue to you, especially if your per kWh cost is low. But it's important to keep in mind, especially since your NAS is going to be on and operating 24/7. Any BIOS or operating system tweaks you can make to increase efficiency will be important with older hardware.
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4 ECC memory compatibility
You don't have to use ECC memory, but it's recommended for data integrity
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ECC memory is important for data integrity because it adds another level of error checking to ensure data is kept safe. Most consumer-level motherboards don't support ECC, or they support only half of the data protection process, which isn't optimal for NAS use. If you have an old server board or a workstation model, they are more likely to support ECC, but you'll also need ECC RAM to put in them, which is more expensive than normal memory. The question is how much your data is worth to you. ECC might not be worth the cost if it's mostly downloads and other files you can replace. But we all have tons of personal data on our NAS devices, so remembering ECC compatibility when finding the hardware is important.
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3 The expected lifespan of your drives
Power-on hours and other metrics decide if you need to buy new drives
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If you're using old hardware, the chances are your hard drives have many hours of use on them. That means they're more likely to fail at some point soon, but you can mitigate this somewhat by using utilities to keep them in shape and having a good 3-2-1 backup strategy. Buying refurbished or ex-enterprise HDDs can also reduce the total cost of your NAS, but that needs to be balanced by the risk of premature data loss. Using RAID to ensure you can recover from at least one drive failing in your NAS can be the difference between being able to recover your data and an even more costly mistake, so it's worth setting that up at the start and budgeting for enough drives.
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2 Which file system to use
You have choices, and they're all slightly different
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Most computer users don't pay much attention to the file system that's used on their devices because it's largely determined by the operating system you are using. But, with NAS devices, you can choose between a wider range of file systems, which have features designed for long-term storage, data integrity, and snapshot capabilities for recovery use.
ZFS is one of the best options for NAS use, as it has advanced features that focus on self-repairing data integrity and ways to prevent data corruption. This makes it perfect for longer-term storage, and it has extended RAID capabilities as well. But you could use Btrfs if you are using a Linux distro for your NAS, or Bcachefs, which was designed to focus on performance and throughput.
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1 Budget for a UPS
You'll want to protect your NAS from power issues
Source: CyberPower
Whatever hardware you're using, keeping it protected from power-related issues is possibly your most important task. Losing data due to power loss, surges, or brownouts is never good, so budget for a new Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) to protect your NAS while it's operating. Plus, you'll gain a cleaner power supply for your storage device, protecting it from minor damage due to spikes and dips in voltage.
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Building a NAS from old PC hardware is a great way to reuse existing tech
Once you've managed to get your NAS operating, it's time to rest before you dive into optimization. You might find that data storage is the only thing you want out of your repurposed hardware, but if you decide to do more with it, we've got you covered with a huge range of projects to run on your NAS. And don't forget to monitor your cloud storage options, as you can easily back these up onto your NAS, saving you from having to upgrade your subscription tier.
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