I have an old Alienware r8 and several 2-4 TB HDDs gathering dust in a closet. The Alienware actually runs remarkably quiet and it occurred to me I could turn it into a DIY NAS.
I’m not entirely sure where to start though. Some immediate questions:
- What’s a good NAS OS to install?
- Any fun things I can do besides plex transcoding with a 1080 GPU?
- Would it make sense to run a Pixelfed/Mastodon server off this guy?
- Can I run a RAID on it without buying a separate HDD bay?
Background:
I already have a Synology NAS running Plex. It transcodes 1080p fine which is really all I need it for.
Other than a Plex port forward, I have zero experience putting services out on the public web (but would like to learn!).
https://www.freedombox.org/apps/
Whatever you end up doing immediately after you finish setting it up, throw some files on it you don’t care about and practice breaking and reassembling your RAID a few times before you put anything important on it. You want to understand the basic process before things fail.
That’s a wonderful idea. Wish I had done that when I first started. I know the basic process behind recovering from hardware failures on my NAS, but I’ve never actually gotten any practical experience in doing it, which will probably increase my downtime when it inevitably happens.
Ooh this is a nice list of apps! I like doing things the hard way so I’ll probably skip the Freedombox part but these app ideas have got me thinking…