Building a Budget Media Server NAS Worth It? | Mini PC + DAS

Using an affordable second-hand mini PC, like the Lenovo ThinkCentre m73 tiny, along with some Direct Attached Mass Storage, is it feasible to put together your own DIY NAS solution for media streaming, running docker containers, and more? Let's try it out!

🔊 Recommended Home Theater Gear 🔊

DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, we’ll receive a small commission. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!

tags, tag

[matthewjbauer]

I've used the M73 from Lenovo for work at previous jobs before. They serve their intended purpose as a business PC. They can handle a DAS perfectly fine and if you put 8GB RAM in them and don't overload them. Don't spend too much on one and pair it with a 4 or 8 bay DAS and it will serve well as a storage server or storage RAID server. That said, you can get an M710q that has a i5-7500T for about $70 + shipping on eBay right now. If you want an SSD instead of HDD, it'll cost you more. If you downgrade to a 6500T, it can save a few $$, but you might lose the HDD.

[ofacesig]

The power consumption is one of the reasons when I rebuild pfsense, or Truenas boxes every 5 or 6 years is I always use an Intel T series chip so it maxes out at 35w. Pretty much perfect for a DIY appliance.

[cordlesswire]

yes, i have one. HTPC (YOLO edition) 100+ terabytes, no redundancy, in a node 804 with qnap tr-004 in DAS mode. ryzen 5 pro 5650ge, 64gb ram, b450 matx, nvidia t400, bunch of drives… not as cheap as an old desktop, but still not too expensive. so, yes. i decided for this solution when i realized id need brand new, or at least emtpy drives in order to use them in a NAS. which would mean buying 10 new drives, or at least one new drive then copying from one, clearing second, copying from third to wiped second, 10 drives ranging from 8 to 16tb. plus the cost of an 8 bay NAS… yeah, i dont think so. thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[terbo]

I have a couple M93 and they're fantastic little units. I use a Xeon E3-1265Lv3 in my server machine to replace the 2C4T 4570T it came with and its been mostly solid. I had a cap fail in one which expanded enough to stop the fan from spinning. Replaced the cap and had no issues since.

[topperdude]

I like the creative use cases you come up with for using compute hardware. As someone who has been considering a NAS for the longest but did not care for the "industry standard" Synology (w/ underwhelming hardware), I was considering the UGreen NAS (hesitating due to relatively new OS) before it came out and backed it after watching your video about how to turn off Watchdog timer and install 3rd party OS. Similarly, I have been considering this DAS wondering if I could use one of the many similar mini-PCs I have lying around, install Proxmox and connect it to the DAS along with installing one of the many Coral TPUs and turn it into a Frigate NVR (I think Hardware Haven has done a similar video on it). Basically an OS with ability to containerize apps with decent storage. Keep up the good work. Would love to see a follow-up video once you use this for some time and your findings including pros/cons. Keep up the great work! 👍

[superjuddy]

phenomenal video, I really appreciate the effort and wisdom included.

[dktol]

I have three HP Eiltedesk 800 G4 Mini's, each with a 6-core i5-8600T, 64GB of DDR4 RAM and an M.2 NVMe SSD for the OS. At idle, each draws only 4W according to a Kill-A-Watt meter. Under full CPU load (with stress-ng), they shoot up to 47W. Very impressive, especially the idle power - HP really optimized the power management in the BIOS. Of course, I'm going to add a 2nd internal M.2 drive and a 2.5" SSD, so those numbers are going to go up a few watts. Also, I've been testing a DAS Sabrent 5-bay USB-C (3.2gen2 10Gb/s) enclosure attached to one of the HP's to act as a NAS. I would expect that to add another 50W when all 5 drives are spun up.

[raughboy]

this is why you install raid when you're setting up debian minimal installation to be used for CasaOS. This way Casa will see all your hdds and ssds as one and treat it as such. This is a way to use raid with casaOS. ZimaOS supports raid directly which means it's OS in every sense while Casa is not OS in true sense so it doesn't support raid directly but it will as i said work if you set up raid during installation because Cassa will see it as single drive.

[damian]

I bought this exact mini PC strictly for WinXP gaming, though I had to get the one originally designed for 7

[SergiuTopan]

How is the performace on the das box with USB3?

[davidellismartin]

Good video! I just put together a similar system using Debian and Casaos in a Dell Optiplex 990! Sadly I may have to just start over bc I can’t seem to get the system to have proper access to the second “media storage” drive. I see the drive and can manage files in it, but apps like Jellyfin can’t use the drive. Maybe I’ll try Ubuntu server w CasaOS. Sad bc Debian uses almost no RAM. 🤷‍♂️

[Leo-tfgu]

What kind of transfer speeds you are getting on the HDDs via USB?

[ChrisBautista]

Just bought a beelink SER mini pc with a ryzen 5800H, installed proxmox, and planning to attach a DAS to it and turn it into a NAS. Been trying to look at disadvantages to it in videos and why not just buy a NAS...

[EVRAL]

my NAS consumes 3.46W at idle or around 80 watts per day. (pi4 + ugreen usb to sata + samsung evo 870 1tb). Also runs jellyfin, pihole, samba, syncthing, mastodon instance in docker, full wikipedia and dozen of local services.

[argonthepanda]

I basically did the same thing with an Optiplex with the same CPU and I have it connected to an OLD QNAP NAS

[cooperajcpr]

New intel n100 mini pc's sip power and are often on sale under 100

[ZenRebel]

Nice config. I'm in the process of using a Raspberry PI 5 attached to a Yottamaster 5 bay USB-3.1 enclosure. The Lenovo ThinkCentre would be a great alternative if I don't get what I looking for out of the PI. Originally I purchased a Synology DS224+ 2 bay for $300. That was more than I wanted to spend. The Yottamaster came in $119. To start out, I am putting 5 - 3TB drives. The plan is to use OpenMediaVault. Though I might take a look at CasaOS. If it runs on PI, I'm in.

[kendrakirai]

I turned my old q6600 tower into a NAS. I just needed to grab a new sata ssd to put OMV on it and a used 1060 6gb and a 16 tb hard drive and it's working great as a Plex server in my testing. I only needed the 16tb drive because I have about 20tb in my plex library and only a 1060 because no 4K. So really if you don't have a stupid big plex library like I do, if you have even a 17 year old system you can spruce it up for like 200 bucks. Or buy Somebody's uses gaming rig for the same, which I might do soon to get some more PCIe slots...

[michaelp]

July 16 2023 Can you recommend a good 4 bay DAS available right now? Thanks!

[dawnberlitz]

my server only uses under 60 watts but im about to retire my old 4590 i got second hand for a newer board but my server doesnt look like a server it looks like like a gaming pc with sata cables and onboard video