Can/should I recycle my old PC and turn it into a NAS / Plex Server

[Stalukes]

Hey guys,

I’m looking for some advice. I'm very new to all this!

We currently use plex on my desktop gaming pc as aplex server but that machine is quite old (2012) and due for an upgrade.

I’m also going to be upgrading my tv to a 65inch Samsung Series 8 4k TV in the near future.

Given that I’m going to get a new PC, I’m wondering whether I can use the old PC’s parts and turn it into a NAS server (using FreeNAS) to run Plex (maybe use an Nvida Sheild or the Sumsungs app).

Please see the old PC's specs below (using Speccy as I couldn't find my receipt):

Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64-bit CPU - Intel Core i7 3770 @ 3.40GHz 55 °C Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
RAM - 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard - Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. Z77X-D3H (Intel Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz) 48 °C
Graphics - Acer X233H (1920x1080@60Hz) 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (Gigabyte) 43 °C
Storage - 111GB INTEL SSDSC2CW120A3 (SATA (SSD)) & 1863GB Western Digital WDC WD20EARX-00MMMB0 (SATA ) 38 °C
Optical Drives - No optical disk drives detected Audio - NVIDIA High Definition Audio
PC Case - Some HUGE Thermaltake one...

Is it worth converting this straight for usage in FreeNAS (ideally i'd like to be able to perform backups and maybe transcode to 4k? but not too stressed if 1080p works...).

Are there parts that I should keep and buy new parts (i.e. case is huge, need another HDD etc.) - all advice is welcome :) also conscious of power usage as it would always be on...

Cheers

 

[danb35]

Will it work? Probably. Is it a good idea? Not really. Take a look at:
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/specific-build-components-list-up-to-32gb-ram.109/

 

[Chris Moore]

https://nascompares-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/nascompares.com/2019/03/31/official-plex-nas-drive-revealed-plexydrive-exclusive/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s&ampshare=https://nascompares.com/2019/03/31/official-plex-nas-drive-revealed-plexydrive-exclusive/

April Fool's

 

[Chris Moore]

Are there parts that I should keep and buy new parts (i.e. case is huge, need another HDD etc.) - all advice is welcome :) also conscious of power usage as it would always be on...

For FreeNAS you don't need a fancy video card, just something that would let you have a local text console. The oldest, cheapest video card will do. I actually used an old 32bit PCI (not PCI-E) VGA only video card in one of my first FreeNAS builds.
The hardware you have is not ideal hardware, but it will work, but you will want more than just a single drive.
You might want to take a look at some of the other builds on the forum to get some ideas.

@Stux did a really nice one with photos here:
https://www.ixsystems.com/community...24-supermicro-x10-sri-f-xeon-e5-1650v4.46262/

Just do a search and you can find many others.

 

[KrisBee]

Surely OP's hardware doesn't need a video card at all. CPU has Intel® HD Graphics 4000 , but the question is will the m/board boot without a monitor and keyboard attached. Obviously, needs at least two matching hard drives to make it even worth bothering try setting it up.

 

[Chris Moore]

Surely OP's hardware doesn't need a video card at all. CPU has Intel® HD Graphics 4000

True. You could use the built-in CPU video. I didn't consider it because of the model number, Intel Core i7 3770, I guessed it didn't have integrated video.